With the death of the mysterious bearded man —until now the assumed main antagonist of the series —in Splinter Cell‘s previous episode, there’s a lot left unanswered for this installment. Finally, we are given some answers. Not all the answers, but just enough to keep us wanting more.
Be warned: spoilers ahead.
This episode opens with a new antagonist. Another Eastern European, one we’ve seen in the background for the past few episodes. This new antagonist is a blonde woman, now in charge of the bearded man’s militia. She’s been tasked with finding and taking out Sam Fisher and Zinnia McKenna, and she’s close. This woman has tracked Sam Fisher to his secret base in Gdansk and has sent a squadron of foot soldiers to seize the two targets. Just in the nick of time, Zinnia and Sam Fisher get out and drive off before the soldiers can find them. Before the opening credits roll, we see the blonde Eastern European woman looking at a photo of the dead man from the first episode, the one Zinnia was mourning. He’s wearing a watch. They are after that watch.
After the opening credits roll, we are back with the two women in Denmark who served as Zinnia’s mission control before things went haywire and their system was hacked. The two are discussing how to get back online, and one of the women suggests seeking help from a Canadian named Thunder. He had hacked the NSA in years prior. The two decide to try to reach out to this super-hacker to get back online. Meanwhile, at the largely discussed COP-31 event, Diana Shetland announces the creation of a completely self-sufficient island called Xanadu. She proposes this as a solution to all famine, drought, and climate problems.
Once in Canada, the women from Denmark meet with Thunder to try to convince him to help restore their systems. It is here that we get our first big answer: who are these people? The women reveal that they are a part of a group called “The Fourth Echelon”, a widely rumored group that answers directly to the president. They deal with agents who are deployed to conduct highly dangerous intelligence missions in the name of the nation. After a bit of back and forth, Thunder agrees to help. Thunder knows the type of malware used to hack their systems — called “Chaos Algorithms” — and quickly gets to work debugging their program.
The next set of answers comes from a diner conversation between Zinnia and Sam. Sam reveals he’s in Poland because he likes the quiet, and Zinnia reveals that the man who was killed in the first episode—the man she mourned and stole a tooth from—is named Lukas Kersetz. He’s an ex-CIA agent and a plant in Diana Shetland’s company. Zinnia and Lukas fell in love on their mission, which is strictly against Splinter Cell’s policy. Zinnia also reveals a darker side of Diana Shetland’s self-sufficient island. Being able to gather energy from the ocean allows governments to power entire navies or place missiles and aircraft off the coast of any country at any time. Zinnia believes that the Shetlands are selling information to Russia or China. The information that Lukas gathered while undercover was split between two places: his tooth, which Zinnia has, and his watch, which is in his apartment in Szczecin. Sam and Zinnia must retrieve it.
After much debate, the two decide that Sam will get the watch. When Sam enters the apartment, the Eastern European gang has already infiltrated. Secretly, Sam takes out a few agents. After a close call with the blonde woman, he secures the watch and escapes. Now, back with Zinnia and both pieces of information, the women from Denmark make contact. Thunder was able to get its systems back online. When Sam and Thunder meet, Thunder greets Sam by the name he’s been living under, the name no one else was supposed to know: Boleslaw Milosz. Sam gets nervous, realizing that if Thunder knows his name, the European mobsters do too. Zinnia and Sam must go on the run again to escape the Europeans. Then, the credits roll.
A main complaint about the first two episodes was that we didn’t know enough about what was going on to care about the characters. Needless to say, the gripe is long gone. There’s a sweet spot when it comes to shows like this. They have to balance their revelations and their mysteries. Too many mysteries and not enough development leave the audience either tired of the story or angry at the characters for not figuring anything out. Too much revealed too soon leaves the audience not wondering enough, and therefore they become bored with the situation. This episode gives us just enough to keep wanting more– that’s the sweet spot. Other shows that hit this sweet spot well are Broadchurch and True Detective. To walk that line is a difficult task.
The 4th Echelon is the perfect vehicle for mystery and revelation. It’s an institution so powerful because it answers directly to the president, so they can explain much of the highly classified work they do by simply saying, “It’s classified.” However, since lore from the 4th Echelon reveals they only handle extremely dangerous, top-secret missions, the fact that there is a show about this specific mission suggests there must be something special about it. And so, we must watch it.
Rating: 8/10