As the fourth episode of The Undeclared War begins, Kathy Freeman (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) tells Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown) that Danny can see them in 45 minutes. Saara promises to meet her there before leaving. She visits James Cox (Edward Holcroft) at the school. The students cheer as Saara kisses him. She rushes to meet with Kathy and Danny Patrick (Simon Pegg) who wants to know what he was like. Saara gives them a brief description and says he was frightened but doesn’t tell them Vadim’s name. She also lies about having never seen him before. When Kathy is asked what she’d do, she says she’d trust Saara’s instincts since she was right before. Danny believes it could be FSB mind games. Resources are tight so he can’t keep dedicating people to this and the guy’s message was vague.

Until they have something concrete, Saara should only keep looking at it in her own time. Saara doesn’t like that it is going to end like that. Kathy asks her if she wants to get a drink after work. Saara sits down and says what happened in Harrogate was a mistake because she normally doesn’t drink alcohol. At the Russia Global News office in London four days before the general election, Marina Yeselova (Tinatin Dalakishvili) tells Angie McMurray (Kerry Godliman) that she only knows what she read online about RGN. Angie believes that means that she thinks they’re Putin’s poodle. She says most of the people who claim that work for media billionaires and publish whatever they’re told to. Angie introduces her to Sean Cleary (David Prosho) who is one of their shooting producers.

Then, Angie asks Marina if she is ready to get out there. Although she seems worried, Angie tells her to just do whatever Sean says since he knows what he is doing more or less. Kathy meets with Daz (Oliver Powell) who is told his light show was featured during a COBRA meeting recently. She tells him that some people thought it was them. He says she only has to ask. After Kathy admits that is why she came, Daz says he didn’t know GCHQ hired black hats. She says it would be an informal contribution on a patriotic basis, but he wants to be paid. Kathy thinks they can come to an agreement. Marina and Sean arrive at a protest against Tories and PM Andrew Mankinde (Adrian Lester). Sean asks her to put on a helmet and vest even though she claims she isn’t in any danger.

A group of counter protestors arrives and starts a fight as Sean films Marina talking about it. Back at the office, Marina watches while Angie and Sean piece the footage together. One woman tells them that only electing a white populist regimen can fix things. Angie likes that. They end the video with a woman whose nose has been busted. Angie tells Marina she did a great job before exiting the room. Marina goes after her to ask how he knew there would be a riot before it happened. She wants to know if they organized the demonstration. Angie confesses that they organized both of them. She takes Marina to her office to show her the Luton for Labour page they set up a while back. They Tweet about it before bots retweet it. Then, like-minded people sign up. She also shows her the Facebook page for Take Back Control of Luton.

If they’ve attracted the right kind of people to the same area, it’ll kick off on its own. Although Marina says the whole thing is made up, Angie likes to call it managed. Marina asks what the point of reporting something that is fake news is. Angie tells her she’ll need to forget her previous experiences as a journalist. Everything that is reported is fake one way or another. The point is to get people to believe that everything is a lie. Once people begin accepting that, the biggest liar will win. Meanwhile, Saara continues scouring through the code hoping to find the hidden attack. While working with the code, she imagines that she is making her way through an old building. She begins moving through a different building. Saara gets frustrated when she hits a roadblock.

Later that evening, Saara visits John Yeabsley (Mark Rylance) at his home. His house is full of old equipment that he got when they were clearing out Oakley. He lets her listen to his radio and try to send morse code. John shows her one piece of equipment that was state of the art during its time. She accuses him of stealing it, but he quickly denies it. He says he found them where she found him. John makes her something to eat even though she claims she isn’t hungry. After that, he tries to figure out why she came. Saara explains she believes there is something else hidden in the BT malware and not everyone agrees with her. She is beginning to wonder if they were meant to find the second one so they wouldn’t look any further. He asks her what she’d do with a Nigerian Prince email scam. She says delete it.

The other side knows that is what you’re going to think and the Russians are always looking at probabilities. He doesn’t admire them although he does respect them as worthy adversaries. John wonders if the other side has already predicted every step you’ll take when you analyze the malware. She isn’t sure that is going to help so John suggests checking her assumptions. They’re probably expecting her to scour through thousands and thousands of lines of code. John recommends doing something unexpected. He says she can check the comms to find out how it is communicating, but she says it doesn’t beacon anywhere. John says everything communicates one way or another. She’ll have to think outside the box or find someone who can. Kathy catches up with her when she looks through the code again.

Saara says she is working on the BT malware in her own time and questioning their assumptions. She decides to try running it in the sandbox again. Saara and Kathy are shown working in the building to uncover the truth. It doesn’t work. Kathy thinks it was worth a try. Saara wonders why he didn’t say anything else in Harrogate. Kathy suggests he didn’t know or Danny was right about it being another provocation. Saara says she doesn’t know what she is doing anymore, but Kathy says she does and it is the only thing that is sure here. She tells her that she was born for this before asking her not to stay too late. Vadim is shown at work. Angie approaches Marina to ask if she is convinced. Marina wants to know why she was brought over here. Angie says she read the article about the troll farm and questions why she wrote it. Although Marina says she was trying to cause trouble, Angie thinks she was trying to make Russia a better place.

