Echo 3 – Season 1 Episode 7 “Red is Positive, Black is Negative” Recap & Review

Red is Positive, Black is Negative

Momo is still kept in the city where the agency trio are staying as Echo 3 episode 7 starts. They perhaps would have wanted to keep him someplace secure.

He begs for his life, like any normal man would do. He offers money to them to beg for his release but they are unmoved. Bambi feels that connecting him with his brother would be a good ploy. It would bring a sense of urgency owing to their emotional bond. But he is facing difficulties to do the same. After almost two episodes, we finally see Violeta again.

The journalist looks broken from the inside. She was rescued but the time she spent in captivity has rendered her psychologically inept. Quite innately as a journalist would react, Violeta is red-faced when she spots Bambi and Prince being shown on the news as the abductors. She cannot believe their hypocrisy in advocating peace and practising violence on the streets, no matter on whom it is effectuated. Violeta is back in the biz and straightway has a meeting with the Colombian supremo.

He assuages her fears that the city is going out of control and expresses his apologetic stance on what happened to her. She is direct with her questioning and straightaway gets to Prince and Bambi’s supposedly “freehand”. According to Violeta, it does not paint Colombia in a positive light. Because of what these two are allowed to do, the country feels hostage to the US. The President holds his nerve and she leaves without a very clear response. But deep down, Violeta knows that the US intelligence agency holds all these politicians captive with some dirt on them.

Natalie makes a comeback too in this episode after going radio-silent after episode 2. Like the expert agent she is, Natalie offers to aid Violeta with her story despite being in cahoots with the duo. She has basically come to make sure the journalist is not able to make any moves on them. Another pivotal character – Bambi and Amber’s mother, Maggie – makes an appearance in the episode. . She goes to Colombia without any prior notice. Bambi explains the situation to Maggie, who is fearful of what might happen to Amber.

But she does not express her insecurity to anyone else. She internalizes this trauma and goes for a wash in the bathroom. There is a third person with Prince and Bambi, Roy, who guards Momo in their absence. He is alone and the sound is too loud for him to hear Tariq’s men barge in with guns. Both Roy and Maggie are unable to gauge their arrival but the former expertly manages to kill two of them. Unfortunately, the final one gets him. And instead of taking Momo while he can, the third gunman goes to the washroom and is shot dead by Maggie, who shows immense expertise and is suave in how she evades the situation.

The duo return and Bambi sees his terrified mother pretending nothing happened. He is shocked to see what she has done and now is determined to get her back to the States. Realizing the close escape could have as easily gone the other way, they decide to relocate Momo and drive outside the city. Prince comes clean about his father. It always seemed there were issues between the two and Prince accepts that he looks to his father for validation and approval of his life choices. One of them was marrying Amber but now he truly loves her. Violeta gets a professional blow when the CIA blocks her article.

She feels stifled and it is not fair to her mojo as a journalist. Momo is unable to conjure any hope for himself after seeing that there is no one around to save him. Like the agency always does, Mitch informs the duo that they might have a vested political interest. They might not be willing to help Amber as much as the duo thinks they would. It is also convenient to mention the scene in episode 4 when Mitch emotions the rescue mission to his boss. His reluctance is the agency’s.

Tariq is still unconvinced that any harm will come to Momo and disregards the requests to release Amber. Despite Tariq’s high-handed response, Bambi controls an angry Prince and reminds him that Momo needs to be kept alive until they get Amber. But after their heated conversation, Bambi gets the sense that this swap is not a great idea and they must do it themselves.

A new development in the story is Natalie and Bambi’s previous relationship. He personally requests her to help him in the mission. He wants her to immobilize the Venezuelan government’s cocaine headquarters (where Amber is kept) in the country and give him and Prince enough time to make the rescue attempt. Natalie is pushed into accepting the task when Bambi says he will declare war on the agency if the mission does not go through.

All he gets is 48 minutes to make it happen. There will be no communication between them and the army during this time. That is their window and Bambi is ready. Prince too tries to conjure support from locals and we might see another black op mission in the next episode.

The Episode Review

A lot of characters return after so long and it’s certainly welcome! This episode felt less like a singular focus on just a set piece and a more holistic outlook for the season overall. Maggie, Natalie, and Violeta all added value to the storytelling and something tells me that they will be very important going forward.

Honestly, the scenes about the swap and Momo’s realization that he was not getting out felt stretched. There weren’t as many exciting scenes as in the last episode. Even with Violeta’s uprising against the CIA, that vacuum felt a bit vacant still.

Boal still seems to have control over his narrative. Each part we have finished has felt more or less balanced. But perhaps the final one will be the most exciting of them all.