Sacred Games season 1, episode 7 recap: ‘Rudra’

Episode 7 of Netflix series Sacred Games sees animosity really flare, as the innocent die along with the guilty.  We also lose one of the main characters!

As “Rudra” begins, Inspector Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is told not to snoop around the set of actress Zoya Mirza’s (Elnaaz Norouzi) new project. However, Sartaj knows there is a connection between her and the deceased crime lord, Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

Another officer, Anjali Mathur (Radhika Apte), is in a similar situation. When she tells one of her superiors that Malcolm Mourad assassinated a bunch of people and that he’s now in India, the man basically shrugs it off.

More from Show Snob

• The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
• Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
• Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
• Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”

He gives it the usual “We’ll look into it” treatment. Mourad may have made dirty bombs or whatever, but he doesn’t share Anjali’s level of concern.

Meanwhile, Sartaj wants to check the phone records of his superior, Parulkar (Neeraj Kabi). Also, Sartaj calls Zoya about Jojo Mascarenas’ (Surveen Chawla) files linking Zoya to Gaitonde.

They do meet up, and Zoya discusses Gaitonde a little, though appears to downplay her link to him. Basically, she says he just gave her some money here and there. She does, however, mention Trivedi, who Gaitonde warned would be the sole survivor in Bombay in 25 days, back when Gaitonde contacted Sartaj.

At Long Last We Meet Trivedi

For the first time in Sacred Games, Trivedi (Chittaranjan Tripathy) makes an appearance. At first, in Gaitonde’s flashback, Trivedi seems cordial to Gaitonde, asking him to take some leadership role in a sort of revolutionary vanguard.

Gaitonde rejects the idea, though is surprisingly not very rude in his approach. Still, Trivedi does urge Gaitonde to leave India, which by itself hints at the man’s possible intentions.

Indeed, India is not a bloodshed-free country, even without Gaitonde’s help. Gaitonde mentions how the Babri Mosque was demolished, upsetting Muslims.

To complicate matters, Hindus believe that a deity named Lord Rama was born at the same site. To add yet another layer of cultural significance, the Mogul emperor Babur is said to have built the Mosque 465 years ago, so even its age makes it historical, even without any religious significance attached.

Anyway, after it’s destruction, Hindu-Muslim riots broke out. In the Sacred Games story, Gaitonde’s competitor, Suleiman Isa (Saurabh Sachdeva), ordered some of the bomb blasts, and Bombay “looked like a graveyard.”

The Sacred Games Graveyard Expands

Though Gaitonde’s known for dismissing religion with hostility, his woman, Subhadra (Rajshri Deshpande), says the poor are only welcome in the religious temples. Everywhere else turns them away or offers them more grief.

Unfortunately, such discussions are cut short when men come looking for Gaitonde. Subhadra is shot in the ensuing gun battle (possibly by accident), and Gaitonde’s henchman, Bunty (Jatin Sarna), is crippled by gunfire.

In his unjust and brutal retaliation, the flashback Gaiitonde takes revenge on all Muslims, rather than just Isa. He kills the innocent along with the guilty. It is one of Sacred Games’ most brutally political moments yet, and it shows how there is typically precious little justice in revenge killings.

The only positive is that Gaitonde is captured (though also beaten), and presumably, the killings are reduced in the Sacred Games version of these events. Oh, and Sartaj’s father, Dilbagh Singh (Jaipreet Singh), gave Gaitonde water while everyone else hated him.

Hopping a Train/Anjali’s Last Adventure

Toward the episode’s conclusion, Sartaj has joined Anjali to unveil Gaitonde’s brutal warning. Something about it involves a fleet of water tankers, supposedly heading out fo drought relief throughout the land.

However, he and Anjali have reason to be suspicious. Sartaj interrogates someone in the IFS, an NGO, about the suspicious tankers.

Anjali and Sartaj track down the train en route with the water but are met by a band of henchmen. As Anjali holds them off at gunpoint, Sartaj hops aboard the drought relief train, obviously curious where it’s headed.

Will it lead to this still-mysterious Trivedi? Not long after she contains the henchmen, Anjali is off again, presumably to look for more pieces of this puzzle. Unfortunately, Anjali is shot in the head by what appears to be a professional assassin.

That’s all for this Sacred Games recap! What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!