Jo and Benny continue to look into the death of Kindred’s former business partner, with surprising results. Mia and Piper decide to test Piper’s powers. Ed remains determined about his decision regarding his health.

Every time I think that I’ve got this show pegged, it throws a few curveballs into the mix, and it’s always a pleasant surprise. Last week we discovered Kindred’s former business partner had died in what seemed fairly suspicious circumstances, and this week Jo and Benny decide to pull that thread and see where it leads. Where it does lead isn’t where I expected, and leads to some fun scenes for Alison Tolman solo as well as with Owain Yeoman. Turns out that Kindred might not be the tech guru he’s portraying himself as, and that’s just for starters.

Mia and Piper meanwhile are off on their own adventures, as they decide to start trying to figure out the limits of Piper’s ‘powers’. Given that Mia is bunking off school to do so, this goes fairly predictably badly, and that leads into some of the stuff that the show likes to blindside us with every so often.

Moreover, this episode both starts having several people ask the eternal question of why Jo and Alex ever split up and then answers it quite abruptly in several different ways. It’s still not 100% clear which of them made that final decision or why, but as much as they have in common, and as much as they obviously care for one another, it’s obvious there’s something there that doesn’t quite work.

And there’s Ed of course, still very determined to not receive any further treatment for his returned cancer which causes all sorts if friction between various characters. It’s here that the show really plays to the strength of that early character-building it did, as well as the emotional core of its narrative – we care about the conflicts which happen over Ed’s illness, regardless of how obvious a plotline it might seem, because we care about the people it impacts, even if they are being unreasonable from an objective standpoint.

It all licks along at a fair old pace, with some excitement and action thrown in and then ends throwing us the biggest curveball of all, amid some emotional turmoil as the very thing Jo’s been actively trying to prevent ends up happening, and it’s difficult to take any sides because all of them have valid points. The last scene of all is a real humdinger of a twist, one I for one hadn’t seen coming at all, and sets up some interesting possibilities indeed going forward.

Verdict: Continues to surprise and entertain week after week, with a blend of family soap-opera drama and high concept sci-fi that shouldn’t work but does. 9/10

Greg D. Smith