Alfie gets a new, rather challenging client. Martha and Thomas struggle to get back to normal, when a surprise visit from Patricia threatens to make things even more chaotic. Dave Boy continues to try to impress Sally.

Fair play to the Waynes, it can’t be easy going back to sharing a home together when one of you tried to kill the other not all that long ago in a sudden frenzied rage which they can neither recall nor explain. But they’re trying anyway, and it’s as awkward as you might expect watching them tiptoe around one another as they try to find a new normal. Of course, the sudden, unexpected arrival of Thomas’ sister Patricia only serves to make things even more awkward, at least at first.

Patricia was, let’s recall, reasonably close to Martha last time we saw her, and more importantly had a lot more affection for her brother than he tended to give her credit for. When the pair finally let their guard down and start sharing some of the recent happenings and their suspicions about them all with Patricia, it turns out that she may have some sterling advice for them both after all.

Alfie finds himself lumbered with a new assignment by PM Aziz. A rebel leader from the former British colony of Kalpoor is in town for talks with the president of that country against the backdrop of a larger international summit. As the young woman’s presence cannot be officially backed by the government, Aziz needs Alfie to take the job of watching over her. She’s less than impressed, suspecting Alfie is being foisted on her simply to spy, but she soon changes her mind after seeing him in action. There is a spy in their midst, and with Alfie’s help she sets about rooting them out.

Meanwhile Bet is on her own mission, set on tracking down Salt, and manages to find an important old face from the past in her quest to do so. It turns out that Bet has taken rather an attachment to the baby she absconded with after murdering its parents, but she’s still set on revenge, and not much bothered about what she has to do to get it.

Dave Boy attends another art exhibit with Sally and ends up trying out something that’s too strong even for him, leaving him definitively the worse for wear. That’s not ideal when Alfie is trying to confer with him about a certain job they did for the army years ago which is coming back to haunt him in a very real way.

As Bet tracks down her quarry, it turns out that she’s not quite fully anticipated the nature of her foe, and that may prove her undoing.

It’s great to have Bet back, and it’s a good job too because the Alfie plot in this week’s instalment is quite painfully predictable. Seriously, long term fans of the show will have worked out exactly how a certain relationship is going to develop within the first ten seconds. Very James Bond indeed. Still, between Bet and the actually wonderful interaction between Thomas, Martha and Patricia, this goes down as another excellent instalment.

Verdict: You can’t beat a bit of Bet, especially when the ‘A’ plot is quite so obvious. 8/10

Greg D. Smith