Charlie (Alexa Nisenson) is captured by Ali (Ashton Arbab) a young Ranger in training. She claims she’s trying to defect but Howard (Omid Abtahi) has his doubts and sets the two to work together.

Ever seen Romeo and Juliet? The creative team behind this episode have and as the show gears up and accelerates into a distinctly lyrical, almost impressionistic run of episodes, it fits like a tragic hand in a doomed glove. This episode is one of the bleakest the show has ever produced and, by some distance, one of the highlights of the season to date.

A lot of that is down to  Lennie James’ direction. The repeated visual metaphor of the butterflies works really well and it tempers James’ fondness for grounded, pragmatic action. There’s a sequence where Charlie and Ali are on horseback and see some enemies further ahead that feels profoundly lived in and real and that’s what James as a director excels at. It also leads to the circumstances of Ali’s murder, which could so easily have been absurd, presenting as they should; as arbitrary, ridiculous, cruel and right there.

The direction and Nazrin Choudhury & Calaya Michelle Stallworth’s script build on each supremely well. The writers remember that these two characters are young and that that is both a strength and a death sentence. Nisenson and Arbab are fantastic in the roles too and Arbab’s depiction of Ali’s gradual journey out into the light is heartbreaking. Doubly so, Nisensen’s moment of absolute collapse in the final scenes as Charlie gets two pieces of horrific news in quick succession. Special note too to Omid Abtahi, one of those actors who is always good but here raises Howard to a new level of banal cruelty.

Verdict: This is a rough episode, horrific in spots, gentle in others and the tonal shift maps onto the wildly changing climate of the show’s setting very well. Nothing is easy, nothing is safe and nothing matters more than the lives the episode focuses on, however fragile their wings are or however short their lives. Bleak, heart-rending and brilliant. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart