Last night's eighth episode of Sky1's Strike Back: Legacy finally revealed what the North Korean Office 39 agents and the Russian mafia had been working towards.
Episode 8 was written by Ed Whitmore & Jack Lothian and directed by Michael J. Bassett. It picked up immediately where last week's hour ended, with Damien Scott and Michael Stonebridge stranded behind bulletproof glass in the vault of a bank while Li-Na and Kwon headed for their exfiltration point in the tunnels beneath Vienna.
The glass didn't stand a chance. The pair wired a brick of plastic explosive that hadn't been detonated by the North Koreans onto the glass and continued their pursuit on a pair of dirt bikes left behind. While the vehicle that contained Nina Pirogova, who was kidnapped last week, was stopped in its tracks, the one carrying Kwon and Li-Na gave Scott and Stonebridge the slip. Their pursuit was halted by the local police who held the pair up against the bonnet of one of their cars.
I saved you a spot.
The humor level in this hour was noticeably higher than in previous weeks, and it made for great viewing. The above quote was just the beginning of it all, and it got funnier when the pair were about to get handcuffed, with the very next cut showing the half dozen officers, including their power-hungry leader, tied up in a circle on the ground while Scott and Stonebridge made their escape in one of the police patrol cars. See the image at the top of the article.
Surprisingly, Nina Pirogova's arc came to an end last night, meaning it's an all boys affair heading into next week's 2 hour series finale. She departed with one of the Russians, with the intent of handing him over to the FSB at a later date.
For Philip Locke, it wasn't an easy night. Having become obsessed with the mysterious IRA bomber, Oppenheimer, who killed his son years earlier, Locke spent the majority of his time tracking him down, leaving his comrades largely autonomous. He got his man in the end, which was a big surprise given I'd been envisaging Oppenheimer going up in smoke next week. If anything, the way it went down last night is more ideal because it frees up some additional time for other stuff next week.
Scott and Stonebridge have had to deal with some pretty tough customers in their time on the series, but they almost met their match last night in the form of a nerdy Russian code cracker. He gave the boys hell for a long period of time when they spared him from certain death after they blasted their way into a hotel room containing his crew.
No one was shooting before you got here!
Yeah, that happens a lot.
That was perhaps the line of the night, and one of the earliest exchanges between the trio as they evacuated the building after reinforcements arrived. Rather embarrassingly for the boys, though, the hacker gave them the slip on a bathroom break, calling Kwon from the parking lot requesting a hasty pickup. Even Kwon found the guy a handful, and it wasn't long before his body was dumped on the roadside but not before he had obtained the cracked code.
One of the things Locke did manage to do while chasing Oppenheimer was determine that Office 39 had members inside the International Nuclear Research Organization. The intelligence they provided to Kwon and Li-Na led to the transport vehicle being held up and the nuclear material removed. After a spectacular, fire-filled chase with Scott and Stonebridge having commandeered the vehicle at the roadblock, bulletproof glass proved its worth the the boys as they sat inside, safe from the Korean gunfire. It wasn't long before the transport vehicle did what any vehicle that's on fire does, and that's blow up in a spectacular fireball. Fortunately by then the Koreans had left and the boys had ran clear of the blast.
Scott and Stonebridge returned to Locke's location, which was where the now dead Oppenheimer had built the bomb. Locke had examined some of the schematics, and revealed that Li-Na and Kwon were transporting the nuclear bomb to Geneva, the home of the United Nations. The endgame has been revealed.
Next week's series finale promo features plenty of guns and big explosions. It's a tough pill to swallow knowing that this is the last hurrah for Scott, Stonebridge and Locke. I'm hoping the creative team end things on a high, and that for the sake of the characters, all of them make it out alive to fight another day in our imaginations. Next Wednesday night will be a bit sad, but I'm certain it will also be a hell of a lot of fun.
Thanks for reading! As always, share your thoughts on this episode and next Wednesday's 2 hour Strike Back series finale in the comments below.
