Citadel: Diana – Episode 4 “The Zanis” Recap & Review

The Zanis

Episode 4 of Citadel: Diana begins with Ettore pointing out that this whole endeavour with Sicily was just a ploy to see how deep Edo’s connection with Diana went. And choosing her wasn’t even part of the deal – Edo did that all by himself. Ettore got everything from Weber – including the weapon – by threatening his family. Edo though, hits back and points out that the French half of the weapon doesn’t work, and reveals he double-cross that he and Diana discovered from the French side of things.

Off the back of this, Ettore wipes his hands of his son and kicks Edo out of Manticore. Edo is livid and finds out from Julia that even she knew that Sicily was a trap. He also brings up how Diana has earned her position and he feels passionately about that (and getting in her pants).

However, Manticore are currently interrogating Diana, who’s kept in a holding cell. Edo manages to break in and see her. He hurriedly tells her that Ettore knows everything so they need to move and get out. With the guards incoming, Diana brings up that the prisoner next door to her is actually a Citadel agent as well. He’s the one who killed Edo’s brother.

Edo confronts Matteo and Ettore with this information, especially the implication of going beyond protocols and torturing inmates when he was initially told that he was dead.  Ettore defends his methods, calling Edo a hypocrite given he’s a weapons manufacturer so he should know what he’s doing.

Now, Edo has always been an emotionally charged man and flashbacks show that. As fate would have it, Cecile and Edo have ties that go way back. The pair are given grandiose plans from their families to take over the Manticore legacies, but Cecile is a bit of a mess. With her mother currently sick and the Manticore plans overwhelming, she decides to call off their relationship given their differing life paths. Despite being in love, she breaks his heart. This also gives more context over episode 1’s proposal from Cecile to join their families.

Much like Diana’s abhorrence toward Manticore, Edo has a similar reaction when he finds out the Piazza Duomo has been destroyed. Apparently this was done as a diversion to let them take out Citadel once and for all. With war waged, this is, apparently, their way of securing war by overthrowing the current authority.

Meanwhile, Diana decides to negotiate her position. She wants to be transferred across to Manticore France. She’ll be executed either way but decides Paris may be her best play. She knows Ettore needs to get into France’s HQ ad steal the real half of the weapon. Well, transferring Diana is the best way of him doing that. Just like the agents who mentioned the Trojan war at the hand-off, she’s going to be a trojan horse.

Ettore sparks the embers of war not long after, speaking to Wolfgang and pointing out that Cecile is playing him like a fiddle. After, he brings Edo back onboard and they patch up their ties. At the hangar, before flying out to Paris, Edo shows up and promises to try and do his best to keep her safe, while taking out Manticore France.


The Episode Review

So the shortest episode of the season depicts Diana and Edo’s parallel journeys and shows how they’re both bound by their desire to be free and live on their own terms. The show has done an okay job at capturing that, but in terms of what this series offers, there’s very little to really sink your teeth into.

Characters are wafer-thin and the flashbacks don’t really add too much other than reinforce what we already know. I’ve said it before but this series absolutely should have depicted all of this in chronological order to heighten the emotional depth of what’s happening. Especially now that we know more about Cecile and Edo’s ties, which just have no context in episode 1. With this additional layer of history, it would have been much more impactful.

Instead, what we get is a pretty underwhelming espionage series that could have been so much more.

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