We’re back with another look at the Amazon/Sony adaptation of Point Blanc. It’s certainly taken some liberties with the source material but as a spy show it’s doing quite well with it, can it keep up the momentum or will the pacing issues finally cause it to stall? Let’s take a look.
Secrets
Alex is being dragged down a corridor, now equipped with red
lights, he’s strapped to an operating table and has something injected into
him… and then he wakes up, his uniform is folded nicely, his toothbrush is
upright and he doesn’t feel faint upon doing his teeth again, but little does
he know the mirror is actually see-through from the other side and they have a
camera on him.
It’s breakfast time and Laura is still nowhere to be seen.
Alex explains his dream to James and Kyra and they reveal they’ve had the same
dream as well, which they find suspect. Even more so when Laura returns and
joins Sasha and Arrash eating in unison, this especially pisses of James.
At Special Operations, our 4 agents discuss the next steps
after Martin’s death, they believe it wasn’t the school who turned him, it just
happened to be a link in the chain and set off to see what they can find.
Meanwhile Gregorovich searches facial recognition on the photo he attained,
Alex is brought up as Alex Friend, they did the story in the newspaper but he
finds nothing on Tom, aside from the logo on their school uniform.
Group meeting with Alex, Krya and James, they’re all rather
upset about what happened with Laura, and are thinking about escaping, the
problem is all the doors have keypads and they get one chance with the code, or
the guards will be all over them. Krya might be able to hack the doors, but she
needs access to Doctor Greif’s computer, and the only way in is through a
keypad. Krya is suspicious of Alex and his motives.
The girl Tom talked to tries talks again to him now she’s
sobered up. It almost gets to an formal date but both are too shy to make that
move. Gregorovich shows up to talk to a teacher, allegedly about getting his
kids into the school, still he gets the identity of Tom.
Back at the Special Ops, they’ve recovered Martin’s phone,
finding a crypto wallet with a large amount of money in it and a specialised
number. Worth about 50p these days or so I've heard.
Alex has a plan to get the code for Doctor Greif’s office,
shredding some lead of a pencil and using it to cover the keypad, James
providing enough of a distraction for Alex to complete the job. Dr Greif
doesn’t even notice but the keys he used are now free of the pencil lead,
giving them the 4 digits of the code.
Except there are only 3 numbers, so their 1/24 chance just
became a 1/36 since they don’t know which number he repeated. But Alex has an
idea, given his Nazi talk from earlier lessons he believes it’s 1889, the birth
year of one Adolf Hitler, and he’s correct, Greif needs to learn to be more
subtle.
Special ops try to use Martin’s phone to dial the number,
using a voice print to attempt to fool them, of course since who he’s calling
knew full well about his death, the ruse doesn’t really last all that long, but
given their capabilities, the playing field has been narrowed down.
Gregoravich’s investigation into Tom is interrupted by a call from his
superiors to update everyone’s security protocols after what just happened.
Dr Greif gets a phone-call he has to answer with a special
key-card, the call says the number will soon no longer function and new security
protocols will be assigned shortly. This has Doctor Greif quite worried and he
and Stellenbosch head to the basement to accelerate their plans, giving Alex
the perfect opportunity to try out the code, it works and they’re soon in. Kyra
is able to hack the computer, which looks really out of date for a show that
has modernised the original text substantially.
Anyway, Alex asks Kyra to search the database for anything
regarding Ian Rider, nothing. Krya does add an additional code to the locks but
she has another plan, a plan to get online and contact the authorities for
help, since they’re not making it down the mountain alive. James is on lookout
and overhears a conversation with Greif, Stellenbosch and a Doctor, a Doctor
who has done magnificent work but is seeking recognition for it. Greif believes
his time may be up as they head back upstairs
James warns the others by playing a song over the speakers.
In New York, Parker is preparing to give a rather grim sounding speech about
the future of Roscorp Media. Blunt and Mrs Jones discuss, Parker’s heading to
Europe to get a controlling interest in much of European media. Blunt is
certain Michael Roscoe was concerned about all this and decides its time to pay
him a visit.
A snowmobile arrives at the compound with one Yassan
Gregorovich coming into Greif’s office to provide the new security protocol, he
also provides a photo of Alex Friend, tipping him off that he may not be who he
seems. Gregorovich’s job is to make people disappear, but he feels Greif should
be able to handle it in-house.
Gregorovich and Alex meet face to face, and it’s clearly an
uncomfortable exchange. Blunt goes to see Parker and explains about the
phone-call, he also drops the name Point Blanc casually. Parker’s attitude, in
particular quoting Hitler, rings all the alarm bells and Blunt orders a watch
put on him. To successfully get down the mountain, James, Alex and Kyra will
need snowmobiles, whilst there are keys unlocked, they’d need a distraction to
get the guards away from them, Krya says she’ll handle that.
And she does, burning something or another to set off a fire
alarm, unfortunately it’s dealt with too quickly and Stellenbosch catches
James. She takes him into her office, with Alex following using the override
code, finding just an empty office. He uses a metal gizmo to stop his door from
locking that night, giving one to Kyra to do the same. They both head into her
office and Alex discovers a passage behind a mirror, no surprise it leads
upstairs to the second floor.
They find an exact replica of Alex’s room, and discover the
fact that have hidden cameras in every room. The copy of James’ room even have
a copy of his graffiti. Time for the moment of truth with the doctor who gets a
knife in the stomach for his troubles. They also say that Krya is next.
This episode is still good but the padding is becoming more
noticeable now, most of the stuff with the Special Operations division has been
rendered pointless thus-far.
Rating 7/10
Escape
We get a first for this show, a montage featuring a musical
number and the next morning begins and James ends up sitting with the others
eating in unison. He manages to get both Alex and Kyra to storm off.
Back in the office, they’re finally acting on Gregorovich’s
information, some background checks have found no mention of Tom in Alex
Friend’s background files. They decide that since Parker is in London anyway,
they’ll find out what they need to through him. They also say it’s time they
deal with Kyra.
Kyra is naturally terrified and decides she needs to make a
run for it, Alex says he can’t go yet but she’s still suspicious of him after
the Ian Rider namedrop and decides not to cut him in until he starts being
honest with her.
Tom gets a phone-call that makes him giddy with excitement,
he gets a student called Eddie to cover for him, and tell the teacher’s he’s
ill. He cycles half-way across London, I guess stopping to change into
casual-wear en-route. His stop is Roscorp Media, he takes a photo of himself
outside, a move that’s absolutely bound to land him in trouble if he posts it
online.
Lessons are concluded for the morning and Kyra’s time is
running out. There’s no way she’ll survive outside without a plan, and Alex
needs time to explore the basement and find out what’s going on.
The Special Operations division is busy searching through
all their old enemies to find out who could’ve set them up, Mrs Jones is asked
how Ian would feel putting Alex in play, and here it’s hinted that many of his
extra-curriculars were in fact training for just such an event. This isn’t said
to Alex directly and I think that’s for the best. For all they know he could’ve
been preparing him in case issues from work found their way home.
Anyway, Alex decides to take a look in the basement, still
able to use the keypad override. He enters a lab with red lights, similar to
the corridor from his ‘dream.’ He enters a lab, still proving that his stealth
needs work and finds file folders for something named Project Gemini. He begins
looking through his file and seeing photos of him strapped to the operating
table, proving that his dream was real.
The computer is not password protected and details plastic
surgery details. Tom enters the Roscorp Building and meets with Parker, and his
attendants who takes his jacket. Immediately some alarm bells should start
ringing as there are only 2 people at this so-called “networking event” one of
whom is Titan of industry.
Parker tells him they may have a friend in common, Alex… and
Tom responds by saying “Alex Rider” the meeting only gets more awkward from
there as Tom realises that this is a trap too late. Stellenbosch has the other
students looking for Kyra as she manages to sneak out of the building. Of
course, 20 miles from civilisation, she’s got a lot of ground to cover and not
a lot of cover.
Alex explores deeper into the lab and hears the sound of a
girl sobbing, he further investigates to find Sasha, Arash, Laura, James and
the real Parker all begging for his help to escape. Fake Parker continues to
interrogate Tom, who is now playing like he was bigging himself up regarding
Alex Friend.
His handler has another idea, unlock his phone… And in they
see footage from the Alex Rider spy video he was working on, what a dipshit,
which of course they’ve sent right to Greif. Now, Greif is worried as a
security sweep begins. Alex has no way of rescuing them all and his identity
has now been compromised so he’s quickly captured.
Meanwhile the school ring Jack since they can’t get hold of
Tom’s parents and assume he might be with them. Jack sees the photo of Tom at
the Roscoe building and decides to call Tom, when he doesn’t answer, the
attendant goes outside to check for unexpected visitors, a matter noted by the
Special Operations Division who should have seen Tom enter the building and
recognised the risk.
Alex is strapped to a table, and it seems the writers this
time have googled sodium pentothal and realised it’s a truth drug as Alex is
injected with it here. Jack makes a call to Mrs Jones and explains the
situation regarding Tom, Mrs Jones tells her to leave it with her. Alex is
resisting the truth drug, instead turning the questions on them only here’s the
thing, they have no idea who Ian Rider is. He uses the same interrogation
resistance techniques he used in the second episode, singing to keep the truth to himself.
Kyra’s trail has gone dead and since her only recourse is to go back to her
parents, Greif uses his new call-key to order them both killed.
As for Alex, Kyra had doubled back on her own trail, somehow
avoiding the guards back to the facility, hid on the second floor and stole a
couple of guard radios. She manages to rescue Alex who after verifying that she
wasn’t another copy tells her the truth about himself. Crawley and his team
manage to stop fake Parker from killing Tom, but has to report that Alex’s
cover has been compromised.
Alex’s situation is still complicated, all the snow-mobiles
are out on guard patrols so taking one of them down the mountain is impossible.
His only choice is to fashion a makeshift snowboard out of an ironing board and
some belts, once he’s able to make a call he can bring in the cavalry. Krya
says she’ll try and get the rest of the captives somewhere they won’t be shot
on sight.
Mrs Jones calls Wolf to organise a military operation to get
to Alex. Kyra gives Alex a short-range radio to contact her when the cavalry
arrives. Now comes the dangerous bit, he’s immediately caught by the security
cameras making his escape, so the guards are quickly on him, with orders to
kill.
Alex straps his shoes to the makeshift snowboard with the
belt and begins snowboarding down the mountain, but he’s quickly being pursued,
thankfully they’re not great shots. Though Alex has to lie flat on the board in
order to evade them. He gets knocked off and lies flat on the ground to avoid
the guard. He makes it to a road, but he can hear the snowmobiles nearby,
leaving him right open to bit by a passing plough truck.
This episode ratchets up the tension, which of course means
that godawful music is in full force too. The actual reveal errs on the side of
silly but I don’t think that was avoidable given that it’s lifted directly from
the book.
Rating 7.5/10
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