Sunday 6 March 2016

Occupied S01E08

Synopsis

"Jesper Berg initiates a police action in order to get the Russians out of the country with disastrous consequences. Hans Martin continues to work with the Russians." (S1, ep 8)

What I thought?

Well, the stakes are raised yet another notch this episode!

First up, the PM is off to see the King to tell him that a new government needs to be formed, with the King asking him to remain in power until the cabinet have made up their minds over the new government make-up. First little shocker follows, in that the journalist (whom I've kept calling Bente, but is actually called Thomas) is really dead! He certainly looked pretty dead last week but I was betting he'd be ok. Nope, he's really dead and has already been buried by this point as we're at the his funeral wake, with his ex-editor chief letting Thomas's wife (who is called Bente) that he's going to run a story claiming his death wasn't an accident, as the Norwegian police have said. Obviously that doesn't go down well with Russian-loving Bente.

The PM makes a stand after learning that Russians are pouring illegally into Norway and goes on TV to tell everyone to report such illegals to police so they can be deported. Obviously that goes down like a lead brick with the russian ambassador Irina Sidorova who demands he go back on what he said. Looking butch, yet somehow like he' needs the toilet at the same time, Jesper Berg refuses.

As Bente houses more Russians so as to avoid them being sent home, our main man Hans is working with the russian security force and discover the Free Norway base, now deserted, but full of ammunition. Where have they gone then? Hmmm.

After being interviewed by Ingrid from the Police, Bente finds that her daughter Maja blames herself for her dad's death. Naturally that's very unlikely to be true, and it's revealed that Thomas phoned Maja on that day to say hello and that she tried to ring the number back but got a russian guy. How she can be sure it was someone from Russia at her age I don't know, but Bente takes this information back to Ingrid, who confirms she suspects her husband's death wasn't an accident. Upset, Bente demands the Russians leave her restaurant, and even her russian security lover is getting the brush off. Amazing that she's actually upset about Thomas when she was as cold as ice before he left, in a sort of strange charector change for her after they seemed to be mostly solid as a unit.

Next, the big part of the episode. Things really get dramatic and tense when masked russian (who else?) men attack the PM and his PA in their office! Apparently a russian working in the cafe downstairs let them in. Seems very suspect that these guys with bombs and guns could have walked in and through the building to the PM's office without anyone noticing or raising the alarm? Well, they did. With an extremely tense stand off between the PM and the attackers, our man of the moment as always, Hans, is dispatched by Irina to do some diplomatic work. She's doesn't want to be associated with the russian masked men, although whether she actually is or not is very hard to determine. Hans does his diplomacy work in the PM's room with the PA, PM and terrorists present but after a reasonable start, things go wrong quickly as arguments between the sides see guns pointing everywhere and shouting even within the russian group. Dramatically and suddenly, blood is spilled as the Norwegian SWAT group outside gun down the terrorists in a millisecond, ending what was quickly going to be a worse outcome. I found this whole segment extremely nerve whacking and well executed. The sudden shooting by snipers was brilliantly unexpected.

Hans is debriefed by the Russians and their new head of security whom has discovered Han's double agent ploy, which Hans defends by saying he's just trying to keep things peaceful. Not the best defence but Irina defends him too and it seems he lives to fight another day and continue his crusade to be a human scarecrow. Ok, made that last bit up, but he once again looks incredibly glum all episode.

The PM in the meantime is holding up in the American Embassy (apparently the only safe place in Norway for him currently) and he we see him hook up via teleconference to the new government and the king, and reveal that he's part of the new government (Seems everyone is on the same side after all that drama) and that his first order will be to create more illegal immigration camps to house any illegal Russians. That seems like a good idea from his perspective but given the events of this episode, I suspect that's the daftest decision he could have made.

Rating 7/10 (GOOD STUFF)

I don't know why, but I was expecting the Queen to be behind the seat, maybe stroking a cat.
He's dead alright! Well Well Well. A primary character is no more.

Masked Men (Russian of course) storm the PM's Office rather too easily.

Hans is the natural negotiator, but even the Norwegian superhero of the hour can't solve this one.

With things about to go badly wrong, the terrorists are taking out by Norwegian Snipers.
Hans escapes a russian inquisition, barely, thanks to Irina's assistance.

Bente has finally had enough of Russians and wants them out of her restaurant.
GET OUT MY PUB! She doesn't say but that's what she would say in Eastenders.

A new government is formed from the umm existing government

No comments:

Post a Comment