The plot thickens this week as we start to get some answers about Robert’s past.
Alongside Jekyll’s story, however, we have an increasing amount of subplots.
For instance, we also follow his younger brother Ravi as he continues to evade capture in Ceylon. It’s hard to say at the moment how important his adventure will be to the central story – right now it feels like an excuse to keep the narrative partly in the exotic locales of Sri Lanka.
Also, though MIO still haven’t featured into the main plot yet, we do get the evil Captain Dance and his equally nasty lady friend arriving in London, with the aim of finishing Robert off. Even after all the ominous descriptions given by Richard E Grant of the malevolent Tenebrae, they are still a tad nebulous so it’s nice to have Dance as a recurring physical threat. His eventual showdown with Hyde should be a good one.
Back to Jekyll, though, things come to a head when Dance sends the Cutter, a lobster-armed beastie, after Robert (he’s a fun creation but you can’t help feeling they should have gone the whole hog and had a complete lobster-man).
And just when Jekyll is united with his grandmother she is taken away from him, in one of the best shocks of the series so far. Once again, you feel for Tom Bateman’s Robert, a man who really deserves to catch a break.
Alongside Bateman, there is a good amount to do for both the always reliable Donald Sumpter as Robert’s new right-hand man, Garson, and Ruby Bentall as the ever-chipper Hills who nabs the best lines – after being shot at, she cheers: ‘I’ve no idea what’s going on, but it’s rather a hoot, isn’t it?’
On the other side of things, the show doesn’t currently seem to know how best to use Natalie Gumede’s Bella, which is a shame as you get the feeling that she and Hyde would have better chemistry than Robert and his, let’s face it, rather formulaic romance with Lily.
On the whole, this episode has many of the same plusses and faults as last week. While we’re only three episodes in, and you can forgive it for teasing out the backstory rather than info-dumping it all at once, hopefully all the many plot threads at work will start to draw together soon.
As it is, Jekyll and Hyde continues to be a somewhat unfocused series – which, as it is about a man with a split personality, might well be the intention.
Airs at 7pm on Sunday 8 November 2015 on ITV.
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