Sense8 is the only TV show on Earth that can make a multi city-block, running gunfight/car chase where the heroine is in her underwear not only simply Act 1 but emotionally grounded and real.

This extraordinary season finale does six impossible things before breakfast. The first is, as I say, that action sequence. Sun’s moral choice, whether she falls on the side of the law Wolfgang knows or Will still clings to, has been a huge part of this season. It’s hugely significant then that it’s Will who tells her to chase her brother down after he shoots Detective Mun and both men who are front and centre in the pursuit.

Sense8, when it works, is a graceful piece of TV. Here it’s a positively balletic one. The run and gun features Wolfie and Will both effortlessly changing position with Sun, Capheus tagging in for a motorbike chase and the coolest moment Kala’s been given this season. This fluidity of skill and identity is where the show soars and the way the fight shifts between them is just beautiful to see. Plus, like all the best action, there’s character coded into every moment. Mun, for all his swagger and charm, is a fundamentally trusting guy. That gets him shot in the chest. Later, when the Cluster break Sun out of the police van she’s in, pay close attention to exactly where it gets hit. Nomi and Neets time their traffic hack so that the cab isn’t touched and the drivers are shaken but not harmed. Decency even in chaos. Principle even in going above and beyond the law. That’s where the show lives.

But there’s even more. We get a beautiful reversal on Rajan, who has been sprinting towards villainy all season which in turn puts Kala in a deeply uncomfortable position. She’s spent the entire season questioning her fundamental privilege and she ends up… getting everything she wants. Again. Her life is no easier but it is, for now, simpler and it’s been really interesting to see her plot grow this season. Tina Desai has a remarkable lightness of touch and wry self-awareness that’s a pleasure to watch and there’s some vintage Kala stuff this episode. Her sciencing the hell out of the gun fight is especially good fun.

Kala’s one true love, everyone’s favourite mildly sociopathic German criminal, has a rough episode this time out. Wolfie, betrayed by Lila, spends much of the episode strapped to a gurney being tortured. Which means, of course, every character spends much of the episode strapped to a gurney being tortured.

This is where those emotional and psychological connections that Sense8 excels at mesh with the arc plot. Here we see the missing piece of Whispers’ techniques, how he finds Clusters and we see it in the bloodiest most horrific way possible. The show has always had a cheerfully open response to gore (Witness the Matrix-tastic gunfight at the top of the episode) but seeing every character coughing up blood and screaming is a surprisingly hard watch.

It makes sense then that the Cluster’s response be just as drastic. There are few moments in recent TV history more satisfying than Will bouncing Whispers’ head off the table for the first time. The two seasons in the making beating is unromantic, gooey, brutal and utterly deserved.

It’s also a colossal leap of faith for the characters and the show. We don’t see how Will gets in. We don’t see how the others meet up or what the overall plan is. What we know is Will is a gifted, instinctive police officer with access to the three best hackers on the planet and a key card. The show trusts us to put the rest together and in doing so creates an electrifying finish. Not only do we get the Sensates in one place, but a major step change in the world and a serious escalation in the threat level. As the series finishes, the Cluster have Jonas (and whose side is he really on?) and Whispers, while BPO have Wolfgang. War isn’t just coming, war is here. And honestly, I wouldn’t bet against the Cluster on this one.

Oh and a double proposal! Proving conclusively that Nomi and Neets are ridiculously sweet. Justice! Violence! A wedding proposal! It’s like Jane Eyre with added punching.

Verdict: Sense8 was impressive last season. This season it’s been extraordinary. A fundamentally kind, hopeful show that balances that kindness with an impressive arc plot it’s like nothing else on TV right now and absolutely essential viewing. Roll on season 3. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart