In From The Cold – Season 1 Episode 6 “Little Bird” Recap & Review

Little Bird

Episode 6 of In From The Cold begins with Jenny returning to Chauncey and vouching for Damian. She believes he’ll help them if he gets money and a new identity. Damian, under the mind control of Svetlana, invites Jenny around.

The two get along well to begin with, including sharing a drink while Jenny confirms his money will be wired shortly. Things soon turn sour when she’s tasered and knocked out.

When Jenny awakens, Damian immediately starts questioning her. He wants to know who the American is and if not, he’s going to use the ol’ rat in a heated saucepan trick. If she doesn’t speak, this rat will burrow through Jenny’s intestines. In order to save herself, Jenny bites Damian’s ear off and then shoots him. As Damian dies in her arms, the mind control ceases and she has a final moment with her old friend.

Flashbacks this episode continue to whoosh us back to the Motherland, and specifically to the moments just after the failed safe incident. Anya’s next target is Dr Orlov, Faina’s father. She does just that too, which we see play out later on in the episode

Back in the present, Gideon (Svetlana) is unaware that Damian is dead, which makes it all the sweeter when Jenny turns up to their meeting scheduled where he’s due to deliver a bomb to Gideon.

During this meeting, where Chauncey feeds Jenny lines,  our “master assassin known as The Whisper” accidentally blurts out details about Becca. He claims he’s “taken care” of her and she won’t be a problem. It’s risky, and incredibly foolhardy but the others buy her excuses and move on.

Jenny learns that the target intended for the bomb is the Prime Minister. He’ll be intending a reception the following night and with the group posing as security intel, they’re going all out to make sure he’s killed.

Jenny’s powers unfortunately start running out of juice again and she’s forced to excuse herself to the bathroom. Unable to turn back into Damian (she transforms in private, so at least she’s not a complete liability) and with Gideon inbound, Jenny is forced to abandon ship before finding out that she’s Svetlana.

Jenny manages to return to Chauncey before it’s too late. There, he checks her over and realizes there’s nothing physically wrong with her. Mentally though, this woman is a mess. She believes that Becca is the hindrance, and given she mentioned her name and almost blew the whole operation, that much seems likely.

As Jenny contemplates their next move, she believes it may be time to send Becca away. Even though they’re actually in Madrid because of her ice skating in the first place. Anyway, I digress.

Meanwhile, Chauncey spots Becca with Carmo and after calling Chris, implores him not to tell Jenny about what’s going on. However, she soon learns what’s happening anyway.

A big fight then ensues between Chauncey and Carmo, with the former badly beaten. With Carmo straddling him and punching the man repeatedly, Chris and Jenny show up just in time.

Jenny gives chase Carmo and eventually thwarts him on the alcove outside. She demands to know who he’s working for, screaming at him to reveal all but her just continues to chuckle instead.

With a bloodstained face, Carmo calls Anya “Ptchka”, which of course means “my little bird.” With this revelation, Jenny immediately realizes that Svetlana is the ringleader behind all of this.

Realizing that Becca is in danger, Jenny hurries to the ice rink but her daughter is already gone. Where? Well, a motorcyclist picked her up and took her back to the hotel room. Unfortunately she’s not there either when Jenny arrives. As communications die, Jenny is left in the dark over where her daughter may be. But time is running out.

The Episode Review

Although parts of this episode are an improvement over what we’ve seen, and the final 15 minutes or so are incredibly tense and action-packed, the whole meeting involving Damian is just…awful.

This woman is supposed to be an espionage specialist but yet during a massive operation like this she casually blurts out Becca’s name and goes off script. Even though she’s been trained since she was little and she even had Chauncey holding her hand and feeding her lines. These little moments really detract from the show, which feels amateurish at times with the way it depicts this spy action.

However, with Jenny now aware that Svetlana is Gideon and everything resting precariously on a knife-edge, the final two episodes look set to pick up in a big way and really lean into a lot more drama. Let’s hope this one delivers an action packed conclusion!