Episode 3

Catherine confronts Clare and presents Ryan with an ultimatum, and the two scenes between them carry most of the episode's weight. The Cawood household has always been where this show does its best work, and here it is again: three people, one roof, a lifetime of loyalty and lies. An ultimatum is a terrible thing to lay on a teenager, and Rhys Connah's Ryan takes it the way real teenagers do, with a face that gives nothing away and a temper that's storing it all up.

Faisal and Joanna hatch a plan, and it takes an unexpected turn. The plan's complications ripple out to Anisha Bhatti and Maira Bhatti, and to Rob Hepworth, who is never far from trouble. James Norton's Tommy is present in the episode, and his presence is enough to keep the dread coiled under everything else. He barely has to do anything. That's the point of him by now.

The episode's best scenes are the ones with the least plot in them: Catherine and Clare, Catherine and Ryan, the same kitchen doing duty as courtroom, war room and confessional. Three people who love each other and have stopped being able to say so. The show has never needed more than that to be great, and it proves it again here. The ultimatum hangs over all of it, along with the knowledge that someone in this family has already made their choice.

Sally Wainwright wrote it, sharing direction with Patrick Harkins. Sarah Lancashire is Catherine, Siobhan Finneran is Clare, Rhys Connah is Ryan, Amit Shah is Faisal, with Emily Barnett's Becky, Rina Mahoney's Anisha, Yasmin Ali's Maira, Mark Stanley's Rob and Con O'Neill's Neil Ackroyd.

The episode's title is just a number, but its shape is classic Wainwright: an ultimatum, a scheme, a snag, and a family braced for the consequences. Even when the plans go wrong, the show keeps its footing.