As Victor’s life hangs by a thread, the other PRIDE members try to make things right. But faced with a terrible choice, how will this disparate and increasingly fractured group respond? Meanwhile, Nico finally pins Alex down to answer her questions, and the kids face challenges and choices of their own, with potentially devastating consequences.

The tension ramps up another notch this week, as once again the conflicts rife within the two groups get worse, and wounds old and new are opened up farther still.

The members of PRIDE – absent one notable – are summoned to the Stein’s house by a simple message, one it’s clear they have had before in a time of crisis. Victor is bleeding out on the floor, shot by Janet in defence of Chase. This presents a number of problems, not the least of which is how to stop this apparently vital member of the team from dying. The responses of each of the other couples are complex and not at all united, save in one detail. Leslie – and by extension Jonah – must not know.

Suffice it to say that covering up this sort of thing isn’t all that easy, although Leslie’s response is rather unexpected. Nevertheless, there’s only so much that anyone can do to hide things from someone like Jonah…

Elsewhere, Nico confronts Alex about just exactly how he knew Tina’s password, and what else he may or may not be telling her. When he confesses what he knows about what was going on with Amy in the weeks before her death, it drives a wedge between them – whether it’s one that will ever be reparable remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Chase is understandably struggling to cope with things, and calling various other members of the group to try to get some support. In so doing, he sets off another chain of events, and by the time the gang are all reunited, they have another issue to face: Alex has finally decrypted the information he took from Tina’s servers, a series of incriminating videos. He and Nico are all for taking them public immediately, but dissension in the group erupts into violence, and now things are really difficult.

Meanwhile, the PRIDE members are given a stark choice which really highlights how little there is holding them together, and what little regard each couple has for the others while, ironically, highlighting how very much love and care they have for their partners and children. The mirror of both groups fracturing under pressure in very different ways and for very different reasons is not subtle, but nonetheless makes for a fascinating dynamic.

And on the periphery, Molly adjusts to life with the family friend that the Yorkes have sent her to live with. A mysterious bequest from her late parents leads to another mystery, though where that will take things is unclear at present.

One thing is for sure though – a discovery by Nico is about to shed whole new light on not only the fate of her late sister, but also on events in general. Everything is about to get a whole lot more intense.

Verdict: It’s quite something that a show in which one character has a pet dinosaur that follows her around and obeys commands manages to be quite so grounded in the drama it delivers. This is a genuinely exhausting episode to watch, in all the best ways. 9/10

Greg D. Smith