This week on World On Fire, Rommel’s forces in North Africa directly attack Rajib, Harry, and Stan’s unit. Kasia realizes through her mission from Sir James that some of her fellow Polish refugees are sending intelligence back to the Nazis. One of Lois’ patients reminds her of the life she left behind. Meanwhile, let’s look at what’s happening in occupied France with David and Henriette.

This week on Annika, the Marine Homicide Unit is in a transition period. The police assign Harper from the Edinburgh investigation in Episode 2 to the unit as Tyrone has started his new job. (Unfortunately for fans of Ukweli Roach, his new show Wolf is not available in America yet.) Blair is now on office duty as her due date approaches. The rest of the team is sent to the islands of Jura and Islay in the Scottish Hebrides as there are no police stations there to investigate a murder victim found frozen in a block of ice. Annika still has to negotiate working with Michael while someone else from her past reappears to upset the balance of her life. Let’s find out how George Orwell’s writings tie into Annika’s emotions — and the case.

This week on World on Fire, our characters are facing complications to their plans. David and Henriette are struggling to hide from French Nazi collaborators. Kasia begins working for James, and finds out she has to spy on fellow Polish expats who may be sending British secrets back to the Nazis. Marga is now pregnant and a prisoner confined to bed rest. Harry and Stan are ordered to assist the Australian troops in defending Tobruk from General Romnel’s advancing forces. Let’s take a closer look at how the British Indian Army unit has to survive more than the desert heat in this episode as well as across the season.

Annika’s monologue references Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde throughout the episode. It’s very convenient that the name of the deceased billionaire is Fabian Hyde. The plot doesn’t appear to be specifically about Halloween, so let’s unpack why the classic gothic horror story is crucial to the episode.

This week on World on Fire our core characters face a number of challenges. Harry, Lois, Stan, and Rajib are navigating injuries, more sandstorms, and a lack of supplies. Kasia confronts Sir James on the true nature of his assignment, Henriette has to escape the Gestapo, and David finds himself in very unfamiliar territory after his plane crashes. And Marga realizes exactly why Gerta and Herr Tultz tried to warn her about the Lebensborn. Let’s analyze what happened in finer detail.

As the case unfolds, Annika is still deciding whether to tell Michael he is Morgan’s father. Her monologue this week shouts out Sir Walter Scott’s literary canon, as he was a resident of Edinburgh. Annika discusses Waverly, his lesser-known first novel, as a story Michael shouldn’t read. Annika then tells the audience Waverly is set during the civil war and the hero of the novel is an English soldier who meets a romantic revolutionary who messes up his home life. Waverley’s plot is a lot longer than last week’s sea monster ballad, so let’s dig into the missing context.

This week on World On Fire, we get a glimpse of events across the varying plotlines of the series and an update on the characters stuck in Nazi-occupied Paris. Harry has started in his new posting in North Africa but he has left so much at home in flux. Kasia loves that she can see Jan and Grzegorz again, but cannot abide having to play a passive part in the war effort. Lois is struggling with single motherhood. All of this, plus a new unexpected long-term boarder, is what Robina is left to manage by herself. Let’s take a closer look at the circumstances on the home front.

Annika Season 1 challenged mystery fans by using first-person narration to relate the crimes investigated by D.S. Annika Stradhed and the Marine Homicide Unit as well as the events in Annika’s life. This was an important nod to the series’ beginning as a BBC Radio 4 audio drama. Season 2 continues the fourth wall monologue tradition with Annika adding new literary references each episode that express her mood towards events in her personal life and occasionally regarding the case. While Annika relates a fairly succinct version of the literary reference, she often leaves out interesting background information or in some cases parts of the story in question. This series will illuminate the missing context.

World On Fire Season 1 premiered on MASTERPIECE at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Season 2’s premiere, with wars and rising fascism, make the series more relevant than ever before. One of the most impressive things about the premiere is the way almost every major plot line is seamlessly woven together. There are new recurring faces in the fight for and against Nazi Germany. Let’s pull apart each plot thread and take a closer look.

When we left Amsterdam last week, Euro Cash and Eddie had discovered the hidden door that gave the non-demon murderer access to the conjuring space, Citra and Drunkie Howser were posted up in a club surveilling Magic Man and crew, and Grandad Conjurer had just attacked an orderly at the hospital before making his escape. Luckily for that orderly, Hassell was on her way to the hospital, so she finds him soon after the attack, administers a bit of haphazard first aid, and confirms that Grandad Conjurer is in the wind.