"Glaciers carve out the valleys. Create the mountains. Shape the planet. Can't be stopped. Just keeps on coming. Anybody tries to get in its way, it goes right through them."
Last week's episode ended with an explosion of violence, but it's done nothing to relieve the tension in Fortitude, as Sutter finds himself in jail and looking guiltier by the second, while Sheriff Andersen's outburst sees him frozen out of his own investigation.
This week's episode, however, is one where it's the subplots that stick longest in the mind. Ronnie Morgan - who provides the evocative glacier quote above - is still making his way across the ice with his terrified daughter Carrie, and it becomes increasingly difficult not to view this as a kidnapping, even if he is her father.
There's a rather terrifying scene when, in the middle of the night, Carrie awakes to the sounds of something creeping around outside the tent. Morgan goes out to look, but, in a masterstroke from director Richard Laxton, the camera never leaves the tent, forcing you to wonder whether it was just the wind, a bear, or something altogether more sinister.
It seems like an agonisingly long time until Morgan returns, citing nothing more than a curious reindeer to calm his daughter. But the startlingly large bloodstain on the ice tells a rather different story… just what the hell happened out there?!
This week also introduces, in passing, the phenomenon of increased hermaphroditism in the local reindeer population, which you suspect they wouldn't highlight if it weren't of some relevance, although what that could be is anyone's guess for now.
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And then there's what is by far the darkest and most disturbing part of this series, in which Darren Boyd's Markus, who has been lurking on the periphery of the show, gets something of a spotlight. And oh, how we wish he'd been left in the dark...
The notion that Markus is a 'feeder', a man who convinces a woman to fatten herself up to a potentially life-threatening degree, is exceptionally dark. It's a horrible concept, and executed with just the same precision writing and calculated coldness as the rest of the show.
The casting is particularly strong here, as Jessica Gunning, as the sweet, naïve Shirley, is someone you inherently want to root for, while Darren Boyd plays superbly against type, transforming his usually affable screen persona into something convincingly twisted. His calm, measured demeanour as he pushes his wife down this awful path is terrifying.
Quite whether it will have relevance to the main plot at some point is, again, unclear, but it's a very darkly distinct note for Fortitude to play - has a story like this ever been tackled in a TV drama before?
Over in the main plot, and Sutter is banged up and suspected of murder, with his defence being that the blood on his t-shirt is that of his son, who began coughing up as a result of his illness.
Morten sees through his feeble cover story immediately, and with the blood confirmed to be Stoddart's, it begins to look like our American Met officer has got his man, even if we, as the audience, know that this is highly unlikely only four hours into a 13-hour run...
As a result of the investigation we also learn more of Elena's backstory, as it's revealed in an interview that she's actually - wait for it - a convicted murderer! Dun dun dunnnn! The story leaves it ambiguous as to how guilty she really is of that murder, but she certainly shows no regret or remorse over the death either way.
Was that killing a desperate act of necessity, or calculated murder? And if so, has she deliberately engineered a repeating of history, teaming up with her new beau to commit another murder?
If the weight of suspicion begins to fall ever heavier on Sutter and Elena, it's Dan Andersen of all people - the man forbidden from working the case - who comes up with the breakthrough, realising that Sutter was telling the truth about finding his son covered in blood – just not the truth about whose blood it was.
Andersen may often seem unfit for his position, but this is a clear demonstration that, when his head's clear, he can be a damn good policeman.
With hospitalised Liam's pyjamas found covered in Stoddart's blood, a lot more pieces fall into place. While Sutter and Elena were getting busy in the garage, Liam either wondered outside to Stoddart's house, or was taken there by force. Either way, he ended up covered in the man's blood. Whether he arrived before, after, or even during the murder, becomes the real question.
And it's one that, if the teasers for next week are anything to go by, Fortitude looks set to address immediately. And that's probably a good move. Audiences for mystery shows like this often grow impatient waiting for answers, and if Fortitude is looking to flash back and provide a better sense of what happened that night this early, then that implies a real confidence in storytelling. You get the sense they could reveal the murderer next week and still comfortably keep our attention for the rest of the series.
The more we chip away at the surface of this town and these people, the more fascinating it becomes... and the darker it becomes. Fortitude may be a place that people run to for escape – Elena to a new life, Sutter for a chance to continue flying despite his ocular condition – but they're all caught now in the shadow of something that feels like one of Morgan's glaciers; something implacable, inexorable and inevitable. And it's going to carve right through them all.
