With Silas and Elton gone the group begins to break under the strain. In the wilderness, Elton discovers the truth about Percy and a surprising truth about himself. In shelter, Felix and Iris discover the truth about Hope and Huck and what’s to come.

After last week’s Silas spotlight the big guy is nowhere in sight and it’s very much Nicolas Cantu and Ted Sutherland’s turn to shine. Cantu, who’s been good throughout, is exceptional here. His determination, emotional turmoil and the quiet moment he can’t not do good are all highlights but my favourite moment comes early on. Elton tears his mom’s book to pieces after literal years of it providing him solace. Then…he goes and gets the pages. That’s these characters to a T: frantic to grow, desperate to progress but still struggling with their pasts.

It’s Sutherland’s Percy, or rather the idea of Percy, that drives this. Elton finds him bleeding and semiconscious and proceeds to spend the rest of the episode dragging him away from relentless Empties while ‘Percy’ asks why he’s doing this. It’s an old trick and one the franchise has used before (most notably in Tyreese’s final episode) but it works superbly well here because Sutherland is so…jaunty as NotPercy. You can tell he’s channelling Elton’s skills and observations but you can also read it, easily, as a supernatural incident. Regardless it’s brilliantly acted by both, especially in Elton’s final, desperate stand.

Elsewhere the episode doesn’t so much move the plot along as hurl characters down the road towards it. Felix’s injury is a nice touch and a good chance to give him some spotlight time. Through that we finally meet his partner, Will. Not only does that give us some welcome emotional grounding but also provides further clues as to just what’s going on with Huck. The two men having their meet cute over Huck’s security assessment is adorable. The two parting to help protect the girl’s father in the CRM is heartrending. They’ve become the heart of the show, the single stable relationship it has left and I can only hope they’re allowed to stay that way.

And even if not, there is…half a stable relationship between the sisters. Annet Mahendru does amazing work as Huck this episode and her friendship with Alexa Mansour’s Hope feels absolutely real right until the terrifying, inevitable reveal on what really happened to Percy and Tony. But it’s Mansour and Aliyah Royale as Iris that really bring the episode into land. Their argument is angry but not cruel, bitter but not short tempered; rather it’s two smart, tough young women realizing their paths are diverging. Whether that will change remains to be seen but early signs point to yes.

Verdict: Complex, incident heavy and smart this is a show very much back on form. Now let’s see how the season finale lands. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart