As the finale of The Undeclared War begins, the UK government has declared a state of emergency. Saara Parvin (Hannah Khalique-Brown) and others at the GCHQ listen to John Yeabsley (Mark Rylance) talk about why he left the GCHQ. He has done 50 years of service and has had enough. Phil (Joss Porter) asks Saara about them being friends. Saara says she thought so. When he asks what she is looking for, Saara admits she doesn’t know although it might be a clue. She can’t believe he’d do this to them. Phil says he goes missing and turns on Russian television in Moscow. That should be enough evidence. She says she needs to get back to work. Phil says it is okay because they’ve all given up hope of her doing any real work around here a while back.

She storms off to wash her hands and remembers John at GCHQ. Saara remembers approaching him for the first time. Then, she recalls talking to John about fixing people’s grammar. She tells him that they’ll be no different to any other department here. He corrects her by saying different from any other department. She repeats different from compared with as she rushes back to her desk to listen to his interview. Saara notices that he says they’re no different to what they accuse the Russians of being. She immediately tells Phil that he’d never say different to meaning it cannot be him. She tries to tell Kathy Freeman (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) only to find that she is not at her desk. She learns that Danny (Simon Pegg) is on his way to London.

When Saara rushes home looking for Kathy, James (Edward Holcroft) tells her that she isn’t there anymore. James came home and found her packing because she had been recalled to Maryland. She left Saara a letter. While checking it, James asks her what is going on and not to lie to him this time. After he asks if she is in love with her, Saara says maybe. He begins crying once he learns they made love here. He questions where that leaves them and if she ever really loved him. She apologizes and asks him not to leave. James knows she just lost her dad so he has made allowances, but people who love her are getting hurt. He tells her to think about that before leaving. During a COBRA meeting, Mark with the NSA tells everyone that their tools will have to be built from scratch due to the devastating leak.

Their priority now is to keep what little they have left secure. The NSA has decided to withdraw from its intelligence sharing agreement with the UK. Andrew Makinde (Adrian Lester) tries to talk him out of it only to learn the decision came from the command and chief. They wonder why they decided to employ a loose cannon like John Yeabsley in the first place. Sandy Bishop (Jessica Layde) arrives at John’s house where police are pulling out possible evidence. She is told to go around back to make sure the press can’t get in. When she notices something in the backyard, the police begin digging it up to see what they can find. Saara tries to get in touch with James because they need to talk. A news report reveals that John’s body has been discovered in his backyard so he couldn’t have been involved in the Russian interview.

She remembers John telling her about the Nigerian prince and her doing exactly what the Russians expect. He encourages her to do something unexpected and think outside the box. She decides to visit Gabriel (Alfie Friedman) and his family. His dad says they’d almost given up hope because Gabe was turned down by so many employers before GCHQ. They moved here so they could look after him. In private, Saara asks Gabe for help because she thinks there is a third stage hidden in the malware. He learns about her being warned. She thinks a part of the original malware was meant to steal their data, but she hasn’t found it. He agrees to help. Gabe looks at the trash in the code that was used by bypass antimalware. She tells him that they stripped out thousands of lines of garbage.

He asks what happened when she tried to get it to run in the sandbox, but she says nothing. Gabe wonders if it did run. He explains that she needs to learn to look at the garbage in a different way. Usually, there would be one character a code and five garbage characters. In that situation, you could write a code to remove the garbage. He says it isn’t all garbage and there is a pattern. In the BT malware, the code characters and garbage characters vary depending on an algorithm. They can’t extract the code until they know the algorithm. Gabe has already worked out the algorithm which is why it took him extra time. He removes the garbage and shows her the third stage. It contains a data scrapper and the Mac address of their sandbox. She doesn’t believe they’d have the mac address, but Gabe says it is obvious and someone must’ve told them.

She says that doesn’t explain how they got the data out since this malware doesn’t communicate. He says the data goes out as email attachments. The emails get lost in the GCHQ’s flood of email traffic so nobody notices. They’ve moved on from NSA exploits and they’re taking the GCHQ’s stuff now. Vadim (German Segal) and others watch as Saara tries to deactivate the malware. Once they find it, the Russians are ordered to switch to the DGA. Saara says they must know what they’re doing. Every time she cuts a link to a domain, they set up a new one. She asks if he can shut all this down at the source using the scrapper he found in the garbage. After he shuts it down, Saara tells him he is brilliant while hugging him. The Russians get upset, but they’re told it is okay because they have enough anyway.

Vadim leaves the room to send a message to Saara. The next day, Phil tells Saara that he owes her an apology. She agrees so he quickly apologizes and says what she did last night was amazing. Saara watches a news report about a mosque being firebombed causing her to worry about her brother. Phil tells her she should go. When she arrives, she hears Sajid (Gavi Singh Chera) preach about being attacked in the streets and wanting to strike back. He urges his people not to retaliate because that is the harder thing to do. Once he finishes, he finds Saara outside. Danny (Simon Pegg) joins David (Alex Jennings) who tells him that the MI5 found some compromising material on the Foreign Secretary’s laptop. They were accused of inappropriately communicating with someone inside the Russian government.

Danny hopes they know it is a Russian plant, but David says it apparently looks legitimate. If it is a Russian plant, it is a clever one. She has been forced to resign. David suspects they’re being played and have been at every step. Danny finds it convenient that they’re going to lose their best friend in the government at this moment. During a COBRA meeting, Richard Marston (Ed Stoppard) reminds everyone he told them that he said they’d be hit again if they didn’t respond robustly. He argues that this constitutes the equivalent of an armed attack on the United Kingdom. He goes on to call it an act of war. Danny doesn’t disagree that a strong response is needed. However, he is worried that a systematic attack would only escalate things. Plus, the Russians are one step ahead of them so it is vital that they do not react as expected now.

