Summary
While the story starts a bit messy, the show picks up enough to warrant moving on to Episode 2.
We recap the Apple TV+ series Echo 3 season 1, episode 1, “Flyaway,” which contains spoilers.
Apple TV+ continues to bring its A-game to the world of television. But do the hits keep coming with their brand new series, Echo 3? Our coverage of the show begins with taking a look at the pilot. Let’s dive in and see what goes down.
Echo 3 season 1, episode 1 recap
The episode begins with a man coming across the screen riding a horse with a group that have some people hostage. Then, we see “Part One” pop up in bold white letters across the bottom of the screen. Next, they have the three people lined up on their knees with guns pointed to the back of their heads, and boom, gunshots go off.
The series rewinds six months earlier, as we are about to see Amber head down the aisle for her wedding. However, she is flustered and mentions that she wants to see her brother. Bambi comes in to check on his sister, to whom he hands a bottle of alcohol to calm her nerves. She is going through some things about it that are giving her hesitation. We get a bonding moment between the two of them where we get a montage of them as kids with their mom. Before she goes out, she tells him, “he’s not just another man on your unit. He comes home.” Of course, he concurs, and Amber walks the aisle.
During the reception after the wedding, Prince’s dad, Eric, steps into where Amber’s dad should be and takes on the first dance. Bambi steps outside to confront their mother about trying to act normal because it’s her daughter’s wedding. She tells him to take himself inside and do his job protecting his sister. Next, Eric mentions to Amber that the window is closing on them having a family and hopes they consider making babies sooner rather than later.
As the night continues, the party ensues, with all the soldiers gathering together and talking about their pact. Moments later, one of the men gets a call saying they will have to fly away in the morning and have fun tonight. He tells the crew no more booze, wheels up in eight hours that they have to rescue a few of their own. Prince tries to savor some of his last moments with his new wife while he tells her that he has to fly out in the morning. Amber is upset because it’s basically already morning, and they just got married.
The following morning, the crew is half awake as they are on their mission to rescue some people. Next, the men deploy for the plane one by one, but they realize they aren’t in the right place, leading the chopper to get under fire. In the middle of the battle, they lose one of their guys, forcing them to land to head to retrieve him. Then, the men slowly start to get into position forcing the captures to move out. One of them mentions that they must save their guy or the hostages. Someone speaks up and says their guy, but Bambi mentions mission first.
We see that Prince is the one that is stuck attempting to get away from the bad guys. They finally get to Prince, but he takes one of them down. Next, the captures walk right into a trap set by the soldiers and can take them down quickly. Bambi says they must go in for Prince. A sniper from a distance strikes Drifter, sending him to the ground. More intruders are on their way, leaving Bambi unsure of what to do next, knowing he might have to leave Prince. Ultimately, Bambi makes it to Prince, who tells him that Drifter is dead and they must get out of there.
The show takes us three months later, where Prince is struggling in bed with Amber. Then, Amber heads to her brother’s house to talk to him about what happened on the mission. Later that night, Prince, Amber, and Bambi have dinner together. Bambi talks about how he took Drifter’s kids to hockey practice. The conversation leads to the two having a few words about the mission. Finally, Prince calls him out about how Bambi might not have handled the mission right. Instead of staying and fighting, Bambi leaves.
We head home, where Amber and Prince have words over how he treated her brother at dinner. The two exchange some harsh words towards each other. However, as the duo starts to play around, Amber sees something on the nightstand. It is some device to attempt to protect her while she is in Columbia. She doesn’t love how overly protective he is and heads out for a run. We see a montage of her running, Bambi having a few drinks, and Prince putting the stuff in her bag anyway.
Now we are inside a room where Amber is giving a TED talk-style speech to an audience. First, she mentions how many people have drug problems and her mother. Next, she goes through a PowerPoint presentation on addiction and how certain places don’t have it. Then, we move to the lab, where she talks to her boss about how people think she is crazy for going to Columbia.
We move to Columbia, where we see Amber exploring nature with some people. A woman talks about how they have read her work and are impressed by it. After searching, the group found what they were looking for and gathered the stuff for their research. Shortly after they return to camp, she partakes in some ritual that sees her see some flashbacks and shed some tears.
Echo 3 season 1, episode 1 ending
At this moment, the man finds the tracker that Prince put in Amber’s bag, and that sets them off. We move back to the present day, where Amber was one of the three people on their knees with guns to their heads. Next, we see Prince call Bambi, saying they need to meet because neither of them has heard from Amber. He shows the tracking device and how it hasn’t moved in a couple of days.
However, Bambi exposes that Amber is doing side work for the CIA while she is down there, causing Prince to freak out. Then, Bambi calls Langley, and they tell him about the camp being taken over. After getting off the phone with Mitch, Prince looks at Bambi and asks him how much he trusts the CIA. Apparently, not much, as we see the duo start to pack their bags. Moments later, we see them take off in a helicopter as the episode closes.
I liked the pilot, but I didn’t love it. I would’ve liked them to fully flesh out some of the details of our main characters. However, they did do enough to keep me interested in wanting to watch another episode. The acting is superb, and the story intrigues me about what’s ahead.
What did you think of Echo, season 1, episode 1? Comment below.
