La Casa De Papel – Season 5 Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Elegance Theory

Episode 8 of La Casa De Papel (Money Heist) Season 5 begins in the past with Tatiana breaking up with Berlin. She’s angsty and impatient, wanting to steal gold from much more lucrative spots…like a bank.

Incredulous, Berlin wants to know who she’s been sleeping with behind his back. So naturally, he follows her. Unfortunately he finds out she’s been sleeping with Rafael behind her back. Oof.

Of course, Berlin heads in to the hotel they both frequent and sits down with his son. Rafael apologizes and confirms they’ve been seeing each other for 3 weeks. Rafael continues though, claiming that he’s in love and this could actually be the real thing. Eventually Berlin is arrested for vandalism.

Back in the present, all the gold successfully travels along the pipes. However, Tamayo winds up hearing this from within his base of operations and realizes what’s been happening under his nose. He immediately sets out to gain revenge.

Th gang join together and sing “Ciao Bella” again, but although the gold has been successfully taken out, there’s still the wildcards inside the bank – namely the soldiers lurking about the vents. And of course the unresolved melodrama between our ensemble of characters.

Stockholm is first to fall, cracking under the pressure. She’s hearing Tokyo’s voice and still seeing Arturo’s shadow everywhere. In order to keep her safe, Denver decides to lock her up in the vault downstairs, just until everything has been handled. It also allows them to get some sexy dancing and stripping in too.

Meanwhile, the Colonel finds the pipelines for the gold being moved and begins methodically working his way through every single location they could be. With soldiers armed and ready to go, it’s only a matter of time before they find Benjamin, the Professor and the others.

Eventually time does run out and the Professor is like a deer in headlights. Apparently he didn’t foresee this either. Shaking his head and unsure what else to do, Benjamin and Marseille encourage them to pick up their weapons and fight back. The Professor though has given up, deciding they should face their fate and give up.

The thing is, the gold isn’t actually there. After realizing they’ve been stuck inside stationary police cars for over 20 minutes, the Professor deduces that something isn’t right. As our characters break free, it’s revealed that the gold has actually been stolen. Stolen by none other than Rafael and Tatiana.

The Episode Review

We’re into the end game now and another big twist sees Rafael and Tatiana unveiled as the duo who have stolen the gold and duped the Professor. Anyone else remember when the Professor actually used to be smart and forward thinking? Yeah, me too.

However, the flashbacks actually serve a purpose this time around, and that, combined with a lot of tension with Tamayo closing in on the Professor and co. allows for some pretty exciting scenes. Even so, it’s another point of contention that the Professor hasn’t actually banked on the police finding the gang at all. And his master stroke is to… give up. Maybe it’s just me but it seems like an out of character move.

Speaking of characters, an awful lot of time is dedicated to Denver and Stockholm here, with the pointless stripping scenes adding absolutely nothing to the show. We’ve also had 3 episodes of that soldier crawling around in the vents so hopefully that actually builds up to something worthwhile.

Either way, we’re nearly there now as this show marches toward the finish line.