Noughts + Crosses: A Review of the 5th episode of the popular BBC drama series

Rating: 4.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (you know, I can't find a half-star!)

The below review contains a few spoilers as to what has already happened so far in the series, so make sure you watch the previous episodes and read my other reviews first.

Links to previous reviews:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

“We’re receiving news that the terrorist Ryan McGregor, otherwise known as the Decimator of Demwa, has died.”

This is the last we see of Ryan McGregor.

In the final moments of the previous episode of Noughts + Crosses, we saw Ryan brutally attacked by a Cross inmate, on the night of his sentencing.

The next we hear of him, in this episode, is that he has died.

It’s a shocking turn of events – Ryan had just been sentenced to 30 years in prison, rather than death by hanging. And now, instead of 30 more years to live, he has been afforded only a few more hours.

Meggie is completely dumbfounded by the news, as are we.

The most shocking thing is, she does not learn of her husband’s death through a sympathetic phone call from a prison official; she discovers that he has died from the television news bulletin. Such a lack of human decency – failing to inform his family in person of the news that will shatter their lives – brings home just how little the Crosses care about Noughts. Truly, they see no humanity in them – so why would they treat them like humans? 

The cup Meggie is holding falls to the floor and shatters into pieces. Sustained musical tones drown out the news, and the camera pans shakily around to show Meggie, still. She becomes a blurred statue in the camera frame as her sons rush down the stairs.

Like that cup, their lives have just been shattered into pieces. Commotion may whirl around them, but the axis of their world has lost its place. 

Noughts + Crosses does a brilliant job of depicting the harsh realities of racial injustice and racial tension, but it also does a phenomenal job of illustrating the realities of human relationships. Bereavement is the most severe rupture of a human relationship possible, and we see its effects at work in this episode.

“I can’t believe they’ve put me on hold”, Meggie says in disbelief as she paces up and down the living room. Neither can I.

The McGregors head to the prison, to ascertain the facts for themselves, as no one is telling them anything. 

The stone-cold grey lighting cast over this scene reflects the dismal mood. It is impossible not to be touched by the palpable grief of Meggie and her sons.

“All I can tell you is, his body was found last night in his cell and was then moved to the prison morgue.”

That is the clinical reply from the receptionist to Jude as she faces him from behind her protective glass screen. The receptionist may feel an ounce of discomfort in following such harsh orders, but she does not have to live the grim reality that the McGregors are now shut up in.

To learn of Ryan’s death through the news is bad enough. To then meet with those who should have told them in the first place, only to have the facts withheld, and then be told they are barred from seeing Ryan’s body… The disregard for Nought life is so tangible, it is as though it is hurtled at you through the TV screen.

“He killed himself?” – Jude  

“But you can’t tell me how or why?!” – Callum

It seems more than a little suspicious that Ryan’s corpse is being kept under lock and key. Doubts that his death truly was a suicide begin to surface relatively quickly.

The death of Sandra Bland is a real-life case where doubts have been cast over the ruling of suicide. When her mugshot was first released, the public even doubted that Sandra was still alive at the time it was taken, due to her appearance in the photo. Sandra’s death was ruled a suicide, but the nature of her violent arrest – for a failure to indicate – and her death in prison three days later, showed profound misconduct on the part of Texan police. Here in the UK, Simeon Francis died in police custody during the lockdown. The cause of his death remains unknown. Kingsley Burrell suffered a cardiac arrest in Birmingham in 2011 after being subjected to excessive restraint by police officers – his body was only released to the family 17 months later. 

Kamal the Gaslighter

As well as highlighting the evidence of racial injustice, Noughts + Crosses is extensive in its social commentary of abusive relationships. The marriage between Kamal and Jasmine is clearly one in which Kamal controls and manipulates his wife. 

In an act of defiance against him in the last episode, Jasmine shamelessly used money from Kamal’s account to fund Ryan McGregor’s defence – to support her friend Meggie and her family. 

Her defiance is quickly broken down though, under the merciless, manipulative hands of Kamal. His behaviour is a classic example of gaslighting: he makes Jasmine believe that she is losing her mind. In a matter of seconds, he has eaten away at her self-confidence. 

This creepy stare from Kamal sends shudders down my spine.

Ryan’s death changes EVERYTHING.

