The Underground wrestle with the implications of Esme’s actions, with splits appearing throughout their ranks. Reed and Caitlin decide that the safety of them and their children may be better served elsewhere. Agent Turner resolves to do whatever it takes to defeat the mutants…

Last time out, things ended with Esme and her sisters wreaking havoc and freeing Andy, Lauren and Clarice amid a fair amount of bloodshed. This episode begins in the aftermath of that event, with each side remembering their dead and swearing to ensure that their loss was not on vain. For agent Turner, that means a conviction that he will do whatever is necessary to fight what he now sees as a war. For the Underground, it’s a wholly more complicated scenario.

The appearance of Esme and her sisters at the compound does nothing to simplify things; the mutants are angry and scared – half of them think that Esme and her sisters’ methods are justified in a war that they are slowly losing. The other half think that to condone those methods is to forfeit everything that they stand for. The hard part is, it’s perfectly easy to see both sides of the argument, and that’s where this show really excels. There is no black and white here – no definitive statement made by the writers or director about which viewpoint is ‘correct’, merely a presentation of both sides, leaving the viewer as much as the protagonists to decide which side they fall on.

Meanwhile, Reed and Caitlin, having just got their kids back again, are not keen on sticking around, and decide that it would be best for everyone if they left. Between the rumours circling in the compound around the circumstances of Dreamer’s death, and the impending threat of increasing force being used by the government, they feel it would be better to move on. Lauren and Andy feel differently, but as they are still both minors, their parents’ wishes prevail. This is a slightly clunkier area of the instalment – the whole thing serves a narrative purpose ultimately, and leads to an incredible action set piece, but the whole idea of the Struckers being outsiders again feels wrong after the preceding episodes did so much to enmesh them with the Underground – Caitlin and Reed both becoming vital components in the day to day operations of the Underground as much as their children. It’s not terrible, and as I say it serves a narrative purpose, but I can’t help but feel it’s a purpose that could have been achieved with more elegance.

We also get a little bit more information about the organisation Esme and her sisters work for – the Hellfire Club. We find out little about their contact there, beyond that he’s a money man, and that he and his associates don’t necessarily approve of the sisters’ methods, but an additional revelation gives another strong indicator (as if the audience needed it) of who Lorna’s father was.

Lorna herself is also dealing with a few changes which seem to be as a result of her pregnancy – could it be that the baby is actually having an effect on the strength of her powers, and if so, what could that mean?

As for Project Hound – it seems that Doctor Campbell’s research into the Strucker children yielded just the results he was looking for, and the monstrous powers he now has at his disposal get their first trial in a raid orchestrated by Turner – all doubts now forgotten. This part of the episode serves several purposes – not the least of which is an additional layer of complexity for Campbell himself, who has to this point been a fairly two-dimensional villain. Here we see something else – an acknowledgement of the horror of what he is doing, and an indication that he believes he’s doing it for a higher purpose. It’s a credit to Garrett Dillahunt’s acting though, that I’m still not entirely sure how honest he is being here. It also shows us a new threat which has the sheer power to overwhelm the Mutants, which may influence the alliances they are forced to consider, for better or worse.

Verdict: Save for the oddly lacklustre execution of one of the subplots this episode, another solid and exciting instalment with some genuine intrigue added. The stakes have been raised – it will be interesting to see if the show can step up to them in the final two episodes. 8/10

Greg D. Smith