Everything’s fine. No one’s been stabbed. Why do you ask?

I am such a sucker for the sort of minimum budget otherworldliness this episode has by the ton. The entire premise is that Rowan and Ciprien are trapped in a time loop, waking up in bed together (second time in two episodes and I suspect a Talk is coming) and having breakfast over and over again. But this is a time loop not a space loop and Ciprien is still bleeding to death and starting to feel it…

It’s a great idea, using the already unsettlingly gothic house as a lens to focus with laser-like intensity on Rowan, Ciprien and Lasher. Alexandra Daddario impresses as usual, and it’s nice to see Rowan’s pathological competency come to the fore here once she realises what’s going on. As a character she’s sometimes a little detached and numb and that’s starting to fade here. What’s under it appears to be murderous rage.

Just as this starts to surface, it’s interesting to see the show begin to change focus. Ciprien, despite spending the episode mostly bleeding out, is much more of a co protagonist here. There’s a really fun beat in particular where he encounters the ghost of his predecessor at the Talamasca and, even on the verge of death, can’t escape his curiosity. Chirisa and Keyara Milliner as Ciprien’s sister are both great fun here and I’m looking forward to them both getting more screen time.

But this is also, at last, Lasher’s time. Jack Huston’s purring, chaotic villain(?) feels like an elemental force here and the scenes where he and Rowan confront one another are pleasingly tense and ambiguous. Even now, with multiple murders to his name, there’s a sense of Lasher being as nonhuman as he is evil and pulling off that sort of ambiguity is both difficult and impressively done.

Verdict: Closing with a moment of forced closure for Aunt Carlotta and something that looks a lot like vengeance for Rowan, this is another strong episode and one that sets up the second half of the season with a different, wider focus. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart