Strike Back questions the value of loyalty on latest mission

Strike Back calls its core virtue into question in Season 6, Episode 2 but Section 20, and the audience, may not like the answers they get.

The paramount virtue of Strike Back is loyalty. The Cinemax series is built on it—that the soldiers of Section 20 are loyal to each other, true to the mission, committed to saving the world even if it nearly gets them killed. Loyalty is everything on this show.

Well, until it wasn’t in this week’s episode, which put an interesting spin on the way that things are supposed to work on this show.

“Episode 52” revealed several facts that related to characters’ allegiances, or lack thereof. Some of them were par for the course; did anyone expect the High Commissioner (Adrian Edmondson) to not be evil? Not on this show, where some authority figure is always corrupt. It also was no shock that he died shortly thereafter.

It was a genuine surprise to discover that Triad assassin Laoshu (Tom Wu) was the father of police inspector Amy Leong (Ann Truong). What sounded at first like a Darth Vader-esque story got a lot more interesting when Laoshu revealed he wasn’t just a big bad; he’d been pressed into service by someone even higher up than him and betrayed by his boss, no less.

Strike Back may have missed a huge opportunity by likewise killing him off rather than finding out what would happen if he redeemed himself—Wu made an excellent impression in his brief tenure, particularly at the end of the episode when despite explaining himself, Laoshu couldn’t get a break from a vengeful Gracie Novin (Alin Sumarwata).

And somewhere in the middle was the fact that Katrina Zarkova (Yasemin Kay Allen) was swearing her renewed allegiance to Russia; the double-agent act was expected, but Allen has been so good in the role so far that fans couldn’t help but hope Zarkova would be different. Oh, well.

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All of these things made an absolute mess of what was set up in last week’s season premiere, and it’s worth watching to see how Strike Back picks up the pieces. It’s easy to mess things up for dramatic effect, but hard to put them back together in a way that makes sense.

Each story involved at least one character questioning what they were loyal to, and who they were going to be. Laoshu ultimately chose his daughter over the Triad, even though he was killed before he could get his revenge on his boss.

Zarkova, at least from what fans saw, chose her country over the people who’d just saved her life and were willing to offer her asylum. But that’s also a product of who she is; loyalty to country at any cost is part of the Russian ethos, at least on TV. Anyone who’s seen The Americans is familiar with the concept.

The most interesting plotline, as before, was the internal dynamics happening inside Section 20. There’s an excellent beat early in the episode where the High Commissioner makes an offhand remark to Alexander Coltrane (Jamie Bamber) about how it must feel good to be back in action; Bamber doesn’t have any lines, but you can see the slightest twitch on his face.

It betrays a lot about how Coltrane is feeling—no, this isn’t good, he’s actually apprehensive about having other people’s lives in his hands again. And Strike Back‘s smartest move is to keep that as a part of his character; Coltrane isn’t just “the boss,” but feels like part of the team, as his experience informs both the decisions he makes and how he interacts with the other characters. He’s perhaps the most well-rounded supervisor Strike Back has ever had.

Coltrane also plays an important part in Novin’s storyline, as she is intent on killing Laoshu to get revenge for the death of her colleague and ex-lover Zoe Davis. Coltrane’s voice is literally in Novin’s ear, trying to talk her out of it and Bamber does a wonderful job infusing his delivery with the pain that he can’t illustrate visually.

Novin defies Coltrane anyway, murders Laoshu in a brutal fight that’s a bit reminiscent of the bathroom brawl from Casino Royale, and Coltrane has to go find her. But he decides not to toss her out of the unit, instead suggesting that it was her mission to eliminate the man while also reminding her that mission is now over.

Alin Sumarwata is excellent here, even as she’s put through the physical wringer for the second straight episode. Novin’s already suffered a lot of loss (remember Jensen?) and she’s had it up to here, and so audiences understand why she does what she does, even as there’s a certain degree of resentment because you know that she’s killing someone who could’ve been useful in stopping this nuclear missile.

The audience doesn’t condone her actions, but they understand them and Sumarwata makes it clear that this isn’t an easy decision for Novin. She doesn’t just go do it and brush it off. Instead, she struggles with this, physically and emotionally, and it takes her to a pretty dark place. Now will that darkness linger next week?

We’ll see, but the idea of Novin and Coltrane having this common ground is a fascinating concept that Strike Back ought to play with a bit more. It enhances both of their characters, and that’s something that the show also does very well: illustrate how tough it is to do what these people do, and not just the physical part.

Novin chooses personal revenge over the mission. Zarkova stays loyal to her boss; Laoshu does not. The High Commissioner betrays his country because he believes he has to protect his wife and children. Everyone makes choices based on who and what is most important to them, but in so doing, they all lose sight of one thing—how their individual choices impact the whole.

The Strike Back season 6 story is bigger than any one person (and country now that the action is shifting away from Malaysia), and now audiences will have to see what the consequences are of all these very individual decisions. The team exists, and the team is still important, but right now the team is no longer the paramount part of the story.

That’s kind of anti-Strike Back, flying in the face of what’s gone before, and another step toward this incarnation of the show heading in its own direction. So far, it’s headed down a pretty rough road; let’s see if Section 20 can put itself back together next week, or maybe this really isn’t the same show anymore. In a very intriguing and compelling way.

Strike Back airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on Cinemax. For more on this and other Cinemax series, visit the Cinemax category at Hidden Remote.