As the second episode of The Undeclared War begins, Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown) returns to her desk and tells Max (Tom McKay) that Danny sent her home last night. He reminds her they’ve been asked to recheck the BT malware. She is asked to go through the text to see if they’ve missed anything. He hopes she doesn’t think she is too grand to do it, but she says no. She sits down at her desk and logs into her GCHQ account to begin working. Andrew Makinde (Adrian Lester) meets with the team to find out what their options are for an offensive cyber response. David Neal (Alex Jennings) admits that GCHQ opposes retaliating while Elizabeth explains it is due to the law of unintended consequences. She says they can close down part of Russia’s security grid only to shut down a hospital.

Then, they could post pictures of patients dying. Danny Patrick (Simon Pegg) warns the Prime Minister that a cyberattack would be an attack on a country like any other. It would just be too risky and could end in catastrophic loss of life. Richard Marston (Ed Stoppard) asks what they should do and whether they should just expel more diplomats. That didn’t do well because they’re playground bullies. If they do nothing, they’ll come back harder at them the next time. When the PM asks for options again, David says they can turn off SWIFT or their banks, but Andrew quickly refuses that option. David suggests they can take control of Putin’s car briefly to flash the lights and accelerate.

They could also drop his plan 20,000 feet mid-flight. David thinks that could be effective as a demonstration of power. They would most certainly target our leadership in response. The PM says no to those ideas. Danny argues that they could fry all the lines into Glavset which is the source of most of Russia’s Twitter propaganda aimed at the UK. Danny says they’d have to create an exploit first so it may take seven or eight days to take it down. The PM agrees with that idea. Saara tells Phil (Joss Porter) she is going to take a break since she can’t keep her eyes open. He asks her not to be long. She walks out and joins Kathy Freeman (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) who gives her an energy drink to wake herself up. Saara asks about the old man she keeps staring at. Kathy explains he writes a blog for their in-house social media network each week correcting the grammar in everyone else’s posts.

Kathy calls John Yeabsley (Mar Rylance) one sad f#cker and suggests he is sitting there correcting their mistakes right now. Kathy congratulates her for finding the second malware, but Saara says it just made everyone else look bad. Now, they’re starting again and everyone in her department hates her. Kathy suggests they’re all just jealous. Saara’s tennis ball gets stuck so she makes pegs for a climbing wall to climb up and get it. The ball is stuck and won’t move though. Phil asks about whatever she has found. She says some of the text is encrypted so he says it was probably random text that got pasted in by mistake. Saara thinks they should be able to crack it without a key since GCHQ does that, but Phil says it is part of what they do. The mathematicians would have to do it. It’d be a waste of time because it would be a huge commitment of resources and they wouldn’t think it was worth it.

Saara thinks she knows a mathematician in the building who might take a look although Phil doesn’t think he would. Phil explains that it isn’t a priority and it isn’t what she was asked to do. During lunch, Saara carries her apple on a plate around before noticing a pencil on the floor next to John. She picks it up and gives it to him. She asks him if people hate having their grammar corrected. He responds by saying the code would never run if they wrote it as sloppily as they wrote English. Some things have to be right. When John asks if she is only having an apple, Saara tells him that she is Muslim and she doesn’t like vegetables. She is looking for a mathematician friend so she thought John could tell her where they work. He offers to show her although they won’t be very welcoming. She finds that funny since she doesn’t think any department is welcoming.

As they walk together, John tells her that he worked here before they were in this donut. It was very different from now. Saara would’ve liked to have seen that. He offers to show her that. John shows her where the mathematicians are and warns her they do not ask where departments are at GCHQ, especially cryptology. She goes in and begins asking about Gabriel (Alfie Friedman) who stands up and asks what she wants since he is busy. She learns they don’t have whiteboards because they’re too noisy. Gabriel warns her that she shouldn’t be here. Saara gives him a USB drive with the encrypted text from the malware string. He reminds her that encrypted text pops up all the time and often mean nothing. She knew he’d say that, but she thinks it is worth looking at.

Saara pleads with him to look at it. Gabriel refuses to make any promises since they may decide it isn’t worth the time or resources. Before he leaves, he confirms he meant whiteboards are too noisy or bright. The funeral of Saara’s father is held. Her mother doesn’t want her throwing dirt on his coffin, but she does anyway. Next, Saara goes to the Bristol Climate Camp which is a police-free protest zone. Her bag is searched before she is allowed to go inside. She meets with James (Edward Holcroft) who immediately tries to comfort her. Saara delivers lunch to all the protestors. She asks James if he is allowed to bring his class here. James says it is the weekend and he thinks it is good that the students know what is going on in the world. She agrees. Gabriel gives Saara a piece of paper that says Eagles Summer Stages after the code was decrypted.

She wasn’t sure what to expect and is surprised it was done so quickly. Gabriel says it was weird and asks if she has heard of trap door encryption. He says there was a rope hanging down from the trap door like it wanted him to climb up it. Gabriel doesn’t know what it means and he doesn’t want to be involved in whatever she is up to. On Tuesday, GCHQ launches an offensive cyberattack on Russian troll factory Glavset. Danny tells Finn (Jamie Muscato) to let it loose. It works as Glavset quickly goes offline. Later, Saara works on the code alone. She comes up with 28/04/2024 at 9:30. She shows Kathy at work and says she found it in one of the malware strings before getting one of the mathematicians to decrypt it for her. Kathy reminds her she shouldn’t be talking to her about this because she isn’t cleared for the things she is working on.

