Transatlantic – Season 1 Episode 5 “The Human Condition” Recap & Review

The Human Condition

Episode 5 of Transatlantic begins with the boys back in Camp Des Milles. They’re still alive, thankfully, and it hasn’t compromised the whole operation. If they talk, they’ll end up spilling the beans about Mary Jayne’s involvement in this. Margaux doesn’t want that over her and decides Mary Jayne is on her own. Even Thomas is silent during this remark. The only solution is for Mary Jayne to work on an escape plan to get the boys out the Camp.

We’re coming up to Christmas and Thomas contemplates with Varian whether they should celebrate it at the Villa. Well, understandably he’s not in the celebratory mood, given he’s been fired. In the morning, that’s made even worse when his replacement from the US Consulate, Dillon Reese, shows up to take his spot. Varian has been forced out the country within 24 hours but is confident he can do something to change that.

Varian doesn’t tell the others what’s going on, not wanting to squash their hopes of a passage out the country, and tries to remedy this before it’s too late. The thing is, the damage has already been done by Patterson, who revealed the truth about him and Thomas via a telegram we saw several episodes back.

Mary Jayne speaks to Paul and Albert, enlisting their help to break the English out the camp. She promises to get Paul an audience with Margaux if he helps out, which would be a massive step forward for his rebellion plans.

After scouting out the prison, Paul finds a safe refuge for the resistance to meet, those men working at the prison camp on their side. Some are not happy with the idea of helping the British and working with them, but there’s no denying that they both share the same goals right now. If they can do this, it would be significant for their resistance efforts.

The guard we saw before promises to give Paul and the others a small window to break in and get the men out, but it’s only up to 60 seconds so time is very much against them.

Thankfully, one of the refugees inside the villa has knowledge of the camp and points out a weakness with the barbed wire they could use to break them out. Paul gets dressed up in his guard outfit and heads up to the tower, breaking into the camp while Mary Jayne, holding her dog, sparks up a commotion with all the guards in the main grounds.

The group just about make it in one piece, with Paul scooping up Hans Fittko (Lisa’s husband) on the way out of camp. In Mary Jayne’s car, they head back to the villa but one dog lighter. Lisa and Hans are reunited, while Albert opens up to Mary Jayne and tells her not to break down.

This difficult mission was a success and he reveals how amazing she is. Albert tells Mary Jayne that she needs to keep moving forward. And these inspiring words, sees the pair kiss and spend the night together,

In the morning, Albert finds a letter and heads up to the rooftop. It’s a letter from his sister, Ursula, telling him to pick up a passport and head over to Lisbon so they can be together.

Meanwhile, Varian does some soul-searching and ends up talking to one of the refugees at the villa, Hannah. She’s currently homeless, as she has no way of returning to Germany given she’s a Jew. Varian speaks to his contact, Bingham, and tries to get Hannah a Visa and a way out of Marseille. Varian is fully dedicated to the cause now and tells Bingham to do what he can. Bingham compromises and promises to smuggle 3 out a week.

While Paul meets with Margaux in confidence, he points out he wants to destroy the railway lines, given that can’t be easily rebuilt. It would destroy the jugular of the Nazi bloodline and what they’re relying on. Margaux agrees this is a good plan.

Up at the villa, the group all join together and celebrate Christmas. While they do, Frot speaks to Patterson and points out that Mary Jayne has broken into the camp and has committed a war crime. Unfortunately, he’s holding Patterson directly responsible for this.

The Episode Review

So the plan to break the British soldiers out is a success but it also comes with big consequences. Mary Jayne is likely to pay a heavy price for this and with Frot promising to come down hard, and the German officers presumably still knocking about (despite being absent through all of this) then it seems like the upcoming episodes are going to tighten the screw somewhat.

Varian ends up doing some soul searching here too, in a nice touch that allows us to see some good acting, while Albert has a big decision to make regarding Ursula and his future.

This episode is certainly an improvement over the previous two, with less humour and much more drama coming to the fold.