The stakes are increasing, forcing an unexpected but powerful alliance between Ana and Hastings in order to achieve a surprising goal. Meanwhile, Daimon and Gabriella journey to the Helstrom siblings’ childhood home to retrieve an important weapon, but they aren’t the only ones looking.

There’s a certain occupational hazard of watching and reviewing so much genre TV – namely that you start to spot tropes really early, and therefore predict what certain characters will do or say (or even what they are for) long before the script decides to catch you up. That said, the conclusion of this episode is somewhat obvious (and in one moment way too on-the-nose) to anyone who’s been paying attention.

However, that’s not to say that the journey isn’t fun, because it absolutely is. Kthara is absolutely determined to find herself and son Basara new hosts, so that they can get on with… whatever it is that they’re actually planning, and that means summoning new help from a familiar… entity.

The Blood prove that however long they’ve spent fighting demons has taught them absolutely nothing by literally messing with powers they clearly don’t understand, leaving a marked man up as ‘bait’ and then completely unable to deal with the consequences. Demons 1, Humans 0.

Ana and Hastings go on somewhat of a rollercoaster as Ana returns having confronted and tamped down (for now) her darker side. With Daimon absent, the two end up teaming together when an opportunity appears to present itself, and the only thing I don’t really like about how this is just how obvious the conclusion of their little escapade makes it that a) things really aren’t done and b) what I’ve been waiting to happen for a little while is going to happen and then lead into something else which becomes really obvious early on in this episode. Otherwise, there’s a lot to enjoy here.

As for Daimon and Gabriella, their little trip to Daimon and Ana’s childhood home to retrieve something Daimon left there is, predictably, dogged by The Blood, still intent on finishing off Daimon. Predictable it may be, but you honestly can’t fault the way things ultimately play out, with a genuinely great turn by both Tom Austen and Ariana Guerra. It’s what then proceeds to happen that gets a little predictable and safe.

What I am genuinely intrigued by is how they will wrap this one up. With two episodes left, they’ve just done a heck of a lot of setup. Could we be heading for a cliffhanger conclusion to this maiden season?

Verdict: Having some real fun with things now, even if a little tropey at times. The best episode yet. 9/10

Greg D. Smith