A new death in Bristol Cove raises suspicions. Xander starts his new training. Maddie finds a new friend. Ted still can’t let go of his past.

In fairness, it wasn’t difficult to see that Tia was going to be trouble – after all her opening appearance was her murdering a private plane’s crew and passengers – but her quick decision to end Kyle’s life has caused whole new problems for our friendly Mermaid Appreciation Society. And if you thought that was the only trouble she’s got in mind, well has the show got a surprise for you.

Maddie, still unable to get past the fact that Ben let Ian die, goes off to Seattle to watch a talk by a scientist she ends up hitting it off with afterward. Could she be able to immediately jump into something else? Doesn’t feel like a thing Maddie would do, but at this point perhaps all bets are off.

Xander starts his new training and even though he’s already had a word with Dale about keeping an eye out for Nicole, he also has a new friend on the course that seems possibly to be into him. Of course he gets distracted by the appearance of a familiar face, but still, it’s possible we are seeing a whole new start for the character.

Helen’s visions of Sarge are getting more vivid and it seems like he definitely wants to tell her something, but while she’s trying to work out what that could be she runs into Ted, whose own behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic as his obsession starts to consume him.

Having rolled in with a first episode that felt mostly comfortable, this one really does give the board a kick and send pieces flying all over the place. It’s obvious that we are set for a bigger, more ambitious set of plotlines this season, and I for one am intrigued to see where this leads.

Verdict: Powering forward in a variety of ways – this is getting very interesting very quickly. 9/10

Greg D. Smith