We’ve got 2 episodes left of Alex Rider to cover and thusfar it’s been a strong showing, though the pacing can be a bit hit or miss.
Incursion
Alex is on the ground unconscious as the driver of the
plough arranges for an ambulance for him. One of the guards spots this and
reports it to Stellenbosch, Doctor Greif tells her to make sure he’s dead, and
she does so, pretending to be his aunt and watching as they try and fail to
resuscitate him. Kyra overhears the guards say that the boy is dead, much to
her sadness.
Of course, this was all a set-up and Mrs Jones had
engineered the whole thing. With all these close calls, Doctor Greif believes
they need to send all the fakes out tomorrow and kill the originals. Alex is
told to debrief a team and Mrs Jones advises he won’t be coming along for the
rescue, which Alex is not happy about.
Back at special operations DNA analysis concludes that the fake Parker
is, well, a fake Parker, with no genetic resemblance to his original. They also
discovered scars from plastic surgery and a drug cocktail that allows him to
heal quickly from having undergone repeated surgery.
Time for debrief and a formal introduction to the military
squad from episode 2, codenamed Wolf, Eagle, Fox and Snake. And we get the full
extent of Greif’s plan, to clone himself and then engineer them to look like
the children, hence why the clones are about the same age as the children. Like
I said, this does err on the side of silly but it’s unavoidable given the book.
Point Blanc is still on high alert and any incursion at this
point may be doomed to failure but they’re out of time if they want to save the
original students. Blunt says he’s going to try and put Greif’s nerves at ease,
however Gregorovitch has a different view, saying he believes their entire
operation may be compromised, and that could fall back onto him and his
organisation. He’s already begun damaged mitigation, having killed fake
Parker’s handler.
It's an argument now about a plan of action, with presumably
hostile clones rather difficult to tell apart from the hostages, any full-frontal
assault would end with dead kids everywhere. Alex says he’s going up
regardless, if he’s not an agent he’s no-longer bound by the agency.
Blunt interrogates fake Parker, but it’s not really an
interrogation, more an excuse to get his voiceprint. They use this to call
Doctor Greif and inform that Alex Rider is a fiction, and Tom has been dealt
with. With this information, Greif tells his guards to stand down. Wolf tells
Alex that his team were about to stop when he escaped, that whilst he needs him
front and centre for the assault, his team will have his back. His call sign is
Cub, because of course it is.
The Wolf Pack and Alex ski to Point Blanc. Kyra is still
hiding and had her radio turned off, she turns it on and hears Alex’s message
to get ready. One guard on the ground is taken down by a silenced shot,
followed by one on the roof. One of the wolf-pack is in a sniper position, they
break in through a window, their objective is to deal with the clones before
going after Greif and Stellenbosch.
Alex guides them to the bedrooms, where the clones are
sleeping, they use tape to stun them long enough to incapacitate them. Of
course, their incursion couldn’t remain undetected forever and soon the alarm
is raised. Now, Greif decides he must destroy everything related to the
project, instructing Stellenbosch to kill all but one of the children and take
that one as a hostage.
Stellenbosch heads into the lab but finds all the cells have
already been emptied. This action scene is really limited, we barely a get a
sense of what’s going on. Kyra, or someone who looks like Kyra approaches Alex
and says she needs his help, and Alex runs with her. He doesn’t ask why Kyra
didn’t use the radio.
And that was a fatal error as he’s lead right into a trap
laid by Stellenbosch. Still, the operation had eyes on Alex the entire time and
know where he went, Mrs Jones also tells him they need Dr Greif alive. Wolf
finds and captures Greif. Stellenbosch’s violent attacks have caused a fire
leading to containers of hydrogen, Alex hides in the corner as the resulting
explosion kills Stellenbosch, but also knocks down the door the wolf pack
couldn’t get through.
Alex is alive, though not 100% as the hostages are found. A
storm is brewing so they need to get clear of the mountain before coming to do
a full forensic search. Alex is taken back to London and back to Jack and Tom
but Alex is still despondent as the truth was, his search was in vein. Blunt
interrogates Doctor Greif But he isn’t willing to co-operate, fearing the
assassins for more than him.
Back at point Blanc, it turns out the count of clones was
one short, as a clone that looks like Alex Rider walks through the carnage in
the destroyed lab.
It’s a decent conclusion, but the actual action here is
pretty lacklustre
Rating 7/10
Truth
Alex is still rather troubled from his recent adventures,
whilst fake Alex heads to Doctor Greif’s office at Point Blanc, finding the
photo of Alex with Tom, he also finds a fake passport for Alex Friend. And he
does something that was thought impossible, and simply walks from the lab to
the road. He sees a car approaching and gets the driver to stop, braining him
with a rock and taking possession of the car.
Alex is still very quiet, even as Tom tries to get him
talking. Still, Alex comes to school the next day… Special Operations have
managed to reunite most of the teens with their parents except Kyra, and the
news soon reaches them that her parents are dead. No word on what’s happening
with Parker whose parents are very much dead.
There’s a school dance about to take place and Tom gets the
date with the girl who puked on his shoes. Crawley arrives at the safehouse and
tells Kyra about her parents’ death, she blames herself despite Crawley’s
assurances and… oh come on, you’re a secret agent, someone who’s generally more
reserved going in for a hug like that is a massive tell. Of course, she was
after a key-card to escape the safehouse.
Alex is still unsure about the dance and asking Ayisha to
go. Before that can be settled, Kyra arrives on campus. Fake Alex has arrived
at the Rider household and is beginning to learn about Ayisha through the
letters that were sent to him in his absence from school friends. Jack also
discovers him, though their conversation doesn’t attract her attention.
Kyra and Alex talk and I’m almost convinced for a moment
Alex was going to ask her to the dance but he never does and that’s probably
for the best. She doesn’t tell him her parents were killed because of their
escape plan, she just gives him the magnet he used to stop the doors locking,
he puts it, ironically, in his locker as fake Alex arrives on the scene and
begins to talk to Ayisha.
We don’t actually hear what he says, as we cut to Special
Ops as they’re about to send Doctor Greif away for further interrogation. He’s
not swayed by their threats. Fake Alex then sees Tom setting up something in
the hall for the dance. He begins asking about his meeting with Parker, saying
he heard about it all from Jack… This guy’s learning about Alex’s life
incredibly fast, I know he studied Alex a bit from the hidden camera he knows
things he really shouldn’t.
He pressures Tom into talking about it and Tom’s having none
of it, it’s interrupted by a teacher. The car transporting Doctor Greif stops
at a junction and the agent driving is unable to restart the car. Gregorovich
attaches a device to the front grill such that poison gas comes through the air
vents and kills them all. Certainly a less exciting end than his character in
the book.
Alex is about to ask Ayisha out to the dance but gets
himself a slap in the face for what fake Alex said to her, and upon coming home
he’s chewed out by Tom over fake Alex as well. Back at Special Operations, the
news isn’t good, Greif was their only direct lead, and it’s clear whoever’s
responsible has eyes on them.
Mrs Jones and Alex talk, with Greif dead they’re out of
leads on whoever killed Ian, their only possible hope is anything Alex can tell
them, and here’s where Gregorovich visiting the school comes to bite him in the
ass, Alex remembers and tells them, and Mrs Jones immediately draws the
conclusion to Gregorovich, who until right then they believed was dead. Alex is
shown a photo and confirms it
The photo was with Gregorovich and Alex’s father, that’s why
Gregorovich recognised him at the school, this means the secret society SCORPIA
has come out of hiding. It’s the school dance and fake Alex is waiting there,
he takes Tom aside and asks to talk to him in private, so they head down to the
library. They begin talking and you’d almost be convinced its him but there’s
no way Alex would be at the party if things had gone this weirdly, also he’s
unscrewing something.
Back at Special Ops, they discover some Project Gemini files
regarding the clones, there are 8 when only 7 have been captured, and with Alex
they don’t know if the even brought back the real one, only that he just
provided them with a link to Gregorovich that absolutely couldn’t have been
from a clone.
The real Alex is still in his school uniform too and gets a
message from fake Alex to come in 4 minutes or he’ll kill Tom. The dance is
still happening and Tom’s date is starting to worry, Alex comes in and saves
Tom from fake Alex, a fight ensues and I can’t tell whether or not it’s
intentional that we have no way of telling the two apart.
Fake Alex manages to wind Alex and runs off, with Alex in
hot pursuit. Tom tries to get the teachers to evacuate the dance floor.
Unfortunately, Fake Alex isn’t stupid and stole a skull mask from another
student to better blend in. Alex searches frantically and only barely manages
to find him before he strikes Ayisha. Now a fight ensues, and now we have the
face mask so we can tell the two apart, albeit briefly as the mask is gone when
Tom cuts the power and the fight resumes outside.
Special Operations arrive on the scene but are unable to
determine which the clone is, but Tom comes out and strikes one of them, I
don’t know how or if he knew it was the clone, maybe he saw the mask but it’s
the right one, though his capture earlier got him a broken arm. Clone Alex
isn’t gone, grabbing one of the agents’ weapons, but he’s then shot and killed by
Gregorovich, and I think Alex sees him, though is unaware of his involvement in
the death of his uncle.
And with that, we’ve reached the end, Mrs Jones suggests
letting Alex live a normal life, Tom’s wearing a t-shirt saying “the book was
better” (you weren’t in the book Tom, just saying) and Alex, Tom and Jack are
heading out for Pizza. And the end credits for the episode use the amazing
theme song rather than usual shitty outro, double-win.
And that was season 1 of Alex Rider, certainly not afraid of
taking massive liberties with its source material, even factoring in the
Frankenstein-ing of the plot of Stormbreaker into the series in the first
place.
Special Operations seem rather incompetent, the one gadget
they give Alex doesn’t work and they’re outclassed at basically every turn,
which is less noticeable in the books and the film because they have far less
time dedicated to them. It’s mostly by Gregorovich but they also ran afoul of
Kyra near the end. No wonder they’re outclassed by Alex who is making his own
share of rookie mistakes throughout.
The clone plot is massive expansion from a single chapter of
the book, working well on smaller areas established in the first episode but I
do hope Gregorovich isn’t being turned into a plot dues ex-machina. This episode had the best, if not brilliant, action of the series, and
it’s a fight between 2 people played by the same actor.
Rating 8/10
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