National Treasure: Edge of History – Season 1 Episode 9 Recap & Review

A Meeting With Salazar

Episode 9 of National Treasure: Edge of History starts with Jess in a precarious position. Jess and her dad are held captive by Billie who grab his journal. She’s heard everything, given the tracker inside Rafael’s shoe. However, Jess happens to have Ethan’s phone on her, which she stashes in one of the bags that’s taken onboard the plane they’re about to board. I mean, not very well given it’s poking out the side but we work with what we’ve got, right?

Oren starts to get cold feet after revealing everything to Agent Ross, who shows up and reveals that they haven’t found Myle’s body. There actually doesn’t seem to be any evidence against Billie. Oren suggests doing a polygraph test to confirm everything (even though these can be highly inaccurate) and Ross agrees. As he passes the test, Ross starts to believe he’s onto something.

Before we reach that point though, Ross is called in to talk to the “other”, which happens to be Tasha. Ross  wants Tasha’s help in finding Jess, believing that her boss is wrong in believing Sadusky was murdered by her. Tasha refuses to help, pointing out that all feds are the same and they’re treating her like a criminal. Hey, remember when Tasha broke the law and phished Liam’s account and pretended to be the bank, ergo making her a criminal? Yeah, me too.

Anyway, on the plane Jess’ father distracts Billie and talks about her past, while Jess manages to grab the bag under the table and get Ethan’s phone back when Casey isn’t looking. That’s probably just as well, given Billie finds an old sewing needle in a pencil and realizes that it opens something. Something like Jess’s medallion?

While Ross gets renewed energy to pursue this Billie lead before it’s too late, Tasha, Ethan and Oren join together and use the computer to try and track Ethan’s phone. Jess knows she just needs to turn on the SOS tracker so they’ll be able to find her. However, just before activating it, Jess is found out and Casey stops the tracker going through.

Billie opens the medallion and finds out that it’s actually an ancient Wayfinder; a compass that points to the treasure. A treasure in Devil’s Swamp.

Tasha uses an old antenna and dongle to track down Billie’s plane, which she discovers is going to touch down in Vicksburg County Airport shortly. That’s in Mississippi and happens to be a 2 hour drive from their location. So naturally, the pair pack up their things and scramble out.

Ross shows up at the Clue Room again but this time a couple of Billie’s goons arrive searching the office for the phone. Ross reveals herself and tries to stop them and a shootout ensues. One manages to get away with the phone, while Ross is left shocked and stunned as she shoots the other dead. Uh oh.

When Billie’s plane touches down at their location, Rafael warns his daughter that they need to watch out for a whole bunch of traps that are dotted about. As they talk, Tasha hacks into the cameras and watches them all, realizing that Billie has a whole army of people at her disposal. She decides to record it, before getting Ross involved to help.

Ross receives the recorded video of Jess and her father being held up at gunpoint and forced to follow Billie and the others. She manages to track down the location and heads off.

As fate would have it, it’s actually Ross’ superior, Hendricks, who is responsible for killing Sadusky. When Ross finds out, she forces him to cuff himself to the railing after handing over his gun and heading out. As she does, Imagine Dragons plays and completely destroys any tension. Weird musical choice aside, everything collides down by the dock, as Ross is killed by Hendricks, who manages to break free and make it there right behind her. Hendricks kills her outright, stabbing her through the gut with a sword, as Rafael realizes that the guy is actually Salazar.

The Episode Review

Well it seems Disney is becoming the new CW, especially if National Treasure is anything to go by. This show has been woeful from start to finish, with poor production design, horrible writing and a bunch of tropey characters. It’s a shame because there’s definitely glimmers of a better show here, especially with all the clues, but the moral compass for some of these people is way off the mark.

Tasha in particular is one of the most hypocritical and annoying characters in the whole show, as she takes a holier than thou approach despite breaking the law herself numerous times. And that’s before mentioning the lazy trope of a deus ex machina device in the form of her laptop which can solve all problems…except when the plot calls for it not to be used (Like tracing the amounts from Liam’s account to the correct sender).

The reveal that Hendricks is actually Salazar is going to require some explaining in the finale, which is set up to bring this adventure series to a close with a dramatic conclusion. We could see a second season from this but for now, all roads lead to next week’s finale!