After an unexpected call from her daughter, Rita travels to Maine to find the child who was violently taken away from her sixteen years ago.

Following the previous week’s superb instalment was always going to be a tough act – its recounting of Annie Wilkes tragic tale proved to be the best episode to date. However, it’s to the show’s credit that no only does it pick up from two weeks back, but keeps the punches coming relentlessly.

Annie is having another of her worst days – Child Protection want documents that she can’t supply and Joy is keeping her distance. And then Rita turns up in town and tracks down Joy. Truths are shared and even Annie admits that this is what happened, but Joy only knows her surrogate mom and refuses to leave her for her biological mother.

Poor Joy is stuck in the middle, and when she’s required to act, it’s not as we expected, leading to another thrilling cliffhanger where you really think ‘how are they going to get out of this one?’ That’s not to say the other characters are neglected, with Abdi and Nadia falling out over Pop’s confession (Tim Robbins gets the week off) and the undead horde revealing just how they reanimate corpses.

Verdict: As we prepare to enter the show’s final four episodes, it’s in the rudest of health. There’s genuinely no weak link in this ensemble show, which shocks and surprises week after week and with no suggestion that it’s running out of steam. 9/10

Nick Joy