As the family battles their grief, Meggie warns Callum not to allow his anguish to turn into rage and revenge. She cautions him not to join the Liberation Militia. But this time, Callum doesn’t seem to be against the idea, “if the cause is right”.

Precious few seconds after this talk of the LM, the voice of their leader Jack Dorn echoes through the air. Dorn is one of my most hated characters on the show! He is an unscrupulous opportunist who enjoys gratuitous acts of violence. It matters little to me that he claims the cause behind his trouble-stirring is Nought dissatisfaction – the trouble that he stirs takes the lives of the Noughts he claims to care about! 

One of the more frustrating things though, is that Jude, still disenfranchised and still struggling with his identity, is quickly sucked into the web that Dorn is spinning. 

I don’t really understand why Jude is dumb enough to listen to Jack Dorn again, after all the trouble he’s caused their family.

“They killed him. Deliberately.” 

That is the assertion of Jude when he returns home to find his brother Callum, still sunken in hopelessness. Callum, the much more optimistic of the two, isn’t ready to believe those words.

After some time to reflect, however, the possibility no longer seems outlandish. Callum brings his thoughts to Sephy, and as usual, she chooses wilful ignorance – because anything else will change the level of comfort she’s afforded. She doesn’t want her father’s upcoming position as interim Prime Minister to be jeopardised.

Why is it always about YOU, Sephy?

At Kamal’s inauguration, however, the story isn’t all about him.

The beading on Jasmine’s hair – and her jewellery, point to the richness of various African cultural traditions.

As Kamal speaks of implementing tighter controls and greater police presence, a group of Noughts head to the front of the crowd, their chests covered with red and their hands in chains. Their message is clear: you say we are free, but everywhere we are in chains.

This breathtaking statue never gets boring!

Kamal’s first act as Prime Minister is to chuck the former Prime Minister, Opal Folami’s draft of an interracial bill, into the bin. Or, at least, to command that his cabinet do so – despite some opposition.

The ministers can’t believe the vitriol they are hearing from the new Prime Minister.

In a society where the idea of Noughts and Crosses forming interracial relationships is seen as engendering “mongrels”, it is perhaps no surprise that the loss of Ryan is handled so unfeelingly.

Meggie receives this letter from the prison. Identified only with a number, Ryan is not even to be buried by his own family, but only be 'disposed of' by the state.

Callum cannot believe the height of the depravity. “They’re disposing of him like a dog!” he yells at Sephy down the phone. And at a cost that is unimaginable for a family that is already struggling to pay rent.

It is more than a little suspicious that the family are not going to be allowed to see Ryan’s body before it is 'disposed of'.

Even Sephy begins to suspect foul play.

Kamal the gaslighter, at it again.

“I just think the time for silence is over.”

Such is the assertion of Meggie as she speaks to Yaro. Her words run through the current of events that follow. What has been hiding in the dark comes to light.

Kamal, after ordering his secret service officials to take Callum from his home offers up the flippant words: “Apologies for the nature of the invitation. It’s the only way I could assure your attendance.”

You will have to watch the episode for yourself to find out how their conversation goes.

Jude, the recruited, now becomes the recruiter.

We never expected this to happen, but in desperation, people take desperate measures.

Callum turns down a different path to the one that he would usually take, and Jasmine opts for a completely different mode of thinking from her husband – when she tells her daughter Sephy to follow her heart. 

The sentimentality doesn’t last long, though. The next scene is frighteningly jarring. 

The prison guard that tried to protect Ryan reappears.

“There were orders. […] From the warden, maybe higher even, I don’t know”, the prison guard tells Callum.

What follows is shocking stuff. The Callum that we see now is incongruous from the one we knew at the start of the series. Being led down a path of crime is common amongst those who have experienced relentless hurt and angst at the hands of an unjust system. 

The sight of the car screeching away with its angry tail lights, leaving two women feeling heartbroken and helpless in the ruins left by the men they love, is heart-wrenching.

I can't recommend enough watching this episode to find out more for yourself. There's a lot that happens that I haven't told you about. Be quick about it though; at the time of writing, here in the UK, the series is only available until tomorrow!

All six episodes of Noughts + Crosses are available to watch on BBC iPlayer and various other streaming services outside of the UK. Go and watch it! I've tried not to give away any key spoilers!

