Episode 3

The explosion at Tratea Global Analytics leaves the team with the usual grim inheritance: a site to pick through, evidence to gather, and no shortage of questions. But the episode is already moving in two other directions. An informant surfaces promising intelligence on the terror cell, and a journalist comes into possession of a suspicious package. Three lines of inquiry, all pulling towards the same dark centre. None of it feels like busywork.

The hour weaves between them. The team pieces together what happened at Tratea while trying to vet the informant's story, and the journalist's package adds its own quiet dread to the mix. The informant could be gold or could be a trap, and the team has to find out which. The suspense comes from watching the lines converge: physical evidence, human intelligence, chance discovery. Any one of them could break the case open, and any one of them could go badly wrong. It is a lot to hold, and the episode holds it.

Simon Ashdown and Daniel Brierley wrote it, and Audrey Cooke directs, giving the series a new hand behind the camera. The cast remains a strong ensemble. Vicky McClure's Lana and Thom Ashley's Nick Hood carry the centre, with Bethan Cullinane's Hope and Tomiwa Edun's Alex supporting. Charlie De'Ath's Matthew Palfrey, Kevin Eldon's Jeff Washington, Nabil Elouahabi's Hassan Rahim and Gabrielle Glaister's Martina Wyatt all add weight, Kerry Godliman's Sonya Reeves keeps the personal threads alive, and Ashley Sean Cooke appears as a Royal Engineer.

It remains satisfying to watch dedicated investigators pull the most disparate pieces of information into a single picture. The package and the blast site belong to the same story as the tip, and the episode trusts you to feel it coming together. It is the kind of hour that rewards the patient viewer, and the payoffs land.