RIz (Natasha Culzac) struggles with her injuries, Chief struggles with Ackerson’s refusal to trust him and Halsey struggles with a unique prison.

The sense of doom pervading this episode hits from the first minute. Pabloi Schreiber, Culzac, Kate Kennedy and Bentley Kalu as Silver Team have blossomed in the definitive focus shift this season, and they play effortlessly well as a group of soldiers who’ve trained and been raised together. Kennedy in particular has been one of the best elements of the show since the start and is especially great here. Along with Kalu and Culzac she does an exceptional job of showing the Spartans’ different routes through emotional maturity and evolution. Kai is light-hearted, compassionate and a little unworldly. Kalu’s Vannak is an exuberant tank of a man who loves nothing more than how good he is at his job. Culzac’s relentless, pained Riz is confronted with how mortal she is and hates it. She has the best scenes here, seething with rage and agony and finding her evolutionary path to be very different. She also gets the best scene partner in Krondon. Best known for stellar work on Black Lightning, they play Lewis, a Spartan trainer here and their scenes are the highlight of the episode.

Lewis, and Riz, have found an edge in a warrior culture which shouldn’t have any. Lewis, blinded by the augmentation process, has made his peace with it. Riz is working on it. The extended game of tag Silver Team play here brings to the fore just how hurt she is, and how driven the Chief is, in one of the most elegant plays the series has made yet. It’s a fun superhuman fight scene, a bruising fight and gives Schreiber and Culzac in particular moments of real emotional nuance under the training.

Elsewhere in the episode, Joseph Morgan continues to sound uncannily like Matt Smith as Ackerson and gets a lot to do. He’s imprisoned Halsey, and it’s great to see Natasha McElhone back, and is intent on keeping Silver Team off the line. He’s one step away from being a villain but Morgan is so good at what he does you just can’t quite close the door on him.

Cristina Rodlo continues to impress too as Perez, the only survivor of the catastrophic Sanctuary mission. One of the best scenes here sees the Chief show up at her house and instantly get invited to dinner by her mother. Schreiber’s colossal frame being greeted with ‘You’re very large’ ‘Yes ma’am’ is one of the bleakest, quietest jokes in the series. The exploration of how the public view the war, and the reasons why Rodlo didn’t testify the way Chief expected, are even bleaker and painfully human.

The only plots slightly under-served here are Kwan, from season 1, showing up on The Rubble and Laera digging into just how Soren was taken. It’s a necessary backbone for the episode and it’s putting things in place for the imminent fall of Reach but here it feels a little like marking time.

Verdict: That minor quibble aside this is another strong episode shot through with doom and some great performances. We know what’s coming. We know it’s going to be horrific and we know we can’t look away. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart