The finale begins by revealing that it was Shen Zhao (Elaine Tan) who stabbed Dr. Matthew Nolan (Richard Armitage) that night at the Beijing nightclub. As it turns out Eric Jones (Parker Sawyer) was on-site along with Mike Maxwell (Mido Hamada), monitoring the handoff. In the confusion and hysteria of Nolan’s fight with the nightclub bouncer (Jon Xue Zhang), they miss Shen’s clever handoff.

Cohen (Maria Rivera) is then ordered to follow Nolan while Mike and Eric proceed to confront Shen in an alley. Their conversation is brief but ends with Shen’s death and the revelation that whatever is on the SIM card, it would be pretty damning for the CIA if it got out. While Mike narrowly misses Nolan at the hotel, Cohen and Eric plant Shen’s body and bribe a local cop.

John Tennant (Jonathan Aris) along with a gaggle of officers arrives on the Dunfield runway to await the landing of Flight 357, which can now be seen from the ground. Captain Chen (Thomas Chaanhing) and Co-Pilot Wu (Aidan Cheng) get the all-clear from the tower but are diverted to another runway several seconds later. Although this raises Nolan and DC Hana Li’s (Jing Lusi) suspicion, Chen assures them it’s a common practice. Tennant is also unaware of the diversion and proceeds to task one of his men to find out what’s going on. The plane lands without further incident, but everyone immediately becomes suspicious when only one car arrives to greet them. That car is soon revealed to be carrying Jess Li (Jemma Moore) and MI5 General Director Melinda Delaney (Lesley Sharp). Hana and Nolan are long gone before Tennant and his team arrive.

Tennant returns to the command center at Thames House while Delaney goes to Mike and the CIA at the London Embassy. By the time introductions are made at the Long Embassy, Tennant and Ruth Banks (Cash Holland) have identified the assassins. One of them just happens to be American but both are ex-military Special Forces. Toni Zhang (Dan Li) is Jia Yung. The man in the green hoodie is Troy Hanks (Gavin Sibson). Once Megan Campbell (Steph Lacey) mentions their employment at Alpha Tech Armory, it doesn’t take either Ruth or Tennant long to recognize it as a CIA shell company.

After getting Hana, Nolan, and Jess settled in the CIA’s posh lounge, Mike whisks Delaney away to his office for a quick makeout session, promises of a weekend away in Paris, and inquiries about the SIM card. Delany immediately becomes suspicious the second he mentions the SIM card. Nolan has a similar experience in the lounge when Cohen attempts to deliver them coffee spiked with a powerful sedative. Despite Cohen denying the recognition, it doesn’t take Nolan long to put it together after she leaves.

Nolan’s suspicions are confirmed when Cohen and Eric return to the lounge sometime later to search them. Hana, Nolan, and Jess use a stage blackout to make a preemptive strike. Despite the surprise attack, there is a bit of a struggle and Eric appears to gain the upper hand on them until Delaney intervenes. While they strategize and gather what gear they can, a call comes over Cohen’s radio that ousts Mike.

Delany decides to lead the exit from the Embassy and sacrifice herself so that Nolan, Hana, and Jess can get out. Mike quickly puts a hitch in those plans when he surprises her in the lobby. Although their conversation is very brief, it doesn’t take either of them long to realize the other is lying. Hana only makes the situation worse when she realizes the group’s only exit is to simply walk past them. Mike stops them as well by threatening to draw his weapon. There is a bit of tense back and forth, which ends with Jess snapping the SIM and throwing it on the ground. It is later revealed that the broken SIM was a decoy.

After escaping, Delaney leads the group to an abandoned car garage where they not only spend several minutes checking out the contents of the SIM card but sharing the discovery with MI5, much to Tennant’s surprise. Delany also calls the command center where she learns that the file labeled ‘Original’ is hacker code that basically opens a backdoor into any operating system without detection. The other file is practically the same code, tweaked to take over a nuclear reactor. Not only that but the code has been manipulated to appear as if it came from China.

By the time files are safely secured at Thames House, Mike has located Delaney and is racing towards the parking garage. Nolan, Jess, and Hana become furious when they learn that Mike’s punishment will likely only be the abrupt ending of his career. Delaney says there might be a way to see that he faces a stiffer punishment and makes a call to Minister Aiguo Tang (David KS Tse), although the context of that conversation is not revealed at the time.

When Delaney and the group separate, Mike decides to go after Hana and Nolan which leads them to a showdown in a courtyard. Not long after he disarms Hana, Delaney appears from behind him to tell him that his exploits have been brought to light. When he turns to address Delaney, Hana goes for her weapon on the ground which causes Mike to abruptly turn around and take a shot at her. Nolan intercedes and ends up with what appears to be a fatal chest wound. It isn’t until Minister Tang arrives with the Chinese Army that Mike realizes he’s been lured onto China land. Delaney tells Tang that the SIM was destroyed and Nolan’s condition is left up in the air, as he faints.

Sometime much later Hana is whisked away to visit with Nolan after his successful surgery. Delaney uses the opportunity to approach Jess about what she can and cannot report. Jess isn’t at all happy with being censored, although Delaney promises her the story about innocent citizens being used as unwitting couriers. Nolan works up the courage to ask Hana out but by the time he gets the question out, Hana is asleep.

Tennant attempts to mend fences with Delaney by claiming he told the Prime Minister she had done an excellent job under the pressure of the operation. He’s surprised when she responds by claiming that she can’t say the same about him. Sometime later, she returns home to Len Delaney (Kevan MacKenzie), who asks her about Mike. She merely claims he wasn’t the man she thought he was, to which Len replies that he doesn’t deserve her.

Jess excitedly and proudly shares her front-page story with Rachel (Cate Hamer) and Tin Lok Li (Dave Wong). That excitement abruptly fades when Jess asks Hana if she’s given her discovery to Tin. It is soon revealed that Jess is referring to a file about her mother’s death. It takes some convincing but he decides to read the file and becomes overwhelmed with emotions.

 

Red Eye Review

The episode certainly wasn’t horrible for a finale. I would personally say it was far from a sensation, but it wasn’t bad. Although the hacker’s code is an intriguing concept, I believe season 2 Reacher followed a similar plot. There have probably been countless espionage thrillers based around this concept, being that the code follows the same theory as malware. I’m no expert, but it seems to me that the truly amazing thing would be the code’s ability to remain undetected in the system.

Although Mike’s dirty involvement and the attempt to lay the blame on China was far from a surprise at this point, I felt that it was put into the content cleverly. As far as happy endings go and not leaving loose ends, I’d have to give the finale a 5.6 out of 10.

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