Name: Forgive Me, Father review
Rating: 7.1

The setup

A short flash-forward sets the terms: Mika asks the priest to tell her to stop, and he manages everything except that word. Then the story rewinds to the end of a service, with parishioners filing past to thank the new father. Mika lingers. She praises the sermon, especially the passage on resisting temptation, with a perfectly straight face. Next she takes her compliments to the confessional, where her sin turns out to be a list of impure thoughts, all starring her new priest. The episode leaves him to answer that.

Episode 2

Episode 2 stays in the box and turns the confession into a debate. Mika wants to know how near temptation can come before it counts as sin. He tells her she should not talk to him like this; she points out that confession is supposed to be complete. He refuses the details too fast, and she notices. Later she suspects he was sorry to see her go, and the episode closes on her offering him one final chance to refuse.

Who's who

Mika: a parishioner with perfect church manners and a confession prepared like a closing argument
The priest: new to the parish, eloquent about temptation in theory, much less so in practice

Verdict: 7.1 out of 10

Tight, clever and almost entirely talk, which is a compliment. Mika's strategy is to use the rules of confession against the man enforcing them, and every exchange tightens the screw a notch. The priest's resistance is believable, which keeps the tension honest. The free episodes are mostly setup, but it is setup with a pulse, and the final offer to walk away is exactly the kind of cliffhanger that sells the next episode.