Splinter Cell: Deathwatch has a pretty conclusive ending, let’s be frank about that. Theoretically, there’s no need to continue it any further. The bad guys are defeated, the world is saved, the personal issues are — mostly — ironed out. But you also have to imagine that Ubisoft wouldn’t bother to revive a long-dormant franchise — with an official canon tie-in, no less — if they didn’t have intentions to keep it going long-term. After seeing the success of Castlevania on Netflix, with even the lesser Nocturne spin-off getting two seasons, the plan simply must be a multi-season arc. But is there enough meat on the bones after this two-part finale?
I think so. Episodes 7 & 8, aptly titled “Chaos Theory, Part 1 & 2” since they directly rework a scene from the climax of that game, tie up a lot of narrative loose ends, and leave little on the table in terms of this season’s storyline. But the premise is still functional. Sam Fisher is back in the field, all of the core cast, old and new, are alive and well, and there’s clearly still a need for an organization like Fourth Echelon keeping an eye on things. It could happen. It almost certainly will happen. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and instead take a look at how it might happen by breaking down the ending of this season.
Note: This article only covers the final two episodes, divorced from any additional establishing context. If you want that, I have a breakdown of every episode as well. I’m nice like that.
Xanadu Is Diana Shetland’s Attempt To Preserve Her Father’s Legacy
These two episodes finally reveal Diana Shetland’s endgame. Predictably, it ties into her dead father’s raison d’être, which was global destabilization and the establishment of a new world order. In a flashback scene that recreates the ending of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory almost word for word, Sam Fisher killed him for it. Diana never quite forgot that.
But anyway, Xanadu. Through the decrypted Green Gables files, Thunder discovers blueprints for the Trans-European Natural Gas Terminal in Greifswald, Germany, the source of Western Europe’s power. Putting this with McKenna’s realisation that Freya is aboard the Lazarev, a fluid hydrogen transporter ship, the intention is clear. Diana is going to blow up the terminal and plunge Europe into the dark ages, positioning Xanadu as the only hope for their salvation.
In these two episodes, Diana is showing a group of European officials and heads of state around Xanadu in a guided tour, showing off its scalable renewable energy model. They’re all intended to be present when their own countries descend into chaos. If all goes to plan, Diana will be the most powerful person in an entire continent — maybe even the world.
Abandon Ship
Most of the final episode is set aboard the Lazarev, with Fisher and McKenna, both fully suited up, trying to stop the vessel from crashing into the terminal. Fisher heads to the engine room, which Freya booby trapped earlier in the season, while McKenna rushes to the bridge, where she tries to give Thunder remote access to the ship’s controls, and is ambushed by Freya herself.
In another climactic fight, McKenna brutalises Freya, but in her death throes, she tosses a live grenade, which kills her and destroys the bridge controls, locking Thunder and Fourth Echelon out of the system. By all accounts, the ship is heading straight for the terminal with no way of stopping it. However, it isn’t heading for the terminal at all.
In an unsurprising twist, Charlie, Diana’s half-brother, betrays her. He had already hacked into the Lazarev and reprogrammed its destination to Xanadu itself, planning to destroy the self-sustaining island while it’s full of world leaders, creating a power vacuum that he can then slip into. Both Charlie and Diana are carrying out the same plan, just two different versions of it. And Diana has been outsmarted. She goes down with the ship, so to speak, killed in the explosion that destroys Xanadu. Fisher and McKenna are forced to abandon ship, with the former almost drowning in the aftermath.
What’s In Store For Splinter Cell: Deathwatch Season 2?
Charlie’s surprising victory seems to position him as the Big Bad for Season 2 of Deathwatch, but that isn’t quite what happens. In the final scene, after attending Diana’s funeral with his dog, Kaiju, Fisher pops out of the darkness while Charlie is gloating and seems to shoot him dead. However, the shots occur off-screen, and there’s no confirmation that Charlie is dead. It wouldn’t remotely surprise me if this were revealed to be the case in a second season, since why spend so much time establishing this guy as a threat and giving him his last-minute moment of victory only to unceremoniously kill him off in a two-second scene?
Even if this isn’t the case, the first season has laid the groundwork for a second season by bringing Fisher back into the field, establishing McKenna as an agent, and bringing Thunder into Fourth Echelon. That same group could easily respond to a new threat that challenges them all. It could be something completely original, or, like this plot, an outgrowth of events from a previous game. There are surviving characters who could easily make cameos. Who knows, it could even pick up that weird Megiddo thing from Splinter Cell: Conviction.
The possibilities are endless. The stage is set. And there’s no doubt money to be made for Ubisoft. Goodness knows they could use it.
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