Paris Has Fallen – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

The Embassy Attack

Paris Has Fallen Season 1 Episode 1 starts with a mime getting ready for a party. The scene cuts to a few dignitaries and their bodyguards arriving at the British Embassy for the party.

Among them is Minister of Defence, Philippe and his bodyguard, Vincent. The mime approaches Phillippe and gives a small performance. Also at the party is Zara, who is talking to the Minister, Rowan. Rowan excuses himself to greet Philippe and Zara heads to the ladies’ room.

A waitress heads for a room and kills one of the guards standing at the elevator. Another group of men join her, taking the bags she had hidden in her trolley.

Meanwhile, the lights are dimmed in the main hall to allow for a dancing performance. The audience claps and cheers while the mime joins in. Suddenly, the mime pulls out a gun and shoots one of the dancers. Everything goes to hell as more men start shooting and Vincent hurries to escort Phillipe out of the building.

Outside, another man gains entrance into the embassy and leaves a bag with a bomb at the entrance. Back at the main hall, the shooting stops and Pearce takes over. He calls the Minister of Defence to come forward. It takes a while, but Rowan finally stands up. Pearce stares at him in his eyes and asks if he knows him. Pearce tells him that once they locate Philippe, Minster of Defence, they will get started.

Back at the main entrance, Zara rushes to check what the hullabaloo is about and gets hit by the impact of the bomb. She regains consciousness a few minutes later and hides in the closet room. She sees the mime approaching, ready to kill another waiter hiding in the room. She leaps into action to save the waiter. She ends up killing the mime using the heel of a shoe. 

Meanwhile, Vincent is doing a good job securing a way out for Philipe, but he is cornered in one of the kitchens. He manages to kill one of the men but loses Philippe.

As he continues to fight for his life, Zara arrives and helps him. Still wary, she asks him to identify himself before they join forces and make a plan. Of course, the waiter she saved is also tagging along, trying to stay alive. Outside, a group of heavily armed police officers arrive at the scene.

The men bring Philippe to Pearce in the main room. Once again, Pearce asks if they remember him. He starts stripping to show them how he was burned and tortured after being taken captive by the Taliban. He was held captive for six years and lost all of his team members. He blames Philippe and Pearce for what happened to him. When Philippe offers to pay him, Pearce kills Rowan on the spot. 

Outside the hall, Zara, Vincent and the waiter stealthily approach. Vincent doesn’t believe Zara is in HR, as she claims, but that is the least of his concerns. He orders the waiter to kill the lights as soon as they go in and start shooting.

Inside, Pearce prepares to shoot Philippe. He points the gun to his head and asks him to feel free to piss on himself. Just then, Vincent shoots at Pearce and the lights go off. Vincent shoots his way to Phillippe and secures him. Pearce uses the chaos and the darkness to get his team and flee the scene using a secret tunnel.

The police officers rush inside upon hearing gunfire and take control of the scene. In the meantime, Vincent returns Philippe to his office. He asks for a private audience. Vincent needs to know how much of a threat Pearce is and what happened. Philippe tells him that Pearce was a captain in a foreign legion stationed in Southern Afghanistan.

He was a good soldier who saved the lives of many Afghans by driving the Taliban out. At the time, Rowan was stationed in Kabul as an MI6 operative and received intel about the location of a certain Taliban leader. Pearce and his team were directed to kill the Taliban leader. Unfortunately, they were ambushed and everyone thought he died with his team.

Then, two years ago, an American Special Forces team raided a compound near Kandahar and found Pearce. He was in a cell, chained up and burned. Philippe says that Pearce is crazy to blame him and Rowan for the ambush. As they talk, Philippe’s daughter arrives. Her dad tells her that she can’t stay with him since it is not safe. He plans to move her to a safe location. 

Elsewhere, Zara makes her way home to her girlfriend. Of course, her girlfriend has no idea what Zara does for a living. She thinks she works in HR and was working at the party when the attack happened.

As for Vincent, he heads home but gets a call from a lady. She asks if he is okay and seems worried about him. She says she called him out of concern even though she knows she shouldn’t. We later learn that the lady is the President when she gives a press statement saying France won’t back down to a terrorist. Contrarily, Pearce gets treated for his flesh wound after getting shot by Vincent. 

The next day, Zara reports for work at a new station under Matis. They start by identifying everyone involved in the attack. Zara gives them a small brief of what MI6 has collected so far.

Most of the men with Pearce used to work with him in the Foreign Legion, except for Freja. She is a gun for hire and will work for whoever is willing to pay the big bucks. She used to be in the Swedish special forces until she was kicked out. The team also traced the weapons used in the attack to an arms dealer, Karim Hassan.

Later, Zara reunites with Vincent, who is also part of the team. He tells her about what Philippe told him. Zara counters him and says that according to her sources, Pearce went rogue before the ambush. Rowan and Philippe intentionally handed Pearce to the Taliban over his insubordination. Later, Zara asks someone to look into Vincent’s record.

Elsewhere, Philippe calls a friend, Pascal, and warns him that Pearce is coming for him soon. On the other hand, Pearce and his team kidnap Philippe’s daughter, Chloe on her way to the safe house. They use her to get Philippe to kill himself.

By the time Vincent gets to Philippe, he is dead and Pearce tells him where to find Chloe. They find her safe a few hours later. The episode ends with Pearce staring out the window.

The Episode Review

To think all these would have been avoided if Pascal, Rowan and Philippe hadn’t betrayed Pearce! Now, everyone is caught up in this bloody revenge that is only starting. It is obvious that Pearce still has a long list.

Will the police save the lives of the targets before Pearce gets to them? Shockingly, Vincent is having an affair with the President, but how will this compromise her? With so many secrets and prominent officials involved in this, where will everything end?

On the other hand, Zara and Vincent make a good team. With Philippe dead, Vincent is free to join the new task force and look for Pearce. Zara is already looking into Vincent. Will she be able to trust him?