With Chico missing, the school (in the guise of the relentless Madam Gao) searches for answers, and the gang worry about Maria’s ability to withstand the questioning, given her mood swings. Marcus, now dating Maria in secret, must learn how to conduct a relationship for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, his past is almost ready to catch up to him.

In the wake of last episode’s events, where Maria finally murdered Chico to protect Marcus, things are as tense as you might expect. As the episode opens, we see Maria being interrogated by Madam Gao about the disappearance and presumed death of her lover, and quickly learn that a month has passed. All the gang are being separately and repeatedly questioned, and to date, all have managed to avoid cracking under the pressure. How long that will last may depend on how long Maria’s fragile psyche holds out, and with her bipolar disorder kicking in hard under the stress, that’s an open question.

The return of Gao presents a nice contrast to Master Lin, her disciplinary style and attitude making him seem positively relaxed by comparison, and the impact of her presence is felt by more than simply our small group of heroes. The unlikeliest of students seems to be favoured by her, and she’s not above interfering in classes which she oversees. We also learn more about who she is, her relationship with Lin, and the first hints of perhaps why he has taken the more ‘laissez faire’ approach to the running of Kings.

But the pressure is impacting the gang in their own ways. Most obvious is Maria – we get to finally see exactly what her backstory is, how Chico came into her life and when, and it’s certainly equally horrifying and fascinating. Certainly as it goes, there is truth to Chico’s assertion that he had saved her life, but equally there’s a horror to the whole scenario that makes sense of Maria’s sense of trapped helplessness as well as explaining exactly why she has as many mental health issues as she does.

That combined with the current stress sees Maria slowly slipping away from anything approaching a normal baseline in her behaviour. Erratic, distrustful of even those closest to her, it’s easy to see why the rest of the group worry about her being a liability given their current circumstance.

Not that all of her fears seem completely baseless. There’s the ongoing tension of exactly what it is that Saya thinks of Marcus and where the feelings of each for the other lie, the general mistrust of the rest of the group of her and of course the fact that she just murdered exactly the wrong guy. It’s not exactly paranoia is people are after you, even if you happen to suffer from paranoia anyway.

Maria’s struggles contrast oddly with Billy, who seems to have swiftly made his peace with having been complicit in the murder of his own father, given his reaction at the time. His new approach to wooing Petra seems about as doomed as every previous one, but it does at least lead to some entertaining, if slightly odd moments.

For those paying attention, there’s also a little sideways dig at the handling of a certain comic superhero in recent cinematic outings. It’s surprisingly on the nose and unsubtle for a show that’s capable of being a lot cleverer, and much as many might agree with the sentiment, it does rather pull the episode down a little.

Verdict: Unrelenting and tense, throwing a lot at the cast and seeing them deliver every time. Has its moments which let it down slightly but overall, another great slice of TV. 8/10

Greg D. Smith