The gang have a new home, but there are still a few things on their wish list, the first of which is the Staff of One, but getting it won’t be easy. Alex continues working for Darius and gets a little closer to Livvie, the PRIDE group seems as full of people keeping secrets from one another as ever.

Having located a convenient mansion in the middle of nowhere last time out, you’d think our heroes would be more cheerful. But then there’s little details like no light or power, being fugitives on the run from the law, and knowing that their parents are part of some conspiracy that might destroy the world. Oh, and the earthquake.

Of course, as the earthquake hit last time out we saw it as a backdrop to a meeting between Jonah and Karolina, with the former declaring that ‘it’s beginning’. Still not one hundred percent clear on what ‘it’ is even after this episode, but one assumes it isn’t good. It’s interesting to see the interaction between these two characters though – from Jonah’s perspective there seems to be genuine pride in his daughter’s abilities and excitement to see her getting used to them. For Karolina’s part, much as she might be telling herself she’s only using Jonah to get knowledge of what she can do, it’s obvious that the simple fact of having someone else share and understand her abilities is a powerful thing indeed – I look forward to seeing where this gets taken by the writers.

Karolina’s keeping this secret from the others fits in with what’s going on with the gang as a whole – everyone has a secret or an issue or both and there’s a fair amount of bickering this time out. Whether it’s everyone against Alex for the secrets he’s keeping or a surprising moment of conflict between two others, everyone is on edge and not at their best. Still, they all get a little focus with some tasks – Chase and Gert stay behind to get their new base fixed up while Nico, Karoline and Molly go to retrieve the Staff of One. That proves a little trickier than they might have hoped, and the resultant showdown is significant on many levels.

Alex goes back to Darius to offer help with his move as a fairly transparent way of seeing/spending more time with Livvie, and it’s clear that the interest is mutual. Darius and his wife seem strangely happier to let this continue than either was last week, which starts to ring alarm bells for the audience if not for Alex himself.

And meanwhile at PRIDE, secrets abound all over the place. For all that last week saw them all agreeing to work together to defeat Jonah and get their kids back, everyone seems to have their own agenda and be doing their own thing anyway. Tina and Robert have their own plan that goes badly wrong, Geoffrey and Catherine pretty much seem to be making unilateral decisions, and Janet continues to be a complete enigma. What seems clear is that this season is going to really explore the different characters and backgrounds of each of our antagonists, and that there is going to be a lot of blurring of the lines with regards to heroes and villains.

Verdict: A surprising number of charming, intimate moments in an instalment with an awful  lot going on. Looks to be building the foundations of a fascinating second season. 8/10

Greg D. Smith