Things start to fall apart, Tony Check is smuggled into town and Em takes matters into her own hands.

This is a hell of an hour of TV, one that builds in ways you don’t see or expect.

Its foundation is the painful mortality of Dana and the painful immortality of Em. The episode opens with a flashback, showing Dilisch used to be sheriff, on the day Em was born, and was much closer with Wayne than the angry bickering we see in the present day. Wayne’s casual bigotry about his wife’s ‘hippy’ beliefs stains his relationship with both his children from the literal start and Conrad Coates and David James Elliot do great work showing us the other side of the men we saw last week.

Speaking of other sides, we get some answers from the other side of the blockade this episode. The Check brothers have been selling black-market Reviver body parts, and Dana and Em have both stumbled into their line of fire. Phil Brooks’ Anthony makes it back into town to deal with the family personally and it goes bloody, fast. The shift in tone from Dana being good-naturedly loopy on pain meds to a knockdown drag out fight between her and Gunderson (another traitor!) is handled brilliantly and Melanie Scrofano continues to excel at this unique combination of slapstick, pain and grit.

The ending fight here is a brutal settling of affairs as Ibrahim rescues Jordan from the Checks, who are planning, let’s not forget, to cut a small child up for parts, while Dana goes in to rescue Em. The simple, brutal efficiency of her being stabbed multiple times is played for no laughs, no sensationalism. Instead, Anthony just kills her and is then stabbed to death by Em, using her own bones. Brittle Bone diseases opens the episode holding her back, it closes it literally setting her free. Romy Weltman has never been better and Brooks, always a pleasure to see, may be done but did typically fun work.

As the episode finishes, Ibrahim is in tears watching something that cannot be human spirit Jordan away in one of the most human moments of the show. Inside, Dana is dying and Em is healing her surrounded by the bodies of the men who tried to harm her family.

Verdict: It’s a great ending to a great hour and makes you hit play on episode 7 straightaway. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart