The Innocent Ones
Episode 5 of The Barrier begins with Alma taking off with Marta in her car while Hugo and Julia start to lose hope they’ll see her again. Locked in their cell, Julia prepares for the worst as soldiers arrive to pick her up. Only, they let her go as she heads to the roof of the building and pays her respects to Carlos. Saying goodbye one more time, she spreads his ashes out into the wind. With a thin sliver of closure and a small window to escape, Emilia urges Julia to leave the city before it’s too late. However, she refuses to leave for now. Only, as we soon see Carlos isn’t actually dead. He’s still being held by the soldiers and all of this was a big ploy by Jiminez to try and crack Julia. With a gun to his head, Jiminez changes his mind at the last second and decides to put the man to good use. If he agrees to play ball then Jiminez won’t kill Julia and Hugo. Marta wakes up and finds herself in the hands of Alma. She promises to take her back to her parents but gives the girl a task to do first. Introducing her to Ivor, the girl promises to be good for now as the car races away. Meanwhile, Alex makes it back to the resistance. Iris tells her to leave though as they have more important matters to deal with. A sick lady holding a babe to her breast is struggling and she’s due to being moved that night. Only, upon closer inspection it looks like she’s been slashed across the neck and is dead. This causes a pretty big problem as the baby starts crying. As she wails, the police hear commotion in the flats and head up to investigate. Sneaking out the back, the resistance save themselves while Alex and Daniela take the baby some place safe. Alma arrives at Hugo’s house and they’re reunited with their daughter. Hugo profusely thanks her before she’s invited in for some water. The only mark on Marta happens to be a scar on the back of her neck, but she’s in no mood to talk. With Alma watching, Marta is cagey and refuses to disclose anything that’s happening. Back at the lab, Alma finds her scientist strung up by the neck and it looks like he’s hung himself. It turns out Jiminez has a damning report from the scientist relating to the experiments in the CIM. He’s the reason why the scientist is dead too, and he’s working for a higher authority whom he’s been sleeping with all this time. Elsewhere, Marta sits with Emilia and tells her story, involving spying on Alma and her scientist one night. Spying the projection on the wall, Marta talks about the “unique subject” which happens to be her. Daniela returns home with the baby. Luis warns her daughter, telling her that this isn’t a good idea as alternate arrangements are made with the orphanage. Daniela is unwilling to listen though and she sneaks the baby out of Luis’ house. On the way, Rosa throws her hands up, admitting she wants no part of this. As the group smuggle the baby out, Iris then joins them and reveals that the Father is expecting the baby back. They have a transport lined up for that night but Julia wants to go with them – it could be just the ticket she needs to leave the city. As the group begin their risky endeavour, Igor heads up to the house and sees them on their way out. He promises to keep his lips sealed though, as the trio breathe a sigh of relief and head for the rendezvous point. After traveling on the bus for some time, they’re stopped at an ID checkpoint. It’s touch and go for a while but they’re eventually allowed to pass… until Alex steps forward. He’s not allowed to pass and they’re all arrested for their troubles. Luis receives a call from the fence checkpoint confirming this unfortunate news. Thankfully Luis vouches for them and they’re freed for now. Julia and Hugo bid their goodbyes as the former is bundled on the truck with the baby. As she heads off, she reads a letter from Emilia wishing her well in the future. Suddenly, the truck stops by the side of the road. A police car stops the truck by the side of the road for an inspection. Only, this is a trap. These armed guards spray the truck with a barrage of bullets. Opening the back, it appears everyone is dead apart from the baby. Julia however, decided against getting on the truck after all. As we cut back and see, the duo decided to head back home while the truck left. When they get home, Hugo heads in to check on Marta but finds her door locked. An armed assassin happens to be right there but he slips away before any harm can be done to Marta. As the camera pans outside, we see exactly who this man is. It’s none other than Carlos himself.
The Episode Review
The twist at the end is a nice inclusion to this drama but for the most part, this episode felt like the characters were intentionally throwing themselves into harms way unnecessarily. Julia is incredibly lucky she wasn’t on that truck and it only reinforces how volatile and unpredictable this world actually is. This certainly sets things up nicely for the episodes ahead. Quite why Marta is so special and needed for this whole plan remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure – this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Alma. For now though the show continues to deliver decent enough drama, but whether it can push beyond that to deliver something truly special remains to be seen.
