Liz buries herself in the science as others try more esoteric methods to locate the missing Alex and Dallas. Isobel confronts Tezca. Shevani shares some unsettling secrets.

Honestly, I’m just happy that everyone finally realised that Alex was missing. What’s odd is how they all react to the news. Maria is still convinced that Alex may be speaking to her from beyond the grave, and is therefore taking the séance approach. Max is being more practical about locating both Alex and Dallas in the real world. Thanks to Liz’s insistence, they elect not to fill Michael in on any of this until they have more concrete answers for him – not a great move because it’s the sort of thing you just know he’s going to find out about sooner or later, and when he does, his reaction is predictably explosive.

Liz, for her part, is throwing herself into the science in an effort to create a cure for Bonnie’s alien virus and return Michael and Max’s powers. One small issue there – Michael might want his powers back, but Max absolutely doesn’t, still fearing the blue flame and what it might mean in Jones’ masterplan. This (inevitably) leads to a continuation of the ‘Liz and Max have a fight and go brood separately’ part of the show, which in fairness is still entertaining thanks to the chemistry between the two of them, but seriously, if these two are going to make it in the long term, they need to up their communication skills.

Meanwhile, Isobel decides to confront Tezca about why she can remember her, and what sort of shared past they may have. Tezca for her part is resistant to any such notion, convinced this is simply another trick by her enemies to try to derail her purpose on Earth. Fortunately, Isobel has an app for that, so to speak, but neither of them is fully prepared for the answers they find when they delve together into Tezca’s mindscape. Suffice to say, it reaffirms Jones as being a complete bastard, while also subtly linking to Isobel’s own previous experience in ways I am sure won’t be lost on long term fans of the show.

Shevani, for her part, has decided she’s fed up of pretending she doesn’t know as much as she does. She’s always (nearly) the smartest woman in any room she’s in (except the ones where Liz is) and we know that she’s driven by the need to find a cure for her daughter. This week, we start to find out that not only is she whip smart, she’s also got specific reasons for not being all that surprised by any of the frankly amazing stuff Liz has been slowly divulging to her in half-truths. Both of them end of sharing a lot more than either is prepared for, and Shevani ends up making a reckless choice which could have dire consequences in ways she can’t even begin to imagine.

One of the things I always enjoy in a genre show is character growth, and we see plenty of evidence of that here. Michael is still a firebrand who reacts first and thinks later, but he does think, and that’s a massive leap from where he was. Liz and Max, for all that I may snark at their lack of communication, have grown together and independently too, and that makes me believe they can have a real future together. Oddly, as this final season delves deeper into alien lore than we have been before, the show really is growing in strength in ways I wouldn’t have expected. I’ll really miss these guys when they’re gone.

Verdict: Plenty of twists and lots of emotionally chewy stuff. 9/10

Greg D. Smith