Prime Target – Season 1 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Kaplar

Episode 4 of Prime Target begins with Dr Nathoo beaten in the streets and left for dead, blood oozing in the rain. He’s clearly stumbled upon something he shouldn’t, and he obviously misses Andrea’s call too, who’s inbound to Iraq.

Meanwhile, Edward and Taylah discuss their next options and where they go from here. Edward decides to visit Kaplar, where he gets a tour of the area and learns what they all do. They keep a visual record of everything and there are cameras everywhere. It doesn’t take long for him to cross paths with Stephen again, and decides to come work for them. However, when Ed shows off his math work, Stephen sees the algebraic number sequences and seems to be hiding something.

Ed susses as much and starts to do some research, using their computers (despite being watched and knowing all of this is recorded) to find a connection to Safiya and Mallinder. Well, it turns out that Robert actually worked at Kaplar for 30 years. They’ve been paying him for all that time, and he may well be involved in Safiya’s death. The only way to get answers is going to be through accessing their digital archive, but that’s easier said than done.

Over at the NSA, Alex is brought to the boss who debriefs him and asks about Taylah and Syracuse. When he makes the connection to Mallinder, her boss is convinced that Taylah will make the call and come in. But will she? Well, yes, is the answer.

Taylah rings Jane Torres, and gets the lowdown on what’s happening, and they’ve been lost over where she’s been. Guess they haven’t checked the airports, ferries or any other transport link because she seems genuinely surprised when Taylah mentions she’s in London.

Andrea touches down in Baghdad and meets Akram who claims that Nathoo is “unwell”. To distract her, he shows Andrea the hidden chamber and she’s overcome with emotion, given how beautiful it all is. Except for the scaffolding the artificial lights of course. Well, this beauty soon turns ugly when she heads upstairs and learns there are men inside Nathoo’s room and the man is dead.

The next day, Ed heads back to Kaplar, where he meets his neighbour Nikki. She’s actually got access to the archive, and she’s also been carefully shepherded away from working on specific parts of research, like prime numbers. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that this is connected to Bayt al-Hikmah too, and he tells Taylah as much that afternoon. That hidden underground room also has equations relating to prime numbers and could be the key to everything.

When Ed returns to Kaplar, he continues to sniff around Nikki’s cubicle. She also, for some reason, has all her login details for the Archive written down on a key-card in her booth. Ed manages to memorize it and waits for everybody to leave before accessing it.

With Taylah on the phone, the pair work together to crack the archive and gain access to the confidential files. Apparently Taylah is a whizz with coding too and she sends him over a string of code to bypass the security locks.

Once inside, Ed finds details on Safiya, who signed a contract the same year Mallinder did. Her work has been deleted completed but there is surveillance footage of her. Furthermore, Ed has no idea how to print screen either, so he’s guided through how to do that. Well, when Taylah ends up seeing a picture of this, she realizes it’s linked with the Syracuse project.

Ed rushes out the building when his manager, Poppy, spies what he’s doing, and they immediately clean house back home. On the road, Taylah rings Jane and informs her that they can’t get the authorities involved given someone has been planning all of this with Syracuse. When she hangs up, turns out Jane is actually working against them, uttering that they’re “further ahead than I thought”. Oh no!


The Episode Review

So the midway point of the show marks some pretty drastic plot holes and contrivances. The biggest, of course, stems from Ed not knowing how to print screen. You’re telling me this man is a mathematician genius, can memorize words and a complicated login within seconds, along with navigating an archive and accessing data… but he doesn’t know how to print screen. Really?

Ed isn’t exactly subtle either, and the way he was hanging around Nikki’s cubicle, knowing he’s being watched, doesn’t even make an effort to try and obscure his work or what he’s doing. And he’s not exactly in a hurry to leave on his bike at the end either, was he?

Furthermore we have the really obvious twist that Taylah stumbles upon, that her bosses and the NSA are working alongside Kaplar, which makes sense given what they’ve been doing and watching.

Prime Target has been a clichéd watch and unfortunately, it’s not becoming somewhat of a farce too. Hopefully this is just a blip and next week’s episode can improve but this is a poor showing, all things considered.

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  • Episode Rating
    (2.5)
2.5

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