Circles In A Circle – The episode opens six months in the past with Joe Petrus/Muscle (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) sharing his purchase and plans for the hardware store with Frankie (Maria Nash). She asks if the purchase means he’ll be hanging around longer this time. He says there is nowhere else he’d rather be. While on a present-day flight scheduled for Heathrow, London, he uses his phone to monitor surveillance feeds of the inside of a home.
In the past, Dianne/Brain (Gemma Arterton) shares the difficulties of cracking a foundation safe with the team. Right Hand (Tom Mothersdale) suggests using explosives to free the safe. She claims they wouldn’t make a dent before adding there are two men with the skills to crack it. One would be Mislav Barderic who was murdered two years ago in Russia. The other is Malek Mizouni (Uriel Emil) but after getting caught, has started working for the opposition. Dianne says she suspects he can be lured back to their side before Muscle inquires about his location.
The team visits a café in Barcelona, Spain where Muscle asks Malek to speak with Dianne. While Malek joins her at a nearby table, Muscle orders Youssef Mizouni (Kamel El Basha) to get lost. Malek alludes to knowing Dianne by saying it’s an honor to be considered but claims he’s lost his love and desire for safecracking. Although she accepts his answer, she threatens him about sharing their meeting. Outside, Youssef approaches Muscle and reveals himself as Malek’s father before asking to speak with Dianne.
Youssef is blindfolded and hauled away to an isolated dockside warehouse where he pleads with her to not kill his son. For good measure, he reminds her that even after 9 years in prison neither he nor Malek spoke to the police. After some debating, he reveals that he’s trained another safecracker, his granddaughter Azar Mizouni (Tara Abboud).
Azar is shown to have a love for graffiti when she’s shown breaking into a factory to tag a wall. While doing so, she’s surprised and taken hostage by a masked Specialist (Nimah Algar).
As Muscle’s plane touches down in London, England he arranges a meeting via text. He catches a cab that drops him off in an average neighborhood. His unanswered calls force him to the rear of a property where he enters through an open window. Inside the first thing he notices is a wall full of family photos. Some members are dressed as police officers. There’s also an elaborate collection of ceramic cat figurines that he adds to. When he enters the backyard and breaks into the shed to retrieve a gun hidden in the wall Cathy (Suzette Llewellyn) and Carl Marking (Jude Akuwudike) arrive home. Cathy immediately notices the addition to her ceramic cat collection. She doesn’t share the news with Carl or catching a glimpse of Joe waking away.
Against her wishes, Azar is taken to meet Dianne and Youssef where her skills are tested. At first, she’s enthused to learn that they are being considered for a job, but that fades when Dianne locks Youssef inside a safe that begins filling with water. He walks her through the details and she manages to crack it at the last minute. She meets the rest of the team and Dianne lays out the details of the job.
At an art exhibition in the present day, Muscle meets with Specialist to discuss the team being killed off. After spending a few minutes trying to convince each other of their innocence, Specialist reveals the presence of Officer (Kirby). Muscle becomes apprehensive once again as she steps from cover and greets him. He becomes even more suspicious when Officer admits to having an encounter with the assumed killer in Paris. Before he can respond, Specialist is put on guard by the sudden interruption of Colin (Nathan Welsh) who now apparently works at the museum. Muscle manages to awkwardly take Colin to the side and brush him off by promising to meet with him later. Specialist immediately approaches and accuses him of setting her up. Although he seemingly convinces her that Colin is an innocent bystander, she sneaks out on the meeting when he becomes occupied with Officer’s recanting of the Paris attack.
At an undisclosed shipping dock in the past, Muscle says goodbye to Doctor (Amara Karan), who is covered in blood and wishes him luck. As he drives away, he informs the beaten and battered Officer that she’s just had surgery and is under the effects of morphine. He also claims they are on their way to count their payday from the job. Arriving at a dock warehouse, he finds a jumpy Specialist, Soldier (Laura Morgan), and Driver (Vincent Riotta). They reveal they’ve been there for nearly an hour and haven’t seen any of the others, although some of the member’s “to-go” bags were already gone when they arrived. After some debate, they all settle on splitting what they have, grab their “to-go” bags, and disappear.
Outside the museum in the present, Officer teases Muscle about Colin before they discuss how the job went wrong. Officer claims to remember very little because of the gunshot. Muscle says Dianne was the last person he saw at the vault and she promised to join him at the meeting location when the job was complete. He adds that she was scheduled to ride to the meet with Right Hand, Safecracker, and Greaseman. She admits to keeping tabs on the team’s social media and suspects she may have a lead on Azar in France.
At a café in Barcelona, Malek says goodbye to a friend and walks back to his apartment where he is by a Devil (Ned Dennehy). Muscle and Officer are shown boarding an international train while Malek is interrogated by Devil. Despite being a whimpering mess while being questioned, Malek takes responsibility for the job. Devil alludes to not believing him before executing him. As he bends to retrieve the spent bullet casing, his eye is drawn to a family photo.
While tracking down leads using Azar’s social media graffiti postings, Officer tries to get Muscle to reveal some of the items he bought with his split. He admits to buying a tiger. After questioning him for a while, she assumes that he didn’t spend any of it and teases him over that. Their next lead takes them to a cement factory where Muscle notices that one of the graffiti artists has used the same paint as Azar. Assuming it was her and using previous sightings, they manually triangulate her location to Pamiers.
In the past after collecting his and Officer’s share of the job, Muscle checks them into a hotel. Once safely in their room, their relationship grows deeper as he cleans and changes her dressing then helps her to the bathroom. She turns down his offer to stay with her until she can’t care for herself again. When she learns that he’s missed his flight, she encourages him to take her ticket.
When they stop for gas in the present day, Officer offers to pay for the fill-up. While inside, it appears that she shares Azar’s location with someone. Outside, Muscle learns of Malek’s death from the local paper. Reading that he was tortured and executed causes him to quickly check the surveillance footage he was monitoring on the plane. He then makes a quick call to Jules Hammet (Kevin Vidal), which reveals a disconnected line. As he and Officer speed away, it’s revealed that shared Azar’s location with Devil.
Culprits Review
I have to admit, I’m enjoying this series much more than I would have imagined, although it is extremely long-winded. It’s not like the plot is original or the actors are fantastic, but there is something that makes it work. Some of the mystique and intriguing are no doubt alluring, but I also find myself enjoying the simplistic code names. I can’t quite say why, but the code names make me think of Tarantino’s “Reservation Dogs.” I’d have to give it a 5 out of 10.
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