The group reunite in person if not in approach. Silas makes new friends and it really confuses him. We find out more about Huck’s secret origin.

Rarely has an episode of this show been better titled. Every plot here moves the arc along but also shows us just how much pressure everyone is under and how much of that pressure comes from their families.

Felix and Huck are a great example. Huck honestly believes Will was killed in an innocent, unavoidable tragedy and when she repeats this, unaware Will is still alive, Felix snaps. The show has always been good with violence as a consequence of character but Felix knocking her down and holding an Empty over her to see how it will feel when he finally kills her is cold even by its standards. And speaking of cold, the show does excellent work with Huck’s insensitive parroting of CRM rhetoric and how it fades. Annet Mahendru has been one of the secret engines of this show and this episode is quietly something of a spotlight for her. Huck’s dawning realisation about what the CRM is doing, the horrific reveal that she had both her arms broken to go undercover and the moment where she sees her mother affect sadness for a public broadcast are all very well played. The CRM’s toy soldier is coming home and she’s not going to be welcome when she does.

Speaking of not welcome, the other plots this episode cover similar ground. Elton’s desperation to talk to Hope is matched only by his inability to be near her and the use of Asha as the go-between here is poignant and nicely handled. Asha’s need for dialysis, and her need to keep that from her mother, both show how far the world has come even if it doesn’t feel like it. There’s room for secrets, for chronic conditions where once there was only survival. That’s also why Percy can’t bring himself to avenge his family and why Will makes his survival public to stop him killing Huck, Survival is no longer a zero sum game and it’s agonisingly complex and difficult and vital.

That’s especially true of Silas, who makes a welcome return this episode and gets some of the spotlight, His apparent abandonment by his fellow crew members, and the horrific realisation they’ve both set up a functional funhouse of Empties and were standing by to help Silas if needed says even more about how this world has adapted, little of it good. These kids are walking tragedies, unaware of that, where Huck is all too aware of her own tragedies and the sisters are aware of how far apart they are in ideals and approach now.

Verdict: Family is a four letter word, for sure. But so is love and love, warped and twisted, vital and healthy is what’s at the heart of every interaction this episode and every plot as the show makes the turn into its final episodes.  7/10

Alasdair Stuart