As the finale of SAS Rogue Heroes begins, trucks approach Forte Di Gavi in Italy. David Stirling (Connor Swindells) is calm as men try to escape around him. Cram (Sandy Batchelor) tells him to come on because there are Germans on the hill. David asks about his men. He’s told the SAS helped topple the Italian government and they’re supposedly on their way back home. Paddy Mayne (Jack O’Connell) talks to the men on a ship about their itinerary. John Tonkin (Jack Barton) surprises the men by returning. He says his return means someone up there likes them and they’re unstoppable. Germans shoot the prisoners when they try to flee. Cram and David Stirling try to find a way to escape. David thinks they should hide until their forces arrive. He tells Cram to find a place to hide before they split up. David manages to find a place to avoid being spotted. Jim Almonds (Corin Silva) and the others got drunk.

They’re woke up and told they’re home. Paddy tells Reg Seekings (Theo Barklem-Biggs) they’ll be at home until the whistle blows and the second half begins. They all return to their homes. Paddy leaves a love for his child saying he’s not fit for human company yet. Reg is greeted outside. Paddy goes fishing with Eoin McGonigal (Donal Finn) who isn’t actually there. Eoin says he missed Paddy who isn’t sure he can forgive himself for any of it. They talk about being in the desert together. Eoin suspects Paddy doesn’t think he’ll make it to Berlin. Paddy says the aftermath is what concerns him. Dudley Wrangel Clarke (Dominic West) is joined by Eve Mansour (Sofia Boutella) who shares a drink with him. Eve says she found out she was good at killing people, but she’s not good at what comes next. Her horror is her lack of regret. Eve got a message that Dudley wanted to see although he can’t remember why now.

He suspects she’s going to become important over the next few months. William Stirling (Gwilym Lee) arrives at the Allied Forces HQ in England. He speaks to Lt. General Dempsey (Edward Bennett) and General Montgomery (Con O’Neill). William is told the preparations are underway for the invasion of Northern Europe. William hopes they’re not going to ask the SAS to act as shock troops once again. Dempsey says the AFHQ believes the SAS should be an advance of the main invasion. Montgomery says 1SAS and 2SAS would be dropped 30 miles behind coastal defenses. They would be dropped 36 hours before the main invasion. They would need to stop the enemy’s attempts to reinforce the coastal defenses at the actual point of the invasion. William argues this would be a suicide mission. Montgomery warns him there are others inside GHQ who will happily stab him in the back. German soldiers return with a dog and nearly find David Stirling. The soldiers take another soldier and do not find David.

A police officer (Nigel Boyle) stops Paddy who is jogging with his gear. The officer explains someone was worried when they heard him talking in his radio. Paddy says he’s going to London because there’s going to be an invasion. He asks to borrow the police officer’s bike. Paddy eventually threatens to punch him before taking it. Before long, Dempsey learns William and Paddy are there to see him. Paddy says he’s there to give his personal opinion on their plan. He suspects his forces will be dead before the other forces set foot on the beach. Paddy says he would go alone, but he would not ask his men to come with him. He also explains why the plan wouldn’t work. Dempsey agrees to share his concerns with General Montgomery. Once they’re alone, Paddy says William may have sacrificed his military career to save the SAS. William knows they’ve been invited for drinks with an old spy. It’ll either be a celebration or a fond farewell.

Later, Paddy meets Dudley who says he’s going to give him some good news. Montgomery has agreed to think again about the SAS’s involvement in the coming invasion. Paddy says William is worried that the knives are out for him now. Dudley won’t say whether William is right to be worried about that. He admits he started the whole extraordinary process. Eventually, Eve joins them as well. Dudley wants another drink because it’s going to be a difficult evening. William finally arrives. At the Chelsea Barracks in London, Jim tells Johnny that Paddy was invited somewhere fancy and they should be allowed to go. David sees naked Germans bathing. He struggles to stay quiet when a rat crawls on him. Dudley tells Paddy and the others that preparations will begin for the invasion of France tomorrow morning. Paddy and 1SAS will be deployed to the Highlands of Scotland at 7 a.m. 2SAS will be deployed to Scotland in three days’ time.

Eve will deployed to the same camp a day later. William learns Eve was briefed by General de Gaulle this morning. She has been ordered to act as a liaison between the British and French SAS who will fight together as part of the invasion force. Eve will be deployed to the Ayrshire camp with William and they’ll be working closely together. Dudley says Allied Force HQ needs to know the status of their relationship. Eve denies they are sleeping together. Dudley says AFHQ has decided to open an inquiry into William’s close relationship in Italy with a French spy. William suspects they’re just taking revenge. He will tender his resignation in the morning. After William leaves, Eve curses Dudley and leaves. Dudley admits to Paddy that someone far less effective will likely replace William. They know the SAS is run by Paddy anyway. Paddy’s men arrive later. US Marines offer to escort them out leading to a fight between them all. Dudley interrupts and reminds the SAS they have an early start.

In Scotland, Paddy and his men look at the landscape before them. The men train to prepare for the war. A lone German soldier takes a shower. David keeps an eye on him from above. He takes the soldier’s outfit and tries to escape from the prison. He gets caught leading to a chase. David is cornered and assaulted. He’s told they have a special place designed for men like him. William writes to David saying he has resigned. Later, Paddy meets Eve and they talk about David being sent to the Castle in the Clouds or Colditz Castle. He has also been sent to relay the exact day of the invasion of France. Paddy says the first advance party of British SAS invasion units will land in France tonight. The French boys will be deployed tomorrow. Eve is adamant that she’s going to France too. Paddy takes her record player. He plays a record while on the plane. They all sing together until it is time to jump out of the plane.

 

SAS Rogue Heroes Review

The finale of the second series of SAS Rogue Heroes was easily the worst episode of the series and maybe the show as a whole. The problem is that this is your finale and you expect this to set up some interesting things. It should’ve built excitement for a possible third series.

Instead, the episode was full of mundane scenes that amounted to very little and could’ve been removed completely. It really just felt like the episode was going nowhere. David’s scenes are pointless if the show is following history since he remained in prison until the war ended.

The fictitious character, Eve, plays a bigger role than the characters with real historical significance. Dudley was barely in the series, yet he played a prominent albeit dull role in the finale. The only real action in this episode was a half-baked fight between Paddy’s SAS members and African American United States Marines.

So much of the series went nowhere as the writers tried to spin the web they wished to tell. For instance, Paddy was upset in the beginning because he wasn’t allowed to attend his dad’s funeral. Well, that didn’t matter at any point after that. Why didn’t he visit his father’s gravestone when he returned home?

That would’ve made more sense than scaring a police officer and stealing his bicycle. It’s unknown how Withers managed to disappear and reappear randomly throughout the series. We never learned about the German soldier whose brother was mercifully executed at one point. The first series was all about the brainless entertainment, but that can’t be said about the second series because the action is limited and the episodes are so tediously boring.

It also became increasingly difficult to care about any of the characters. They are written to be irrationally rash to the point that there is no brotherhood and they’re quick to bicker and fight. Unfortunately, an already lackluster series ended on a really bad note. The duller-than-ditchwater finale certainly doesn’t do a lot toward justifying a renewal here.

The series really needed to decide whether it wanted to be a fun Rambo-like series or a deep, authentic historical drama. Trying to shift between the two obviously doesn’t create a great experience. A series that found success being full of action shouldn’t end with an episode that largely amounted to nothing and only had a fight because of character rashness.

Regardless, the finale was depressingly drab. It scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of SAS Rogue Heroes can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.