TV Review: The Honourable Woman ‘The Unfaithful Husband’ *Spoilers*

Creator: Hugo Blick

Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lubna Azabel, Eve Best, Janet McTeer, Genevieve O’Reilly, Andrew Buchan, Katherine Parkinson, Andrew Buchan, Tobias Menzies, Stephen Rea.

Synopsis: Nessa’s past, including her kidnap in Gaza, is dug up by MI6 boss Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle.

If you thought last week’s episode of The Honourable Woman was confusing, this week’s episode ‘The Unfaithful Husband’ just might take the biscuit.

Like episode one we open with another flashback scene, but instead of Nessa’s childhood, we are in the Gaza strip with Nessa and Atika. And again following episode one, we’re not giving much information as to why, but we know where the kidnapped to at least…because as we head into eight years later, Nessa is getting it on with her new security guard. She’s having not of it of course, and soon asks the question “who do you work for? are you MI6?” it’s all fun and sex until someone’s working for British intelligence.

Despite the dramatic ending of episode one, it’s all systems go in the Stein world. We see Nessa’s security guard is not dead, and the Stein siblings seem to be continuing on as normal. Or so we think. Nessa seems to be falling apart at the seams over Kasim’s kidnap, and even her advisor (Genevieve O’Reilly) is telling her that she should go around the police and find him herself.

But as the title of the episode suggests, we’re looking at ‘The Unfaithful Husband’ of the situation – Ephra Stein and his declining relationship with his wife Rachel, and the recently murdered Samir Meshaal, who the MI6 discover that he had a possible mistress…or so they thought.

Interwoven with the Stein storyline is the MI6. Nessa’s randy security guard tells boss Hugh Hayden-Hoyle (Stephen Rea) that he doesn’t trust her. Hoyle replies with some great one liners, slowly becoming our favourite character in the series. It is revealed that the kidnap is being dealt with by the police, so why is Hoyle getting undercover agents into Nessa’s pants? It looks like there is much deeper meaning into the kidnap, and The Honourable Woman makes sure we know every. single. detail. of it.

Meshaal’s so called “mistress” Rebecca is indeed an FBI agent, and because of Hoyle’s discovery she is in grave danger. She thinks she is escaping by getting into a black taxi, when actually she is falling deeper into the trap and she gets killed by the taxi driver…and the taxi driver is shot afterwards (top marks for detail there as well, actual brain on the window? man.) But sadly, the intercutting story arc of the British/American intelligence has personally thrown us off within the second episode. It falls flat and we start to lose a bit of momentum with the actual story arc, it feels like you are watching a different show all together.

We finally get talk about Atika and Nessa’s Gaza kidnap, but again Atika tells Ephra not to say a thing, even though they do believe it will bring Kasim back. And in the most predictable part of the series so far, the husband is having an affair with the Nanny. This revelation makes our decision for episode two. Episode one of The Honourable Woman was an intense ride, putting us into this political world in a captivating way, but episode two felt more like an answer to questions we didn’t really need answered.

But like last week, the last minutes of the episode draws us in AGAIN. We now know that Kasim is alive, but again reeling our attention in again with last line. “They know…They know.” will somebody actually tell us?! Hopefully now we have this intelligence story arc out of the way, we can focus on our protagonist in question.

[usr=3] The Honourable Woman continues Thursdays, 9pm, BBC Two