Summary
“Strike” brings the season’s events to a satisfying close while also laying the groundwork for another continuation.
This recap of Alex Rider season 2, episode 8, “Strike”, contains spoilers, especially in regards to the Alex Rider Season 2 ending.
Alex Rider has displayed a great deal of ingenuity throughout the last two seasons of this show, so I have to say I was expecting him to have a better plan for outsmarting Cray than simply handing the stolen vial over to him when asked. Of course, Cray has Sabina held hostage, and you know what young boys are like with pretty young girls, but still — this guy’s a teenage super spy!
Alex Rider season 2, episode 8 recap
Everyone does seem to be weirdly honest with each other in “Strike”, though. When Alex is greeted by Yassen, he asks him outright if he killed his uncle and Yassen just shruggingly says he did — he made the mistake of trusting people that he worked with, after all. Cray also reveals that the vial contains President Walker’s thumbprint, an integral part of his plan for changing the world. Everything is starting to nicely come together as we approach the end of the season.
Alex also discovers that he might have an ally in Yassen. The idea is solidified later, but any savvy viewer will have picked up on it as soon as Yassen refuses to kill Alex and Sabina on Cray’s orders, instead arguing that they’d be better used as hostages. There’s something between these two that is important, and it’s probably the thread that any subsequent seasons will tug on.
Cray gets to carry out his plan in “Strike”, and in fairness, it’s a pretty clever one. I’ll try and lay it out as clearly as I can. So, as Smithers and Kyra discover, the Feathered Serpent 2 game is secretly a Trojan horse for code that’ll sync up every user’s computer, inadvertently creating the largest supercomputer in history and allowing Cray to use the combined network processing power to hack any system on Earth. He’s aiming for America’s nuclear codes, and he has a plan to use them. Since President Walker was invited to his charity gala, she arrived on Air Force One, which she left at a local airbase that Cray manages to get evacuated by pretending a plane is about to crash-land there with a cargo hold full of nerve gas. The ruse allows him to assume control of Air Force One, impersonate President Walker over video-call to the Pentagon, and authorize a nuclear launch at various targets around the globe.
Of course, Cray didn’t account for Alex sneaking aboard disguised as one of his men, or Alex still being fitted with one of Blunt’s tracking devices, which allows Smithers and Kyra to figure out where he is. But they can’t get backup there before Alex has had his big finale showdown with Cray, which requires a distraction from Sabina to get Yassen out of the way. While Alex fights with Cray, Yassen catches a bullet, and Sabina gets the jump on Evelyn. Cray is able to overpower Alex, but just as he’s about to finish him off, Yassen shoots him dead from behind. The assassin tells Alex that he was his father’s friend and that if he wants to know the truth, he should, “go to find the widow. Find Scorpia. Find out who you really are.”
Eventually, Alex is able to avert the launch by proving that the initial order from President Walker was a fake. But in the confusion, Yassen disappears. When Mrs. Jones arrives, Alex tells her that the Russian saved his life and shot Cray, but not what he said about Scorpia and his own history. He’s keeping that to himself.
A flurry of scenes closes out “Strike” and Alex Rider Season 2. Alex says his farewells to Sabina — she likes him, but his life is a bit nuts, and her dad could do without the stress. The Romeo & Juliet performance goes pretty well, and Kyra is even there to watch from the rafters, but her interest clearly remains in Scorpia. And so, too, does Alex’s. After Mrs. Jones visits Alex to grant Jack a certificate of special guardianship and dual citizenship, making her Alex’s official guardian and a British citizen, Jack suggests another holiday as a celebration. But where to go? Alex, with Yassen’s words about who he really is still ringing in his ears, says he has an idea.
You can stream Alex Rider season 2, episode 8, “Strike”, exclusively on IMDb TV. Do you have any thoughts on the Alex Rider Season 2 ending? Let us know in the comments.
