Episode 4

Leonie is raped, and Sean becomes the prime suspect. The authorities believe he could be responsible for the string of murders Andy Shepherd and his team have been investigating, and the case starts to look settled before it's properly begun. Hebe Beardsall's Leonie is left to carry the aftermath of the assault, and the episode doesn't flinch from what that looks like. John Wadsworth has his own problem: he has to think fast when asked why his number was on Vicky's phone.

Catherine's worries come wrapped in a birthday present. A gift for Ryan on his tenth birthday reminds her that danger may be closer than she thinks, and the episode lets that thought sit without resolving it. A present is a lovely thing to find on the mat, unless you're Catherine Cawood, in which case it's a message. Meanwhile Daryl Garrs takes action when the three lads who have been bullying him confront him again. Robert Emms's Daryl has been quietly storing up trouble, and this hour lets some of it out.

Across the hour, Andy and the team keep the murder inquiry moving with the grim competence the show has built up over two series. Files, interviews, the slow arithmetic of a case. It is background work, but it is never filler; every detail is nudging the picture towards something none of them can see yet.

Sally Wainwright wrote it, Neasa Hardiman directed. Sarah Lancashire is Catherine, Hebe Beardsall is Leonie, Keeley Forsyth is Annette, Lena Kaur is Bryony, Louise Atkins is Steph. Siobhan Finneran's Clare, Rhys Connah's Ryan, Karl Davies's Daniel, Vincent Franklin's Andy Shepherd and Katherine Kelly's Jodie Shackleton fill out the rest.

The episode does what this show does best: it keeps the big case moving and the small dreads moving faster. Sean's arrest should feel like progress. Instead it feels like the lid being put on the wrong pot.