With Daimon and Gabriella caught up in the mess left behind at the Blood Hotel, Hastings and Ana are forced to work together back at St Teresa’s. But dark forces are moving, and with Caretaker nowhere to be found, they must rely only on one another to survive.

Picking up almost immediately where the last episode left off, this instalment of Helstrom continues the good work that was done last time out. At the Blood Hotel, Daimon and Gabriella must tend to the dead as they try to work out who or what could have done this and why. It’s an opportunity to remind us of the frailties of both characters, and that Daimon does have a heart under all that bluster.

Back at St Teresa’s, Ana is forced by her brother’s absence to spend some time with Victoria. Before that, we get a nice little scene between her and Yen which gives us a lot more info about how they met, why they are close friends (turns out Ana wasn’t lying about Yen being her best friend, surprisingly) and a little more insight as to who Ana is as a person. That gets broadened by the time she spends with Victoria, going from brutal questions about how much her mother knew about her father and why she never stopped him and branching out in interesting ways.

Meanwhile, Daimon and Gabriella get sidetracked on their way back to St Teresa’s, delayed by a puncture that then leads to a whole different chain of events. It’s getting a little repetitive the way in which these things tend to get thrown up, but at least this time it feels purposeful, as Daimon and Gabriella’s encounter very much ties in with what’s going on elsewhere.

Because sunshine and rainbows can’t last long in the world of Helstrom, and dark forces are intent on achieving their goal at St Teresa’s by any means necessary. What’s particularly nice about this sequence is how it all plays out. Not just the action, which is nicely shot and paced, but also the overall plotting. Things are seldom exactly what they seem, and the denouement in particular is very interesting indeed.

Verdict: It’s finally starting to really pick up some pace and it looks set for a very interesting final few episodes. 8/10

Greg D. Smith

Click here to read the earlier reviews