Alex Rider season 3 is back in style! The season becomes much more mature to tell us about Alex’s journey to discover his true identity through his past. Ready?
Here we go!
Malta is the Key to the Past in Alex Rider Season 3
We begin the season where we ended the previous one: with Alex determined to look for the “Widow” to find out more about Scorpia and, with it, about his past. This journey takes him to Malta, with Tom and Kyra. It was in Malta that Scorpia was created and there is no better place to have an encounter with its head, Julia Rothman AKA the “Widow.”
However, the friends soon drift apart, and as Tom and Kyra bond and embark on their own missions as spies, discovering what they are capable of on their own while struggling with the part of them that wants a normal life, Alex embarks alone on his own journey to know himself and discover the truth of his past.
Julia’s story in Alex Rider season 3 is closely linked to that of Alex’s father, John. The two worked together and became more than just comrades in arms… but Julia’s heart broke when she learned that John was not who he seemed. In reality, he was on a government mission to take down Scorpia.
The pain of betrayal makes Julia’s desire for revenge against John grow… and she achieves it. Julia kills John. However, the blind fury and desire for revenge didn’t subside in Julia, they were just there, crouching waiting, simmering for years.
When Alex appears in his life in Alex Rider season 3, Julia sees a way to finally complete her revenge. So she creates two parallel plans: one that achieves Scorpia’s goals and another that gives her the personal revenge she so desperately craves.
The Invisible Sword
So, on the one hand, Julia creates a deadly weapon called the Invisible Sword, designed to kill her victims with nanocapsules filled with cyanide. She plans to use it to attack London, threatening to overthrow the UK government unless she is paid billions of dollars. Her ultimate goal is world domination, just as Scorpia always wanted.
Additionally, Julia plans to put a much more sinister spin on this because she wants Alex to be there when her plan unfolds and he dies in front of her, inhaling the deadliest “Invisible Sword” to complete her revenge.
On the other hand, Julia manipulates Alex until he turns him against the Department and, more specifically, Mrs. Jones. Thus, she kills two birds with one stone and hurts Alex as much as she uses him to deal a mortal blow to the Government.
It all starts with Julia pretending to welcome Alex with joy during the first few episodes of Alex Rider season 3. She makes him trust her so when Julia shows him a doctored video about her father’s murder in which Mrs. Jones orders John to be shot, Alex doesn’t question it and believes her. Mrs. Jones killed her father and Alex has to avenge his death.
Julia takes advantage of a vulnerable moment in Alex, where he doesn’t know what to believe or who to trust, to plant the seed of doubt, and once she did, the video finished the job. Alex’s desire to do justice for the death of his father mixes with the taste of betrayal. He trusted Mrs. Jones and it was all a lie. So Alex no longer wants justice, he wants revenge.
In a way, it’s a poetic parallel between Julia and John’s story, in which she also discovered that John was betraying her and, after that, her fury and desire for revenge conquered everything.
To Trust or Not to Trust, That’s the Question in Alex Rider Season 3
Believing that the people he trusted are his enemies and with his friends far away, Alex lets himself be guided by Julia and joins Scorpia, becoming one of the organization’s assassins with the sole objective of killing Mrs. Jones.
However, Alex is not a cold-blooded killer. Therefore, when he confronts Mrs. Jones he is not able to kill her. Despite this, the Department takes the opportunity to set up a trap for Scorpia, making them believe that Mrs. Jones was murdered at the hands of Alex.
Meanwhile, Alex struggles again with who to trust and the unpleasant truths about his past that are part of who he is. In the end, he realizes Julia’s game and lies and returns to the Department, although with some doubts.
Alan knows that the only way for Alex to fully trust them again is to tell him the truth about his father. And so he does it. But the truth has more faces than we expected. Through Alan’s words, we discovered that everything was a test by the Department to prove Alex’s worth.
The Department knows Julia and knew what her reaction would be to meeting Alex and the events this would cause. Now it’s about Alex returning to Scorpia, this time as a Department infiltrator.
In Alex Rider season 3, as always, Alan is treating Alex as just another pawn in a bigger game. And proving a loyalty and worth that Alex has been demonstrating for years. And it’s not fair.
Is This the End of Alex’s Journey?
However, Alex is more magnanimous than us and agrees to continue helping the Department. However, he realizes that this may be his last mission, since he accidentally inhaled the Invisible Sword and now doesn’t have much time left to live. But this doesn’t stop him. Alex’s mission can save thousands of lives, he has to keep going, even if he dies trying.
And he almost did it. But in the end, he managed to carry out the mission and save countless lives, including his own. However, we would have liked Alex to be the one to take down Julia, after all the manipulation and deception, but it was Mrs. Jones. And we needed a conversation between Yassen and Alex after he saved Alex from certain death again and they had been training together, strengthening their relationship, for so long.
Following Julia’s death and the dismantling of Scorpia, Mrs. Jones becomes head of the Department, a much-deserved and necessary promotion. And the proof is the heart to heart she has with Alex at the end, advising him to live a normal life and that maybe, after college, he could come back if that’s what he wanted.
So it looks like this won’t be the last Alex Rider adventure we’ll see, and we’re happy about it! You know, Kyra and Alex have unfinished business….(wink, wink).
Alex Rider season 3 is available to watch on Amazon Freevee.