They should be careful of empty gestures that have profound consequences, especially if there are other motives for doing it. Danny says it wouldn’t be a good idea to shore up the position of a government that has been questioned to distract attention. He is told that this is a completely outrageous suggestion. They’ve either faced an attack that amounts to an act of war or they haven’t. If they have, it is their duty to respond. Richard says the then attorney general made their redlines clear in their 2018 speech. If they do nothing after that speech, they’re saying it is okay to roll your tanks into London. David warns them that they could expose some of the things they’re doing in Russia’s critical infrastructure if they retaliate.

If that is how the PM wants to go, Danny can provide some additional options. Richard says the army will be taking the lead this time. According to the Prime Minister, Russia has effectively declared war on this country. After the meeting, Richard tells David he wants him to build an attack that targets the Russian arms industry. He wants it done today. David says they can certainly try before Richard says it is time to show them what they’ve been paying for at GCHQ. Saara tells Sajid that he is right and she should’ve thought about it more before taking the job at GCHQ. He claims he overreacted. Saara says she did something she thought was clever, but it was really stupid and gullible. Then, she blames herself for their dad committing suicide. Sajid reveals their father didn’t kill himself.

He tells her how the mistake happened and what caused their father to get hit by a train. She might’ve behaved badly by not coming to see him, but their father did not commit suicide. Saara tells him that she liked his sermon and everything he said. David asks Danny if he thinks he should resign. Danny says it is up to him, but they’d be losing the last voice of moderation around the table. There would be no one left to protect the staff since they would sack him 15 seconds later. Rich (Andrew Rothney) interrupts to say they’re ready. Danny admits he told Barbara to take the kids and stay in France. David hopes it isn’t that bad. Danny doesn’t know although he suspects the Russians want them to attack. David wonders if he should get Freddy out. Finn (Jamie Muscato) confirms they’re ready. Pauline Keefe says they’ll push the button so the attack follows the rules of war and they don’t end up in The Hague.

Once it begins, Danny tells them it is happening now. An RGN report claims that unprovoked cyberattacks by Great Britain on civilian targets throughout Russia have caused serious damage and significant loss of life. Marina (Tinatin Dalakishvili) asks Angie (Kerry Godliman) if the videos are real. Angie doubts it. Russia confirms it has the capability and willingness to respond before Danny is pulled away from the others. Pauline tells him that their comms are down although she managed to get through to the MOD on one of the landlines. They want GCHQ to help reestablish contact with UK armed forces. Then, he learns that the Defense Secretary is on the line. Richard tells him that the nuclear submarine control system is unresponsive so it might’ve been hacked. Danny asks Rich to try to get NSA on the satellite.

Sajid walks Saara back to GCHQ. Once she says she has decided to leave GCHQ, he tells her not to leave before cleaning up any mess she made. Danny gets in touch with Mitch from the NSA to tell him that someone has hacked their nuclear submarine control system. All their comms are down and the Russians are exaggerating their targeted attack on their arms industry. They want to make it look like whatever they’re doing is done in self-defense. Mitch says people aren’t happy with them here right now. Danny says they need help. Saara gets a message with a link so she writes it down before passing through the security post. When she reaches her computer, she accesses the link and gets a message from Vadim who says they’re about to be attacked. He has something to give her that can stop it.

He doesn’t care what happens to him anymore because this is too important. Vadim shows her the footage of herself sitting at her desk at GCHQ before pleading with her to trust him and think outside of the box. Danny tells David that there is an unidentified aircraft entering their airspace and it is possible that they’re under attack. David suggests it could be another hack, but Danny worries it could be a real invasion this time. Danny doesn’t think they can take that chance since they’ve been doing that for 10 years. They never considered that he might be insane enough to have territorial ambitions. What if the whole thing is about separating the UK from Europe and the Americas? Saara takes Danny to her computer and shows him the CCTV.

She says she can’t show him what she needs to until he turns it off. Saara says they’ve been watching them and she has been inside their computer. Vadim is sending them two things that they can trade to bring America back in. He claims Putin will back down as soon as it happens. Vadim tells them about the Russian’s plan and shows them a video of the instructor. He mentions that war will be declared. Rich interrupts to say they’re receiving a data dump from Russia. Rich thinks it is the FSB’s offensive cyber exploits. Vadim tells them about reflective control before Misha notices what he is doing. Once his screen shuts off, Saara begins crying and the episode ends.

 

The Undeclared War Review

The finale of The Undeclared War was easily the worst episode of the season since it felt rushed and incomplete. Besides a few, most of the lead characters were not particularly likable. Gabriel was interesting while Vadim had the best story. Both were likely underutilized. At points, the episode seemed like it was preaching to the viewer to get a point across without any real setup.

The twist with John actually being dead was not a twist at all since it could’ve been stopped from a mile away. Aspects of the episode were unrealistic considering how much effort was taken to make certain parties look like saints. For starters, it is humorous to think the US wouldn’t be heavily involved in everything from the beginning or that they’d just quickly accept the Russian propaganda.

It doesn’t help that there was no real ending either. Instead, the episode ends with a Russian plane entering UK airspace and Vadim giving the GCHQ information to get the Americans back involved. It is hard to imagine anything could be done before bombs were dropped and even that seems like a stretch.

The Undeclared War offered some interesting insights into the world of state-sponsored hacking and disinformation campaigns on television and social media. However, the series really fails to transform into a gripping drama that feels like a prelude to war. The finale scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Undeclared War can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support us at this link.