The Strucker Family – minus Reed – make it back to the Mutant hideout thanks to Clarice, but the young mutant may have pushed herself too far. Meanwhile, Reed is a prisoner of Sentinel Services, who seem prepared to do literally anything they have to in order to compel him to reveal the details of the Underground’s lair.

Having parsed out the action and powers quite sparingly in its opening episode last week, it was nice to see the show really ramp up both for this episode, covering the fact that – plot wise – not an awful lot happens.

The episode is centred essentially through three different facets. First we have the Mutant Underground hideout, in very real danger of discovery because of a stricken Clarice and her malfunctioning and out-of-control portal ability. Caitlin Strucker, being a nurse, may be able to help, but she and her children are a little pre-occupied with the small matter of their husband/father being in the clutches of the authorities. This gives opportunity for some nice character moments between everyone, and the fostering of a genuine and organically believable relationship between the Strucker family and the mutants of the Underground – other shows based on Marvel properties would do well to take note.

Secondly we have Reed, sitting in some banal interrogation room being told by his interrogator about just how much trouble he’s in. As a prosecutor, he’s not going to fall for some simplistic legal intimidation, and isn’t afraid to say so. This is for me one of the standout performances of the episode, with Stephen Moyer getting to grips with the complexities of a man who knows the system but isn’t always quite certain about how things will play out. His battle of wills with Coby Bell’s Agent Turner is compelling stuff, each trying to outfox the other without revealing the strengths and weaknesses of their own hand. It contrasts nicely with the high-octane action elsewhere, making the episode deeper and better balanced in terms of pace than it might have otherwise been.

Thirdly, we have the incarceration of Polaris, and her struggle to come to terms with the fact that for the first time in a long time, she’s truly alone. Polaris is tough, but bereft of her powers and in a hostile environment, is she tough enough not to crack? Again, it’s a great, subtle performance for a character that so easily could have devolved into scenery-chewing, and I’m fascinated to see where they go next with it.

Thrown in on top of all this, we open with a nice flashback to the Strucker family about a year ago, before all this nonsense, which serves as a slightly heavy-handed but nonetheless welcome and needed expansion of Reed’s character. What we glean from it is that despite being a prosecutor, he’s also a good man, willing to bend – if not break – the rules for the good of innocents. This makes a lot of sense of his actions in episode 1 (and to be honest would probably have been better placed in that episode) and adds some welcome depth to the character.

Speaking of depth, the villains get some. Well, one. A bit. We at least discover why Turner has beef with mutants running around unchecked, and there’s a suggestion (albeit a slightly ham-fisted one) that he might be a little more conflicted about his role than he originally let on. It still doesn’t give us much in terms of antagonist motivation to go on, but it’s a start I guess.

Verdict: Less predictable and ‘safe’ than it felt last week, this has the makings of a decent – though not amazing – genre show. The writers clearly understand the source material and use it well (if still a little obviously in places) and the actors are all committed and given good dialogue to work with. I’m intrigued to see where this one goes. 7/10

Greg D. Smith