Welcome back, spies! After the previous review, we return to analyze episode 6 of Alex Rider which is one of the best of the show, without any doubt. It has emotion, tension, scenes so raw that they make our hair stand on end, powerful women, great stunts … let’s talk about it all!
Here we go!
We finally found out what Dr. Grief and his minions were up to at Point Blanc, and the truth is scarier than we expected. Students are cloned to live the lives of the original people … as those are locked in cells that look like cages. With this our reaction is WTF?! It is a machiavellian plan, chilling, horrible … and all the adjectives and synonyms of horrible that you can think of.
Again, they surprise us with a turn into the dark that we don’t expect to see after the first episode. It is a quite serious and novel subject that, at first glance, it may seem that it doesn’t fit in the show but the truth is that it does. They have a way of presenting this story that makes you think: “Damn, it all adds up to me and I love the way you approach it! How had I not thought of before?”.
That said, although we already know what we still have to find out why. That is, we can assume that Dr. Grief wants to strategically place his clones/robots designed in positions of power in all areas and thus dominate in all of them but we still do not know for sure if this is the answer, and what he seeks to achieve, apart from world domination. That unknown remains for the next episode.
But the discovery of The Gemini Project is not the only surprise that awaited us in this episode. Remember that in the previous episode Dr. Grief and his minions learned of Alex’s true identity. He knows something is wrong and tries to run away with Kyra, despite her growing mistrust in him.
In the end, Alex is able to trust her and tell her the whole truth. He knows it may not be the smartest choice, but just like her, there is something inside him that tells him he can trust Kyra. And Alex does. Takes that leap of faith and trust her.
However, nothing turns out as expected. Alex wants to stay and find out in one go what happened to his uncle and why. He knows that it is now or never and that if he leaves there without finding out, he never will. But Kyra doesn’t even have such a personal interest in the matter and, for her, survival must come first. If they stay at Point Blanc they are dead. And she knows it. They must leave as soon as possible, notify someone … it is a point of no return.
So they part … or so it seems. Alex is captured by Dr. Grief and his second in command and is tortured. Again, Alex endures torture with incredible fortitude and we wonder why. But, to tell the truth, here we realize how well planned the show is.
In other words, the torture suffered by Alex is linked to what he suffered at the hands of MI6 as a test of his resistance. They tested him to find out what his stamina was and that training has served him well now. This means that the MI6 training was a prelude, a hint of what was to come. And now the pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly. And I love this. I love that a show has everything so well spun and thought from the beginning.
Going back to the story, it seemed that Kyra had managed to escape … but in reality it was just a distraction. She comes back for Alex and rescues him, saves him. So the show throws away all that damsel-in-distress shit. In this genre it is very rare to see a woman saving the hero of history. But Kyra does it and I stand up for it.
Also, I don’t miss the fact that Kyra cares for Alex and comes back for him … yes I confess, I ship them like crazy! They just have such an explosive chemistry together … it’s impossible not to love them.
Back together, the two of them plan how to escape Point Blanc to seek help and rescue the others. The area surrounding the boarding school is deserted and full of snow … and that leads us to think of skyboarding! Alex doesn’t have equipment on hand but he makes it, very cleverly, with an ironing board.
That leads us to an intense chase in the best scene this show has had, the most impressive: Alex plowing through the snow at breakneck speed to get to the road and get help. Wow! Just wow! This scene is amazing, really, my jaw dropped when I saw it, just as I mentioned to Anthony and Otto. What an scene, super fun and fills you with adrenaline. It’s a strange mix because on the one hand you feel super excited and on the other, worried that they might catch Alex again.
In the end, he achieves his goal and finds a road and when we are about to breathe easy … a truck runs over him and the last we see is Alex, seriously injured, lying on the road … and we are out of breath. They finished the episode in an impressive climax, leaving us wanting much more. Bravo!
As we imagined, Tom’s video was going to cause problems. Thanks to this video, all the participants in The Gemini Project discover Alex’s true identity. And that makes them go after Tom and torture him to get to Alex. This is a new surprise in terms of darkness. In other words, seeing how two teenagers are tortured is a crude story and one that inevitably affects viewers, moves us and involves us emotionally. I just want to into the screen, kill everyone who is hurting Tom and hold him very tight.
Luckily, he has Jack and Mrs. Jones who, like Kyra does with Alex, help him and save his life. Strong women! I love this. There is no distinction in how the female and male characters are written. No “a woman wouldn’t do this” cliches. It’s one of the reasons why I love this show.
After all this, MI6 knows that Alex’s identity is compromised and now the mission is to reach him before they can kill him … will they succeed?
Thus, with honey on our lips and wanting more, this episode leaves us and we come to episode 7, which we will review tomorrow.
In conclusion, this episode is the best one we’ve had so far and one of the best of the entire season. It’s amazing, dark, with badass women saving the day, showing the strength of Alex and Tom, awesome action scenes, tension, good stories, action … it has it all! This final stretch of the show is on fire!
