Faced with a set of impossible choices, Jo is forced to make a deal with someone she can barely trust to try to put a stop to Helen. Benny tries to earn Jo’s trust. Helen moves forward with her own dark plans.

I have to hand it to Emergence’s writers’ rom – every time I think I have the show figured out it confounds me again. This week is no different, loaded with surprises, as well as carrying some moments of genuine heart that remind me all over again why this show succeeds with what it does.

Alison Tolman deserves a lion’s share of the credit, both here and for the duration of the show so far. As the beating heart of the show, her character Jo Evans is absolutely pitch perfect as the local head of law enforcement who knows absolutely everyone in town, and is able – without fail – to call in favours from absolutely everyone in it. Moreover, she’s very rarely phased, Tolman’s keen sense of comic timing and ability to do one of the best deadpan faces in the business helping to actually enhance moments where lesser actors might have just deflated them into sheer dumb laughs.

Matching her every step of the way is Alexa Swinton as Piper, who can flip from scared little girl to wise beyond her years and solemnly persuasive in the blink of an eye, absolutely convincing as either. And it’s no coincidence that both of them do a lot of the heavy lifting here, in a plot which encompasses yet more layers to the problems facing them and their friends and family, teases out more information about who and what Helen is, and exactly what it is she’s looking for, and deals with running from the authorities almost as much as being them.

It’s difficult to say too much more without starting to actually spoilt the plot. Suffice it to say that Helen and the rest of the… AIs I guess, are indeed engaged in a plan, that plan spells bad news not only for anyone not on her side, and she’s going to be pretty difficult to stop. Emily is still as bad as ever, Alex is pretty much lost by everything and there might well be some long overdue romance in the wings for our lovable female lead.

Considering I was just starting to lose faith with the show’s ability to keep spinning out the overarching villain plot, I am now sat here thinking I should have known better. This is easily one of the more pleasant surprises in genre of the last twelve months, and I for one cannot wait to see where it all goes next.

Verdict: More full of surprises than a whole Kinder egg factory, and still showing that unique sense of heart at its centre that keeps driving it. Loving it. 9/10

Greg D. Smith