As John digs into why the Encores have returned, the team deal with Bugsy Siegel and, worse, dinner with B’s parents.

This is much better. Also new punky credits for the win! The Siegel and Hell stuff especially feel like the show’s both on new ground and cleverly playing old tunes in a different key. John slipping into private eye mode and Ray being delighted to be mistaken for a cop are especially endearing.

Likewise, the plot with Behrad’s parents neatly course corrects the last little bit of overhang from the previous episode. We not only get a delightfully odd new Zari, but some welcome context for Behrad (and a chance for Shayan Sobhian to shine) as he cheats to live up to his parents’ wishes even as they chide his sister for not being good enough. There’s some real interesting character dynamics here, especially for Tala Ashe as the new Zari. Entitled but not un-self-aware she should be a lot of fun, especially now she’s aboard the ship.

But the real fun here lies in the Blue Iguana and the continuing fallout from the previous season. Jess Macallen is fantastic as Ava, slowly coming to terms with the grief her girlfriend is feeling and, worse, her own. Ava is detail oriented, driven and… directionless. All of which leads to the fantastic musical interlude where she belts out a big band version of Bell Biv Devoe’s Poison. It’s great when we see it. It’s even better when we see what it really is, Ava stumbling around the stage drunkenly honking. It’s normal, it’s weird, it’s intensely embarrassing. And the grin and ‘that’s my girl’ from Sarah tells us it’s perfect.

Verdict: Ragged and sweet, weird and horrific, this is the Legends back on their feet. Which is good news for us and, odds are, terrible news for history. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart