Bearing this in mind, it was hard to watch Part 1 of ‘Our Betrayal’ without moping over the fact that we won’t be enjoying the exploits of these brilliant characters for much longer. Still, Ripper Street’s second and final series looks set to go out on a serious high.

We opened one month on from the death of Drake’s (Jerome Flynn) wife Bella, to find Drake missing, having resigned and disappeared into the backstreets of East London. With both Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and Rose (Charlene McKenna) on the hunt, it wasn’t long before Drake turned up – having taken up a particularly masochistic hobby, and casually digging graves on the side.

It was good ol’ Rose who tracked him down and, in a particularly heart-melty scene, promised that she wouldn’t rest until she’d got through to him: “You go back to your graves, and your doss-houses and you be sure of this: as the day begins, and the night ends, you will find me waiting for you.” *SOB*.

Elsewhere, Jackson’s (Adam Rothenberg) ne’er-do-well brother Daniel (David Costabile) turned up, in possession of a huge stolen diamond which got him a beating from two South African thugs whilst providing Jackson with hope of a reconciliation with Susan (MyAnna Buring).

The headline of the day, though – and the biggest WTF of the whole series – was seeing natty Irish gent Constable Flight (Damian Molony) revealed as a dastardly traitor, secretly in league with Inspector Shine (Joseph Mawle). Though the reveal was oddly underplayed and would have perhaps worked better – and given more breathing room to the story – occurring earlier on, Molony did a great job with his suddenly meaty role. Naturally our loyalty is to Reid, but we found ourselves sympathizing with Flight as he observed the extent of Shine’s evil and was forced to betray his desire to be a good policeman.

Inevitably, the episode leaned towards an overabundance of deus ex machina coincidences, but pulled it all off thanks to the cracking dialogue, well-drawn characters and tragic twists (RIP nice jeweler man/Susan’s self-worth). Best of all was the knicker-twistingly thrilling denouement, which saw Drake’s policeman instincts reignited by his discovery of one of Shine’s murder victims. Cut to Drake turning up back at Leman Street, corpse slung over his shoulder like a total LEDGE, presumably ready to take names and kick butts again.

Predictions for next week’s finale? Reid and new sex buddy Jane Cobden (Leanne Best) will come a cropper after being observed by Fred Best (David Dawson), Silas Duggan (Frank Harper) won’t be as ready to relinquish his hold over Susan as he promised, and young Constable Flight will do the right thing last minute. Then again, we might be wrong.

If Ripper Street has taught us one thing it’s that its stories can truly catch us off guard. Whatever the case, we can’t wait to see how this excellent series bows out.

Aired at 9pm on Monday 9 December 2013 on BBC One.

> Buy Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

> Order Series 2 on DVD on Amazon.

Watch the Series 2 trailer…

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