Warning! Spoilers follow

Cara and Stephen discuss how to use their telepathy to help “humans”

In this third episode of The Tomorrow People the show took some baby steps towards moving beyond its early routine of having Stephen find a problem, argue with John and Cara about whether heÔÇÖs allowed to help, and have the obligatory sneaking around Ultra sequence. We still got all of that but fortunately we got a bit more, as CaraÔÇÖs backstory took center stage and Astrid moved closer to the action.

The most intriguing storyline this week, by far, was the origin of Cara. That their breakouts not only introduce Tomorrow People to their own powers but also return any absent senses is a cool bit of information, and the way the episode depicted it was wonderfully done. After the chaos and panic of fighting off her rapist, CaraÔÇÖs point of view lets us in on her first moment of hearing- trees in the breeze and crickets. I didnÔÇÖt buy her father being so quick so banish her, but hopefully weÔÇÖll get more information in the coming weeks about just how powerful that kidÔÇÖs dad is and why running was such a quickly accepted option. Still, no matter how much plot or character information we might get I donÔÇÖt for a second buy her dadÔÇÖs reaction to his daughter hearing and talking for the first time in her life. That should have been amazing, and instead he treated it like a minor inconvenience.

Astrid is annoyed at being the first to be told?!

I was also very pleased to see Astrid arrive just in time to witness Stephen teleport, since bringing more people in the fold opens up more possibilities for the show. But then they did an about face at the end, inexplicably having her upset with Stephen for lying to her. With any luck this little tantrum wonÔÇÖt last long, but three episodes in the show still hasnÔÇÖt shaken its habit of characters acting randomly to service the plot. I could buy her feeling betrayed if she hadnÔÇÖt been the first person Stephen went to in the pilot, trying to let her in on the secret of his powers. Again, I donÔÇÖt see this being a major arc where Astrid becomes his nemesis, it just felt like a jarring reaction for her to have based on what weÔÇÖve seen so far.

Despite the routine action with Ultra this week, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the slight-of-hand Stephen pulled off in tricking Price into believing he had injected Cara. It certainly wasnÔÇÖt a shock that he hadnÔÇÖt actually robbed her of her powers, but the reveal of how they pulled it off was a cleverly deft piece of storytelling.

So while itÔÇÖs still not blowing the roof off, this third episode displayed some real growth for The Tomorrow People and hopefully signals the way for the season to come. Introducing a case of the week provided a nice break from the Ultra storyline and it stands to reason that their telepathic ability could lead our heroes down some fascinating paths. I take it as a good sign that their third outing was their best yet.

What did you think to this week’s episode of┬áThe Tomorrow People? What did you make of Cara’s origin or Astrid’s ‘discovery’? Let us know in the comments section below