This week’s episode of Talamasca: The Secret Order is all about who you can trust — and the fallout from possibly trusting the wrong people.

After last week’s high point, this week’s episode is more of a mix of character development and movement on the plot, but the action is tight, and there are some great moments worth digging into.

Breaking Point

Picking up where last week left off, Jasper and Guy’s uneasy alliance hits its breaking point all too quickly. Jasper has made it abundantly clear that the one thing he values above all else is the truth, and Guy keeps digging his own grave (literally) by continuing to lie about not knowing anything about Doris.

Jasper gives him one last chance to come clean, but when he doesn’t, their uneasy friendship and partnership fracture in a big way. Things get physical fast — and we see just how dangerous Jasper really is. The fight between them is both brutal and intimate, with Jasper letting Guy know any fraction of control he thought he had from being able to read Jasper’s mind has been an illusion, as Jasper is “the one with all the moves”. Jasper may not be able to read Guy’s full thoughts, but he can still get to the most primal, basic truths: That Guy is afraid, and he doesn’t want to die.

Perhaps unluckily for Guy, that’s not the fate that Jasper has in mind for him anyway, as he intends to let his revenants feed on him, drawing out his suffering. But before things can get fatal, Doris (who was hidden in the trunk from the hotel) bursts out and saves Guy, setting Jasper on fire and buying them just enough time to escape. This is a really fun scene, with some great action sequences, particularly everything involving the fire.

Jasper quickly sends his revenants after them, but Guy and Doris manage to make it out alive. But they know Jasper will be out for revenge, so their only chance is to disappear completely out of the country. In order to do that, though, they’re going to need some help.

Just a Peep

After taking a backseat in last week’s episode, Helen’s story steps back a bit into focus this week. The episode kicks off with a look from her sister Emma’s POV of their childhood separation, when she was taken to an undisclosed location by the Talamasca, far away from her sister Helen. Exactly what Emma’s role with the Talamasca is still remains a mystery, but her handler promises her it’s “important work”. Her penchant for details and memorization is on full display, as if she’s a sort of child prodigy “Rain Man” (which is sort of funny, given Mark Johnson produced both).

Back in the present day, Guy gets the attention of Helen and Olive to ask for help. While Guy’s “strip club street barker” undercover alias has been truly the dumbest portion of the entire show (seriously, you’ve sent your undercover agent to stand on a street corner and shout at half of London? And he needed a work visa for this?) — it’s almost worth it to see him use a peep show booth to communicate with Helen, forcing her to literally pay if she wants to get more information out of him.

This scene feels like a pivotal one for Guy, as he finally asserts himself. For once, he isn’t playing the hapless “puppy” Jasper called him earlier, but he seems to realize he has enough leverage to call the shots for himself. He pushes back, reminding Helen that if she refuses to help, Jasper will kill him.

One of the strongest elements of the show has been the way it’s built a genuine rapport between Guy and Helen. It really does feel like Helen cares about him — not just as an asset, but as someone she’s grown unexpectedly protective of, even as she clearly also sees him as a tool in her larger mission to find her sister Emma. There’s a soft, almost motherly connection between them that both actors lean into, and it helps give this cold, secretive world a heartbeat.

Helen ultimately agrees and sends Guy and Doris to a safe house… but she lies about their location when debriefing with Olive after, claiming they’re on the witches’ houseboat instead. Olive, meanwhile, has just received a troubling call that suggests there’s something about Helen she doesn’t know.

So, which of these two is the one not to trust?

That turns out to be Olive, who later on, watches as Jasper’s revenants slaughter the witches aboard their houseboat, with the implication clearly that she pointed Jasper in their direction to get them killed. This doesn’t hit as hard as it should, in large part because we’ve spent so little time with Olive. Maisie Richardson-Sellers is a good actress, but as written on the page, there just isn’t a lot to Olive, or enough to give audiences a reason to be either surprised or to really care about this betrayal. But there’s one more episode to go, so perhaps we’ll delve a bit deeper into her motivations.

Playing Safe House

At the real safe house, Guy and Doris are hiding out, trying to pass the time. He opens up about his mother — or rather, the lies the Talamasca fed him about her. She wasn’t a junkie. She didn’t abandon him. She didn’t die not caring about him (and she didn’t die at all — at least not when they claimed they did). The organization twisted his history into something terrible. And Guy’s biggest concern isn’t how those lies shaped him, but how they must have hurt her, to think her son was out there believing she abandoned him without a second thought.

This to me is the central theme of this show, how the Talamasca organization has hurt real people (and vampires) in their pursuit of information. And how the “truth” probably shouldn’t, y’know, be in the hands of a shadowy organization.

The two get a few moments of peace, imagining elaborate fake lives for their newfound identities, but it’s short-lived. Even as they’re unaware of the fallout happening on the witches’ houseboat, it’s obvious Doris at least is feeling uneasy. Which could have something to do with the fact that she seems to have secrets of her own, as we pan down to see what looks like Keves’ book in her backpack. Could this be the 752 everyone’s been after?

Final Thoughts

Anyone who thinks the Talamasca are meant to come off as the good guys in this show is clearly not paying attention. The organization as a whole is slippery and underhanded at best, and outright cruel at worst. Virtually every character we’re following is either actively working against them or quietly skirting the edges of their authority, because there’s no moral center inside the Talamasca — just bureaucracy, secrets, and a long history of damage.

This isn’t an institution you’re supposed to root for. You’re meant to root for the humans (and vampires) caught in its orbit, clawing their way toward the real truth.

After a quieter start to the season, the season has finally found its footing, though the pacing remains uneven at times. Still, I’m on its wavelength. The character dynamics — particularly with Guy and Helen, as well as Guy and Jasper — are the show’s backbone, especially now that everyone’s cards are hitting the table, alongside some genuinely intriguing mysteries.

Talamasca never reaches the heights of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire, but it’s also not trying to be that show. It’s operating in a completely different register, and the more it embraces its campy side and character work, the more entertaining it becomes. At its best, it’s a supernatural thriller that balances tension, character development, and mythology.

If next week’s finale can tie up some key threads while delivering meaningful character moments, this will be a solid first season.

There’s something pleasantly throwback to me about the whole show — it feels like almost like a 2000s/2010s USA Network show, though it’s darker and stranger. Think if Mike Ross from Suits wandered into Buffy by way of a British spy thriller. As someone who loved that era of bluesky programming, I’m genuinely enjoying this, even if Talamasca is certainly not as sunny. The show just needs to lean harder into having fun and deepening its characters.

If AMC decides to continue exploring this corner of the Immortal Universe (and I truly hope they do), I’d be happy to follow it into another season.

Talamasca: The Secret Order airs on Sundays on AMC+, and on Sundays at 9pm ET/PT on AMC.