Your Place In Heaven
Episode 4 of La Casa De Papel Season 5 begins with a massive explosion. Helsinki is crushed under falling debris but he’s alive, at least for now anyway. With the Professor back in control again, he manages to communicate with his group inside the bank, telling them they need to attack from two fronts. With the army closing in, this is the only way they can save Helsinki’s life. While this is going on, more flashbacks cast our gaze back to Berlin and Rafael breaking into a lavish ball, with Tatiana and Marseille serving as a distraction. Speaking of which, this entire subplot feels like one big distraction. Anyway, it works to show Rafael’s origins into all this. (and chew up a good 15 minutes of run-time in the process too.) Back in the bank, the group create a tourniquet around Helsinki’s wound while Tamayo decides to bring in the anti-explosives robot. In the middle of this though, Helsinki demands Palermo just cut off his entire leg. Unable to move the marble statue crushing him, this seems like the only way. Or is it? There could be another way of doing this, with the gang setting out to try and move the statue after all. The Professor organizes his troupe, with Sierra standing by with her babe and Marseille ordered to get baby things. Benjamin meanwhile, works with the Professor as they learn from Lisbon that the handcuffs from before actually had a hidden mic inside. This means everything Tamayo has been saying has actually been recorded. And now they can use that to their advantage. The Professor immediately rings Tamayo midway through this operation and plays the recording of him confirming the fabricated evidence against Sierra. He blackmails the man into submission, calling off reinforcements – and the anti-explosive robot. He wants Tamayo to stick with a single wave inside – the 8 elite soldiers against the 10 robbers. If not? Well, the Professor has ways of making him pay – which include broadcasting all this incriminating data to news outlets. If that wasn’t enough, the gang organize the hostages up on the roof to conduct a “stampede”, distracting and confusing the snipers across the way so Tokyo and Denver can flank Sagasta’s soldiers. It works too, and they rappel down into the room with guns drawn. With the soldiers surrounded on all sides, Sagasta’s forces are kept at bay. Tamayo makes his choice, and leaves the soldiers to fend for themselves inside the bank. With Sagasta and Gandia in the driving seat, they decide to attack and do so on four sides. The militia are much better equipped than our robbers, and quickly throw a series of grenades. This simply serves as a distraction as they enact security protocols in the room, shutting down three heavy doors and cutting off half the team. A spray of bullets then follows, as the soldiers march forward and corn Tokyo; it looks like the end of the road for these characters. Or is it?
The Episode Review
What is up with these Berlin flashbacks? If the series is so desperate to include this guy into the story, why kill him off so early in the show’s run time? These moments do absolutely nothing to help the flow of the story and worse, offset the pacing that’s been hit or miss at the best of times this season. However, the action is much better this time and with the Professor back in the driving seat, everything looks poised for a dramatic cliffhanger to come next time out. With the second half of this season still to come, promising a big ending to this epic saga, La Casa De Papel may have lost the spark that made seasons 1 and 2 so good, but it still manages to showcase glimmers of brilliance from time to time. Let’s hope episode 5 goes out with a bang.
