Things get darker at Crickley Hall. 

Last week I hoped that the series would get darker, and this episode is definitely that. There’s murder, abuse and more dark secrets being unravelled. The Caleigh family are staying in the titular building despite them being aware of the ghosts that haunt it. Gabe (Tom Ellis) remains unconvinced even after he has an encounter with one, it still doesn’t provide him with belief in his wife that the house offers the key to finding their son. Eve (Suranne Jones) starts her investigation into the house with the vicar remaining secretive she turns to Percy (David Warner) who talks about Nancy and how he never saw her again after he went off to fight in the war. He tells her to go and see Lili Peel (Susan Lynch) a medium who has a history with the house. Eve finds her but when she asks her to help she refuses saying she lost her child the last time she went and won’t set foot in there again. Of course she does go in the end after having a nightmare and the following morning Eve and Lili try to make contact with the ghosts in the hope of finding Cam. In the attic Lili sees the children and the ghost of Augustus begins to attack her whilst Eve sees nothing, she’s unable to help. Despite being hospitalised by this Lili is adamant to go back and help.

Meanwhile Gabe does some investigations of his own. They lead him to Gordon Pyke (Donald Sumpter) a ghost investigator who has visited the house and found no evidence of ghosts. Gabe takes Gordon to the house, probably in the hope of showing his wife that there is no ghosts there. Back in 1943 the orphaned children of the house are still being subjected to abuse and live in fear of the Cribbens. Nancy (Olivia Cooke) sets out to uncover what is going on but no one wants to hear it not even the vicar. German orphan Stefan (Kian Parsiani) bares the worst of Augustus’ (Douglas Henshall) fury as he blames him for the bomb injuring him as he was out looking for him at the time. Nancy learns of a ledger that Augustus keeps of all the punishments and sneaks inside the house to get it with the help of Stefan. She promises him that he’ll be free soon. She drops the ledger creating enough noise to disturb Augustus and in some tense scenes she manages to evade him and hides in the cellar. She finds Magda and one of the orphaned boys, Maurice (Bill Milner) with Magda (Sarah Smart) who have been having a relationship. Scared of her brother finding out Magda tells Maurice to kill Nancy and with a blow to the head she’s killed. Her body thrown down the well, Heartbreakingly Percy and Stefan will wait for her when she will never come. Maurice is in fact Gordon Pyke presumed dead and what reason he has for coming back to the house will be revealed next week.

This episodes darker and more disturbing tones were nicely balanced with some lighter moments from Tom Ellis and Pixie Davies as father and daughter, Gabe and Cally.  Also Olivia Cooke as Nancy made a brilliant heroine and her tragic death providing a poignant moment. This death was unexpected and I thought Augustus would be the one to kill her. The fact that one of the children has been manipulated to kill shows that Magda is every bit as nasty as her brother.

Next weeks concluding episode has been preceded by two very good episodes and hopefully more chills and a satisfying end are in store.