Treadstone - The Bentley Lament Recap and Review

First and foremost, I would like to apologise for the massive gap in between this and my last review. My course at uni suddenly threw a lot at me as well as needing to study for exams coming up, so I decided to leave the rest of the episode until the new year. I hope you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’s Day!

The Bentley Lament starts off in Ashland, Kentucky with Doug, who had just got into a van with some unknown gentlemen. They arrive at a plant and silently make their way through to the inside while running through the plan. The men reveal the plan to be a heist for something inside, Doug’s memory shows the blueprints of the plant and takes off in a different direction from the thieves. When on the main floor, Doug fires his gun in the air and walks away to distract the guards, who start firing on the thieves. He then makes his way to the mark calmly and skilfully, taking out guards on the way before running into his friend from the oil rig. Doug threatens him to stay quiet and that he never saw him. He tracks the mark outside where he shoots her bodyguards and questions her before putting a bullet in her head.

After the credits, the episode jumps to Bentley in Budapest. He arrives at a bar which was the last known location of missing CIA agents. The barman recognises him and says he doesn’t want any trouble. Bentley interrogates him but the barman walks away without answering. Later, when the bar is empty, the barman pulls a gun on Bentley but is quickly disabled. Men arrive at the door but are taken out by an improvised explosive by John. The last man standing tells him where he’s apparently living in Budapest.

Jumping to Accra, Ghana with Tara. She meets up with her close friend in the country, they chat with each other before Tara asks her about seeing Sebastian and tells her about Treadstone and Stiletto Six. Sebastian is in prison; her friend is able to get her in to see him. The episode takes us to So-Yun who is being smuggled out of North Korea, the smuggler hides her on his boat but is caught and shot dead before he can escape. She takes out the guard, pushes the boat out into the water and starts rowing. In Beijing, Nira Patel arrives at a train station where she finds a locker with a bag containing weapons and her mark. Her mark is So-Yun and is circled red.

Back to Tara in Ghana, she’s visiting Sebastian in prison. He flirts with her while she gets straight to the point, that she needs something. He gets defensive, especially when Stiletto six is mentioned, refusing to talk anymore. Back the past with Bentley, he arrives at the address, the caretaker recognises him and is taken aback. John manages to persuade the caretaker for keys to his room, where he discovers a video of him torturing the missing CIA operatives. Seeing this and his name on a wall brings him to tears. John screams and threatens the caretaker, interrogating him for information of the people who lived there before him.

Quickly back to Tara, she begs Sebastian to listen and help her, but he doesn’t listen and says he can’t help. Tara leaves but not before asking a guard for help with something. Back to Bentley in Budapest, he’s at a pay phone in a bar calling his mum but hangs up before talking to her. He walks into a young woman and after a short conversation she offers to help John to work through his past trauma. Over in Korea, So-Yun arrives on the other side of the river and takes a ride in a van with other people who are being smuggled to China. Back over in Ghana, Sebastian is shanked with the help of the guard, he’s rushed out in an ambulance where Tara is waiting. The 2 then leave in a helicopter, now including the friend from earlier. Jumping back to So-Yun, the driver kicks her out of the van. Doug and Sam in Kentucky have a heart to heart about him killing the mark, Sam tries to tell him that he isn’t a monster, but Doug doesn’t believe anything she says anymore.

Back to the past, Bentley is lead by the young woman to a hippie joint where he’s given drugs supposed to help him deal with past traumas. So-Yun runs through the grass jungle up to a hill where she meets Nira. Nira asks for the envelope she’s carrying, after handing it over, its revealed to be plans on Stiletto Six which were her husbands. The two get into a fight over the plans which leads to So-Yun being left for dead with a bullet wound to the chest. Cue the credits.

For this episode, I feel like it had its ups and downs. I really loved the beginning with Doug carrying out his mission and the parts with Bentley, then I didn’t enjoy most of the episode. I’m not a fan of Tara and the rest was all quite short, rushed and very jumpy. I then enjoyed the fight at the end between So-Yun and Nira. The show just has too many characters to deal with, and this episode didn’t even show all of them. This is the halfway point in the season of Treadstone and there isn’t very much keeping me on the edge of my seat or making me want to keep watching. I’ll obviously keep watching and reviewing but the show needs to step their game up because I know rating are not good and were especially not good for the finale.

What did you all think of the episode? Please let me know in the comment section below. Did anyone watch all 10 episodes when they came out weekly or binge watch once they had all aired? Or did you stop and give up with show due to possible frustrations with it or boring story-lines?

-SarahR