The item bequeathed to Molly by her parents brings new revelations for the Gang, who decide that it’s time to put aside their differences and take action. But are they already too late?

Opening with a flashback that finally confirms the suspicions we the audience have had about the fate of Molly’s parents beyond any doubt (while still providing a small surprise), this episode does not hang about. If anything, there’s almost too much going on here, and this is definitely one instalment that will bear repeated viewings, for a number of reasons.

Let’s start with the gang themselves – they’re more than a little at cross purposes as we begin. Alex is understandably annoyed that Chase destroyed his laptop and with it the evidence he’d hacked from the Wizard servers about what PRIDE have been up to. Nico is still furious at Alex for his having kept anything at all about her sister from her. Chase is torn between simply wanting his father to be ok and wanting as much as the others to stop whatever it is their parents are a part of. It’s a fractured group with various others taking either side and everyone not quite sure of what to do. Then the show uses the fact that it’s set in a high school, and has them elect to attend the High School Dance together as a kind of last hurrah, before the group splits again for good.

The arrival of Molly and her showing them the videotape she found last week complicates things a little – it turns out that PRIDE’s nefarious antics may concern a wider canvas than they had previously even considered, and this, combined with the implications of Molly’s parents’ fate, motivate the gang to cast aside their differences, if only in the name of putting a stop to this once and for all.

Plan set, they all arrive at the dance and then the teenage part of the show kicks in, with two long-term teased hook-ups finally being given their airtime. Both are interesting choices, though one is likely to generate far more interest and praise than the other, but neither necessarily goes the way the audience might expect. In the middle of the fairly grand scale of the meta plot, it’s nice to see the show take another opportunity to reiterate that its protagonists are still just teenagers, with all the emotional baggage and sexual politics that brings.

However, when they get all that out of the way, it’s time for the team to go on their first proper mission at the site of the grand school construction PRIDE has been working on. But time is not necessarily on their side, and one of them may have chosen an ally outside the group poorly. To say more would be to venture into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that it’s hugely tense, and will leave the viewer quite literally on the edge of their seat for what comes next.

Verdict: Best episode so far. Full of surprises, intrigue, action, comedy and everything else you could want from your comic book TV. Recent news of the renewal of the series was great, but honestly on form like this, it’s difficult to see how they will top what they’ve done so far. 10/10

Greg D. Smith