Well, that was the penultimate episode of Jericho - an intense hour focused solely on the murder of Red and Johnny's trial by the navvies.

The pace picked up this week, thankfully, as mob justice took over Jericho and the men demanded answers.

But while the action was welcome, the concept of Coates' pub-based court was a bizarre one, and may have been too out there to justify an entire episode dedicated to it. The jury's out on this one.

Here's what we learned in episode seven:

Johnny was a prisoner

HANS MATHESON as Johnny.

After his unsuccessful fleeing last week, Johnny was at the mercy of Coates, who was happily burning evidence and keeping him locked up for his own 'safety'. Elsewhere, the navvies debated Johnny's guilt, with Dagger almost flying fist-first into yet another fight after been teased for defending him. The Prince has had a tough time keeping the navvies on side all series, and this hasn't helped one jot.

Annie was determined to save him

Meanwhile, Annie gave out all the usual mum-assurances as George lay awake, fretting about Johnny taking the rap for his crime. "I'll sort it," she said, not giving any indication of how - but mums never do, do they? Her first strategy was to see Charles, who quite firmly washed his hands of the whole affair and told her the courts would deal with it. "You can't just abandon him!" she cried - but wasn't that what Johnny did to Charles and the rest of his family? She also managed to persuade Davy to let her in to see Johnny in his makeshift prison cell. "I'll think of something," she promised Johnny - but how do you clear one man's name and simultaneously protect your guilty son?

The navvies wanted answers

STEPHEN THOMPSON as Davey Sharp.

Despite Red Coleen causing the explosion that murdered Jack and Skinny, and generally being a bit of a nasty git, suddenly the navvies were falling all over themselves to hold him up as 'one of their own' and a poor victim of Johnny's murderous ways. Was Johnny's return to the Blackwood dynasty so awful to them that they'd defend Red over Johnny? Shay, this week's villain, led the mob to Johnny's prison and demanded justice - but what kind of justice can an angry mob of navvies deliver? We discover there's no magistrate on the way - Coates seemed quite happy to put this in the hands of 'his people'.

George confessed

Of course George confessed. The guilt was killing him, and has been since week one - it was inevitable he was going to tell Coates, his mentor and father figure. But Coates wasn't going to let one boy's teary confession stand in the way of his plans to get rid of Johnny and take back full control of Jericho - so he told him not to tell a soul. Except, Annie told him that, too, and well, look what happened. Also good to know that Coates doesn't mind manipulating a young boy's inner anguish for his own gains.

JESSICA RAINE as Annie and SAM BOTTOMLEY as George.

The Capstick court was in session

Coates elected to calm the baying mob and sort the Johnny matter out once and for all by taking the men to the Capstick, buying a barrel of ale and forming a bizarre kangeroo court. Erm, right. Lizzie predicted that adding beer to the proceedings will only inflame things (no kidding) but on it went anyway, with Coates conducting what can only be described as a hysterical game of pub Cluedo. At one point Johnny was even blamed for the explosion, such was the bloodlust of the half-cut navvies. It was dramatic, sure, but ultimately daft. Would this ever really have happened?

Soapbox testimonies were heard

Coates realised he didn't actually have that much control over the mob, and so introduced a literal sopabox from which all and sundry could fire off their ill-informed assumptions and startling deductions. Dagger defended Johnny, but then Alma decided enough attention wasn't being paid to her and starting babbling about Johnny and Annie 'whispering secrets' and talking about 'something terrible'. "You could see it by the look on their faces," she said smugly. How very scientific of her. Even poor Hattie got roped in, told to speak on behalf of her dead husband. Not that she cared that Red had been murdered.

Pictured: NATALIE GAVIN as Alma.

Easter took action (again)

After Shay took it upon himself to announce Johnny guilty, and decided the only thing to do was hang him, Easter once again played the hero. Despite Coates' attempts to bond with him, it's clear Easter doesn't trust him as far as he could chuck him - and realising Coates thought nothing of paying him with a dead man's money, and that he probably wasn't going to stop the navvies stringing Johnny up, he sped on back to Blackwood House.

The navvies built a scaffold

And there was no time to lose - the viaduct may not have progressed one bit all series, but my god, it took all of ten minutes to build a working scaffold to hang Johnny from. As Easter broke the news to Charles, Isabella and Epiphany, Charles looked like he was going to throw up or pass out - perhaps deep down he knew Johnny wasn't a murderer. He couldn't abandon him to the mob.

Pictured: DANIEL RIGBY as Charles Blackwood.

George confessed (again)

Despite Annie's attempt to ship him off to Settle with the help of Lace Polly, George was determined to clear Johnny's name. And it's a good thing he jumped off that cart - Annie's turn on the speaking box, being interrogated by Coates, did hardly anything to help Johnny's cause. Saying that, the questions seemed to be less about Johnny and more about Annie's love life. The penny dropped for Martha, who told George to stay away before seemingly sacrificing Johnny to save him - but in one of the funniest images of last night's episode, George mounted an even taller platform to save Johnny's neck. "When a man's at fault he should face t'consequences," he said, growing up before our eyes. So that was that - even a bloodthirsty mob of navvies weren't going to hang a child. Johnny was freed, and everyone calmed down. Davy and Alma even used the drama of the day to push themselves to set a wedding date. How romantic.

Clarke Peters as Ralph Coates in new ITV series Jericho
Clarke Peters as Ralph Coates in new ITV series Jericho

Coates was fired

While everyone decided to return to normal - and Annie beamed about her 'fresh start', Johnny had one last thing to do - fire the man who was determined to see him off. Coates has got a week left at Jericho before he has to leave - but will he go quietly? I have a feeling he's set to march straight up to Blackwood House to get Charles on side. Charles, meanwhile, left Isabella in Jericho to think about what she'd done after revealing he knew all about her and Johnny's night together. Let's see how she gets on sleeping in a hut...

Last week I said I hoped Jericho would up the pace a bit - and thankfully, tonight's episode packed in more drama than the last two or three put together. It's just a shame the premise of the episode was so bonkers.

There's only one more episode to go - and after this week resolved the secret murder storyline, and Coates' power-hungry scheming (in part), the only real loose ends are the Johnny-Isabella-Charles triangle and whether any work is ever going to get done on this blasted viaduct. I've seen roadworks completed faster. But is that enough to make for a thrilling finale?

Oh god - what if they make it an Alma and Davy wedding episode? Shoot me now.