Motivated by Esme, Reed and Caitlyn elect to try to reason directly with Agent Turner over the fate of their children and the other mutants turned over to Dr Campbell. But is Esme to be trusted? At Trask, Dr Campbell demonstrates the brutal lengths to which he is willing to go in order to get what he wants from Andy and Lauren.

It’s been clear for some time now that Esme is not necessarily being completely honest, and this week we get another poke in that direction as she has very contradictory conversations with the Struckers and then the Underground about the best way in which to approach the issue of four of their number having been captured by Sentinel Services and shipped off to Trask.

The Struckers, for their part, go to have a direct confrontation with Turner about what exactly is going on at Trask. Tense scenes follow, Reed and Caitlin sat discussing the issue with Turner and his wife at gunpoint. It’s been alluded to that Turner is a good man in a bad position – much like Reed was when proceedings commenced, and after all if Reed can have his redemption then why not the other man? The parallels are nicely referenced by Caitlyn directly in a speech that really hits home to both Turner and his wife. It’s another example of the show doing its best trick – distracting you with quality drama and top notch acting from the fact that it’s a TV budget and they can’t spend too long each week with people using big flashy powers. And boy, does it work.

Elsewhere, the Underground have a slightly different take on the Struckers’ actions and motivations, thanks to Esme relating a different story to them. Enraged by the idea of the Struckers trusting ‘the system’, some of the mutants want to play cautiously and give them the benefit of the doubt, while others are less forgiving. It’s another situation that sets tension among characters, and it’s played well.

And at Trask, Lauren and Andy are refusing to co-operate with Campbell’s demands, which leads to him giving them some fairly brutal motivation. Last week, it was Andy who stopped the pair of them unleashing their combined strength for the sake of the innocent lives in the building with them. This week, it’s becoming clear that Andy is going to have to be the strong one if they are both to survive their ordeal. It’s another nice inversion, Lauren the older sister who is usually the level-headed, sensible one of the two is close to giving up, and it’s Andy trying to keep her on the level. It’ll be fascinating to see where the writers go with it.

The finale presents questions as much as it answers them. Explosive and violent, it’s not going to do anything to ease relations between mutants and humans, and it’s also going to present some conflicts among the mutants themselves. One thing is for certain – Esme has her own specific agenda, and it’s something that neither side is likely to be happy about.

Verdict: A little slow again, but in a good way. This is an episode that really digs into the themes of the show to date and has fun playing with and inverting quite a few of them. Everyone is on their top game in terms of acting, and it’s that combined with the tight script that allows this ‘superhero’ show to get away with so little ‘superpower action’ in a way that other shows just haven’t. 8/10

Greg D. Smith