The bool hunt leads Lisey to a moment from her past, when Scott shared a confession about his family and traumatic childhood.

After two erratic opening episodes, Stephen King’s adaptation of his novel starts to settle down, making for a less frenetic and more involving hour. The flashbacks are less frequent, last longer, and are more joined up. Admittedly, it’s always tricky world building at the start of a new show, and hopefully this is a sign of the rhythm of the rest of the series.

Dane DeHaan’s stalker Jim Dooley progresses from not just making videos with a life-size cardboard cutout of the author, to starting a fire and stealing unpublished manuscripts. Julianne Moore’s Lisey is on a mission when she’s called by her sister Darla to help with incarcerated older sister Amanda (an excellent Joan Allen). Amanda is catatonic, stuck in Scott Landon’s fantasy world that he and his brother escaped to away from their abusive father.

There’s a great moment where newlyweds Lisey and Scott visit a snowbound, deserted hotel (it’s practically screaming out The Overlook) and while sitting inside the canopy of a frozen tree the latter shares a disturbing summary of his youth. This sets up the connection to the Boo’ya Moon world and Lisey’s bool scavenger hunt, though the most pressing matter is rescuing Amanda, who has a message asking for help cut into her arm.

Verdict: A far more assured episode, settling down to tell the story in hand, while starting to provide some of the answers to the weirdness of the show’s opening hours. 8/10

Nick Joy