Yesterday’s sixth episode of Strike Back’s final season had everything set in its favor to be an epic hour of television, and that was certainly delivered.
Brendan Maher directed the episode written by Jack Lothian. With last week’s episode featuring Damien Scott and Michael Stonebridge pushing their way into the secretive state of North Korea and destroying key objectives before surrendering when Scott heard his son was captured, this episode was always going to be focused on how the trio escaped.
Things got off to a rough start for Scott and Stonebridge. Scott was subjected to a brief stint of water torture, shortly before they were both hauled in front of a camera with orders to implicate the UK and US governments in their plan. As is customary when these two get captured, the war of words means just as much as the physical battle, and both Scott and Stonebridge put forward some fairly witty remarks to a frustrated Li-Na.
Li-Na wasn’t going to tolerate those shenanigans for long, however. At first she executed one of her soldiers in front of the pair in place of Scott’s son, Finn. When the real Finn was introduced, Scott backed down and spoke to the camera, but Stonebridge tested Li-Na with some daring comments, ultimately pushing her over the edge by bringing the word ‘personal’ into the fray. Philip Winchester produced one of his top performances on Strike Back in this hour, and this scene was just the beginning.
That scene was also the beginning of the great escape, as Stonebridge took advantage of Li-Na’s lapse in concentration to overrun the prison cell and gain control with Scott. The trio took Li-Na hostage as they made their way through the maze of buildings. Finn also badly wounded a North Korean soldier Scott and Stonebridge missed in their sweep, saving the trio’s lives from a rear ambush. Unsurprisingly, that rattled Finn to the core, with a pretty solid display by Christian Antidormi worth noting here.
Li-Na did a runner though, but not before the trio could escape the compound via four wheel drive. The game changed in an instant when Finn discovered he had a gunshot wound to the abdomen, derailing the exfiltration plan.
That led the trio to detour to a medical center, which left me scratching my head because that would be one of the last things you’d expect to find in North Korea. Nevertheless, it made for great television, with a small group of medical staff forced to patch Finn up while the rest were locked in a room. It didn’t take long for the army to catch up though, but Stonebridge was up to the task in a beautifully executed moment where he decoyed two soldiers and ambushed them.
Forced to high-tail it out of the hospital on yet another four wheel drive, the trio ran into a roadblock. Their guns were blazing but the soldiers managed to disable the vehicle, with Scott and Stonebridge momentarily regretting blowing up everything in sight. In another stroke of luck, a pair of horses and a cart were enough to get the trio within reach of Philip Locke and Kim Martinez, who with the help of Nina Pirogova, a former fling of Scott’s with connections to Russia, used a helicopter to rescue the trio. In a quick swoop, Scott, Stonebridge and Finn were picked up and whisked away to Russia where Finn was able to receive proper medical care.
With no time for character development in all the action, the creative team left that until last. We saw a nice moment between Finn and Scott in the hospital bed, and an even nicer one in a bar between Martinez and Stonebridge. Martinez recounted her guilt at the loss of Julia Richmond, and daringly asked Stonebridge why he had never made a move on her. For a moment there I was expecting a kiss followed by an intense sex scene, but fortunately that never eventuated. It wouldn’t have been the right thing to do at the time, but as a last hurrah for the characters before the series closes in a month’s time, I’d be keen for the chemistry between the pair to be resolved.
Back in North Korea, Li-Na was very nearly executed by her father, but her lover, Kwon, put a stop to that, executing her father instead. The pair commandeered a helicopter as they set themselves up to extend their wave of destruction into Europe. With four more episodes left in the series, and their homeland under direct threat, expect anything could happen. Overall, this was yet another great hour of Strike Back, with Philip Winchester's performance a particular standout
As always, thanks a lot for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode in the comments below.
