This episode does some dazzling perspective work by taking Joanie’s trip across the monkey bars and depicting it as a mere passing moment for Cole and yet it nearly gives Alison a panic attack. It’s even shot in a more startling, epic manner as if Joanie is spanning the Grand Canyon rather than jungle gym equipment. Unsurprisingly, when the follow-up incident to this—Joanie horseback riding—takes place, all of this is cranked up to an even more alarming degree. Alison can’t even bring herself to watch her daughter’s accident and it’s still as if an earthquake is coursing through her. It’s rather telling that during Alison’s rendition of the horseback riding incident, she’s paralyzed in fear and not the one to run to Joanie’s aid. She’s unable to help and doesn’t see herself as being deserving of that savior role due to how much the world has been knocking her down lately.

It’s even harder to watch Alison grapple with the reality that even if her behavior here is sterling, forensic evidence outside of anyone’s control could still ultimately keep her from her child. This is a character that so desperately needs a win and the gauntlet that she’s going through is exactly the sort of thing that could reverse all the progress that she’s made. As painful as this episode can be at times, it is nice to see Alison being able to watch her daughter do gymnastics or be able to bake a cake for her birthday. Even if these are moments that painfully crash down around her, these brief crystalized moments of happiness are glowing.

A lot of this episode falls down to the big arguments and shit hitting the fan that you’ve been waiting to happen since the premiere, but Joshua Jackson and Ruth Wilson are just such goddamn powerhouses that even if the reasons they’re exploding over are a little melodramatic, I’m still eating it up. I’d still like to see Alison’s material move a little further beyond her being in stuck in some insurmountable stage of grief. Wilson can sell the hell out of it, but there’s a lot more to the character that is getting lost here. Furthermore, with the structural rules of this show changing with each new year, it wouldn’t even be the worst idea for some episodes—like this one, for instance—featuring three perspectives. It’d be another interesting way of playing with things and getting creative with the formula.

For a moment, I was going to touch on the fact that while this reunion with Cole and Alison is more than appreciated, it’s a rather slower episode in the larger scope of the season. But then it dawned on me that this stuff is the season—watching Alison getting closer with her daughter, following the success of Cole’s marriage. Yes, there’s an attempted murder mystery that’s also afoot but this more lethargic season is starting to feel that it’s less about the sprawling mystery and the mechanics behind it, but rather just the people involved in it all.