Chris is snatched by her former Russian colleagues, the team launch a rescue mission and it goes explosively.

After a few episodes of sneaking and (sort of) subtlety, Lazarus cuts loose with a 25 minute action sequence that does three impossibly fun choices and one absolute honker.

Fun choice number one is backstory. Chris benefits enormously from the same sort of backstory treatment that Eleina got last time. Her old team feel genuinely hurt by her betrayal and it gives the episode, and Chris, a welcome new tone.

Fun choice number two is action and there is a metric ton of it here. It’s stakes heavy too, as the show steers into the fact that the team’s most highly skilled combat operative is the person a pair of teenage engineers, a surprisingly competent academic and adrenalin in human form have to go rescue. Lazarus get sneaky, fight dirty and it’s really good fun. From the opening freighter crash to the team extracting in Doug’s power boat, there’s a sense of this being a very, very close fight and the sense of jeopardy is a really welcome and fun touch.

Fun choice three is that there’s no I in team but somehow an I in Lazarus. The near rebellion of the field team shows how close they’ve got and it leads to some really fun beats. I especially loved Leland saving Axel by punching someone in the face with a robotic seagull drone but the episode fizzes with fun moments like that.

Now the bad news. In one of the best reveals the show has done, we find out that Inga, the spy leading the team who snatched Chris, is her ex-lover and Chris fled so that Inga wouldn’t be branded a traitor. They reunite on a burning oil rig, admit they’re still in love and then the show decides one lesbian or bisexual is quite enough and kills Inga for no reason other than cheap angst. It’s so annoying and through an accident of scheduling watching it in Pride month in this besieged year made it sting even harder and land even more clumsily.

Verdict: This episode takes a cheap shot after landing nothing but trick shots. It does everything right aside from this one thing and it’s so frustrating. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart