Spoilers

Lots of last-minute saves in this one as Jess and her allies try to outwit Billie.

The situation dire, Billie forges ahead on the verge of finding the treasure so she can destroy it. She and Salazar drag Jess and her dad along ‘in case they need them’. Nice writing and staging here, nothing unique or groundbreaking but formula done incredibly well. We get a logical reason why Billie hasn’t killed them yet. We also get a predictable but nicely executed escape, and Jess successfully sending Billie and company off in the wrong direction.

More great stuff: when Ethan and Liam show up to help, Jess asks how they found them. They confuse her when they say they found the trail she left, and she says it was to misdirect Billie. They tell her they knew that and went in the opposite direction. Duh. Just one of many nice touches, though, that emphasize the bond these characters have with one another.

The very best bit of staging in this episode comes as two of Billie’s thugs are about to shoot Tasha and Oren. We hear two gunshots and see Tasha and Oren still standing. Then we see the thugs keel over, and the pistol fall from Agent Ross’s hand where she is lying on the dock. Best moment in the episode. In this type of show, it’s never a total shock when someone isn’t really dead. But they did a fantastic job of making it look as if she were and evoked great emotion at the loss: a testament to the writing and acting depicting the character. I especially enjoyed that very welcome ‘surprise’.

Another particularly satisfying moment: Salazar gets exactly what he deserved. The worse the bad guy, the more one wants him not just to fail, but to get his comeuppance. Salazar really had it coming and his demise provides a cheer-worthy scene. Even better, it does it without any of our heroes succumbing to rage or vengeance or suddenly becoming a cold-blooded killer. Salazar shoots and kills Kacey for slowing them down and expects Billie to see the wisdom and necessity of ‘his’ sacrifice in doing what needed to be done. Instead, infuriated and grief-stricken, she blows him away.

More puzzles and close calls ensue before Jess and company find and save the treasure. One small thing which nevertheless jumped out at me: this deep, dark cave housing the long-hidden treasure has an opening in the roof. An opening that, for all we can see, all anyone has to do is walk up to and jump in. So much for all the booby traps, protective measures, and centuries of puzzles and riddles. Yes, a deadly swamp also surrounds the place, but still. Hundreds of years are hundreds of years. It seems the height of odd and unwise to have a plain old unguarded opening that anyone could step–or fall–into. At least when Rafael retrieved his notebook from the tree, 1) only twenty years had passed, and 2) he specifically noted that everyone considered that tree a sacred place people would never destroy.

The treasure itself, especially compared to what the two movies showed, comes off as decidedly underwhelming. Yes, TV differs from cinema, but considering how cinematic much television is today, that strikes me as a poor excuse. I wanted a much bigger, grander treasure trove.

Regardless, Jess and company accomplish their mission and Billie ends up on her way to jail. For the time being, at least. In the final scene we get the requisite teaser for their next quest.

A few final notes: watch through the end credits. They are fantastic and show what comes next for our heroes and how they deal with fame and fortune. Loved the whole cast in this one. They did a wonderful job of showing the affection and connection in this tight-knit group of friends. They lived up to the writing, and the writing lived up to their talent. Lastly, Catherine Zeta-Jones killed it as the bad guy.

Verdict: A most excellent finish. They stuck the landing big time. 9/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com