The Coming Night

This episode once again served as a means to connect the dots for our characters. Particularly, this episode focused on Sam's journey and his relationship with Helen as a Black dove. Sam's relationship with Helen is very interesting. This episode added some much-needed depth to Sam's character, and it is interesting to see the parallels his story has with Helen's. They've both lost the love of their life, and this is just another thing that connects them. There were also a couple of heartbreaking moments. The ending of the episode was very powerful, and the imagery of the eyes was very thought-provoking. Keira Knightley gives another amazing performance. Ultimately, it was a good mid-season finale.

Sam has no option but to complete his unfinished job for Lenny, he also has to question Stephen Yarrick, who he believes knows more than he's letting on. Helen heads down a rabbit hole, but her digging lands her in danger.

The format now seems to be in place, it now seems that every episode will focus on a specific character, this one is very much Sam's story, and it's a good one.

I love the way the writing is so tight, it's all falling into place, it seems that every event, every occurrence has a significance, for example, we now know what Lenny's gripe with Sam is, we also know who the guy in the video is. Good to learn a little more about Michael too.

It's interesting watching this, with The Chinese angle, especially when you think of what's been happening with the spy with the powerful connections.

This one does jump about the timelines a little bit, so you do need to focus and concentrate.

Ben Whishaw absolutely tremendous throughout, what an awesome performance from him, terrific actor.

A snake with venom, I wonder what path that's going to lead to. I'm also looking forward to Wallace's story, the guy is definitely as dodgy as the come.

Just so good.

8/10.

Right, after the promising strides of the first two installments, Ep 3 hit a bit of a speed bump, didn't it? While the overarching mystery remains utterly compelling, this particular outing felt a tad bogged down, largely thanks to a rather over-enthusiastic deployment of the flashback button.

I'm all for a good bit of backstory, truly, and seeing how Helen (Keira Knightley) and Sam (Ben Whishaw) got into this fine mess certainly adds layers. However, the sheer volume of these historical detours put the brakes on the forward momentum a bit too often. Every time the present-day plot was about to properly gallop, we were whisked back in time, slowing the pace to a frustrating trot.

From a scripting perspective, the dialogue itself remains sharp, particularly between Knightley and Whishaw, who continue to be excellent. But the constant temporal shifts meant the narrative felt a bit disjointed. The direction, while making the flashbacks visually distinct, couldn't quite overcome this structural choice.

It's not a disaster, mind you, but it's certainly the weakest episode so far.

Let's hope Ep 4 gets back to the business of moving the plot along with the urgency it deserves. Still invested, just hoping for a bit less looking in the rearview mirror next time.