BLOOD & TREASURE: Observations From “Legacy of the Father”

The penultimate episode of Blood & Treasure aired on Tuesday night, focusing on:

Hardwick helps Danny and Lexi try to outmaneuver the Brotherhood; Danny learns shocking revelations that shatter everything he thought he knew about his past.

With only one episode of the debut season left, there was a lot riding on Danny and Lexi figuring out where Antony and Cleopatra have been taking and finding them. And guess what: find them they did. It might have been a crazy round-about-way of discovering their location, but the MIA sarcophagus for the two legendary figures were found.

But first, let’s take a look at what happened throughout the episode:

Treasure Hunt Meeting

Danny and Lexi first showed up at Father Chuck’s home followed quickly by Gwen and then Shaw, making for an impromptu treasure hunt meeting at Chuck’s humble abode. This scene helped lay the groundwork for the team to not only in seeking Chuck’s advice but laying out details on the mysterious Zara Farouk, who it seemed was a tomb raider who died from something Shaw monikered ‘tomb cancer’ – the very thing that terrorist Farouk had that doctor weaponize.

But it was the fact that Danny and Lexi were on opposite sides as to who was the real culprit: Reece or Farouk’s men. Lexi was firm in her belief that it’s been Reece all along and Danny was too blind because of his long friendship with the man to see the truth; while Danny believed it was the Brotherhood.

Flashbacks

It was during this episode that we finally got to see some of Reece’s background. First, we saw him in 1957 New York City, learning about his father’s obsession with Cleopatra and then saw him in 1971 Egypt where he met a woman, who somewhat reluctantly became his guide: Zara Farouk. The next flashback was of Reece and Zara in 1972 Cairo in bed together, talking about his being ordered home by his father, and the fact that his father knew nothing about his relationship with Zara. Lastly, it was 1974 New York City where – after the death of his father – Reece was no in charge of his father’s company, and his dad’s secretary presented him with letters from Zara that had been hidden from him, with the most recent letter containing a picture of a child.

Teamwork

Since Lexi and Danny were on opposite sides, Lexi teamed up with Gwen while Danny teamed up with Shaw to track down Yates, the head of security for Reece. Their leads led them to the home of that Egyptian intelligence officer, which led to a crazy car chase with Yates (that ended in the security guy’s death), but ultimately led them to a supposed “safe house” used by Yates – that was not only the apartment where Reece and Zara had been living in in the 70’s but also the location of that missing piece of art from the museum heist committed by Danny’s father back in the day.

The truth of what Reece had done – arranged the heist that caused Danny’s dad to end up in jail – and that the MIA painting (“The Death of Cleopatra”) had “belonged” to Reece’s dad and he simply wanted to get it back. Reece considered what he did to Danny’s dad “the biggest mistake of his life.”

Paris

Thanks to the bug planted in the Brotherhood’s underground tomb, Hardwick learned that the sarcophagus for both Antony and Cleopatra were in – of all places – a bank in Paris so the trio of Lexi, Danny and Shaw pretended to rob the bank with Gwen on site to play both sides of the fence. They were able to get both Antony and Cleo back, and with Gwen’s help the trio escaped getting arrested.

This led to Danny confronting Reece about what they had learned in Cairo, and Reece admitted his hand in the museum theft, which led to his helping Danny (as a way to make amends) throughout most of Danny’s life. Danny demanded that Reece come clean with what he did, giving his mentor two days to get prepared.

In the end, some research that a friend of Father’s Chuck unearthed in Egypt, Dr. Castillo went to Reece with the truth. Zara Farouk had a child with Reece and that child was – GASP! – Farouk the terrorist, who has been doing all of this as a way to get even with the father who deserted them both. I’d say that’s a lot of daddy issues, wouldn’t you? The worst part, though, was that Reece couldn’t let what Dr. Castillo discovered come to light: he poisoned her drink, and she died in his office while Reece burned the evidence from Egypt. Holy crap! [I’d say my theory that perhaps Dr. Castillo was involved was completely wrong, but what both NiceGirl Leah and I have been thinking – that Reece was behind the overall mystery – was correct].

[Photo Credit: CBS]

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The season finale of Blood &Treasure will air next Tuesday, August 6 at 10/9c on CBS.