Humans series 2, episode 4 review: it's twist after twist - and no-one can be trusted

Everything is about to change.

Last week, Humans exposed Athena Morrow's quest to place her comatose daughter's consciousness into an artificial body. It's a twist that opens up a whole new world of possibilities, and a sign that things are about to start evolving at a serious pace – and so they do, with this latest outing bringing the twists like nobody's business.

Almost every single one of the show's many plot strands gets a serious shake-up as series two reaches its halfway point. Even Karen and Pete's plot – which has up till now felt rather peripheral – threatens to get interesting as the dogged pair learn that Seraphims are not conscious Synths after all... – could someone have already achieved what Morrow is fighting to accomplish?

Meanwhile, Mia and Ed's blossoming romance hits a serious road-bumps – and we're not talking not just talking confusion over whether or not she can... erm... "feel happy".

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What is Ed up to, switching off Mia? A worrying thought: he has to pay his mother's outstanding medical expanses, or she'll be turfed out of her care home – is he going to expose Mia, a mechanical marvel, and sell her to the highest bidder?

There's serious trust issues on both sides of the fence this week. Hacking into his old work's computer system after spotting "something odd" in his contract, Joe learns that the process by which he was made redundant was orchestrated entirely by Synths.

What does this mean? Are there more sentient Synths out there than we first thought, playing dumb while quietly scheming to overthrow humanity?

"This is how we'll lose," Joe spits at his old boss. "It won't be robots rising up to slaughter us in our beds, it'll be machines sending silent messages in the middle of the night, when no-one else is looking."

His choice of words is interesting – how we'll lose. While his wife is fighting for Synth civil rights, it looks like Joe is preparing for war -though he might want to rethink that, after being floored by an android opponent in a striking sequence.

He's fighting to protect his wife from a rogue Synth - in its cool, emotionless monotone, threatening Laura unless she drops Niska's case. "It's the easiest thing in the world for us to get to you," it drones – but who is plotting against Laura?

Humans certainly isn't short on jaw-droppers this week, but as ever it's the show's heart that sets it apart from so much other dry, self-important science-fiction.

Laura continues to poke Niska, hoping for a reaction, so she won't be dismissed as merely a malfunctioning appliance and thrown on the scrapheap, Her latest gambit is to wheel out Niska's estranged lover Astrid – revealing the icy blonde's true, synthetic nature in the process.

But Astrid barely flinches: "To me, she is human," she insists – and while Niska might not want to be tarred with that particular brush, the sentiment is what's important.

It says a lot that this isn't the most touching plot strand this week: that honour goes to Odi's story – a broken Synth given consciousness, struggling to adapt – and Will Tudor does an absolutely terrific job of injecting more humanity into the part than previous, while still retaining Odi's trademark tics.

The only problem is how Mattie doesn't get much to do but act as his sounding board – here's hoping the talented Lucy Carless gets more to do later this series, as she's been a little neglected so far.

Otherwise, this episode is a very strong balance of emotion - Leo and Maxxie's bromance takes a hit, too, while even smarmy menace Milo Khoury's revealed to have a tragic backstory – and intrigue – and intrigue, with bold new twists ensuring that Humans is no longer just relying on the strengths of its first series, but pushing things forward.