Noughts + Crosses: A Review of the 3rd episode of the popular BBC drama series

Rating: 3 stars ⭐⭐⭐

Before reading, make sure you watch the first and second episodes of Noughts + Crosses, and read my reviews of them (here and here)! The below review contains a few spoilers as to what has already happened so far in the series…

The third episode of Noughts + Crosses is my least favourite so far, although the show is most certainly a class act.

Perhaps one of the reasons I am less raving about this episode is that it makes fewer salient points about the dichotomy of the “superior” and subjugated. That is not to say that they are not present – but in this episode, it is interpersonal relationships that come to the fore, and less so structural relationships.

With that said, the very first few words we hear in this episode are uttered by a university lecturer, who boldly proclaims before his class that:

“When the Aprican settlers first came to Albion, they were faced with a country in chaos.”

Does that type of rhetoric seem in any way familiar to you?

“Settlers”. Settlers, or invaders? Plunderers? Looters? 

When we talk about Americans in the modern-day, we rarely speak of Native Americans. The standard of Americanness we most typically see represented is Caucasian. We do not speak of “European Americans”, but “Asian-American” and “African-American” are staple terms. Why is this? Because white Americans are seen to be the standard. Those with a greater right to be there than anyone else. Settlers. The reality is that Christopher Columbus did not “discover” America, the indigenous peoples were already there. They were slaughtered and displaced from their land - and then the invaders called themselves “Americans”.

In the dystopian world of Noughts + Crosses, Apricans behave in much the same way. The Crosses determine themselves to be those with the right to be there. The Noughts are worse than an inconvenience to them.

The Crosses legitimise their dehumanisation of the Noughts by convincing themselves that they saved the Noughts from “their own worst tendencies”. They tell themselves that Albion was “a country in chaos” before the wonderful saviours arrived.

This mirrors the notion of the white saviour complex, visible in our world today. This complex can be found in literary writings: some of those I had to study at university would refer to “the civilised world” – by which they mean the white world. You can also spot the white saviour complex in short-term missionary trips where white Westerners clamour to take photos with little black children – excited to post them on their social media feeds once they return.

In an effort to make Crosses the heroes of the story, Sephy’s professor states, with no shame: 

“An ongoing, brutal civil war had left many of its [Albion’s] barbaric inhabitants dying of plague or starvation.”

“Barbaric”. No doubt we are used to seeing that word used in racist rhetoric, just to describe a different racial group.

Sephy has transformed the naïve, privileged Cross girl she was when we first met her. Now, she challenges her professor with no shame.

She does get in trouble for it, though. But with the Home Secretary as her father, she doesn’t pay too hefty a price.

Not that Kamal Hadley, Sephy’s father, appreciates her moral commitment to equality for Noughts. He gets a bee in his bonnet when it is announced that Noughts will for the first time ever, be allowed to publicly celebrate their traditional festival, Midsummer. He’s a bit pathetic.

Kamal has the same idea in his head that the inventors of classical racism had: that one race is intrinsically superior, and other races are inherently inferior – and thus equality is not the modus operandi.

In this world of systemic oppression, it is difficult for Noughts to occupy much space.

When Ryan, Callum’s father, struggles to find a new job, his son Jude asks:

Though only afforded a few lines in the script, this point is striking. In the reality of our world, in white-majority countries such as the UK, “foreign-sounding” names have been proven to make the lives of those who carry them more difficult. It is more difficult for someone with a “non-English-sounding name” to get an interview or sometimes a place on an educational course. In this dystopian world, the Noughts are the group who are systematically denied a place at the table.

The Complexity of Interpersonal Relationships

The love story between Callum and Sephy continues to be spun in this episode.

Relationships take centre stage in this episode. Not just the romance between Sephy and Callum – we see a number of interpersonal relationships fractured by friction in episode three.

The friendship between Jasmine (Sephy’s mother) and Meggie (Callum’s mother) is one of them. We see Jasmine descend into alcohol addiction and deep depression. In her hurt, she pushes her long-time employee and friend, Meggie, away – and into the shadows. 

Jasmine develops a dependency on the bottle

A stunned Meggie stands in shock after Jasmine deals her an unexpected blow

As conflict divides their mothers, Sephy and Callum too, are faced with a divide. A divide of a different nature. Notwithstanding their love for each other, the state-imposed separation of Noughts and Crosses continues to complicate the young couple’s relationship.

Callum is questioned by an officer simply for standing by Sephy in front of Danny’s memorial.

