In the aftermath of the disaster at the drill site, those on Mars and back home on Earth must put aside any differences to work towards a solution and save lives.

After the last episode’s fade to black with things going extremely sideways, we open directly on the aftermath, as a disorientated Alexei wanders through the dusted desolation searching for any signs that his fellows may have survived the destruction of the drill and the subsequent massive landslide. From there, it only gets bleaker.

This really does feel like the first season – a massive set of technical issues which need to be solved by everyone putting their heads together. On Mars, this means that Kuznetsov and Dani put their differences aside to work together in helping their fellow astronauts out on the surface, and Will and Roland set aside their own issues in order to work effectively doing things the rest of the crew cannot.

Back on Earth, it means NASA, the ARES staff and the Russians all collaborating to solve the immense technical issue of retrieving the buried hab in which Ed and Danny (to their knowledge) may or may not still be alive. It’s classic NASA-style stuff – a race against time with seemingly impossible odds to fashion a solution out of whatever odds and ends of equipment remain to the people stranded millions of miles and minutes worth of signal away. When the solution comes, its source is as unconventional as the plan itself, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Speaking of Ed and Danny, they’re both very much alive, the former seriously injured and the latter going through an excruciating withdrawal without the pills on which he has come to rely. Air is limited and they only have one another for company. The situation takes many turns as they wait it out, from explosive to emotional and everything in-between. The secret that gnaws away at Danny still threatens to be exposed, but not before a whole lot of honesty passes between the two men. It’s almost possible to forget that it’s Danny’s own drug-addled state, driven by his petulance at Ed and the situation, which caused this disaster. But as he opens up to Ed, whereas it’s not possible to forget, or maybe even forgive, it is possible to start to empathise with Danny as something other than simply a pissy kid. He has reasons for everything, going back a long way and very surprising. One wonders whether that will be enough to absolve him in the eyes of Ed for his many, many sins to this point.

In-between all this, we have Ellen’s little visit to Pam, which precipitates an unexpected bit of genuine honesty as well as some harsh home truths for the pair of them. Meanwhile, back at NASA, Aleida hasn’t let go of her obsession with how the Russians got hold of her engine designs quite yet, and now she’s almost certain she knows who it is. More immediate problems take priority of course, but this is one thread that you sense she isn’t going to stop pulling at. As for Karen, she finds out that she may not have quite the veil of secrecy over her past indiscretions as she thought, even as she continues to try to do the right thing by everyone around her

Appropriately claustrophobic and despairing where it needs to be, and triumphant and hopeful elsewhere, it’s getting increasingly hard to critique this show, save for its habit of dangling a bombshell cliff-hanger before us just before the credits roll almost every week – this week being no exception. Cooperation only goes so far, and it’s impossible to guess where this might go next.

Verdict: An episode that blends the best of what the show was with the best of what it now is. 9/10

Greg D. Smith