Amy’s mutation accelerates, Fanning is still desperate to find his number 12, and everyone takes one step closer to the apocalypse.

After last week’s emotionally-packed episode it’s back to dumb plot moves again – a very big dumb. Consider the scenario: your experiments are failing, you’ve literally created some monsters and the whole operation needs shutting down. First step? Obviously you hold a party! You load up your guards and security personnel with alcohol so that when the vampires start escaping you’ve compromised the whole base!

The flashback scenes between Richards and Shauna are clearly serving a narrative need, but I think we ‘got’ the bond between them a few weeks back. And it just slows thing down again when the action should really be ramping up at this stage of the season. Fanning and Amy have some key scenes, the former being very persuasive in selling himself as not being the bad guy, and there’s an allegorical moment where Amy is at a literal crossroads on her bike where she needs to decide where to go next. Oh, and Lawrence Grey going the full Renfield to help his undead master escape is a nice touch.

Verdict: Clunky and oddly-paced, this episode should have been a scorcher but suffers from some of the shortcomings that dogged earlier instalments – over-reliance on flashbacks and ridiculous actions/motivation. With the genie now out of the bottle let’s hope we’ll get a thrilling final two hours that will encourage us to come back for more. 6/10

Nick Joy