Graceland Gambit
Episode 3 of National Treasure: Edge of History begins with Liam, Jess and Tasha showing up at Oren’s place. They want his camera to check a videotape they’ve found. In doing so, Jess translates her mother’s words, pointing out the Conquistadors invaded their lands and the women worked to smuggle treasures out. They called themselves Daughters of the Plumed Serpent and happen to be wearing necklaces. The same necklace that Jess happens to have. There’s a treasure map split into three pieces that can be brought together to show the location of where the treasure has been buried. Jess also sees her mum and dad together too, kissing and having a good time, prompting Jess to begin crying. Eventually Jess composes herself and realizes they need to find the three boxes in order to get the map and find the treasure. After convening in the treasure room, Liam points out a clue they’ve not been able to crack it, so naturally Ethan and Jess manage it pretty quickly. They depict the “Sun King” and trace it over to Elvis, the Masons and eventually someone called Peace. All of this leads them to Graceland, and Elvis’ alleged secret guitar. The group work out they 13 minutes to get in and out before they’re caught by security. Part of this comes from their plan, which involves smuggling moths inside, having Liam and Ethan pose as exterminators, and do all of this before the real exterminators arrive. No pressure then! The operation goes ahead and the pair are immediately separated, which wasn’t part of Tasha’s master plan, and begin in storage rooms. A room that Ethan is just nonchalantly invited into by Mark, the head security guy. He’s also told to sign an NDA after, although he does end up finding Elvis’ guitar. Unfortunately, the real exterminators show up early and look set to completely derail the whole plan. Jess heads inside, breaking into the secret room, while Liam ends up entertaining the crowd and playing his guitar. All the while, the real exterminators are distracted outside. Jess to get what she needs and the group scramble out before it’s too late. Tasha hacks into the camera feeds and deletes the footage, eventually leading to them all getting away, just as police show up. After recording a fake gold record that Elvis had, it seems like there might be a hidden message there somewhere. Back at the agency, Agent Ross Nichols is given some words of encouragement… and that’s it for her scenes this episode. Not sure what the point of that was but there we go! Elsewhere, Billie (and by extension the audience) are given some expository dialogue about Jess’ history, bringing up her steely resolve and how money isn’t her main drive. Billie and the group eventually show up in Mexico, searching through Aztec ruins. Unfortunately, Nate takes a step too far and ends up falling into a trap. As such, Kasey and Billie decide to run away, believing he’s gone forever without even trying to help their comrade. Meanwhile, Ethan speaks to Liam and warns that they need to be careful with Jess. She can’t break the law or get into any sort of trouble otherwise she could get deported. Hold up though, he said absolutely nothing about her stealing the puzzle box last episode with Tasha! Anyway, after revealing her DACA status, Ethan approaches Jess and lets her know, apologizing. Jess, in turn, shows up before Liam and tells him the truth, before the pair work together to decipher the Elvis record. It turns out there’s a hidden clue in there hinting at where they need to go next. However, Billie ends up hearing the same thing and as such, gives them a clue over where to go next.
The Episode Review
So National Treasure returns this week with another slice of teen drama shenanigans. The most ironic moment though comes from Ethan, who decides to tell Liam not to get Jess into any trouble…despite literally being part of big trouble plots for the last two episodes! Why haven’t Tasha and Oren been given the same lecture? However, the tone and general audience for this is very clearly geared toward young teens. The language used, along with the slang terms and the basic treasure hunt format, feels designed specifically for those not actually old enough to have watched the original movies. Which is an odd stylistic choice, to be honest. The plot is passable to say the least but there’s absolutely nothing that compelling or great. What’s particularly insulting though is how cheap everything looks. It’s almost like Disney have thrown this out without caring about its audience. An audience that has the choice of things like Outer Banks, which at least tries to show off its idyllic setting and grab a bunch of likable characters. Still, we’ll have to wait and see how many people stick with this one over the weeks.
