As the Stone family prepares for a wedding at short notice, various forces are still at work on the passengers. Ben suffers a Calling with a disturbing vision which leads him to another passenger. Jared, Drea and Michaela try their best to extract confessions from the meth dealers they busted. TJ sees distant from Olive. Cal struggles with letting go of Zeke.

Last episode’s closing shot of the shadows of the three meth dealers cast on the wall looking exactly like those from Cal’s nightmare was a disturbing image, and this week the show wastes little time in giving us something to truly be afraid of in this trio of men.

Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, with everyone dealing with an awful lot of stuff besides. Michaela and Zeke’s quick wedding is something which draws the whole family together in preparation and celebration, but that sort of proximity has a habit of exposing the cracks in people’s lives as well.

TJ’s distance from Olive may seem like a simple case of JT losing interest, but the truth when it comes is far more complicated and involved. Michaela’s butterflies go beyond simple wedding day nerves as she wrestles with whether she can really honour Zeke’s wishes and simply watch him die. As she waits for a sign from above to tell her she’s doing the right thing, it’s impossible not to feel for Jared, watching the love of his life get married to someone else, when we know just how much he has endured on her behalf.

Ben’s Calling of the Week (maybe that should be a thing) involves a disturbing vision which leads him to a passenger he’s not been able to find before and another bit of Good Samaritan-ing. But as so often, it’s not completely clear that the apparent resolution to all this is the one that the Calling was driving at, even as it does tie off some loose ends and do some good.

Finally there’s Cal, who is distraught at the thought of losing his friend Zeke. Watching the pair of them hold an impromptu bachelor party and share their feelings is genuine heartstring-tugging stuff, and full credit to young Jack Messina and Matt Long for their performances, and to director Joe Chappelle for letting them get on with it and allowing these scenes to breathe. What could be so much schmaltz instead becomes compelling scenes of grief and love.

While all this is going on, there’s also Saanvi’s mysterious removal from her work and loss of her medical licence to deal with, but can she stand any chance of addressing this without help, and will the help she needs be forthcoming? And as to those meth dealers, is the leader simply trying to get inside Michaela’s head, or is there more to his sinister threats of retribution?

Verdict: What could have turned into a cheesy schmaltz fest of declarations of everlasting love and unrealistic nonsense is instead an episode which a light directorial touch and an excellent cast turn into an hour of edge-of-the-seat television. 9/10

Greg D. Smith