Episode 5

The explosion has happened, and this episode lives in the aftermath. The blast has taken something from everyone, and the hour belongs mostly to Lana Washington, who is trying to come to terms with her personal loss and the fact that she could not stop it. That double weight, grief and guilt, is the hardest thing the series has asked her to carry so far, and McClure plays it with the lid kept on. There are no easy consolations on offer, and the episode doesn't fake any.

But while Lana processes her own devastation, the machinery of the investigation grinds on without her. Counter Terrorism officers have identified a bomber, and a serious manhunt is under way across the region. The strands of expertise pull together from the ground up. Every lead is chased hard. Inspector Lee Robins (Cal MacAninch) joins forces with DSU Marianne Hamilton (Nadine Marshall), DI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley) and DI Samira Desai (Manjinder Virk) manage the operational chaos, and Commander Bregman (Ralph Ineson) is there to remind everyone who is in charge. Dr MacAndrew (Pippa Haywood) adds a medical perspective, while Sonya Reeves (Kerry Godliman) and Karl Maguire (Warren Brown) keep the personal side of Lana's world in view. Kris Hitchen's John Hudson completes the picture.

Jennie Darnell directs and Daniel Brierley writes, and the balance they strike is a fine one. The hour never forgets that a manhunt is run by human beings, and it never lets Lana's grief slow the hunt down. The episode holds the tension between one woman's emotional fallout and the relentless, structured pursuit of justice by many. Not every procedural bothers with the human cost; this one makes it the point. It is a hard watch in places, and all the better for it. The result is an hour that earns its silences.