We’re back, spies! After Alex Rider episode 1 review, we’re here to discuss episode 2 and how players move around the game board. Because in this episode nothing is what it seems …
Here we go!
After what he’s just discovered, Alex’s attitude is bound to change. Suddenly, everything that seemed so important before now is not. And he can’t … focus on anything. His body is there, he’s in high school, he’s with Aisha and her half-date … but his mind is far from there. And Tom realizes that something is wrong with Alex.
What’s more, Alex’s attitude towards him changes. It seems that it takes him away and, he is like a closed book, all mysteries and secrets. Tom is between puzzled and hurt. It hurts him that Alex treats him like that but beyond the anger, the disappointment … he knows there has to be a reason. A very important reason. And he decides to find out, just like a good friend would. And I love him so much, so much, for it.
It’s so easy to stay on the surface, just let your best friend push you away without wondering why, just focus on the pain brought by their attitude. But Tom doesn’t. He is able to ignore that excruciating pain and wonder why … and that leads him to something he never imagined in a million years.
Something similar happens with Jack. She also notices that something happens with Alex when he is nowhere to be seen and that he is hiding something. The family always knows. Always. And, even if he lies to her and tries to hide as best he can … in the end, Jack finds out everything. She finds out about MI6, Mrs. Jones, her boss, Alex’s recruitment and … Point Blanc. Of course, no secret remains buried. They always come out, and when they do, they often have worse consequences than telling the truth from the start.
Alex was only trying to protect Jack and Tom from the danger that lurked but that was not in him. It is not his decision to make. Only Jack and Tom can decide about their own life and their own safety. Sometimes, trying to protect our loved ones, with all the good intention in the world, we take away that decision. This happens with Alex, but Jack, when she learns the truth – when the time comes we will analyze what happens with Tom – decides to stay by Alex’s side no matter what. Because that’s what family does.
Alex is not alone in all this, he can cling to her so as not to fall or get carried away in that web of lies and secrets … he has her, whether he wants her or not and he will need her.
It’s a lot to take in for Jack but she doesn’t hesitate for a second. The only thing that matters is Alex’s safety, his well-being. In fact, she was willing to sacrifice herself and be deported if they wanted but she was not going to let them manipulate Alex and risk his life, but Alex cannot allow that and, deep down, he knows that he does want to find out all the truth about who killed him and of course, why his uncle was killed, and the only way is MI6.
Knowing this, Jack does everything she can to protect him, including talking to Ms. Jones and making it clear that she holds her responsible for what happens to Alex. And it lets her know that she is there and that Alex is not alone. He has her. If only Jack knew …
Because Alex’s disappearance is no accident. Someone kidnapped him, and while at first we thought the culprit was Yassen, we later found out that the truth is much more twisted than that. Despite Ms. Jones’s reluctance – entirely logical reluctance and I’d like her boss to pay much more attention to her – MI6 is determined to go ahead with recruiting Alex. The next step is to test his resistance and, for that … he is kidnapped and tortured.
This is … I don’t know. I was blown away by this plot. I didn’t expect it and less in a show that, after episode 1, seemed more for young adults. These scenes are really hard to watch, the psychological torture, the physical … really creepy. So much so that even the kidnapper and his team end up hating what they’re doing … and I hate them a lot. Or I hated them until then because they start to show they have a heart, but why do they do it? Was it really necessary?
Mrs. Jones herself gives us the answer: yes. It is her turn to act as the devil’s advocate and defend something she does not believe in. However, I don’t think it was necessary to torture a child just to test his resistance, please, it’s a teenager. I have to confess that I cried for Alex, I covered my ears and just wanted him to stop, I suffered with Alex (and that speaks of how well done this scene is and how well it appears in the story), but this is my heart talking. Just my heart.
But, if we think about it coldly, Alex is going to enter a dangerous and unknown place alone, surrounded by enemies. They need to know Alex’s ability to endure whatever he may have to suffer. Even if it’s horrible. It’s just that Alex is still such a child … our hearts cannot bear so much cruelty, so much horror and we hate to see it … and to know that, within it all, there is a cold logic in which something like this makes sense.
However, we cannot finish analyzing this without commenting that Alex overcomes this torture with extraordinary strength. A strength that a normal teenager would not have … did his uncle train him without Alex realizing it?
Meanwhile, Alex and Point Blanc’s mission continues and we begin to uncover more secrets surrounding this boarding school for troubled children of powerful people … who end up committing crimes with no apparent motivation. And everything we discover makes our hair stand on end even more … and we can’t stop wondering where Alex is going.
Seriously, I just want to get on the screen and get him out of there because he’s going to find himself alone, surrounded by enemies, not knowing who he can trust … and away from the people he loves. And I’m worried. This show really makes you feel worried and anxious for Alex and all that awaits him.
And it is a fact that Alex is going to get into the wolf’s mouth because while he learns more about Point Blanc, they already have him in their sights … and you feel as if you are watching two trains that you know they are going to collide, causing a huge fire … but you can’t do anything to stop it.
And … what happens to the traitor who helps Yassen kill Ian Rider? Well, at the moment and unfortunately, he is not paying for what he did. At the moment, no one at MI6 specifically mistrusts him and he feels invincible thinking that everything worked out for him. We just hope they takes the smile off his face … soon.
So, we come to episode 3 that we will analyze tomorrow.
In conclusion, in this episode the story begins to pick up the pace and we discover more and more things about Alex’s mission and even about his surprising resistance to difficult situations … but we are also witnessing the gap in the middle of MI6. Ultimately, the entire game board moves its pieces exactly where they need to be for everything to come.
The episode has a much more dynamic pace, more action, and is much better than the first. In fact, they already introduce us to certain plots that we didn’t expect to see in this show, they begin to introduce us to darkness.
