As the troops come out, Sephy can barely keep her eyes off Callum. However, everyone’s attention soon switches to Kamal’s induction speech in which he warns: “I urge you, Crosses and noughts alike, to protect your identity… there is strength in difference.” I could feel chills running down my spine as the implications for our beloved characters sunk in, and by the looks on their faces they felt the same way!

Despite her father’s words, Sephy sneaks away with Callum as soon as she can and they are again discovered by an increasingly suspicious Lekan. Undeterred, the two arrange to meet up in a sketchy part of town called Sanctus. Before he heads there, Callum gets an unexpected visitor – Lekan, who apparently wants to get to know him better. Callum pretends he’s busy but Lekan isn’t convinced and waits to follow his love rival.

I loved the aesthetics of Sanctus. The neon-lit alleyways filled with shady figures in dark corners are both alluring and seedy. Here, Sephy and Callum enter a secret club where other mixed couples are getting intimate. Sephy confesses her feelings for Callum, as well as her “total incomprehension and terror” about the situation. Callum suggests this could be “the best bit” of their relationship, before they have to deal with the negative consequences, and the two dance then decide to rent a room.

In the bedroom, they both feel awkward and nervous. I have to commend both Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan for their portrayal of the desire and hesitance their characters feel at this point, which opens our eyes to how taboo their love is. As Callum heads down to the bar to get more drinks, he comes across a furious Lekan smashing up the dance floor. Before he’s seen, Callum runs back to the bedroom and tries to force open the window while Sephy watches Lekan tear down the corridor through the keyhole. The tension is palpable as Lekan gets closer, but he is distracted by his discovery of Elaine and Barnaby together in a room and Callum and Sephy manage to escape.

Noughts and Crosses episode 2: the truth about Yaro, revealed