Alex Rider – Season 3 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Episode 4

Episode 4 of Alex Rider season 3 begins with a flashback showing John Rider and Yassen involved in a weapons deal with an arms dealer named Don Andres. However, their true mission was to assassinate the arms dealer, not make a deal with him. Don Andres, the arms dealer, catches on to their plan, leading to Yassen’s capture, but John’s quick thinking saves Yassen’s life.

The scene shifts to the present, where Alex is being trained by Yassen. Yassen believes Alex is reckless, overconfident, and still needs to acquire more skills to be a decent Scorpia agent. Yassen asks Alex to wrestle a bottle away from him, but Alex fails miserably, possibly because his main focus is on wanting to learn more about his father rather than on training.  Alex also fails in the shooting round and is told that in the real world, mistakes like this would likely lead to his death. Yassen emphasizes that out there, there are no second chances.

In London, Smithers and Crawley attend Pritchard’s funeral. Jones feels guilty, thinking Pritchard’s death might be her fault. However, she’s relieved that Alex is safe and not with them. Blunt makes it clear that until they figure out what the Invisible Sword weapon is, nobody is safe, especially those who threaten Scorpia.  Jones also visits Jack Starbright, asking about Alex.

She doesn’t want to talk to Alex or know where he is; she just wants to know if Alex is okay. Jones is heartbroken that Alex couldn’t become a permanent part of MI6, but in a way, she is relieved because this way Alex will stay away from danger. She has no idea that, at this very moment, Alex is inside the tiger’s den. Meanwhile, Kyra and Tom are also trying to find Alex. Following Tom’s advice, Kyra tries to locate Alex’s call by accessing the call mast data.

Syl visits Alex in his room and tries to lift his spirits, saying he’s doing very well in training as a newbie. She takes him to meet other trainees, like Alyona and Oleg. Alyona was forcibly separated from her family and taken under Scorpia’s wing, specializing in stealth, whereas Oleg’s parents perished in a drone strike. 

However, the meeting was actually a setup. Their intention was to beat Alex up, claiming he’s a weak link and will drag them down if he doesn’t improve. However, Alex changes Syl’s perspective of him during their next two training rounds.

Julia learns that Max has started to liquidate his assets, leading her to believe that he is planning to leave the criminal world. Nile also informs Julia that Kyra and Tom are still investigating and is told to deal with them. Nile finds them at their apartment and warns them to stop snooping around or else he can change Alex’s status from alive to barely alive.

Nile orders them to return to London immediately. They take a taxi to the airport but change their minds right before boarding the plane.

The Episode Review 

Tom and Kyra were supposed to catch a flight to London, but did anyone really believe they would leave their friend behind? Kyra cleverly manipulated the flight list to make it appear as though they had boarded the plane. This means we can anticipate them getting closer to the truth in the upcoming episodes.

The big question still remains: is Alex truly faking his allegiance to Scorpia, or has he genuinely joined their ranks? The answer to this mystery is yet to be revealed.