Hostage Recap: Bonne Chance

So, ehm, well. The titular hostage crisis of Hostage is seemingly … over? Not without plenty of casualties, of course. But the important guy, Alex, is alive — as is Old James Bond, thank the heavens. It’s actually quite the bold, and refreshingly subversive, twist to resolve the series’ central conflict midway through. That said, I had wondered how it could be sustained across five full episodes, with the crisis now being public knowledge, and the captors’ leader (played, by the way, by Martin McCann) returning to Britain to raise hell closer to home for Dalton and Toussaint. The question is now how the show evolves without its main selling point (beyond being a platform for Jones and Delpy, who both continue to be excellent, to try and out-mother one another). And how do you one-up such a major twist? You’d be a fool to think that a more shocking event — or, at the very least, something that tries to be more shocking — isn’t coming up.

In fact, it’s only the first of two, arguably three, mega-twists in the episode: Alex survives his ordeal in French Guiana (mega-twist one), but on the home front, Grandad Max is brutally murdered in his hospital bed (mega-twist two) by none other than Matheo’s girlfriend, Saskia (mega-twist three!). Turns out that, like Adrienne — caught red-handed by Kofi, who continues to be one of my favorite characters in the show — she was a turncoat all along. Poor, poor Matheo. He fell for the honey trap. The guy just can’t catch a break. (Would it be too mean to start questioning his decision-making when it comes to the fairer sex?)

Back to the start: in the wake of Dalton’s interview on national TV, the hostage crisis has obviously taken all of the headlines, and everyone now knows that Toussaint has also been blackmailed. Dalton attends Parliament to hold an emergency session on the crisis and begins to make a statement for her fellow parliamentary colleagues. The leader of the opposition has not a sliver of sympathy for her; he skims over the fact that her husband is literally in mortal peril, and instead weaponizes the story of a British child who died due to the medication shortage to attack her politically. “It’s one thing taking risks with your husband’s life,” he says. “It’s quite another gambling with the lives of the rest of the country.” Does he have a point? Not really, but especially not now. This is obviously not a moment for cruel point-scoring. In England, we have a phrase for guys like him: “complete and utter bastard.” It actually made me quite mad to watch this scene; even in our contemptible political environment, I don’t think anyone would be that cruel IRL. Let’s hope he dies!

In annoying child news, Sylvie reveals that she was the one who leaked the hostage crisis to the press, hoping that it would force her mum to resign, thus leading to Alex being freed. (Again, a naive, irksome decision, but I do have to keep reminding myself that she’s a teenager.) Over in camp Toussaint, the French president comes clean to her husband about the affair; fair play to him, he’s relatively sanguine about it all, especially given it was literally with his son. In the dead of night, Toussaint sets up a meeting with Dalton, where she offers her a deal: work out who is behind the blackmail, and she’ll send the French special forces in to rescue Alex. No dice for the emboldened Dalton, who demands a supply of drugs to sweeten the deal. “I always thought you were a little bit of a goodie-two-shoes,” Toussaint says, with a glimmer of respect in her eyes. “But I was wrong about you.” She accepts Dalton’s demands. “Bonne chance.” Dalton puts her aide Ayesha (Hiftu Quasem) on the job, who discovers only that Kofi has an offshore bank account where he recently deposited, and quickly withdrew, 78 grand. As Dalton says, it’s hardly a smoking gun, but maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part.

One scene that is quite sad in retrospect, given it’s the last time they interact before his death? Grandad Max’s confrontation with Dalton, whom he accuses of putting the country above the life of her husband. “Nothing is more important than your family,” he says. And this would probably be true in the vast, vast majority of cases, but Dalton literally has access to the nuclear codes. As Kofi put it earlier in the episode, in the hours after her press statement: “No one can doubt you put your country first tonight.” As the leader of an entire nation, that is her obligation; there’s a fair argument to be had that prioritizing anything else, including the life of her husband, would be criminally negligent. Besides which, if she projects any sense of a conflict of interest, her people — let alone her political rivals — will begin to suspect she’s not up for the job. Emotions are high, but whatever the case, her family has proven themselves … well, naive.

Back in French Guiana, the captors begin to move the hostages again after Adrienne leaks that a U.S. rescue mission will be underway in a matter of hours; unbeknownst to her, Toussaint had organized for the French special forces to go in earlier, which sends Adrienne into a panic. (Did Toussaint withhold this from Adrienne because she suspected she was the mole? Probably not, but she was wise to keep the circle tight.) In the meantime, Agent Mercer has organized for the remaining hostages to hatch their own escape plan, which comes off quite well, save for one of them being shot in the back. Fortunately, the French swoop in before Alex also takes a bullet. Relief is felt throughout the situation room, but not least for Dalton and Sylvie, who cry with Alex over the satellite phone. “Mum got me out,” Alex tells Sylvie. “I’m coming home.” At least one of the Dalton clan gets it.

So, is it all over? Don’t be silly! The anti-Dalton group shifts to the next phase of their scheme to have her booted out of Number 10, this time stoking civil unrest in England by causing a riot at the vigil for the dead child. So, after a brief moment of respite, that’s another crisis for Dalton to deal with alongside the death of her father. As Toussaint might say: Bonne chance.

Hostage Demands

• I imagine that might be the last we see of Agent Mercer, a.k.a. Old James Bond, so a quick parting note of praise for Gerald Kyd, who killed it in his scenes.

• A brief highlight of this episode: we get to see Toussaint engaging in her favorite hobby, compulsive online poker!

• I can’t see both Adrienne and Kofi being double agents, so let’s hope the investigation into his dubious financial affairs ends swiftly and with full exoneration. #KofiInnocent