A sudden mysterious illness grips Piper. Jo digs deeper into the mystery surrounding recent events and comes up with some sinister answers.

This week, the writers have a lot of treats in store for us, as the mysterious origins of Piper get probed a little deeper with some interesting answers. First though, they address the elephant in the room that’s been bugging me since episode 1: why exactly are Jo and Alex so comfortable living in each other’s pockets if they are divorced? Turns out that that chemistry between them has a little fire in it, and neither is insensible to the fact that daughter Mia is getting a little too comfortable with the idea of Mom and Dad being together under one roof again. Unfortunately, just as they’ve agreed to do the sensible thing, life gets a little crazy again.

Although the show has seemed to be quite pedestrian in its choice of Sci Fi TV tropes to pick up, here it does actually start to do some really interesting and engaging stuff, helped as usual by the decent performances and screen chemistry of all concerned. Allison Tolman in particular digs deep to make us really believe in the fact that a slightly docile-seeming mother figure is actually not only the chief of police but damned good at it too, whether she’s interrogating a tight-lipped suspect or throwing herself right into dangerous situations with powerful people. Jo is a warrior, and more important an excellent multi-tasker.

Donald Faison gets his time to shine as well – in the first couple of episodes he mainly relied on smiling and striking sparks off Tolman but here we get to see him in his own element, looking after Piper and really starting to himself become affected by the little girl and how special she is. Alexa Swinton herself is excellent as ever, as Piper faces a terrifying repeating hallucination as part of her ongoing and suddenly steeply declining illness and then switches back to being unnervingly fine between these episodes, as if there’s nothing wrong after all. It shouldn’t be possible for a passive little girl simply staring at someone wide-eyed to be intimidating, yet she nails it every time, and Tolman’s look of worry as Piper smiles intently at her at one point really ups the tension.

New elements get thrown into the mix as well, some of them very unexpected. I have to admit, as each episode goes by, I’m less and less sure what Piper will actually eventually turn out to ‘be’. What is clear is that the writers have plenty more surprises in store for us on that front, and I’m here for it.

Verdict: Week on week, this is getting stronger, thanks to an excellent cast and some genuinely decent writing. I’ve never been happier to be wrong about a pilot. 8/10

Greg D. Smith