Saara just needs a bit of help so Kathy tells her to sit. Kathy asks if she tries what3words which can help identify anywhere on the planet based on three words. Those three words direct to the Harrogate Conference Centre. The date correlates to the International Cyber World Conference. At 9:30, the event will be holding its Capture The Flag White Hat Hacking Competition. Kathy wonders if someone is sending them an invitation. Saara tells Danny that it might be one of the coders trying to reach out. He asks what Max and Phil think about this, but she hasn’t told them. He thinks it is disrespectful that she went over their heads when she is on work placement. Saara hadn’t thought of that. When Kathy is asked about her involvement, she says they’ve been trying to track the coders.

It could be good if this is a message from one of them. Once Saara is asked what they should do about it, she suggests sending someone to Harrogate. She agrees to go if no one else will. Danny decides to send them both. He wants Max and Phil updated. Next, Saara goes with John as he takes her to the old HQ. They pass by a woman as John jokes she probably thinks they’re on a date. Saara argues she thinks she is John’s caretaker. Back inside, David and the others learn that Glavset is already back up after 21 hours. There has been no reprisal or complaint. Danny says Russia has never admitted to having Glavset so they can’t complain about something they won’t admit exists. John takes Saara to the room that used to be the canteen and places a blanket on the ground so they can have a picnic.

He gives her a sandwich without meat because she doesn’t eat it. John reveals that he decided to work here because his mom and dad worked here although they didn’t meet here. He claims GCHQ is a family business and always has been. If it wasn’t for GCHQ, he wouldn’t exist. Saara hasn’t told her family where she works since she doesn’t think they’d understand. Her dad did but he died. John reminds her of her father. John tells her about the days when they didn’t have Internet or iPhones. Instead, they had a network of pneumatic tubes and how he used the system to propose to his wife. When she replied, she said she’d think about it. She eventually left him because they could never really talk about anything including what they were doing. Working here will destroy relationships if you’re not careful.

John used to think of people here like his family. They seemed like family, but they weren’t his real family. John tells her that you have to take care of your real family. When he pulls out a chess board, Saara has flashbacks of playing with her father. Later that night, Saara goes to the climate protest to look for James. She finds him handcuffed and chained to a truck. James tells her that he was just training for when they get arrested. She admits she is worried about his job since he is bringing his class to an illegal protest. Saara reminds him he isn’t a student anymore although he already knows that. He believes they’re talking about her job. Saara admits that is part of it since most of the questions during the vetting interview were about him and his politics.

He promises he isn’t trying to get her into trouble and asks if she can have political views while working there. James thinks it is important whether the kids he teaches and the kids they may have together will have a future on this planet. He argues that this is more important than any job. Saara confesses she isn’t thinking about having kids with him. In a flashback, we see James teaching about the surface of a revolution as Saara helps answer one of the questions. Her friend thinks he likes her. Vadim Trusov (German Segal) asks her why she doesn’t ask him out. She says she can’t because he is on the faculty. He encourages her to ask him anyway since life is too short. On Saturday April 27, Saara grabs a free mask and joins Kathy. They go to the 2024 CyberWorld Conference in Harrogate. Kathy admits she is using a bogus name because GCHQ doesn’t like them using their real names.

They find the spot so they’ll be ready for tomorrow before going to their motel room. Kathy invites her into her room to decompress. Once they enter the room, Kathy tells her not to judge the mess because she knows it is a problem. Saara always wishes she was messy. Kathy tells her about her ex-girlfriend who had a minimalist apartment and complained about her messes. Once Kathy goes for a beer, Saara decides to get one too. While Kathy talks to her father on the phone, Saara drinks her beer. After the call, Kathy confesses that her father always gets through to her even when she was in Iraq. Saara tells Kathy about her father dying after being hit by the train. She admits she thinks it might’ve been deliberate. It was difficult because she was the only one who understood him and he was dependent on her.

He had bouts of depression when she was growing up and she was the only one who could cheer him up. Saara thinks she went away and abandoned him, but Kathy promises it wasn’t her fault. Her dad is a cop who was under the towers on 9/11. He lost most of his friends who were guys he knew since school. He was messed up by it and needed support, but Kathy sent went away and got on with her life. Kathy got to talk to him every day while Saara ignored her father by cutting him out. Kathy thinks he understood. Saara believes her father threw himself under a train. Kathy comforts her when she begins crying. They begin kissing, but Kathy stops her because it isn’t a good idea when she is upset. Saara decides to go to bed. They meet in the morning and prepare to get it over with.

While they wait, Saara apologizes for last night while blaming the fact that she doesn’t drink. Kathy sends her to the spot in question. She waits for a while until Vadim approaches her and thanks her for coming. She asks what he is doing here before the episode ends.

 

The Undeclared War Review

The first episode of The Undeclared War was certainly more competent than the second which derailed the story by focusing too much on Saara’s personal storyline. Certain things hurt the credibility of the show as well such as Saara roaming freely around what should be a high-security building, Saara dropping all her conventional beliefs in an instant, and James taking his students to a big protest.

It is surprising that James turned out to be a professor in the first place since I don’t recall this being mentioned in the first episode at all. While the soundtrack is nice, it is hard to say whether it matches the story. The show is obviously going for a moody, emotional experience that may pan out in the end, but it hasn’t hit home just yet.

There is a lot that could be happening with the cyberattacks but that is becoming a side story as Saara’s relationships and loss are put front and center. All those things that Danny and David said were possible at the GCHQ need more attention because the boring personal stuff won’t cut it.

This reminds me a lot of COBRA in certain ways. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Undeclared War can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work at this link.