Doctor Foster: has Simon really won? 

Somehow I doubt it. Our havoc-wreaking anti-heroine being bested would have 9 million viewers reaching for the pitchforks and flaming torches. Crucially, there are still two episodes to go. Two more hours of juicy melodrama for playwright Mike Bartlett to wring out of the feuding former spouses’ deranged folie à deux. So where could Bartlett take his brilliantly bonkers story next?

For a start, there’s the small issue of Gemma and Simon having passionate hate-sex in the previous episode. To add insult to unfaithful injury, he’d lied to his new, younger wife Kate (Jodie Comer) that he was working late, rather than playing unhappy families with his ex and their son.

Sure, he foiled Gemma’s cunning plan to secretly film their coital gymnastics, presumably for blackmail purposes. But don’t forget that poor Tom took off his beloved headphones long enough to hear his parents rutting their way across the kitchen, through the double glass doors and into the dining room. 

As Tom told neighbour and confidante Anna (Victoria Hamilton), the walls are thinner than his parents think. The poor lad will be in therapy for years. Gemma might not have caught the red-hot, tastefully-lit action on camera but she has a witness. One who has already told both Anna and teacher James (Prasanna Puwanarajah) about it. 

It’s surely only a matter of time before Kate finds out and Simon’s smug second marriage falls apart, just like his first. Hopefully with home truths being told at another dinner party from hell. Bon appetit, loser.

So Gemma has won the bitter custody battle for Tom, who has seen his father’s true colours. She’s holding a potentially crucial card in Simon’s marriage. How about the other two pillars of his carefully constructed perfect life? His property business (a swish office development in downtown Parminster) and his dream home (a glassily minimalist million-pound mansion with indoor infinity pool).

Simon’s been typically shifty about his new-found wealth, airily mentioning “a change of circumstances” and unspecified “American investments”. However, the money – or at least, the initial stake in it – is likely to have come courtesy of Kate’s minted family, either from her fat-cat father (Neil Stuke) or her enigmatic godfather, who Gemma spotted Kate kissing while doing a totally sane spot of woodland spying.

If Kate follows in Gemma’s vengeful footsteps and says the word, Simon’s backers might well pull the plug. Remember how Simon smirked that now he was back in Parminster, he’d only be leaving in a coffin? Don’t be surprised to find someone floating face-down in that swimming pool.

Hawk-eyed viewers will have noted that the estate agent’s sign outside Gemma’s house announces that it’s available to rent, not for sale – suggesting that she might well return in future. 

There are also the forgotten matters of the mystery gift she gave Kate in episode one, which has yet to be unwrapped, and those sinister syringes Gemma took from her medical bag. Smartphones tend to play a pivotal role in Doctor Foster. Might Gemma yet find something incriminating on Simon’s? In a year of female-empowered drama (witness women sweeping the board at this week’s Emmys), could both wronged wives unite against him?

In conclusion: no way, Simon totally hasn’t won. Gemma’s likely lulling in him into a false sense of security before delivering the killer blow with a well-aimed stiletto. 

If Simon and Kate’s toddler daughter Amelie owns a pet rabbit, they’d be advised to put a padlock on its hutch. Otherwise the toxic couple might come home to find the bunny boiling on their state-of-the-art induction hob.