Separated from Laurent in the raid, Daryl struggles to find him as Quinn and Genet close the net.

This is an odd episode, and one which works very well everywhere except where it doesn’t. We’ll do what doesn’t work first and it’s largely Sylvie and Emile. This isn’t the fault of Laikia Blanc-Francard and Tristan Zanchi: they’re both good but they’ve been given very little to do this season so far. So when Sylvie opts to stay in Paris with Emile because they’re in love, it’s hard to view it as anything more than housekeeping. Codron too continues to suffer from being a motivation in search of a character. Romain Levi’s great, but even here, where he’s teamed up with political leader Genet, he’s barely given a chance to register. It’s by no means Levi’s fault; again, he’s very good. But given Anne Charrier’s scorpionic politician and Adam Nagaitis’ deeply frightening Quinn are in the series now, Codron is starting to look more and more like a henchman with delusions of grandeur.

That aside the rest of the episode works much, much better. The opening sequence, both Daryl’s feverish dream/underwater zombie fight and the surreal sight of Paris streets largely normal despite the zombies looks great. The whole series so far looks nothing like any previous show in the family either, playing more like a European graphic album than anything else. It’s a smart, otherworldly feeling that echoes Daryl’s isolation and leads to some fantastic beats like the wind whistling through the ruined Eiffel Tower as Daryl and Izzy fight for Laurent’s life.

The show is becoming its own thing now, for sure. That’s echoed in some of the surprising choices it’s making. While Fallou doesn’t get much to do this week he and Emile feel like they’re being put in place for future returns so, perhaps, the housecleaning we see here isn’t quite so much of a problem. Special note too of Genc Jakupi who makes a single episode turn as an extremely doomed henchman memorable.

The collapsing down of plotlines, which also seems to be the reason for Sylvie and Emile apparently being written out is good too. Genet is using Codron and Quinn to get to Laurent. Quinn wants his son back. Daryl wants to go home but can’t leave Laurent. Laurent may or may not be fully human. As a show this is a knife fight, five people with different agendas handcuffed together in a flooding room and now it sees that it’s really taking off. Better still, it’s doing this without leaning into the supernatural element the first episode threatened to. Laurent is still an enigma, but just who and what he is is being unpacked at the right pace and is driving some fascinating changes in Daryl. The Commonwealth’s number one pragmatist might, just, be starting to believe.

Verdict: A mix of necessary if unfortunate house keeping and some fun developments this is another strong episode. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart