Dick tells the truth. The centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy and a bunch of thoroughly pissed off Titans are let loose upon the world.

This is the episode that’s been an entire season coming and it doesn’t disappoint. Brenton Thwaites has really emerged as a leading man this year and this episode he absolutely shines. From the desperate, quiet visit to Slade’s wife (and Slade it turns out) to the moment of clarity in the airport, this isn’t just Dick atoning, this is Dick making peace with himself. He knows, for sure, he’s the only one who can stop this. He knows he can’t walk away. He tries. That’s the tragedy of the character and the moment that closes the episode shows him embracing that, with the politest disarm of an airport security guard ever. Mr Grayson has a plan and whether that’s to put himself as far away from people as possible or to get to Slade remains to be seen.

The core, dark joke of the episode is that these people barely work together and fall apart when they’re not. Kory discovers her old boyfriend is actually being ridden by her sister, who is now a dictator back on their homeworld in a deeply unsettling set of scenes where the power shifts constantly. Rachel leaves Donna to share a taxi with her hypocrisy about Dick, and Hank and Dawn get maybe six hours of domestic bliss in their cabin (and a super cute karaoke moment) before the family of the kid Doctor Light killed get to them find them. Their dynamic remains one of the most interesting in the show and here Hank shows rare emotional maturity, correctly describing their relationship as based on pain. They split up, and there’s more pain to come, but I suspect they’re far from done with each other. Excellent work from Minka Kelly and Alan Ritchson here too.

Finally, Conner and Gar bond and Gar, the last Titan on post, royally screws up. There’s some lovely comedy here and Ryan Potter clearly revels in the spotlight for once. Plus the screw up makes perfect sense and will clearly drive future episodes. It’s also a sweet, if horribly naïve, touch for Dick to leave Gar in charge. He’s the purest of them after all, but as this episode shows, not exactly the most worldly.

Verdict: Big in scope, intimate in focus and fun from top to bottom this is another great episode in a vastly improved season. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart