Ben is faced with the stark question of just how much a secret is worth, as mermaid-kind stands to be exposed to the world at large, with devastating consequences.

Picking up immediately where the last episode left off, Ben and Maddie chase after Ian, who has an unconscious Ryn bundled in the back of his car, ready to make his name as a journalist with proof of Mermaids for the world to see.

And then the episode jumps forward, several times, as we get to see exactly what that means. The episode goes very near-future dystopia, with uncomfortable modern day overtones, as mer-kind are revealed to the rest of humanity, who react with depressing predictability.

This is, it should be said, a difficult episode to watch on several levels. The most obvious of these is the very real political message the writers unsubtly get across in the treatment of Helen and her fellow ‘half-bloods’ by the military. Martial law, round-ups of those deemed undesirable, camps, brutal, inhuman treatment. This episode may as well have had its cast running round with ‘F**k Trump’ placards for all the trouble it takes to hide what it’s getting at. And with so many images of fresh horrors prevalent on the news each and every day, perhaps it’s a time when we need our entertainment to also remind us just how dangerously close we are as a species to repeating the horrific mistakes of the past at any given moment. Whatever, what it lacks in subtlety, this writing and the performances which bring it to life bring brutal honesty in spades.

Elsewhere, everyone is confronted with choices, and most make bad ones. Cal and Xander elect to try to make their fortune by aiding in the capture of a live mermaid for a mysterious private buyer. No prizes for guessing which one they end up catching, and what’s difficult to judge is whether they feel worse than she does when she recognises who is behind this most base of betrayals. Blood money indeed.

Ben, Maddie and Ryn meanwhile, are on the run, trying to run to the border as Canada offers amnesty to mer-kind. Standing between them and safety are the combined forces of the US military (who are maybe a little pissed off about the whole thing where they ran out on them having used their equipment for the IVF) and another base-level betrayal.

It all ramps up the tension and the horror scene by scene, until it boils over in a crescendo which really hammers home the importance of choice to one central character as they balance everything they and others stand to lose against one simple decision they have to make. Nobody ever said that doing the right thing was easy, and nowhere is that truer than in Bristol Cove.

Verdict: Genuinely uncomfortable to watch from start to finish, in the very best of ways. By turns breathtaking, heartstopping and misery-making. I cannot wait to see what this show does with its third season. 9/10

Greg D. Smith