What is The Endgame? It is the latest NBC action drama with a match between two strong women and a plot of deep complexity! The series is co-created by Nicholas Wooton, an Emmy Award winning writer of NYPD Blue and also created the series, Scorpion. Jake Coburn is the show’s co-creator having executive produced and written Quantico and also Arrow. The pilot is directed by Justin Lin, who has directed five of the Fast & Furious films including F9: The Fast Saga (2021). It features layer upon layer of complexity like a Russian nesting doll with just enough twists to keep it thrilling. It is a cat and mouse game with the two women. We move through a grassy field as we get the narration by Morena Baccarin telling a fairy tale. Baccarin had a long running role in Gotham and of course is known as Inara Serra in Firefly. She is a producer for the series.
It is “Belarus, Six Months After The Collapse of the USSR.” We find a young Russian girl (Jessica Cherniak) looking through binoculars with her father (Roman Blat) who loves her. She sees spots a rock dove with the binoculars and then turns to see a jeep driving down a road. The father hands her an RPG-7 rocket launcher. The narrator says this is when the girl grew up. She sets the rocket launcher and fires on the jeep. The explosion tosses the jeep down the side of the road! The girl coldly looks at her target as her father says she is grown up. “It’s a different kind of fairy tale”, the narrator tells us. This shifts to the “Present Day”, a transport plane is flanked by F-15 jet fighters, they peel off as the plane descends to New York. Then, we see “Fort Totten, Queens, New York”, a truck with a long trailer is driving down a road. Armed soldiers cover the truck and open its rear gate.
A large vault is inside. Then, we get a command center as soldiers escort the vault through a tunnel. Three government officials enter an interrogation room and stand behind a table. A palm print opens the vault, the doors open revealing Elena Federova (Baccarin). She steps out in her blue dress and is not shaken by the room or her travel there. The middle official introduces himself as U.S. Attorney General Reed Doblin (Kelly AuCoin). Dollar Bill Stearn was played by AuCoin in the Billions drama series. Then, he notes FBI Director Rogelio Real (Mark D. Espinoza). The actor was in the Mayans M.C. show. Doblin also notes Homeland Secretary Joan Bradbury (Jenna Stern). In Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Stern played the judge Elana Barth. He brings up the one hundred and five criminal cases for Elena and her organization, SMT. These three people are in charge of the interrogation of Elena, but she has already judged and dealt with them!
She’s an international arms dealer whom they want to give up contacts in Angola. Doblin says that no one knows her location. They want her to write down the contacts, but she looks up at them with a smile. It has the feeling of Hannibal Lecter, as deadly incarcerated as he would be outside the walls. Next, we have two men setting up a device at “Bank 1.” A machine gun bumps the head of the security guard. Other gunmen walk in and pull up their gaiters that cover their faces. They start to move the bank customers and one of them activates the device that sends a chandelier crashing to the floor. He holds up a sign to the seurity camera. Elena is calmly writing as Real gets a phone call from an official, Jonathan Doak (Noah Bean). Jeffrey Hudson was played by Bean in the 9-1-1 series.
He has seen the message written for Real, “Director Real, Bow to The Queen.” Elena folds a paper and hands it to Doblin telling him to check his coat pocket. He is surprised to see a note in his inside coat pocket. Elena is silent. Real walks in saying Elena set up the bank robbery and shows her the cellphone pic. He asks her who is the Queen. Elena gives him a shrug. Doblin sees his pocket note reads, “I’m The Queen.” Elena has all of their actions predicted and the officials should know she can’t be countered by them. Elena tells them that one of the three “will be gone” by the end of the day until they are all gone. She says, “You messed with the wrong woman.” I think that line was toned down for television. We get the burning jeep, the girl and father walk over to the burning wreckage, she looks at the broken glass and Elena says that her father protects her. The girl says that someone escaped and sees a broken stem of grass.
The trio is wondering about an agent that may have placed the note working for Doblin. They are in the room with the window looking in at the interrogation room. Elena is watching them. Then, we get a closeup of another woman, Agent Val Turner (Ryan Michelle Bathé). The actress was in the comedy show, First Wives Club. She is waiting for the arrival of a prisoner, Owen Tuner (Kamal Bolden), who has brought her some documents to her. Bolden was in the drama series, Chicago Fire. Divorce papers. Val refuses. Owen mentions that he was a federal agent taking drug money has a ten year sentence. She doesn’t accept the divorce or that he hired a high priced law firm. Later, Val picks up her walkie talkie, a report of a bank takeover, her badge, and gun. She races her car across a bridge into New York and pulls up to the bank, the New York Commerce Bank. Val is met by her fellow FBI agent, Anthony Flowers (Jordan Johnson-Hinds) who updates her on the situation. Johnson-Hinds played Keon in the drama, Nurses.
THE ENDGAME - - “Pilot” - - MORENA BACCARIN, RYAN MICHELLE BATHE - - Photo: Eric Liebowitz/NBC.
He is worried that Val will be around when their boss, Doak, arrives. He has pulled up in a black van and sends both of them away. Val drives fast and determined, Anthony says he has to observe her as a new agent, and she brings up the divorce. He brings up her husband’s prison time gives a bad image for Val. Doblin tells Elena through a walkie talkie to the room that the bank is being watched. She gives him a Russian saying, a warning about not poking “the tiger with a short stick”!He tries to threaten her and Elena brings up the “next one.” At “Bank 2”, General Security Bank, a woman, Rona (Massiel Mordan) is writing a check. She gets a call from an operative that gives her countdown. More of Elena’s soldiers enter, Rona pulls up her mask, and shoots the security cameras.
A bank employee, hiding underneath a desk, tries to dial on his cellphone. Gun shots from Rona rip through the desk! On her drive, Val admits that when she heard her husband talk about the drug money, she reported him, on her case. Val tells Anthony that she grew up next to police officers and criminals. By the second episode, I'm suspecting Anthony works for Elena, he is at her side and can report to Elena if she is following along to the plan. She doesn’t know why her husband took the money. Val is angry at the other agents says they will get her “street fighter side”, very tough! She hears the report of the second bank, First Security Capital Bank, and stops the car. Val takes the car into a bootlegger reverse spinning the car towards the bank! Police are cordoning off the scene at the bank.
Val and Anthony are also there and she brings up Solomon Santillana whom she put away. She contacts Solomon through his burner phone. A prison guard hands the phone to Solomon (Juan Carlos Hernández) behind bars. He is happy to hear from her and sees her on tv. Val knows that no one would touch the bank without Solomon’s permission. Except one person. Val asks Solomon if it is her, Elena! Solomon warns Val especially since her last encounter with Elena in Gambia. Val brings up Elena’s name to Doak and notes that her group, SMT, is Russian for Snow White! Really, if she is the Queen, she would be the Evil Queen, and Val would be the princess. She has compiled five volumes of research on Elena. Still, Val is steps behind Elena, who has a plan that will involve all of the characters! Everything is connected and the motives are hidden! The Endgame is cinematic in its scope, features capable, intelligent characters, and a criminal mastermind who has a plan involving some kind of personal reasons!
Five Notes out of Five!
#TheEndGame, #NicholasWooton, #JakeCoburn, #JustinLin, #MorenaBaccarin, #RyanMichelleBathe, #KamalBolden, #NoahBean, #KellyAuCoin, #MarkDEspinoza, #JennaStern
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