She risked the safety of her daughter and liberty to do it. Although Angie thinks she is a patriot, she doesn’t think she’ll admit it. That is what Angie is trying to do here. Marina suggests she is supporting Putin. Angie says they’re taking his money and that isn’t exactly the same thing. She says Marina was good at pointing out everything wrong with her society and she wants her to do the same thing here. Marina believes Putin wants to trample all over Britain, but Angie says he doesn’t. He wants to overturn the world order and he is right. Russia will never grow unless it gets out from under the domination of the west. Angie suggests they have to tear apart what they have from the inside here so they build better. Daz asks Kathy why he couldn’t come in the front entrance to the GCHQ.

She says the staff might be uncomfortable with him being in the building. He questions if he has black hat tattooed on his forehead. Kathy takes him to a private room where she tells him to stay. Then, she borrows Saara from Max (Tom McKay) moments later. In private, Kathy reveals they’ve been hunting the BT coders before showing her pictures of the alleged coders. She asks if the guy she saw in Harrogate is one of them. A picture of Vadim is shown, but Saara claims he isn’t among the pictures. Once Kathy reminds her that this is really important, Saara admits she promised him because he said his life would be in danger. Kathy says they’re about to publish his names and photographs.

Saara pleads with her to keep his identity private and protect him. She tells Kathy about Vadim and the fact that she went to the university with him. Kathy believes it’ll just place suspicion on him if they expose everyone else except him. Saara doesn’t think so since they don’t have the entire team. Kathy argues it’ll be safer for him if he is exposed with the group, but Saara thinks Vadim will believe she betrayed him. Phil (Joss Porter) checks on Saara when she sits down since she seems distraught. Kathy discusses Vadim with Danny. She suggests this means what Vadim said in Harrogate was true after all. She doesn’t think they’d risk someone like that just to provoke them and would instead send someone expendable. Danny suggests he was sent because they knew he went to university with Saara and thought it would make it more believable.

Kathy doesn’t think they could’ve known that or knew who would turn up. Danny says they’ve had everyone tear the code apart and it was a dead end so he doesn’t know where Vadim’s statement gets them. She asks if she should give them to Jolly Roger. He tells her to do it. She returns to him while Saara watches a news report about Vadim after he was named by the Jolly Roger website. She rushes out to confront Kathy and ask her to explain this to her. She says Vadim does what he is told because it is his job just like them. The difference is that he took a massive risk to try to help them while they just threw him to the wolves. Meanwhile, Angie wants to know more about Jolly Roger. Marina tells her that she’d like to try to get an interview with one of the coders since she thinks Vadim would talk to her. She tells Angie they’re friends.

James gets up from his tent and prepares to go into work before a group of counter-protestors shows up at the climate protest. The RGN arrives to record it while the police refuse to enter the police-free zone. Marina goes to St Petersburg where she meets with Vadim who is living with his parents because they have security and he is in hiding. Marina says Mina is doing well and she sometimes asks about him. She confesses she is on a flying visit to see him and see if he’d be okay with an interview regarding what has happened. She argues it’ll be someone else if it isn’t her. Vadim gets angry and yells that it’ll be someone else. He asks her to withdraw her interview request because she is making everything worse. Vadim insists there are far bigger issues than the stupid interview.

He believes she is being used like a puppet while the situation is escalating. Vadim confesses that the FSB has already instructed him to do the interview before she even boarded the plane in London. He has to do as they ask and doesn’t have a say in the matter. He is the condemned man and she is the executioner. Moments later, they begin preparing for the interview as Angie tells Marina that she can do this. Vadim is given advice before the interview begins too. Once the interview begins, Vadim says he had nothing to do with this. When asked about the Jolly Roger evidence, Vadim says he is a computer engineer working in cyber security. He knows nothing about this. He makes his own way in the world and has nothing to do with his parents.

He wonders if he was targeted because of his parents. When shown the pictures of the others, Vadim claims he has never seen them before in his life. He hadn’t had anything to do with the FSB until yesterday when they had something for him. He says they had information about the people who did this to him. He says one of them is an analyst at the UK’s intelligence organization GCHQ and from the NSA in the US. Another is an illegal hacker who works as a freelancer for the GCHQ. He shows a picture of Kathy and mentions her name before doing the same to Daz. Vadim’s handler ends the interview. Before Vadim can leave the room, Marina thanks him for doing this.

Saara and Phil watch the interview. She sees Kathy discussing the news with Danny and David (Alex Jennings). Once Kathy exits, she asks Saara if she still thinks Vadim was just doing his job. Saara searches the whole building later and finds her in the gym. Kathy hasn’t decided whether she is doing to leave yet. Danny is getting her packed since she isn’t sure if she’ll be safe at her flat. Saara offers to let her stay at her place even though it is tiny. Kathy moves in with her. James comes home with cuts on his face and a newspaper with a picture of Kathy in his hands. He agrees to let her stay before saying they were attacked at the protest and arrested. Danny asks Elizabeth whether they’ll want to retaliate now. She says possibly.

However, they’re more worried about the Russians’ plans for the election. Danny admits they were retaliating after they named their coders. If they attack Russia again, they’ll retaliate again. He believes it should stop here. Elizabeth would hope he is right, but they’re behind in the polls so he probably isn’t.

 

The Undeclared War Review

The Undeclared War has become more tolerable and entertaining thanks to the addition of Vadim and Marina. There are some interesting storylines here, especially the way propaganda is engineered in the show. Through four episodes, German Segal has been the standout while the others have been put on the backburner.

I’ve always enjoyed Edward Holcroft although I am not sure how much value James Cox adds to the series. That storyline is just taking up time for what matters the most. The same can be said about the passing of Saara’s father since that storyline has been dropped.

Whether The Undeclared War is successful may depend on how the season is wrapped up. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Undeclared War can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work by clicking on this link.