Baum and Logan continue their exile, but a discovery by Baum might bring this to an end, if the two of them can work together. But as Baum reflects on his life before the Origin, we get to see a different side to him, and understand his refusal to trust in others. Meanwhile the other survivors gradually thaw towards one another, but how long can this fragile new peace last?

Baum has been one of the most unlikeable (OK, the most unlikeable) of the characters in Origin from the pilot, so it’s interesting to get an episode that focuses on his past, and the path that led him on board the Origin. Like the others, he has ghosts in his past, and more than enough of the sort of reasons you’d expect to want to have a fresh start somewhere nobody. What’s perhaps more surprising is that there are other, slightly more sympathetic reasons as well.

Contrasting this with his current predicament, trapped in exile below the others with Logan after their torture of Lee in the last episode, actually makes for compulsive viewing, as we flip between the extended con he was pulling on Earth and the new plan he devises with Logan once he discovers a new potential way out of their current situation. Compulsive mainly because on both sides, the show manages to keep the question of exactly what Baum is up to and how genuine any of his intentions might be pleasingly open until the last possible moment. This means when the perhaps inevitable conclusion is reached in the present, it’s perhaps reached for very different reasons than the audience might have grown to expect. It’s rare that this kind of plot is written well enough to engage and keep the audience guessing until the end, especially in an age where every drama seems to need twists and gotcha moments, and it’s to the credit of the writers and actor Philipp Christopher that it is pulled off as well as it is.

As to the rest of the gang, they slowly start to thaw towards one another again (as one might expect they would with nothing much else to do, trapped on a ship together) and even manage to have some fun. There are nice moments between Lana and Shun, Rey and Henri and even Logan and Katie as the mundanity of their situation reasserts itself. With the equipment for scanning broken and no real way of telling which of them (if any) is infected, they just try to get on with things, but you always sense that this may be a fragile peace.

All of them, that is, except for Lee, who remains sequestered away working at trying to fix the equipment Logan and Baum broke when they attacked her. It feels like Lee has an important part to play in the drama that’s still to unfold, especially given how the final scene plays out before the credits roll.

Verdict: Feeling the least genre episode of the lot so far, this has more in common with a heist movie or even an old Agatha Christie setup but what it does it does brilliantly, aided by excellent writing and sharp performances. 8/10

Greg D. Smith