Things fall apart, the centre collapses and in the end all there is justice.

This entire episode revolves around who you want to be. Morgan still wants to be a good man, a community leader, and refuses to kill Virginia when he has the chance. He also stops Strand and Sherry from doing the same thing, and in doing so establishes himself as something other than a leader. Morgan is a moral authority, someone whole communities steer by. It’s a brave and definitive move and he in particular definitely seems to be moving forward psychologically. For the groups to survive, they need people like Morgan.

But not Virginia.

Colby Minifie is the standout here. She’s exceptional, spiky, bitter, plausible and talented. You can’t help but open an ear and imagine how good a leader she could have been had she made different choices. Virginia regrets nothing and knows why she did everything she did. But it’s when she confesses to Dakota that she’s actually her mother that things take a turn for the horrific. Dakota’s entire childhood has been given over to her ‘sister’ and when every skeleton comes out, things get very dark indeed.

And then they get terminal. The episode’s finish collapses Virginia’s life to one single act of cruelty and one final moment for June. Both have no other choice. Neither hesitate. Both will change the world they leave behind them forever. Virginia dies knowing exactly who she is. June leaves knowing who she isn’t.

Verdict: This is a bleak, nasty episode that focusses on grief and one of the very few things we all have in common. It tells us who Virginia was and how June became the woman she is now. Later episodes, hopefully, will explore what happens when, with this threat behind them, the others can discover who they are too. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart