Survivors - 2.6 The Witch

Once again Hubert is doing a Tom Price tribute act. This ep takes as its moral what Ruth said in the previous one, about how the survivors may be primitive by circumstance, but they are civilised by choice. Here most of them are choosing not to be civilised by deciding that Mina (referred to but not seen in the last ep) is the eponymous witch.

I like the idea that their circumstances are degrading them, but the execution is a bit crude. It seems implausible that they'd progress quite so quickly to waving crucifixes at her and trying to take her baby away. This isn't The Changes. If they wanted to make the delusion seem so infectious, it would have been good to show that even Charles was tempted to believe it - perhaps by having him see the defaced bust that may or may not be of him.

As it is it's just resolved by Charles, Ruth and Greg telling the others to pull themselves together. There's a sort of 'filler ep' feel about all this. Perhaps that's why it contains no dating clues, except that Jenny and Arthur are still away on the salt quest mentioned in the previous ep.