This week’s story ratcheted the mechanics of Utopia’s increasingly complicated plot along in uneven jumps, the machinery lurching forward at some moments and sticking frustratingly on others. A narrative leap was made in terms of discovering The Network’s overarching project, but other developments ground to a halt while the gang were holed up in the atmospherically filmed derelict mansion.

Props to Misfits directors Alex Garcia and Wayne Yip by the way, for the eerily subaquatic feel of the abandoned house, helped in no small part by Utopia’s uncanny soundscapes. A threatening, rumbling drone is near-constant in most scenes, a malevolent buzz concoction of distant tube train, rolling wind, and white goods-hum.

Back to the story. One short bout of speculation and extrapolation and voila! The Network’s scheme was laid bare for the forum group: via food manufacturer Pargus, they’ve contaminated the food chain with the GCH09 protein, a vehicle for chromic potassium sulphate posing as Russian Flu, and are planning to use the Korvat-made vaccine to thin the human herd, potentially eliminating certain races as they go. At least, that appears to be the plan. With a couple of episodes still to go, anything could happen in the next two hours.

Jessica Hyde was still running around like Data on an Enterprise scavenger hunt, popping up where she’s least expected to tilt her head enigmatically and whisper something incomprehensible. Arby’s thrilled expression (was that thrill? So hard to know) as he felt her gun barrel against the back of his head was him at his creepiest, and their potential union is a delicious hook for the next episode.

A much less exciting pairing is the dead horse of Ian and Becky’s romantic relationship, which, were we able to Red Button which of Utopia’s plots to follow (what a hideous notion), would likely be playing to a tumbleweed audience. Having to watch Ian go all Meg Ryan-movie and list the things he likes about Becky while so many more interesting things are at hand is a cruelty too far.