Summary
The writers do not hold back as we reach the halfway point of the final season. The sense of inevitability is crippling, leaving the audience in shock.
This recap of Netflix’s Money Heist season 5, episode 5, “Live Many Lives,” contains spoilers.
Read the recap of the previous episode.
Okay, people, take a deep breath. Money Heist is not playing in season 5. And for Netflix to split this season up into two parts! The absolute torture we will feel now until December. If you have finished episode 5, you will probably be a little shaky — it had quite the ending…
Money Heist season 5, episode 5 recap
Let’s recap this golden chapter. Episode 5 opens with a flashback — it’s a Tokyo-centric chapter. Tokyo’s partner Rene is shot by the authorities after a failed bank heist. She’s devastated and broken. Berlin and Professor see the failed heist on the news — Berlin wants Tokyo on their team despite Professor’s doubts. And then Tokyo narrates, telling the audience how her story began and the pain following her lover’s death — she lived a life of guilt and has not stopped running since. Of course, that brings the audience to the present, as Tokyo shoots at the army in the bank. Manila, Denver, and Tokyo are trapped in the kitchen. They’ve managed to buy time by blocking the door with a large stove. However, there’s an air of inevitability in this chapter. It makes you tense up.
The army is trying to find a way into the kitchen to get to their enemies. Gandia and Sagasta disagree on strategy. Knowing this is a weakness, Tokyo teases Gandia by shouting at him. She calls him a coward and that his child will see him as a “piece of shit.” In anger, Gandia throws a grenade, but Tokyo throws it back. One of the soldiers dies from the blast, and Gandia is blamed for it, and a brief fight follows.
We are then treated to another flashback, bringing the audience back to when Professor saved Tokyo. He tells her he is recruiting and offers her freedom on a plan he has prepared for over twenty years. The timeline moves forward slightly, showing the audience the first time she met Rio — they had a connection almost immediately.
Back to the present; Palmero and the rest of the heist team are trapped in another room, and they need to find a way to open the secure doors — they get to work to weld them open with fire. Stockholm is helping Helskini with his wounds, but she keeps hallucinating and sees Arturo, so she panics. Helsinki mumbles about morphine, but Stockholm ends up having a panic attack and injects morphine into her arm. The character is slowly falling apart since she shot Arturo. It’s sad to see this character so broken in seasons 4 and 5.
And then there’s a period of calm that gives the audience time to breathe. On the radio, the heist team here a baby girl crying. Professor reveals that Sierra has given birth to a baby. Suddenly, everyone turns human as the war becomes secondary. Lisbon offers her congratulations and asks for a name. Sierra names her girl Victoria. However, after this heartwarming moment, Sierra heads to the bathroom and hides a sharp tool in her sleeve — she’s plotting again.
And then episode 5 rushes the audience back to the war; Sagasta’s team is drilling a hole into the kitchen, but two of the soldiers are shot as they get to work. And then, we hit a turning point and one that spurs on a range of emotions. From outside, the snipers hit Tokyo multiple times. Denver desperately grabs Tokyo, and she is badly wounded. Flashbacks show Rene telling Tokyo that they will get the cash they need for their lives — he’s onboard to go after the banks.
Back in the present, Denver desperately tries to help Tokyo while Sagasta’s squad attacks again. Meanwhile, Rio is drilling a hole underneath the kitchen, sensing that Tokyo is in trouble. It’s all chaos, with Palmero and co still trying to weld a door open so they can escape their room. It feels helpless at this point. So many impossibilities have been made possible in this story. However, this feels like one scenario too far for the heist team.
Tokyo tells Denver that she can still shoot as they feel the next wave of attacks coming. Stockholm, who is high off morphine, radios to Denver about the dumbwaiter in the kitchen — it’s a way to escape. But when Denver looks down the dumbwaiter shaft, it’s about six floors. Tokyo tells Manila and Denver to escape — she plans to stay behind — she can’t climb down the dumbwaiter shaft due to her injuries. It gets increasingly emotional as Denver tells Tokyo that he cannot let her down. She reassures him that everything will be okay — as the audience, we know that is not true.
Rio manages to drill a hole so he can speak to Tokyo, and they hold hands — Rio feels he can get Tokyo out, but she tells him there’s no time and that she’s happy he is with her as it all ends. As she shoots at the army, she reminisces with Rio. Professor is desperate to save Tokyo and tells her to resist for 30 seconds.
Tokyo tells Rio not to be sad and that it’s “the first day for his next life”. And then it happens…she is shot multiple times by Sagasta’s squad. Gandia walks over to a heavily wounded and dying Tokyo. He looks smug and victorious. However, the writers were never going to allow Gandia to have the last word against Tokyo. Suddenly, Tokyo looks at him and smiles, and opens her hand — she’s holding plenty of metal rings. And then it dawns on Gandia; she’s let off all her grenades.
There’s an explosion — Tokyo is dead, but hopefully, she brought Gandia down with her. There’s an emptiness that ends episode 5. A sadness that resonates through all the characters. It’s going to take a lot for the heist team to get over this one. We’ll have to see how all this ends later this year.
Additional points
- Manila tells Denver that she meant what she said on the roof — that she loves him. Manila asks Denver if he’s in love with Stockholm. Denver focuses on the war and gets irritated, but Manila presses him. Denver says he’s never had doubts about Stockholm and his feelings.
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