Is it safer to be inside a cage, or to escape it?

This second episode has piqued my interest more effectively. It has also both aggravated and soothed some of my pandemic-related insecurities.

More of the first few minutes of this episode seem frighteningly familiar, with death-tolls in the news, calls to ‘quarantine in place’ and the panic that sets in as a result of the initial wave of infection. I say initial wave, but that’s all it took – looks like there weren’t may left to infect after that. See? It could always have been worse! Welcome to ‘pandemic-comfort’ TV, folks.

We meet more of our players: Aimee, who, having survived that wave, gives us the most euphoric and charming reaction to a group of elephants. Then we see a progression of Dr Singh’s story, and he’s placed in a dreadful position in relation to the ongoing safety of his wife, but we don’t know what that is yet, although we could make an unpleasant educated guess. The narrator hints that these stories will connect and that has to be taken on trust at this point – I was glad of the narration, otherwise the episode might have come across as a little disjointed in that respect.

The most beautiful elements of the episode are when Gus and his co-opted protector, ‘Big Man’ aka Tommy, bond with a family in hiding and we see Gus interact with a child of his age for the first time. The open-hearted nature of childhood before we age and inevitably grow jaded with the world is a restorative for hope. Gus also gets a taste of what it’s like to have a mother. As his new companion says, it’s “like having a Dad only better.” Debatable, but put in such an innocent way, we get it.

Predictably, Tommy agrees to accompany Gus on the next leg of his journey to Colorado to find his own (very probably dead) mother, but this time I do want to go with them.

Verdict: Threats lurk in the mountains for our sweet-toothed young friend. 8/10

Claire Smith