Sunday, May 22, 2022

Alex Rider Retrospective - Season 1 Episodes 3-4

We’re back with Alex Rider, and thusfar with them having to integrate elements of Stormbreaker into to plot to make it make sense, not much has actually happened, but it’s time to get back to the business of spy business

Friends

Smithers, the true name of Mr Daniels, notes that they have a location for Point Blanc, the building was purchased by a shell company but the one name attached is Eva Stellenbosch, she contacted David Friend and wants to meet with Alex, who for some reason is still in his normal school, brushing off Tom’s concern.

Still, he tells Mrs Jones he wants Tom to get his phone back, which she agrees to. Whilst also giving them funds to deal with Alex’s look. They get him a haircut and honestly, I can’t see the difference. At least give him a wig or something. And just to make things more awkward, Ayisha comes inviting to see “the new spider-man” at this point that would probably be Far From Home though this season was released over a year after that film, it wouldn’t even be new on DVD at that point and they were supposed to be going to the cinema. Of course, given its actual release, going to the cinema would have been a tough ask anyway.

Problem is that whilst he accepts the invite, it’s blatantly obvious his mission will stop him from going. And Tom somehow believes that he’s shutting him out of it so it’ll just be him and Ayisha. And that penny drops in the next scene, Smithers gives him an MP3-player, which has secret encrypted communication capabilities, he’s given a burner phone as well, but they suspect it’ll be confiscated upon entry.

Alex is taken to the Friend Estate and Mr Friend makes it perfectly clear that he’s doing no more favours for Mr Blunt after this and both he and his wife highly disapprove. Alex is shown to his room. Martin is back at work but oblivious to the suspicion of the others.

Alex spends his time adjusting to living in a massive mansion, and being sad that he can’t be at the cinema with his friends. He texts Tom, somehow having his main phone with him as well, which seems like a dumb idea on every possible level. Making matters more complicated is Friend’s daughter, Fiona, coming back to the house having split up from her boyfriend.

She’s debriefed on what’s going on and whilst she’s willing to go ahead with it for 2 days, she’s not happy about it, and not for the reasons you might think, she’s a total bitch. Tom angrily heads to Alex’s house and Jack couldn’t come up with a better excuse for why Alex isn’t here than ‘staying with friends’ and obviously Tom isn’t buying it.

Alex is busy muttering his cover story and has an awkward encounter with Fiona. Followed by another one at the dinner table. And it only gets more awkward as Tom has managed to track him down. They have an honest and frank conversation, and Alex agrees not to lie to him. On his way out, Tom is run off his bike by friends of Fiona, and Alex decides to introduce himself rather than get caught by surprise.

He's invited to a ‘walk around the estate’ the next day. John Crawly, the agent Alex followed in episode 1 explains to Martin that they’re suspending the investigation into Ian’s death as anyone in North Korea would be untouchable, or risk setting off a global nuclear war.

The next morning, Alex has breakfast with the family and is told their little trip will be a shooting expedition, Alex had been taught clay pigeon shooting the day before and it’s a prime opportunity to put it into use, unfortunately other plans are afoot as Fiona’s friends begin using him as a target. Still, Alex is a smart lad, using some foliage to cover himself as they pass by. He uses an opportunity to get the jump on them, forcing them to drop their weapons.

Mrs Stellenbosch arrives just after Alex returns and it’s time for his interview. Of course he has to act like an angry hormonal teenager. And doing it well enough that Stellenbosch is fooled and admits him to Point Blanc. Maria is about to blow the whole thing wide open but one the servants sedates and drags her out of view, they’d had the house under surveillance the entire time.

Tom is doing the single dumbest thing you can do to a spy and making a documentary detailing his adventures. Alex is taken to Point Blanc by helicopter right under the nose of Doctor Greif, which is very unsubtle.

One of those things we do need to talk about is the music, the low drone, high bass noise anytime something suspenseful is happening is highly irritating. But another solid episode otherwise.

Rating 7.5/10

Deep Cover

Alex empties his belongings; his phone is confiscated as expected but he’s allowed to keep his mp3-player. He also, quite cleverly, attempts to smuggle some vodka as mouthwash. I mean, it doesn’t work but it’s good for the trouble-maker cover. I though Stellenbosch might’ve thought it was poison given his history but…

Back in London Martin calls Gregorovich and says they need to meet. Alex asks if the large number of guards is to prevent people from escaping but it’s explained that the nearest town is 20 miles away and the temperature never gets above freezing, he’d never survive long enough to get help. He’s placed into a class with Dr Baxter. We meet his fellow students, Sacha, Arrash, Laura, James and Krya. Yup, there’s only 6 of them.

Martin’s meeting with Gregorovich is interesting, as soon as he hears the investigation is being shut down, he’s suspicious. When Martin leaves, he calls his employers and tells them they may have a problem.

Back with Alex, James explains he got himself sent there after shooting his tutor with an air-rifle, causing tissue damage of course. He’s been there for 8 weeks, and Laura with 3 months. James shows off his graffiti that he did with… how did he smuggle spray-paint into the facility? There’s an area walled off that’s impossible to access and rather suspicious. Speaking of suspicious, Sacha and Arrash talk about how Alex is attractive. He’s supposed to be what, 14, this is gross

Now time for Alex to have a physical examination, and having to remember bits of his cover like whether he’s had general anaesthetic before. Sacha and Arrash are eating in unison and everyone thinks that’s a bit weird. It’s Alex and Krya’s turn to wash up and Alex makes his first slip up by mentioning the name Jack but he does a poor job recovering, instead choosing to brush it off entirely. Inkeeping with his bad-boy persona but rather risking on his key assets he set up music to play. James and Laura even get involved turning the kitchen into a phone party. This naturally gets Stellenbosch’s attention.

James and Laura are ordered to clean this up and Alex is brought to Dr Greif. When Alex is cheeky one too many times, Stellenbosch slaps him, hard enough to give him a bruise, Greif makes it clear they there they can do whatever they like. Alex wonders back to his room and James has inadvertently saved his ass by getting his MP3-player before anyone else can.

Unfortunately, being this high up in the mountains and away from everything means he has no signal to send a message through. Martin discovers he can’t access key elements of the case regarding the Riders. Jack tries to get information from Mrs Jones but it ends up being quite the other way around, Mrs Jones asks about the last call Ian made before his death, turns out Jack has a decent memory and tells her that is was related to something in Moscow, which all but confirms their suspicions that the Korea story is BS. Blunt tells them to keep an eye on him, hoping they can find out who he’s working for.

So, Doctor Greif’s motives. Earth is overpopulated and the one and only cure is to remove an absurd percentage of the population to provide a new beginning for those who remain. Yeah, that old chestnut again. Laura is coughing throughout the lesson and is instructed to go see Doctor Baxter in the medical wing. He gives a speech about how Mau and Hitler may have been right and wow, they’re not being subtle about it, right down to Greif’s name being an anagram of Greif.

A thought occurs to Alex, all the students at the academy are sons and daughters of industry in various, different fields, there’s no celebrity brats or the like here and everyone represents a different industry. The agency follow Marin around, they see that he’s left his house and begin a search of the place, inserting various bugs. Gregorovich also had the place bugged however and now his suspicions have been confirmed.

Martin decides to pay Jack a visit and a number of bombshells get dropped on him at once, see Jack doesn’t know that he doesn’t know and that’s a dangerous combination in espionage. She asks about Alex and given that he was not in the know about anything, this comes as a bit of a bombshell and Martin is about to make a move, Jack only saved by a call from Mrs Jones, telling her too late to not tell him anything.

Mrs Jones tells everyone to bring him in but they appear to have lost him. Back at Point Blanc, Sacha tries to force herself on Alex, which he finds about as uncomfortable as we do. Martin heads to his locker to get money and passports to run with, he decides to leave the burner phone behind. Unfortunately, Gregorovich has already caught up with them, before he can reveal anything that could compromise Alex, Gregorovich kills him. Unfortunately, he did have a photo with Alex and Tom to hand which Gregorovich steals.

Alex brushes his teeth and this is important because the toothpaste was drugged and he falls unconscious. He awakens on a gurney, coming in and out of consciousness as he’s dragged away

Again, the pacing is deliberately quite slow, but it’s a solid introduction to Point Blanc Academy and the subplot in London is still gripping.

Rating 7.5/10

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