Blood and Treasure Episode 3:
Code of The Hawaladar
Make Yourself At Home
The episode begins with Father Chuck welcoming Danny and Lexi to his place as they are squatting there for a little while. He immediately second guesses his decision as Lexi begins to play with a priceless sword. Danny assures him that it won’t be for long and Lexi begins to make herself at home and undress for a shower.
As Father Chuck disapproves, “Five minutes and already you’re naked,” he leaves for a class. Gwen texts Danny to meet them at the Carabinieri.
A Old Acquaintance
When they arrive at the Carabinieri, they see Asim Masoud who works with Egypt’s intelligence agency. Danny worked with him on the Farouk case years ago, but they lost him. Asim is trying to capture him again and requests Danny’s help. He shows them footage of a filing box being taken from a storage facility and Lexi recognizes the man as Farouk’s lieutenant, Omar.
Danny wants to talk to Shaw and feels he is the key to finding Farouk, but Asim feels the lieutenant is the key. Danny convinces him to follow the money and to talk to Shaw.
Flashback
In Northern France, 1944, we learn a little bit more about the Germans interest in Cleopatra as the S.S. plan to use her a weapon. A soldier with the same ID tag that the doctor found in Antony and Cleopatra‘s tomb, killed the German colonel.
Present Day
Danny and Lexi go to see Shaw in the hospital. He won’t help them unless he’s granted immunity, but when Danny points out that Farouk has tried to kill him twice already, Shaw agrees to help. Farouk pays Shaw through a Hawala transaction in Paris. There is no paper trail.
They go to the Hawaladar with a password and the money is transferred. Shaw gave the password to Lexi and they leave for Paris. In the meantime, Farouk traces Cleopatra to Germany. The race of ‘who will get there first’ is entertaining. Will it be Farouk or Danny and Lexi?
Paris
Shaw is with Asim in a van outside, to help identify the banker. Danny and Lexi are inside trying to find the person. When they spot the man that Shaw describes, Lexi uses the password. The banker begins to make a call, but then a man walks up to Danny and recognized him from the FBI. (We saw this in a previous episode, and I wonder if this will be a recurring theme throughout the show or just a mere convenience to blow his cover and cause chaos.) The banker calls for the guards and runs. Danny deals with the guards and Lexi chases the banker. Interpol comes in and captures some of the guards, who are the bankers nephews. Lexi catches the banker and loses him, but not before she grabs his ledger. Asim goes to assist Danny and Lexi, and Shaw escapes the handcuffs and gets away.
It seems like an unusual moment to bring this up, but Gwen asks for Asim’s paperwork to work the case. He continues to assure her it’s coming. Danny and Lexi grow suspicious if his involvement and think that he might be a mole for Farouk. They keep the knowledge of the ledger to themselves. Lexi goes back to Father Chuck’s to decipher the ledger and Danny heads over to the Carabinieri to assist in getting the nephews to talk.
I Made Some Tea
When Father Chuck arrives back at his place, he notices Lexi hard at work. He was surprised to see that Danny gave her the key, but quickly realized that he didn’t and that she broke in. She wanted to access his collection of ‘old timey books’ to help decipher the ledger. He weighs the good and the bad, breaking in, but helping to stop terrorists and decides to sit down and help Lexi. He eventually cracks the code and realizes the language in the ledger is Sumerian.
This scene was the best scene in episode. There were no action sequences or stunts, just pure dialogue and emotion. It gave us insight into who Danny was and showed us a side of Lexi that we don’t normally see. It broke her down a bit where she wasn’t this rough and tough woman we are used to seeing, and opened up a softer side to see why she does what she does. Kudos to Sofia Pernas and Mark Gagliardi for a stunning performance here.
Getting Somewhere
Asim talks to one of the nephews, Khalid, but he won’t give Asim any information. Danny tries to talk to him and he agrees to help. He said there have been a number of transactions of antiquities for cash in Rome, but doesn’t have the address. Lexi texts that she has the address and Gwen tells Danny not to let her do anything stupid. Asim insists on going along.
Finish This
As Danny and Asim are walking toward the location, scouting the surrounding buildings, Asim realizes Danny suspects him of working with Farouk. He tells Danny that anytime he tries to investigate Farouk he hits a wall in his government, so he came here on his own.
Omar, Farouk’s lieutenant, is on the rooftop of one of the buildings watching Danny and Asim as they are getting closer to the location. Lexi spots Omar and throws him off the roof. As Danny and Asim go inside the building, Lexi makes a grand entrance and crashes through the roof with another gunman. In the middle of gunfire, Lexi spots a familiar picture and grabs it. Asim pulls Lexi out of the way of the gunfire and gets hit. His last request is to ‘Finish this for our country.’
Pastime
Danny is sitting on a bench outside the coliseum (which is a beautifully framed shot) and Father Chuck joins him. He is carrying and baseball and bat and they proceed to hit a few balls. He offers for Danny and Lexi to stay at his place. Lexi joins them and Father Chuck politely excuses himself.
Lexi shows Danny the picture and it says Bavaria 1944. Danny thinks Farouk plans to drive the East and West into an all out war. They want to find out where that picture was taken. As they are leaving, Fabi is watching them. He says to a man on the phone, that ‘Asim was not the mole in Egypt. They’re on their way to Germany as is Farouk. We will be ready, whoever finds her.’
Thoughts…
Overall, Blood and Treasure Episode 3 was an excellent episode that moved the story along and continued to take us on this adventure.
Who will find Cleopatra first? Will they stop Farouk and finally capture him? One of the creators, Matthew Federman, tweeted during the episode that there will be an ending this season. Hopefully we will get answers to both questions!
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Blood and Treasure Episodes 1 and 2