Summary
The Spy Season 1, Episode 6, “Home” – The Finale, is emotionally crafted with all the previous episodes in mind, showing the true extent of Eli’s espionage, and the dangerous consequences.
This recap of Netflix Series The Spy Season 1, Episode 6, “Home” – The Finale contains significant spoilers. The Spy is based on the life of the Israeli spy, Eli Cohen. You can read the recap of the previous episode by clicking these words.
At a certain point in the finale of The Spy, Dan, Maya and the team discuss the opportunity versus the risk. It was hailed as the greatest opportunity — having an Israeli undercover as the Syrian Deputy Defence Minister. It is evident in this emotionally impactful chapter that the risk was not truly evaluated.
The breaking point of the entire espionage was the pump planned to split the sea of Galilee. Israel has planned an attack, but the fear is that it will make Eli (Sacha Baron Cohen) an immediate suspect. Dan wants to bring Eli home indefinitely, but Maya asks to coordinate the attack, so Eli is clear of suspicion.
Eli does return home momentarily to see Nadia and his children. Unbeknown to Eli, Maurice, his brother, has replaced the cryptographer at the Intelligence Agency, and he knows Eli is part of a spy operation, as he received the morse codes. Maurice berates Eli, asking questions about his “traveling”.
As for Nadia, she can sense changes in Eli; he smokes, he has a short fuse, and he is generally not himself. When she finally has Dan and Eli in the room, she demands that the truth comes out in the open about Eli’s real job, but both men refuse to break.
I have felt sorry for Nadia for the entire series. Her heartfelt statement about Eli, claiming all she wanted was him, has heartbreaking reverberations later.
As he embarks on going back out on his operation again, Eli explains to Dan that he is starting to feel like his character Kamel. This surely should have been a warning sign, and after he tells Nadia he is scared, that should have been the end of it — but it wasn’t.
Episode 6, “Home” moves forward two weeks later — Eli has returned to Damascus, and the city is performing routine power shutdowns to help find spies from morse code signals. They almost track Eli’s morse code, but he shut it down before the van got closer to his apartment. The planned attack on Israel goes ahead — another successful piece of information provided by Eli.
And then the moment comes, and it’s difficult to not watch with a shallower breath as the tension becomes unbearable. Eli sends one morse code too far, and the van finds the location of another spy. The next day, Suidani and the army go to his apartment as he’s about to send another morse code. Eli tries to kill himself with the poisoned pill, but they arrest him. Suidani coldly asks Eli to send a message to the Israelis: “The game is over”.
Nadia’s fears come true as Dan visits her. The inevitable is as sad as the ending, as a human rights lawyer is for Eli, but it’s presented like it is just for show. Amin Al-Hafez orders Suidani to arrest anyone who may have been involved.
Episode 6 then returns to the start of the series — Eli is with a Rabbi, he has torn off fingernails and is asked to sign a letter. Nadia is listening to a Syrian broadcast — Amin Al-Hafez charges Eli with treason, and he will be immediately executed.
As Nadia falls to the floor and damages her own home, you are reminded of the purposeful disconnect between her and Eli in the series, and it all comes crashing into this one moment. Again, Nadia only ever wanted Eli; not money, not the best jobs, just Eli, and at this moment, you felt her dreams crashing around her. It was painful to watch, and The Spy brilliantly articulated the story of Eli in this one moment, while at the same time, understanding the impact it had on his family.
The most surreal moment is when he was hanged; his Syrian friends were watching in the audience — Eli chose not to cover his head, and when the floor was removed to carry the execution, Amin Al-Hafez and his friends cried, demonstrating the length of time Eli spent with them; he was family.
The Spy Season 1, Episode 6, “Home” ends with facts splashed up on the screen, but the most noticeable one is that Nadia Cohen is still trying to return Eli’s body from Syria to this day.
You can read our full season review by clicking these words.
