Blood, betrayal, and a peace that should never have existed | S02E06-07

Episode 6 takes us all the way to Greece! I hadn't read anywhere that the story would feature my home country so prominently, so it was a pleasant surprise! Running at around an hour in total, we see the two parallel storylines finally starting to converge. James Reece and Raife Hastings get closer and closer to uncovering the real conspiracy behind Project Kestrel, while their adversaries prepare an attack that could shift the geopolitical balance.

In episode 6, “Rats in a Maze”, Oliver Grey is in Athens, where he continues to coordinate the final details of the operation. His partnership with Jules Landry is starting to get rocky, as the latter realizes someone is trying to take him out. Landry isn't exactly the type to trust his associates easily anyway, and he makes sure to secure the money he was promised before vanishing.

Reece, having now tracked him down, manages to capture him and transfer him to a black site in Kurdistan. There, a brutal interrogation begins, involving both Reece himself and Freddy Strain, while Mo Farooq has his own personal reasons for wanting answers out of Landry. Their history together is far more complex than a simple relationship between interrogator and prisoner, as Mo remembers all too well what was done to him by the man he once considered a brother-in-arms.

On the other side of the story, Raife travels to Greece, teaming up once again with former Mossad agent Tal Varon to track down Grey. They are joined by Ox and Eli, who lend a hand in the investigation as they try to trace the movements of the man appearing to be right at the center of it all. The trail leads to a local exporter named Stavros, who is connected to the trafficking of US arms. But Grey realizes he's in danger of being exposed and gets orders from the mysterious Colonel to eliminate him. By the time Raife and his team arrive on the scene, it's already too late.

At the same time, Landry's interrogation reveals that the operation has a far more personal target than we initially imagined. Grey's entire plot seems to have been orchestrated to ultimately lead straight to James Reece. In fact, Landry exposes the existence of two snipers—Tariq Nizar and Tasho—who are en route to Odesa, where a major peace summit between Russia and Ukraine is set to take place.

This intelligence completely shifts the team's priorities. Reece and Freddy gear up to head to Ukraine, while Mo stays behind to squeeze the last remaining answers out of Landry. And this is where we get one of the most brutal scenes of the entire season. Using piano wire, Mo subjects him to a gruesome form of torture, demanding to know who is truly pulling the strings behind the operation and why Reece has been put in their crosshairs.

Landry ultimately reveals that the real mastermind behind the operation is a Russian ultranationalist, member of a network linked to the Black Hundreds seeking to revive the Russian empire. The only piece of information he has is his rank: Colonel. As for why he has a personal obsession with Reece, he knows nothing. Mo gets his final answer and completes his revenge, leaving Landry to die in one of the most gruesome ways we've seen in the series.

In Episode 7, “Every Bullet Has Its Destiny”, we are transported to Odesa, Ukraine. Vasili Andrenov’s peace plan between Russia and Ukraine is finally about to take place, and Reece along with Freddy arrive there to head off a potential terrorist attack.

Right from the start of the episode, we're treated to a flashback to 1997 that turns out to be crucial for everything that follows. We see a young Oliver Grey meeting with the Colonel, who is accompanied by his nephew, Mishka. Their conversation revolves around Thomas Reece—James's father—and documents related to the Vietnam War era. It's one of those scenes that initially seems like just a slice of backstory, but we gradually realize it holds the key to unraveling the whole conspiracy.

Back in the present, Reece is trying to convince both US and Russian authorities that a genuine threat exists. The US President is also at the center of heightened security measures, as it's initially assumed he might be the target of the attack. But the intelligence isn't enough to call off the peace summit.

Reece and Freddy scope out the area and quickly realize something isn't right. The search leads to the city's underground catacombs, where they uncover explosives and evidence revealing a multi-layered attack plot. Reece finally realizes that the real target isn't the U.S. President, but Russian President Drozdov.

Meanwhile, the two snipers are already in position aboard a cargo ship used as cover for the operation. Nizar and Tasho bide their time, waiting for the right moment, while Freddy sets off to pinpoint their location and take them out.

The attack kicks off, and Nizar hits his mark. Russian President Drozdov takes the bullet, assassinated right in the middle of the event. In a matter of seconds, the peace process collapses and Odessa is plunged into chaos.

Freddy pinpoints the snipers' position and manages to take out Tasho. But Nizar has already spotted him and returns fire. Reece rushes over to help, but by the time he reaches him, it's already too late. Freddy has been fatally shot.

It's a particularly brutal moment, especially as we see Freddy's phone ringing with his wife on the line. Reece stares at the screen, knowing he can't pick up and tell her what happened. Nizar manages to slip away, while security forces confirm the US President is safe. The operation, however, has already achieved its main objective: the assassination of Drozdov.

And while all this is going down, Oliver Grey continues playing his own game. In disguise, he manages to get close to Vasili Andrenov and get him alone. That's when the episode's big reveal hits: Grey calls him Mishka! It's the same man we saw in the 1997 flashback—the Colonel's nephew. The businessman who appeared to be the man behind the peace initiative turns out to be part of the conspiracy after all.

What are the critics saying?

The two episodes have received a very positive reception from the specialized reviews published so far. For Episode 6, Action Reloaded awards 5/5 stars, singling out the pacing, Landry's brutal interrogation, and Tom Hopper's performance as Raife. Special mention is also made of the character's emotional side, as we see the guilt he carries over the past and the choices he made.

For Episode 7, the same outlet also awards 5/5 stars, calling it a strong penultimate chapter. The sniper duel, the action sequences in the catacombs, and the intensity of the Odessa operation are among the standout elements. Meanwhile, the loss of Freddy adds emotional weight to a storyline that up until that point relied mostly on tactical action and political conspiracy.

There's now just one episode left before Season 2 wraps up as well. That the businessman had a hand in all this was a given for me. Besides, whenever I've seen this actor, he usually plays... "guilty" roles! With the flashback shown at the start of the episode, revealing that the Colonel's nephew is actually the businessman, quite a few pieces of the puzzle start falling into place.

The endgame seems to have been freezing the peace process, assassinating the Russian President, and creating the right conditions for a much bigger political upheaval. Of course, we still haven't learned what personal vendetta the Colonel has against Reece, or why he dragged his family so directly into the mix. That's where I'm expecting the biggest answers in the finale.

We also got some brutal scenes, like Landry's death, which was a kill method I'd never seen in a show before. Just thinking back to that scene gives me chills! On the other hand, Freddy's death was a much more emotional moment. He was a character who had really won me over, and his loss definitely leaves a big void by Reece's side.

The season has really kicked into high gear now; the two parallel storylines have almost converged, and the finale is tasked with answering questions that have been building up from the very start. Most of all, I want to find out what really happened to Reece's father, what his connection to the Colonel is, and why this whole story seems to have begun years before the events we're watching.