This is where things get bloody. Well, bloodier.

There’s a decision made this episode which is one of the most interesting things this show has ever done. With Walker’s men an unknown quantity, the Ranch is divided over what to do. Jake, because he is as kind as he is almost certainly doomed, wants to go mediate with Walker. They’re both lawyers, Jake has beaten him in courtrooms over and over. He likes his chances at being able to talk the man down.

But that isn’t enough for the camp. Jeremiah wants to hold fast, Troy wants blood and a lot of other people want to leave. When a founding family do, and one of their horses returns the next day, it becomes clear something awful has happened.

And an opportunity has presented itself…

Madison makes a terrible call this week which is going to get a lot of people killed. This isn’t the first time she’s done that but this time she does it for really interesting, nuanced, even understandable reasons. She, Nick, even Jeremiah all figure out Troy snuck out and killed the leavers almost immediately.

That doesn’t matter.

What does is that in doing so he’s given them an enemy.

Madison’s lies about Walker have context; he scalped one man man and butchered a half dozen others. But that doesn’t excuse the land dispute that’s swept under the table, the Ottos’ clear racism or the fact people will die in ‘vengeance’ for a crime they didn’t commit. This is Madison’s equivalent to the attack on the observatory, back when The Walking Dead was just introducing the Saviours. There’s the same arrogance, the same short term gain with no long term consequence. And, we suspect, a similar outcome.

This is dark territory for the show with no clear heroes or villains, and some massive, chewy moral compromises under way. But for the first time these choices feel, if not sympathetic, then certainly contextualized. They’re going to go badly wrong but because people are desperate, not stupid. Which on this show makes a nice change.

It’s also a bravura piece of razorblade dancing. One half step to the right and you’re in the exact, trope-riddled territory I talked about previously with Walker and his people. One step further to the right and you’re turning Troy and Jeremiah into cuddly kinda racists instead of armed extremists. Because make no mistake, that’s what they are. Jeremiah’s tangible, and baseless, disgust at Walker’s people confirms that even before his son’s murder spree. By the end of the episode it becomes clear it’s not that the ranch is a refuge from the world it’s a containment system for the Ottos. And it’s not working. And now, Madison has steered everything towards a war which will either settle things once and for all or destroy the exact thing she’s clinging to.

Verdict: This is complex, involving, intelligent drama. That’s a list of qualities earlier seasons of this show have rarely had, let alone all at the same time. Season 3 continues to impress and as we head into the mid-season finale we’re in the middle of the strongest run the show has ever had. More of this, please. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart