This week’s episode had it all: action, secrets, drama, and love. The episode opens with Christine restrained aboard a ship somewhere at sea. Back at HQ, Doug confronts Hersch about working with Skinner at The Hague Institute. Without hesitation, Hersch reveals working with Skinner in the beginning of research for Hapna before he suddenly left. She had left The Hague Institute after Skinner disappeared and was recruited by the NSA for the Lazarus Special Task Force because of her knowledge of Skinner. In episode six, I had my suspicions of Hersch being the director of the NSA because of the memo on her screen so it’s satisfying to know I was on the right path. Even though this was a cliffhanger from the previous episode, this could’ve been postponed to the next episode to allow the urgency of Chris’ kidnapping to take priority. And bless Leland’s heart, his only concern was Chris so now we switch gears to where we left off in the previous episode.
The kidnapped Chris is tied to a chair as she tells Sergei their exact location, which is an oil rig in the Barents Sea in the Arctic, and the answer causes Sergei to aggressively slap her multiple times. He only stops when Inga, the short haired blonde lady from the previous episode, walks in and he lies about Chris trying to escape. Inga expresses how she’s been waiting to kill Chris/Alexandra, knowing she’s still alive. Back at HQ, Team Lazarus learns Chris’ GPS location at the oil rig means she’s been kidnapped by Russian special agents. Chris set up the wristband to cut off her bloodstream and kill her if there’s no contact for three days. Hersch explains Christine Blake is a fake name and Chris is a defected Russian special agent, changing her face and name to join Lazarus. I can see why Chris was secretive because imagine how your teammates would react learning you’re a former Russian spy? With two days left, Team Lazarus decides to save Chris despite Hersch’s opposition, showing her past to be irrelevant to the current situation. It’s heartwarming to see such loyalty to someone after 18 days of working together and this episode shows a deeper bond than we haven’t seen previously. The team makes it to Norway and are unable to travel by road or ship due to bad weather, but Hersch comes through by using her connections to send a helicopter to get the team as close as possible to the oil rig and getting Eleina set up with an observatory in Norway to work.
At the oil rig, Chris taunts Sergei, enduring intense hits and being thrown around like a rag doll. I’m beyond ready for something “unfortunate” to happen to him. Eleina has arrived at the observatory while Axel, Doug, and Leland are on the way to the oil rig. Leland assists Axel, who makes it on the oil rig to activate the network room so Eleina can gain access to the communication system. Doug jumps to a boat from a tanker ship, allowing it to ram into the oil rig and cause panic to the Russian agents. Chris takes advantage of Sergei being distracted by attacking and with a phenomenal counter move, uses Sergei’s momentum to push herself off the wall and take him down! Chris certainly made me proud as she made her escape from Sergei. Team Lazarus meanwhile are making individual efforts to rescue Chris from Doug being a certified shooter, taking out agents one by one, and Eleina using the mechanical arm of the oil rig to assist. It was enjoyable seeing the team come together to save one of their own and it speaks to how a strong bond has been formed in a small amount of time.
Axel does catch up with Chris but briefly leaves her as he continues to fight. Inga unexpecting appears, pointing a gun at Chris and this is when we learn through a flashback about their relationship as lovers. It’s an act of true love on Chris’ part for the agency to believe she died so Inga receives no retaliation because heartbreak would be better than living with the guilt of knowing running away causes the love of your life to die.
An angry Sergei catches up with the two during an emotional moment; for story purposes it seems someone had to die, so Sergei kills Inga. I was overjoyed when Axel finally shot Sergei because he was obnoxious the entire episode and his hatred for “traitors” was laughable. Axel and Chris escape the oil rig in a dramatic fashion as Doug and Leland rescues the two from the water.
This was one of the more intriguing episodes but not without its flaws. Sergei’s violence against Chris was uncomfortable to watch and felt gratuitous. This episode did a decent job of connecting with episode seven and how far the team has come with working together. The lack of hesitation to save a fellow member of the team speaks to the comradery that has developed over the series thus far. Again, Hersch’s true identity could’ve been dealt with in the next episode since it seems a discussion of Lazarus’ future is being held at the Pentagon and Leland is being called as a witness. Doug assumes the team has a mole but the main question is if we’re going back to find Skinner at some point so we’ll find out next week!
Umeko is a staff writer for toonamifaithful.com. Feel free to follow her on Twitter @blu_temptation
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