 Just as many black people are racially profiled as “suspicious”, Callum is interrogated by an officer simply because he is standing with a Cross woman – and in a district different to the one in which he lives. Reminds me of the video that surfaced a few weeks back of a white police officer stopping a black man, here in the UK, using the words “No offence to you, but you’re a black male” and “I haven’t seen you before” – thereby arriving at the conclusion that the driver must be a drug dealer.

Mirroring the racial profiling Callum is subjected to, the presumption that Noughts = trouble is the driving force for the tank that shows up at the Midsummer festival. 

The Noughts’ version of a Caribbean carnival! They look pretty harmless to me…

… But unbelievably, a military tank is deployed to police the crowds.

Racial stereotyping is evident in Jasmine’s rhetoric, too. In her attempt to urge Sephy not to attend the Midsummer festival, she lets slip some shocking hypocrisy.

Jasmine isn't exactly teetotal herself...

Expectations for women are the same in this world.

As the rift widens between Jasmine and Sephy, we see another interpersonal relationship further disintegrate: Callum and Jude’s. What happens to Callum’s brother is what often happens to a group of marginalised, disenfranchised people. Jude feels a desperate need to belong – and goes searching for his identity in the wrong place. I don’t know about you, but I actually feel pity for him.  

Jude seems to seek approval from Jack Dorn in the way one might seek approval from a father.

This episode sees Jude and Callum pitted against each other in a way we have never seen before.

Lekan, Sephy’s now ex-boyfriend, has a part to play in that. He pulls a ruse that nearly costs Jude his life. Realising that Mercy Point will never truly be for him and his people, Callum decides to walk away.

In the chaos of their divided world, Callum and Sephy find comfort and solace in each other.

A bit too much comfort and solace, if you know what I mean.

As they are doing the deed (not shown, thankfully), Meggie bumps into someone on her way home who personifies the ghosts of Kamal’s past. Yaro. Yaro is played by Luke Bailey. Sorry to say, but Bailey is the worst actor in an otherwise pretty stellar cast. I don’t know what accent he is supposed to be speaking in, but if it is meant to be a Nigerian accent, it isn’t a very good one. 

Yaro and Meggie’s exchange doesn’t last long. Then comes the awkward and laughable moment in which Meggie finds her son and Sephy upstairs. The contrast between this moment and the one shown in the still below, is striking.

Jasmine’s hospitalisation brings into focus the importance of family. It causes Sephy, her sister Minerva and their father Kamal, to reassess their priorities.

Meanwhile, trouble begins to set on Jude and Callum’s relationship. Jude is less than impressed when he learns that Callum and Sephy are seeing each other.

Some might say the same about Callum! ;)

Callum’s reaction to a drastic decision that Jude has made, on the other hand, provokes a much more volatile response. The directions the two have decided to take in response to racial injustice are diametrically opposed.

Let’s just say, this episode is full of drama.

Watch it.

All six episodes of Noughts + Crosses are available to watch on BBC iPlayer and various other streaming services outside of the UK. Go and watch it! I've tried not to give away any key spoilers!

Noughts + Crosses: A Review of the 2nd episode of the popular BBC drama series

Rating: 4.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I can't find a half-star!)

Before reading, make sure you watch the first episode of Noughts + Crosses, and read my review of it! The below review contains a few spoilers as to what happened in episode 1…

Noughts + Crosses pulls no punches. Right from the beginning of this episode, just as in the pilot, we are uncomfortably dragged into a world where the tides of anger never ebb. In this episode, we see Callum take his place at Mercy Point, the military school into which he has been accepted. He is very much in the minority: this is the first year that Mercy Point has desegregated and allowed both Crosses and Noughts to enrol. The commanding officers there won’t let Callum and the other Noughts forget that their presence is unwelcome.

This is the type of aggression that Callum regularly has to deal with.

Let’s just take a minute to appreciate the title sequence which appears in every episode of Noughts + Crosses. Accompanied by impressive music, black and white skin melds together, a visual demonstration that opposites can attract and beautifully harmonise together, just as both the black and white keys on a piano produce scintillating chords.

The title sequence depicts the idealistic version of relationships between Noughts and Crosses. In the dystopian reality of Albion, Sephy and Callum – and any others that represent a fusion between these two dichotomic worlds, are forever at war with the system. Peace can never be theirs.

Once the title sequence is over, the charged voice of Jack Dorn, leader of the Liberation Militia, carries over to us. In stark contrast to the fury in his voice, we are presented with the stunning landscape of Albion. The dominant figure of a black woman with her head swathed in a headtie reminds us that we are in a world in which Aprican (inspired by ‘African’) culture reigns. It is worth noting that traditionally, many Sub-Saharan African traditions celebrate the mother figure. This attention to detail is impressive. Set designer Karl du Preez does a marvellous job, if you ask me! (Interesting fact: the show was actually filmed in South Africa.)

This is London as you’ve never seen it before.

The words of Jack Dorn are potent and pertinent to the reality we find ourselves facing today:

“The establishment and its Aprican masters showing more distress over the destruction of Cross property than the death of a young Nought man.”

Sound familiar?

Superb Social Commentary

Sephy is less naïve in this episode than she was in the first. She takes the courageous step of pointing out to her father, the Home Secretary, that one set of rules apply to Noughts, and another to Crosses. When Noughts gather together peacefully and “try to exercise [their] right [to speak freely], the riot police show up.” The same is not so for the ruling race.

Callum can’t even sleep on his own mattress at the military academy: the Crosses there soak it in wee. This type of overt and nasty racism exists alongside regular micro-aggressions, such as the one that Callum’s friend Elaine receives from the idiot (excuse my language) that is Lekan:

“So Elaine… is it true? Nought women in bed? People say you’re pretty crazy.”

Noughts + Crosses doesn’t just tackle racism. It makes room for other complex societal ills in its storytelling. The above quote is an example of how the show recognises and addresses intersectionality: when racism and sexism intersect, the discrimination factor is squared.

Racism is evident in almost every shot in this show. In the scene where Sephy Hadley and her family travel to Mercy Point’s passing-in parade, several Crosses surround their car with placards emblazoned with the words “NOUGHTS OUT”. Sephy and Callum’s father Ryan are forced to halt their pleasant catch-up as they arrive at the entrance: there is one entryway for Crosses and another for Noughts. Ryan is forced to undergo a security check, as are all the other Noughts, and Sephy is left to walk freely. Remind you of anything? Disproportionate stop-and-search rates, anyone?

Once the parade begins, we hear the rhythmic beat of the talking drum echo through the air. The talking drum originates from West Africa and comes in many various forms.

What a stunning plethora of colourful traditional outfits!

The call and response of the commanding officer to his soldiers sounds a lot like Yoruba.

Let’s talk about hair.

Noughts + Crosses does not leave any stone unturned! Black hair is a topic in itself. Historically and in the present day, the tightly-curled tresses of people of African descent has been shamed, called 'ugly', 'untameable', 'unprofessional'… Meanwhile, silky European hair has been overvalued and presented as the standard of beauty to follow. As a result, many businesses have profited off creating products which claim to 'subdue'natural Afro hair so that women in particular, may better assimilate into society and better meet the prescribed beauty standard. Of course, in Noughts + Crosses, our present-day reality is turned upside down! See how both the Nought men and women wear traditionally African braided styles? Not a coincidence!

“We must be careful not to become too homogenised”, says Kamal Hadley, Sephy’s father, as he delivers the address. “Protect your identity”, he utters, painstakingly enunciating each word so we clearly understand his meaning: Do not mix with these Noughts too much, Crosses.

The words “E se gan” – ‘Thank you very much’ in Yoruba, ring out from the stage. Once again, I must say that it would be nice to have other African languages depicted in this show. Nigeria is one country in Africa’s vast landscape, and Yoruba is just one of many languages native to Nigeria. Perhaps the bias is owing to the writer of the show, Lydia Adetunji, who has Nigerian – and specifically Yoruba – heritage.

It is around this time that the triangle between Lekan (Sephy’s boyfriend), Sephy and Callum begins to trace its lines. 

There is no doubt that in this triangle, it is Callum that has the most to lose. Despite her position, Sephy is bold (though surreptitious) with her attentions to Callum. Callum is much more cautious.

Lekan detests Callum and all Noughts, and he is not afraid to show it.

The racial stereotypes that he holds are evident: “Must be nice to get two whole days for getting drunk on street corners, playing with wild Nought women”, he tauntingly shouts at Callum, before being told that Callum’s weekend off is due to his friend’s funeral…

Interestingly enough, although Home Secretary Kamal Hadley (played by Paterson Joseph) is vitriolically racist, the Prime Minister, Opal Folami is reasonable. She calls for an independent enquiry into police brutality. Independent. The police are not called on to investigate its own misconduct, but instead are to be assessed by an outside body. Remind you of anything that should be happening in real life right now?

Although the Prime Minister of the nation, as a female, Opal Folami, too, is subjected to sexism. The men that work under her rarely heed her.

The dysfunction of male-female relationships is most evident between Lekan and Sephy, however. Lekan truly shows all the signs of a future domestic abuser. He is controlling, manipulative and paranoid. His behaviour in this episode is alarming.

In this episode, for the first time we learn something about other races in Albion, although I would contend, not enough. There is not much clarity as to the position and treatment of races that are neither Noughts nor Crosses. Callum’s father Ryan has a boss who appears to be mixed-race. Okonjo is such a totalitarian manager that he refuses Danny’s father the day off for his own son’s funeral. When Ryan confronts Okonjo, he says in disbelief to his boss: “…You’re one of us!”

This is interesting. This one line is comparable to the way in which often, when someone is of both black and white heritage, they are typically considered 'black', even though they also have 50% white heritage. (America has never had a 'black' President, they have had a 'mixed-race' one.) They are typically more accepted by the black community than the white community.

Thus, perhaps Ryan is suggesting that it is Noughts who will truly accept Okonjo, as he is of mixed heritage? Okonjo’s response indicates that he has become accepted by the Crosses only because of his financial status, and that if he associates on more friendly terms with Noughts, he will lose his position. Indeed, it seems he has come to a place of denying part of his own identity in order to fit in and be respected. Many people of colour can relate to this. The culture of assimilation. Assimilation often comes with self-denigration.

Conversely, Callum and Sephy refuse to comply with social expectations, even knowing what it could cost them. Tired of having to hide their affection for each other, they decide to go to a clandestine club for interracial couples. [You need to watch the episode; I’m not telling you everything that happens.]

The chemistry between Sephy and Callum is masterful. Both Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan do an amazing job. The pauses, the intensity of their eyes, the shyness of two young people in love… The director Julian Holmes creates a heart-warming story that becomes all the more heart-warming precisely because the two parties are prepared to risk everything just so they can be together. Reminds me of the story of Mr. and Mrs. Loving, a real-life interracial couple who decided to be together, despite interracial romances being illegal at that time in America.

Sephy and Callum, finally free to dance to their own tune

However, we soon learn that Shakespeare’s words ring true here, too: “the course of true love never did run smooth”.

I told you Lekan was paranoid…

The wrath of Lekan is truly a frightening thing.

You need to watch this episode.

Let’s just say the triangle gets a little more complicated as the minutes pass. Sephy begins to realise that this love thing isn’t going to be as easy as she thought.

The drama that takes place in that club is contrasted by the stillness of Danny’s funeral, a few minutes later. The ritual of Danny’s interment is much like Egyptian mummification, which of course is jarring to us today. The startling reminder that even burial customs are different for Noughts, forces us to consider how many customs we take for granted today are actually products of the West, yet have been taken on by colonised people globally.

In this episode, we see just how power-hungry Kamal Hadley is. The Home Secretary decides to strike a deal with Liberation Militia leader Jack Dorn, in an effort to both appease the Noughts and dismantle the Prime Minister’s leadership. Dorn is wary though. He knows that the plan is to give the Noughts:

“just enough rights to keep us docile. Just enough liberty to take away our rage.”

This line is unforgettable: “Would you be happy being ‘almost’ completely equal to me?” Dorn asks the Home Secretary. Hadley’s silence reminds me of the scene in which white anti-racism activist Jane Elliott says to a crowd of white people, “If you as a white person would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in our society, please stand.” No-one stands.

Sephy: a woman with a mind of her own

Believe it or not, in this episode, Sephy finally sees the light. She cuts ties with Lekan.

The guy is so narcissistic, he tells her that she can’t break up with him, for apparently: “We don’t do this.” Reminds me of Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice: he just doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the word “no”. 

Well, that's what I call a clapback.

It seems one set of rules apply to men, and another to women. Oh, wait, that isn’t just a Noughts + Crosses thing...

This episode is an intriguing follow-up to the pilot episode, and excels in its character development, storytelling, set design and social commentary. Watch it.

All six episodes of Noughts + Crosses are available to watch on BBC iPlayer and various other streaming services outside of the UK. What are you waiting for?