The murder of Kelly draws the attention of Michaela and Ben, who find stranger facts the more they dig, but also attract attention. Grace struggles with the choice Ben’s return has forced on her. Cal has an awkward encounter with his former best friend which leads to some conflict with Olive. Saanvi finds something unexpected when running tests on Cal’s blood.

There’s a lot going on in this episode, and it’s to the credit of the writers and director that none of it gets lost in the mix. Each subject receives just enough attention, without anything feeling like it’s outweighing anything else.

First up, there’s Kelly’s murder. Being the one 828 survivor who has been publicly going around speaking about her experience and criticising the authorities, there’s an obvious temptation for everyone (audience included) to make connections. But as Michaela and Ben recklessly go about inveigling themselves into a crime scene and poking into details, other factors start to emerge. No spoilers here, but this one is cleverly executed and a genuine surprise when it comes out.

Meanwhile, at the Stone household, there are so many issues still being resolved. Grace seems to have chosen to stay with Ben and discard the mystery man who was in her life, but is she one hundred per-cent happy with the decision she made? Is she really doing it out of love, or more a sense of duty? There’s just enough left on the table by the actors that we genuinely can’t be sure.

Additionally, Cal’s old best friend turns up at the house, substantially older and bigger than Cal now, but that’s far from the most awkward thing set to come between them. Cal and Olive’s falling out feels real, and it’s a fascinating angle to approach their own discombobulation at events, especially given they’re twins.

And then for Michaela, there’s the weight of ‘the accident’ which the show is now starting to piece together more for us – a car crash when she was driving which resulted in the death of one of her best friends. We know that she was ‘cleared’ by the investigation into that crash, but it obviously still bothers her, and here we see her trying to pick up the pieces of that guilt with varying consequences.

As to the ‘authorities’, aka the NSA, well it’s clear they’re not being as straight as they could be with everyone, doubly so when Saanvi decides to run more tests with regards to the strange additional factors she’s finding in Cal’s blood, but is prevented from doing so.

At this point, two things are clear. Firstly, whatever experience occurred to the passengers of 828, it has marked them, bringing them back into the world to settle various unfinished business of their own, as well as to assist others. Second, the NSA, or perhaps whoever is behind them, has some sort of idea or theory of what happened, and they’re not planning on sharing it anytime soon.

Verdict: Tense, pacy and with a deft handling of an awful lot of sub narratives at once. Very good TV. 9/10

Greg D. Smith