Amber is getting married in 6 months and she’s nervous. She asks her bridesmaid to call her brother, Bambi, who is in the same unit, “Echo 3”. When Amber asks him if she’s making the right decision, Bambi cites their love as the main catalyst. His words help but Amber also reminds him of his added duty to make sure he brings Prince home from “flyaway” missions they complete. ..
Prince comes from money. His father, who is not present at the wedding, attended with a younger partner. Amber’s mother is a drug addict and she takes up the study of Alkaloids in order to find a cure for drug addiction. She joins the festivities and boldly asks Bambi to look after Amber. Bambi also meets Roy Lennon, ex-New Zealand team, at the wedding. The celebrations are in full flow as Amber and Prince enjoy their time on the dance floor. Echo 3 team is almost drunk when Drifter, their leader, receives a call for a “flyaway” the next morning. ..
Amber is disappointed when she learns the news but understands Prince has to go. The hostage is a journalist. The terrain is a difficult one as the snow has covered most of the hills, making it difficult to stabilize the “bird” (the plane). As Prince starts descending using a rope, the terrorists who are holding the journalist, start firing. To prevent the bird from being in the firing line, Prince is forced into jumping on land so that it can go to a safe space. Drifter and Bambi refuse to leave Prince hanging and the team descends some miles down the hill to retrieve their man.
As the terrorists come out to meet their enemies, they bring along a journalist with them. While a handful unwittingly approaches the team directly, some others stay back to man the machine guns. Another group goes to intercept Prince. Seeing that they are coming directly to them and Prince is in the opposite direction, Drifter and Bambi make the decision to hold their positions and ask Prince to stay hidden. One by one, the team starts taking out the terrorists, who are not as trained as them. They retrieve the journalist and then head toward Prince.
Prince’s group of followers catch up to him and he is injured in the leg. He is able to fight back and kill a couple of them, but there is still one left. Drifter goes out to meet the terrorist with the machine gun and shoots him down. Unknown to him, there is another fighter hiding in the bushes, who fatally shoots Drifter. Bambi is caught between a hard place and a rock. On one hand, he has the option to retrieve Drifter. On the other hand, he can go to Prince to save him as he is injured too. ..
Prince first calls out for Drifter on the comms but the leader shows courage and sacrifice by not responding. He is still alive but somehow feels like a better chance of getting saved. Other members of the team cannot aid Bambi, and he has the tough decision to abandon Drifter and save Prince.
Prince is angry and frustrated with Bambi. He accuses her of lying to him and of being a tool of the Drifter family. He orders Bambi to leave the room.
Prince is “hypothecalizing” and needs to stop. He fights with Amber when she does not take his side and the two are almost about to engage in hate sex when Prince gives Amber a “beacon,” something that will allow him to track her in the forests of Colombia, as they have no cellular signal. Amber takes offense and goes out for a run. At a RedX (science convention), she explains her theory of using alkaloids to develop a cure for drug addiction. She is going to Colombia to investigate the local ecology for clues. ..
Amber’s mentor in the lab, Arthur, tells her that with her grasp on alkaloids, she can be the next “Timothy Leary.” She meets the team in Colombia and starts her research. In one of the rituals where the mind is forced to remember and confront past memories and traumas, she remembers her childhood. A few weeks later, Bambi and his mother discuss Amber. Amber hasn’t called him in a while and he is getting worried. She asks him to go down to the forest and bring her back, as she stereotypes the local culture.
Amber is being held at gunpoint by the men from the expedition. She is praying for help, and we see her holding her hands up in prayer. We then cut to the first scene in the episode where she is being interrogated by the local scientists.
Prince calls Bambi and they discuss options to rescue Amber as he feels she is in danger. He tracks the location of the beacon to the foot of the hills. Bambi reveals to Prince that Amber needs to be sterile as she is doing some fieldwork for Mitch and the Agency. She is a subcontractor but not an officer. Prince is outraged when he learns she works for the CIA. Bambi then proceeds to mock Prince’s life of excesses and they fight.
Bambi receives a call from Langley informing her that she and two other scientists have been taken hostage by an ELN guerrilla group. The others have been executed, but she is okay. Prince and Bambi decide to rescue her. ..
The Episode Review
In episode 1 of Mark Boal’s new series, “The Hour”, the writer has tasted serial success with this genre before and his understanding places him in a great position to recontextualize the original Israeli story in the political fabric of the Americas. The series follows a group of Israelis who are forced to flee their homeland after a devastating attack. They find themselves in Mexico, where they must fight for survival against an all-powerful Mexican government and its own internal strife.
The premiere of Echo 3 was a fast start. Most of the setting up for the central conceit happened quite smoothly. Luke Evans and Michiel Huisman complete an impressive debut as the bitter-sweet duo. The show promises some compelling and at times uncomfortable truths about America’s chequered foreign policy, as well as a raging maelstrom of emotions waiting to explode.
Jessie Collins is a potential surprise package in this rescue story. Her screen presence and ability to hold you with little dialogue will be key in certain moments. This story has pace well in episode 1. Onwards and upwards from here!
