Eve: Review: Series 2 Episode 3: The Mark of Cain

Eve offers to help babysit Lily’s cousin in an effort to learn more about humanity, as the gang gain a new friend…

Witty dialogue (the question about whether Katherine counts as a megalomaniac in particular) and a well-portrayed ambiguity make this episode of Eve stand out, in the week that the show won a Writers’ Guild Award for last season’s finale. We open with Mary Douglas telling Adam that he’s going to have to do something… and then there’s a new face who seems to be watching Wil, Lily and Eve. Is Cain really the nerdy, near-friendless teenager that he seems to be or is he something more? The show keeps you guessing, with even the final shot of Cain as he smiles to himself outside the house not giving anything away – it could as easily be the relief someone who’s been on the outside feels when they’ve been accepted as the automatic reaction of a robot whose mission has been successful. Kudos to Chris Hegarty for an excellent performance and director Adrian McDowall for shots that emphasise the ambiguity rather than give it away to the audience before the characters.

The comedy is a bit broader than it’s been, with Abe having fun with a hoover that seems to be channelling R2D2 (it’s not cute enough to be BB8), and Eve taking health and safety to the logical extreme, wrapping Bibi Barker’s Zoe in bubblewrap. (Shame it wasn’t painted green – she’d have made perfect Wirrn fodder!) There’s also some movement on the Calimov front, with Katherine increasingly a serious dramatic character rather than the comic foil she could sometimes be last season.

Verdict: Another highly enjoyable episode. 8/10

Paul Simpson