Max is keeping secrets, but then he isn’t the only one. Dallas and Maria find that they might have more of a connection than they had realised. Kyle makes some big discoveries about the Valenti heritage.

It’s starting to feel as if the show might have a few surprises for us still. It was easy to assume when the Dark Triad grabbed Jones that they had designs on resurrecting him, but after this instalment, I’m not so sure it’s all that straightforward.

Max has a confrontation with Tezca in which she starts to reveal at least part of her designs, and the revelations that she makes are disturbing enough to Max that he ends up taking himself off for a bit of a wander. When he does finally arrive to the expected chastisement of his girlfriend and his ex-partner, he lies to cover up what’s really eating at him. But both Liz and Cam have known him long enough to see through that, though they may disagree about exactly what to do about it.

Michael continues to try to get closer to Bonnie and Clyde, but is dismayed to find Bonnie missing on a mission from Clyde and Clyde his usual suspicious self. It’s interesting to see how Michael approaches all this because, whereas there’s no doubt that he’s on side with the good guys, he also clearly feels enough empathy with two out of three of the Dark Triad that you always have to ask the question in the back of your mind. Fortunately, he has a trump card to play with Clyde that buys him some time, but that leaves him distracted, and about to experience a vulnerability he’s never had to deal with before.

Maria and Dallas end up helping one another in ways they couldn’t have predicted. When Maria helps Dallas in trying to find better clarity surrounding his visions of his father, they stumble on facts which suggest that their destinies might well be a lot more intertwined than they could have possible predicted. I’ll be interested to see where that one goes.

As for Kyle, he’s ready to start going lone wolf operating on the girl in the pod, but then gets an unexpected visit from Isobel, who gets another chance to scrub up as his number two. When they get her out and discover who she is, on top of having read up a lot about what Xitali is and the extent of the role his family has played in the fate of the aliens on Earth, it becomes clear that Maria isn’t the only human whose life and destiny seem inevitably intertwined with that of the aliens.

As the episode closes, an apparent victory becomes merely another step towards a deadly final conflict, with an unwelcome surprise for one of the key combatants.

Verdict: Keeping it interesting. 8/10

Greg D. Smith