Isobel offers to help Maria in trying to access more of her vision. Kyle finds a message from the past which might impact his future. Jones makes an offer to Max that he might have to take some time over. Wyatt asks Rosa for help.

The game of ‘who’s in the casket’ continues this time out as Isobel reaches out to Maria with an offer to help her re-capture the vision state and maybe explore it a little deeper. These are two characters, of course, who have not traditionally got along and Maria is understandably sceptical. However, Isobel’s method proves to be effective in its way, requiring the two of them to be a lot more open and honest with one another than they are used to. This in turn leads to some startling revelations about the pair of them which hopefully might see them get closer. I’m not expecting this to be the start of a beautiful friendship or anything, but a man can hope.

Jones meanwhile, having escaped, goes to Max’s house to have a poke around. I know how I expected this bit to play out and it absolutely doesn’t. Jones is truly an enigma – it’s almost impossible to work out exactly what his angle is and what he might be after, let alone whether or not he can be trusted. But he’s definitely never boring.

Some of what he reveals to Max and Michael doesn’t sit well, with Michael in particular. Of course, with his intervention last episode we expected that it might be him in the casket in Maria’s vision, but in this instalment we actually get a surprisingly introspective and perceptive Michael, willing to overlook his own reservations in order to step up and support his family. He’s always been a better man than he gives himself credit for, and that really gets shown here.

And because Maria and Isobel can’t have all the fun, Kyle and Michael also end up interacting as Kyle approaches Michael for help with the mysterious radio gifted him by his mother. Can they extract the message from his father which seems to be trapped in the radio, and what will it mean if they do? Again, Kyle has always been a better man than he allows himself to believe, even though he’s sometimes also a bit of an idiot, but he’s really grown in the course of the previous two seasons, and here we can see him stepping up in various important ways that would make his mother proud.

And then there’s Wyatt, still confused by his loss of memory and reaching out to Rosa of all people for help. This is an odd sideplot to be honest – whereas it’s nice to see the man Wyatt can be, absent the bitterness and resentment, it can’t help but feel a little dubious given that he’s had his memories forcibly taken away, especially in a show like this which focuses so much and so often on consent and its importance. I am holding judgement on this one until we see where the end destination is, but I would hope that it will be suitably nuanced in keeping with the general aesthetic of the show.

But what’s nice overall is the fact that even though this is the third season, and we are delving further into the ever-shifting understanding of who our heroes are and where exactly they came from, it doesn’t ever feel like the show is running out of ideas or standing in place. These characters have been growing since season one and continue to do so, and I for one am here for it.

Verdict: Another strong showing with plenty of plot to chew on. 8/10

Greg D. Smith