Summary
Alex Rider‘s finale provides a satisfying conclusion to this season’s arc while still providing plenty of potential for a follow-up.
This recap of Alex Rider season 1, episode 8 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Check out our spoiler-free season review.
And so we reach Alex Rider episode 8, the finale, after a relatively consistent – and consistently bonkers – debut season. But there’s still some business to wrap up, as we’re swiftly reminded by Alex’s clone pilfering the Alex Friend passport from Dr. Greif’s drawer and hurrying away to presumably cause some problems for his doppelganger.
His doppelganger is, at least for now, readjusting to normal school life, and Tom’s misadventures have earned him a dance date with sickly Steph. It isn’t all good news, though, as Kyra’s parents have snuffed it; Crawley breaks the news, and she takes the opportunity to finesse his keycard in all her ostentatious grief so that she can say her farewells to Alex and slip away quietly.
Clone Alex, meanwhile, arrives at school and starts meddling in our Alex’s relationships with Tom and Ayisha, quickly turning his buddies against him. What’s worse for Alex is that Mrs. Jones tells him there are no real leads on his Uncle Ian’s killer. Continuing a habit of this first season of incidental namedrops leading to major revelations, the name of Yassen – who assassinates Greif elsewhere in Alex Rider episode 8 – sends Mrs. Jones into a bit of a tizzy.
Introducing, then, Scorpia, a shadowy and dangerous group who’re responsible for the deaths of Alex’s parents and have been pulling the strings of this season from behind the scenes, or using Yassen as their agent. They’ve done a good job, and things are especially complicated by the presence of Clone Alex, who arrives at the school dance up to more mischief, prompting the real Alex to confront and fight him. You know it’s coming, and you get your wish: When Mrs. Jones and co. arrive to arrest the clone, both Alex’s plead for their lives. Which is which?
Well, leave it to Tom, who stumbles out and clouts the clone. Aww, friendship! Clone Alex remains a threat, though, pulling a gun, but he’s shot by Yassen, wielding a sniper rifle on the rooftop. Yassen has the opportunity to kill the real Alex too, but he decides not to for reasons that remain unclear. A second season, perhaps?
That seems an enticing prospect, since plenty remains unresolved, though Alex Rider season 1, episode 8 works as a solid finale, tying up the core plot but leaving plenty open for a follow-up nonetheless. With the introduction of Scorpia, and Mrs. Jones and Blunt keeping their role in Alex’s parents’ death to themselves, for now, that’s a big revenge mission waiting to happen. With the survival of Yassen and the unclear fate of Kyra, plus the strong surviving characters in Jack, Tom, and the members of the intelligence agency, there’s a very strong foundation here. If it proves a hit for Amazon, which given the source material and overall quality it should, then we could quite easily be enjoying the next adventure of Alex Rider sooner rather than later.
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That wasn’t clone Alex retrieving the passport, that was real Alex who somehow was left behind. During the chaos of the fight with Eva the clone replaced the real Alex and/or left him for dead? It was clearly the clone Alex that traveled back on the helicopter showing no emotion, showing no emotion upon returning home and seeing Tom and Jack, etc.
Or maybe not upon full viewing. I spoke to soon.
Ha ha. Thought the same thing. That was cleverly done.
All in all this show was much better than I anticipated it to be.