Breaking & Entering
Episode 5 of Alex Rider begins with Alex waking up after his ordeal and not remembering anything. As he sits with the others eating breakfast, he relays his dream and Kyra chimes in and reveals she had the exact same visions. Laura returns from her absence too, completely different from before and sitting with the twins as they talk cryptically about how she’s feeling. Meanwhile in London, Jones and the others sit and try to work out the connection Martin had in all this, believing it may lie with the school in Point Blanc. As they set to work uncovering what’s going on, Yassen lurks in the shadows and starts to track down Alex. Back at school, Steph (the girl who threw up at the party in episode 1) awkwardly talks about an upcoming party with Tom. After stumbling his way through the conversation, he heads into class where it turns out Yassen is waiting outside talking to the teachers, watching Tom with interest. At the Special Forces headquarters, Smithers and the others manage to trace a number that leads back to the shadowy forces at work and by using vocal tones matching Martin, phone through. Only, the number disconnects and this prompts Yassen to receive a call informing him about updating security protocols. Grief also receives a call too. Alex, Kyra and James realize the group are being changed, one by one, and set to work breaking into Greif’s office to learn more. The first step to do this is learning the key code and although they get the numbers and trace the code to the date Hitler was born, Grief’s earlier phone call means they’re forced to speed up their plans. Despite managing to break in, they hit another snag when they realize the phone needs a physical key-card. At the same time, down in the basement, Greif speaks to Eva about killing Dr Baxter once he’s served his purpose. In Manhattan, Parker delivers a speech about controlling the empire his Father had and as Jones catches wind of the speech online, she realizes that this controlling and changing is part of what Point Blanc is doing to students. Yassen meanwhile, breaks into Greif’s office and sits waiting for him. He hands over the photo of Tom and Alex, quizzing him over who exactly Alex is and sowing seeds of doubt in his mind. On his way out the door, Yassen runs into Alex and after a frosty encounter, takes his leave. In London, Alan meets Parker and sees first-hand that something isn’t right and feeds this back to the group. At the same time, Alex, James and Kyra put into motion their plan of breaking out and stealing snowmobiles. Unfortunately, James is stopped on the way out and forced to follow Eva, subsequently missing from action. In the middle of the night, Alex breaks out with Kyra and they start to get to the bottom of what’s happening at Point Blanc. They find security footage of their rooms, and understand that Dr Greif is watching their every move. Out in the hallway, Dr Baxter meets Greif and Eva who both thank him for his work…and stab him in the chest, which is where the episode ends. With a decent amount of espionage drama this time around, Alex Rider is really starting to get into a good groove as the tension and action improves a lot. The interactions between Kyra, James and Alex are decent and this is definitely one of the stronger episodes of the series. The mystery surrounding Point Blanc continues to thicken too and quite what this means for our characters remains to be seen. For now though, Alex Rider leaves things wide open for its future episodes. Published: 04 June 2020 at 2:25 pm on TheReviewGeek.com
