The Day of the Jackal – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Estonia

Episode 6 of Day of the Jackal starts with the Jackal being interrogated by this wary farmer. Jackal explains he isn’t connected to any intelligence agency, and he’s eventually let go in the morning. However, when the farmer stumbles upon Jackal’s weapon, he changes his mind. He’s brought inside the farmhouse. The man’s name is Gabi and Jackal offers up some money to pay him and his family off.

It doesn’t take long for word of the shooting in Budapest to reach Gabi and his comrades. The Jackal seizes his opportunity and manages to slip away, leaving a knife in Gabi’s chest and a new car to ride off with. There’s a bit of a close call with Gabon, but Laszlo, the kid who can speak English, is tasked with driving the Jackal out past the police blockades.

The authorities are all over Norman’s workshop though, and after snatching up Jackals’ jacket and putting it inside her coat, Bianca and Vince are called out to the farmhouse following the deaths. The Jackal is long gone though, and he rings Nuria, telling her he’s not sure if he’ll even make it back to Spain. He apologizes for getting her mixed up in everything and reveals that he’s in Budapest. Nuria though, agrees to help.

Nuria knows about the secret room of course, and the Jackal gives her specific instructions for sorting this out.

Bianca and Vince head to the scene where they’ve found multiple prints. One of these is going to match the car, so it would appear that they’re on the right path. However, it’s all awkward timing because OC rings with news that Isabel is moving forward with Operation Anubis. However, OC has been deleting messages and one mentions him talking about UDC.

Speaking of which, UDC is still in Croatia and he’s going to announce River in the next four days. That gives us a window of time for when the Jackal will strike. For now though, he needs to get out of Hungary. That’s going to be difficult, and even more so because he’s also haunted by his past, which includes a lot of bloodshed and death from various kills while working in the army.

The Jackal decides not to kill the driver, sparing his life and making him promise not to say anything to the police. Laszlo agrees and with that, the Jackal slips away. He heads to the internet cafe and speaks to his contact. They’re getting angsty and losing faith that he’s the right man for the job.

Juggling this and his relationship, the Jackal confides in Nuria and points out that he needs these disguises in order to get out of Hungary. “Is this worth it?” She asks, and the Jackal pauses. “It was,” He replies.

Nuria shows up and it’s immediately clear that what she’s brought transforms Jackal’s looks completely. In fact, he ends up the spitting image of a frail old man in a wheelchair. Funnily enough, Bianca happens to be in the same airport.

Back at MI6, Carver continues his rounds, this time turning toward Damian. He brings up Alexander Duggan, along with a potential mole in a beautiful woman whom he slept with while on holiday. He may have fed information to her about the Belarus operation but Damian isn’t sure whether he did or not. Either way, Isabel makes a big call and decides to divert Bianca from the flight back to London across to Tallinn, Estonia instead.

When Bianca and Vince board the flight, they happen to be situated in the chairs right in front of the Jackal. They do mention OC’s name here, which certainly tingles Jackal’s spidey-senses. They touch down without incident but that night, the Estonian police show up asking questions. Apparently there’s a burglary in the area and despite evading police, the Jackal is definitely a bit suspect.

The Jackal decides to ring Rasmus, the kid who helped him find the phone on the concert floor several episodes back. They go out for a drink together, and eventually end up having sex.

The Episode Review

Things are getting tense and it’s definitely coming down to the wire with the drama over in Estonia. The fact that Bianca and Vince were in the seats ahead is a delicious bit of irony there, and perhaps indicative of this cat and mouse chase that’s ongoing.

Jackal is getting desperate now and although Nuria is kinda in on his operation, she’s still not completely in the light over what her partner is doing here. How will she react to Jackal being a professional assassin? And what’s with him suddenly sleeping with Rasmus? I guess we’re going to the angle of him just using Rasmus to gain entry into the arena but we’ll have to wait and see on that front.

The crime scene drama is definitely a point of contention here and in two episodes now, we haven’t seen any DNA samples or proper forensics to nail down the Jackal, which you’d think would really speed up the investigation!

The show has done well with these episodes though, especially after a bit of a rocky start, and Bianca is getting a bit more empathetic with each episode. She’s still not perfect, and feels like the weak link here – especially as we’re seeing a much more human and softer side to the Jackal. Despite that, this has been a compelling thriller. Roll on next week.