The Day Of The Jackal: Season 1 Episode 1 – Recap and Review
“The Day of The Jackal” introduces us to an ambitious agent and a deadly assassin who aren’t on a collision course yet, but you can see it will be explosive when it happens.
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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| Originally Aired | November 7, 2024 |
| Network | Peacock, Sky |
| Director(s) | Brian Kirk |
| Writer(s) | Ronan Bennett |
| Character | ACTOR’S NAME |
| The Jackal | Eddie Redmayne |
| Bianca | Lashana Lynch |
| Paul | Sule Rimi |
| Jasmine | Florisa Kamara |
| Alison | Kate Dickie |
| Emma | Katherine Devlin |
Storyline Recap
Shared Duality – The Jackal, Bianca, Paul, Jasmine
The Jackal, an assassin based in Europe, seems calculated, cold, and the type of killer you’d expect in a James Bond movie. Yet, when he returns to Spain, we learn he is a married man, seemingly with a child, and is perfectly normal. We’re presented with the kind of duality that has been seen in many akin to The Jackal, but this time feels distinct.
As for his eventual opponent, Bianca, she is the same. She works for MI6 and does local undercover agent things when necessary, but when home, she is a mom and a wife, and while she is by no means trying to live up to outdated standards of what is expected from either title, she does have a personal life. Strangely, despite what we’ve seen many times, neither of our leads are people married to their job. However, one could submit that Bianca’s family could be secondary in her priority list.
Finding The Jackal – Bianca, Emma, Alison
With The Jackal assassinating a candidate for a high-power German office, the search is on across Europe to find him. As a sniper expert, Bianca finds herself pushing her way past her supervisor to be on the team. It isn’t 100% clear why she has to fight for her spot, beyond the possibility of misogynoir, but with her knowledge, she questions how The Jackal made a 3815-meter shot when the confirmed world record is 3540 meters, and he got away undetected.
As viewers know, the answer is that The Jackal hides his rifle in plain sight as a suitcase. Bianca figures something close to that, and so she advises a man named Norman Stoke, who likely created the weapon and can answer who The Jackal is. The only problem is that he is on the run. Luckily, she thought she had an in through a woman named Alison, married to Norman’s brother, and when Alison doesn’t deliver, she is ready to use Alison’s radical daughter, Emma.
However, with Emma potentially dying after Bianca had her brought into custody, it seems Bianca is losing grip on what allowed her to stay in the room.
Take It On The Chin Or A Bullet To The Head? – The Jackal
After assassinating Manfred Fest, the anti-immigrant politician, The Jackal goes on the dark net in order to check in on his payment, only to be given the finger. His next potential job he is all the more careful about due to being tricked, especially because the target would be Ulle Dag Charles, a rather rich man, with a technology that could disrupt the world, especially regarding dark money activities.
An unidentified woman presents the job and pays the initial balance, but during their meeting, the conversation doesn’t sound safe or viable since the woman makes it seem she is just the middleman. That creates too much risk, so The Jackal exits the conversation.
New Character Descriptions
The Jackal
The Jackal is a notable assassin, highly skilled with a sniper rifle, whose employment costs millions of dollars due to his success rate, despite who the target is and conditions.
Bianca
Bianca is an MI6 agent with a specialty in sniper rifles who appears to be good at her job but not the politics of it. At the same time, while she is a wife and mother and loved by her family, she may not be good at the politics of family either.
Emma
Emma is Alison’s daughter, who often attends protests. She was supposed to be a pawn to get her mother to do as Bianca wanted.
Alison
Alison is the wife of a man whose brother is one of the top rifle makers in the world, especially covert rifles that can still shoot long distances.
Paul
Paul is Bianca’s husband.
Jasmine
Jasmine is Bianca’s daughter.
Review
Highlights
The Jackal Being A Villain Who Is Capable Of Violence But Isn’t Reckless
All shows of this ilk need a strong villain for most heroes are a dime a dozen. Yes, Bianca is a Black woman, and we don’t see too many women like her in her position. But, unless it goes beyond the superficial of her skin tone and her gender expression, that doesn’t add a thing to the character, and she will be another expert trying to take down a villain. Hence why The Jackal being unique is so important and I’d say Eddie Redmayne makes the perfect villain because his natural persona lends to a villain with ease.
With a persona we’ve seen through his career in “The Danish Girl,” “The Theory of Everything,” and the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, Redmayne has shown himself capable of playing vulnerable, intelligent, but also wry characters. Tapping into that for The Jackal allows us to easily believe him as a cold and calculated individual just as capable as murdering a person, like one would a deer, as him being this loving husband and father.
It’s the complexity here which helps you understand why most franchises rely on their villains gallery for while heroes like Bianca come and go, villains like The Jackal who damn near make you want to root for them, they are far harder to craft.
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