Citadel: Honey Bunny – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Episode 2

Episode 2 of Citadel: Honey Bunny begins with Bunny’s past. We see flashes of his life in an orphanage in Himachal Pradesh where he met Chako, his colleague from 1992. At present in 2000, Bunny returns to the orphanage and meets Chako, who is now older and married. Bunny reveals that Ludo was the one who told him about Honey and his daughter. Now, they set about getting guns and ammunition from a hidden spot.

In Nainital, Nadia pages her mother for help and sneaks out the house’s window. The man who came looking for her, KD, leaves his men to search the house and heads back to base. Honey threatens a couple into giving her their car and reunites with Nadia at a bakery where she is hiding.

In 1992, Bunny asks Vishwa about Project Talwar. Vishwa tells him about a machine that can track anyone, anywhere. He then berates Bunny for getting Honey involved. Vishwa’s wife comes home and greets Bunny as well. Meanwhile, Shaan and Zooni are able to identify Honey and decide to find her.

A flashback shows us Honey’s past. She was part of a royal family and keen on learning how to ride and shoot a gun even if those activities were not allowed to her. When she grows up, she is married off to an older man who later dies. Afterwards, she moves to Bombay to chase her dreams.

In 1992, she wakes up with a start and Bunny helps her up. He breaks the news to her – she’s now on the enemy’s radar and must leave her old life. No more acting. He’s willing to give her a new life with a new identity though. Honey asks Bunny about his past and he describes how his parents died in a mass shooting. Honey then asks about his work and Bunny says his mentor, Vishwa, recruited them as kids. It gave him purpose.

In 2000, Bunny contacts Ludo and asks for ‘their’ local base. Ludo says it is Base 33.  Bunny and Chako head in that direction. Meanwhile, Honey and Nadia head to a safe house.

Back in 1992, Bunny and Honey mess around in their safe house and end up kissing. Later, she tells Bunny she wants to become an agent. Bunny convinces Vishwa to recruit her and then starts training her. She learns how to fight, pick locks, and use high tech. She already knows how to shoot guns.

Simultaneously, Ludo decrypts the disc to learn about a Dr Raghu Rao who has opened a top secret lab in Bangalore. This is where Project Talwar is being developed. After three months of surveillance, they learn Rao is going to Belgrade to get a critical piece for Project Talwar. The team decide to follow him. Vishwa doesn’t trust women though and warns Honey to not be a liability.

In the year 2000, KD’s men find an address which could be one of Honey’s safe houses. Bunny and Chako reach Base 33. They scale the wall and search the place but don’t find Honey. However, they do find a new set of coordinates that the units have gone after.

The two men get caught and a shootout follows. Bunny fights KD, whom he seems to know, and ultimately wins. He and Chako then drive off towards Honey’s safe house, rushing to get there before KD’s men at the end of Citadel: Honey Bunny Episode 2.

The Episode Review

Citadel: Honey Bunny Episode 2 continues the story in a very disjointed manner. In addition to the shuffle between 1992 and 2000, we also get a look at Bunny and Honey’s respective pasts and all together it becomes quite a cluster of timelines. These flashbacks are abrupt and feature quick glimpses across the years, like skimming through a book just to get to the end. The visuals take on an old cinematic style as well, making it stick out like a sore thumb.

The story itself is moving in a nearly mechanical fashion. So much happens but there’s no emotional weight behind it. There’s no lead up to the romance between Bunny and Honey and the latter makes a quick decision to switch career lanes with zero justification for it. Zero knowledge as well!

For all their talk about purpose, Honey doesn’t know who Vishwa is and what he is really working towards. Nor do we. The storytelling is fragmented and confused and I hope we don’t have to hear more terrible jokes like “trainer with benefits”.