The Misfortune
Episode 6 of Gloria Season 1 begins right off the back of the previous episode. Joao makes his choice, choking out Dassaev and slipping away just as doctor’s break in to the locked room. They try desperately to resuscitate the Russian but it’s no good, he’s dead. The next day, Joao feigns surprise when he asks James Wilson about Dassaev. After learning his family is in Siberia, Wilson turns the attention back to Mia. He asks about how Joao is linked to her but he shrugs it off, claiming she was Polish, working as an operator and single. This nonchalant explanation seems to do the trick with Wilson, who believes Joao just got wrapped up with the wrong crowd. He warns him against getting too attached in the future, pointing out that Mia was a spy. News of Dassaev’s death spreads, but Henrique and the rest of Joao’s family are none the wiser than it was the KGB and Joao himself responsible. However, one person who is becoming wiser to all of this is James Wilson. Despite him earlier brushing off Joao’s suspicions, the truth is he’s got the man squarely in his sights. Later that day he confronts Joao again, this time a little more aggressively. The message from the film reel was actually a broadcast message from the UN about the right to practice civil disobedience. Joao feigns ignorance, claiming the engineers know nothing and barely speak a word of Russian. Wilson isn’t buying it. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, not everyone is what they seem,” Wilson warns, looking closely at Joao and his past. Wilson realizes his new recruit is a bit of an enigma, given he always seems to be on the fence with conflicts and ideas. This is a pretty common theme here, and Wilson immediately ousts him for working with PIDE. Joao plays along, claiming they have a common enemy, and that he hasn’t told his father or anyone else anything incriminating about RARET. It’s a clever bit of side-stepping, and one that keeps his ties to the KGB a secret for the time being. More importantly, Wilson lets up his interrogation. Back home, Anne is not happy with Wilson for burning bridges with Joao and his family. In fact, she tells him to ring Henrique and arrange a meeting again to try and sweeten the deal and get back on talking terms again. She also wants Joao there too, oh the irony! Meanwhile, Carolina receives the worst possible news. Fernando has been killed in the field of battle and as she heads over to Fernando’s parents’ place, she receives a slap to her face for her troubles. News of this reaches Joao too, who learns that the young woman is now a widow. He decides to try and help the family, intent on bringing Fernando’s body back. Joao is warned to keep his distance from her too, given she’s still going to be mourning. James Wilson, intent on finding out the truth, pulls a Tyrion Lannister on everyone at the embassy. He brings each of the different workers in, feigns a phone call to a big authority figure and feeds different classified information to them. Now, the play here is to figure out who bites and who reports the intel to the Russians. With a different story given to everyone – including Joao – it makes it easy to find the man or woman responsible. It’s a great plan…but for the bugged recorder hidden under his table. Joao checks out the recorder in the middle of the night, but only after telling Irina the false information given by Wilson. As Irina begins to communicate with Moscow, Bill and Wilson hang on the line, eager to find out who’s behind the intel leak. Joao shows up just in time as Bill begins searching the rooms one by one. Joao tells Irina that they’re compromised and bolts out the window, down onto the ground and across the courtyard. As he does, Bill bursts into Irina’s room and notices him running. He doesn’t see his face though but a stray bullet does pierce Joao on his escape. With her cover blown, Irina is shot dead while Bill notices a trail of blood outside. Following that blood is going to be pretty easy, as we cut across to Carolina’s place. Blood stains her car and the trail leads up to her house, where Carolina finds the agent unconscious and bleeding out.
The Episode Review
Gloria returns with another really good episode as things start to heat up for our characters. Specifically, Joao’s confliction to both serving the KGB and the PIDE, while also keeping up his façade at the RARET. It certainly sets up an intriguing set of episodes to come, especially with Joao currently bleeding out. Now, Irina’s death as the KGB informant is a big blow for Alexandre’s plans and with Bill and the others closing in on Joao, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before he’s caught out. We’ll have to wait and see though if that comes to fruition. However, Gloria has done well to keep things interesting and there’s enough with this historical drama to make for an enthralling watch so far.
