Episode 5

Tommy escapes, and Catherine races to protect her family. The murder investigation that follows is the professional side of the crisis, but the personal side is the one that matters: Catherine has to keep Ryan safe while the whole force works out where Tommy is. Every minute Tommy stays free is a minute she can't get back, and the episode runs on that clock.

Derek Riddell's Richard Cawood turns up, and the episode gives Catherine no room to deal with old resentments, only new dangers. Rhys Connah's Ryan is caught in the middle of it, and so is everyone close to the family. Clare, Richard, the people who share Catherine's roof: they all become things to protect or loose ends to worry about. The supporting cast keeps the pressure up: Rick Warden's Mike Taylor, Jack Bandeira's Matija Jankovic, Oliver Huntingdon's Ivan Sertic, Andrew Tiernan's DC Hayes, Mark Stanley's Rob Hepworth and Mete Dursun's Gorkem Tekeli.

Every officer in the valley is working the same problem, and the episode spreads the tension across the whole team rather than hoarding it in one room. Shafiq, Mike, the DCs: they all know what Tommy is, and they all know what Catherine is carrying on top of the job. Nobody says it out loud, which is very Yorkshire and very this show. The escape makes everything personal again. A case file is one thing; a name you've been running from for years is another, and Catherine has been running from this one longer than anyone.

Sally Wainwright wrote it, Fergus O'Brien directed. Sarah Lancashire anchors the episode in a state of controlled panic, the kind that comes from years of knowing exactly what Tommy Lee Royce is capable of.

The episode is tense in the way this show does tense: not with music and jump scares, but with the plain fact of a violent man at large in a small valley. Catherine knows the math. Everyone she loves is on the board.