Netflix’s Treason season 1, episode 3 recap: From treason to blackmail

At the end of the last episode of Treason, it seemed like Adam may have officially committed the titular treason by giving sensitive government documents to a member of the Russian SVR, who he just so happened to have a former relationship with. As the third episode begins, Kara seems to be getting back to her mission, when she’s stopped by members of the SVR operating in London.

They take her to a woman named Belova, who seems to be in charge. Through their conversation, it seems clear that Kara is operating alone, and the SVR would just as soon not have her in the country as her actions are causing a growing suspicion of Russia.

Treason season 1 episode 3 recap: From treason to blackmail…

Adam, meanwhile, has to figure out how to undo the damage that he may have done to the country in order to get his daughter back. He has a meeting with Audrey, the potential next Prime Minister, where he tells her that some sensitive information has possibly gotten out that could show her in a bad light.

He, of course, neglects to tell her how that information got out, given that it was largely his doing. With her advice he begins to look into her political rivals to see who might want to hurt her.

In doing that he makes the connection that Russian businessman Melnikov is responsible for funding the campaign of Audrey’s primary political rival. He also has past ties to Kara who currently has the folder.

Adam meets with Melnikov pretending to warn him about potential blackmail that his candidate could be receiving. But in reality, he’s trying to figure out if Melnikov is the man behind the curtain for all of this.

Unbeknownst to Adam, Kara has already tried to hand the information off to Melnikov who refused it. He has Kara show the information to Audrey and demand that she drop out, which Kara does.

Audrey, under the advice of Adam, doesn’t drop out, but stays the course. As this is going on, CIA agent Dede is pulling Adam’s wife Maddy further and further into her operation to expose Adam.

Maddy’s pictures of Adam meeting with Kara from the last episode are too blurry to be used as proof, so Dede gets Maddy to plant a tracker on Adam. Kara calls Adam and convinces him to meet her with the promise that she has information revealing who really kidnapped his daughter.

With the tracker now in place, Maddy and the CIA are able to follow.

Treason season 1 episode 3 recap: The secret meeting in the dead of night…

Kara and Adam meet in the dark of night. She wants information on the operation where her men were killed.

Adam continues to say that MI6 doesn’t have what she’s looking for. But given that he also claimed that about Audrey before finding the extra secret black file, Kara thinks the information is out there.

She wants to check Sir Martin’s house for more files. She also tells Adam that when she pulled his daughter out of the holding room, she noticed that it was set up in a way that directly pointed to the CIA being responsible for the kidnapping.

And because the CIA tech is working so well to overhear this conversation, Maddy learns that the CIA is the perpetrator of the kidnapping while she is standing in a CIA van next to her friend who works for the CIA. The CIA is just sloppy enough for Adam and Kara to realize that they’re being followed.

They split up. Adam finds and destroys the tracker, while Kara disposes of a CIA agent.

However, as the agent is getting disposed of, she is able to capture a clear image of Kara on her bodycam. Maddy, who is in the middle of feeling betrayed by her friend having kidnapped her child, does confirm that Kara is the person she saw Adam give the file to last night as she is yelling at the CIA.

Adam also happens to see his wife talking to the CIA from a distance as he’s making his getaway. But he’s too far away to be able to hear what is being said, so the confrontation looks like a collaboration.

This is a whole lot of change that has happened in the past sequence, and it would be nice to have a moment to take a breather. But now Adam is pretty sure his wife is spying on him given that he saw her working with the group that kidnapped his daughter.

So, we get a classic spy thriller montage of the main character tearing their house apart to look for bugs. The tear down is interrupted by another phone call from Kara who says she’s outside of Sir Martin’s house and is about to go in after the files, whether he’s there to help or not.

Adam packs up the kids (partially as a distraction for his plan and partially to keep them safe from Maddy) and heads over to Sir Martin’s to run interference for Kara’s break in. Using the children as a distraction, he helps Kara sneak into the file room, but finds out that Sir Martin is coming home from the hospital.

Sir Martin arrives, and Adam pretends that his visit is a social one instead of a cover up for attempting to steal state secrets.  However, when Kara gets in the file room, all of the files are missing.

Kara makes her escape, but Sir Martin comes clean with Adam. It seems that he has been keeping an eye on Adam for quite some time.

Adam’s unusually fast rise through the ranks of MI6 wasn’t just noticed by the CIA but by the head of MI6 itself. Add to the fact that he has reliable information that there is a double agent in MI6, and he’s sure that Adam is working with the Russians to undermine the security of the country.

Adam is now faced with multiple dilemmas. The head of MI6 seems to think that he has committed treason against the government, but it’s not the treason that he actually did commit.

Plus, if he has reliable information that there’s a double agent working for MI6, then nobody is actually looking for that double agent, because he thinks it’s Adam. It’s a lot to process, as the third episode comes to a close.

Treason season 1 episode 3 recap: Picking up the pace…

A lot happened in this episode, and that’s fantastic. When you have a mystery thriller like this one, there’s always the concern that the reveal of information is going to happen so slowly, that it drags the pace of the show down, almost to a halt.

Maybe it’s because we only get a handful of episodes for this series, but it feels like the pace started to kick into high gear with this episode. In just a few scenes, we’ve gotten a dramatic shift in the status quo.

Maddy has been fully sucked into the narrative, and Sir Martin, who at first seemed like a minor character only present to be an inciting incident in the first episode, is now back in full force. Either of these things could have been something that dragged out over several episodes, but they’re happening back-to-back.

We’ve only got two episodes to go, but at the rate that this episode lets the action take place, two more episodes is still a lot of show left for events to unfold.

What did you think of Treason season 1 episode 3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

You can watch Treason season 1 on Netflix.