Lito, Hernando and Gabby arrive at Pride. Sun hides out with her old teacher. Capheus and Zakia, and Wolfie and Kala sleep together. Riley discovers a friend of hers is much, much more than she thought.

As I’ve talked about before, one of the things that makes Sense8 soar is the way it structures plot through emotion. The emotion and theme. This episode, the theme is coming out, facing down the fear that defines all their lives.

That fear takes widely different forms. For Sun it’s gathering her strength for the battle to come. Capheus it’s the possibility his life should and will be more than driving the Van Damn. For Will it’s turning to fight Whispers. For Wolfgang it’s choosing between Lila and Kala. For Nomi it’s facing down her family at her sister’s wedding. For Riley it’s going out and finding their allies. And for Lito?

It’s everything.

Lito and Riley get the lion’s share of the episode and with very good reason. For Riley it’s a series of glorious sequences with Sylvester McCoy as ‘The Old Man of Hoy’. Glimpsed last episode, Hoy is a gloriously tetchy old scientist/spook who keys her into the Sensate underground. It’s a brilliant piece of exposition and expansion and McCoy is a delight. But it works because it’s completely honest and very sweet. McCoy twinkles and the way Hoy meshes with Riley, one of the more reticent members of the Cluster, is genuinely heartwarming. The series, and the characters, are taking steps out into the larger world and Riley is front and centre in that.

But the episode’s heart lies with Lito. Miguel Ángel Silvestre is on top form this episode and the show, and he, continue the deep dive into Lito’s  personality. He’s arrogant, insecure and narcissistic. He’s also fiercely loyal, passionate and painfully shy and Silvestre shows us all that in one, electrifying, speech. It’s a heart lifting moment that only Sense 8 can provide and it’s the polar north to the increasingly dark investigations Nomi and Neets are conducting.

Verdict: Another great episode. It keeps the characters front and centre, drives plot and action through emotion and gives us satisfying answers galore as it keeps raising the stakes. More TV drama should be this good. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart