Blood & Treasure: Observations From “Spoils of the Red Empire”

The third episode of the long-awaited second season of Blood & Treasure aired on Paramount+ on Sunday night, moving forward with the story of Danny McNamara and Lexi Vaziri as they are on the hunt for the latest antiquity that is also desired by a dangerous terrorist and his vicious team of killers.

The synopsis for the third episode, entitled “Spoils of the Red Empire,” is “a visit with Simon in prison yields new information on the Spirit Banner’s last whereabouts, sending the team to Russia.”

The Good:

It was great watching Shaw deliver the fake lines in his Vietnamese loft in order to trick Kate and her CIA team, and even better to watch how Kate could get under his skin. I also loved the line from Chuck after he arrived at Shaw’s bar: “Can’t I just once walk into a room and not hear the craziest story I’ve ever heard?” [in regards to the truth about Kate]. As I’ve said before, the writers give Chuck the best lines!

I really enjoyed the whole trap of tricking Kate and her CIA team with all of our “heroes” working together, but part of me has to question how Kate and her team didn’t get the least bit of an inkling that it was a set-up. They are CIA agents after all.

Then at the end Danny and Lexi are joined by Andrei (and his motorcycle gang of all things) as they head off in search of the Spirit Banner. I’m not sure if this will be

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The Bad:

While it was great to see James Callis back in the show as Simon Hardwick, how could Danny and Lexi not be suspicious of any details that he shared with them? They walked into that exclusive Russian restaurant to meet with Andrei Levchenko (guest star Zach McGowan, who has almost always played a heavy), and Danny walks right into Andrei’s “trap?” C’mon!!

And, then there is the whole storyline of Kate trying to escape three times after they trapped her, her refusing to tell them anything then after a few chosen discussions with Chuck, she gives up all the details and he lets her go?? Really! I hope that doesn’t come back to bite them in the ass.

Additional Thoughts:

I felt bad for Andrei, and especially his wife Claudine, when the assassin working for the Great Khan killed his way into that bunker (inside an old bakery, of all things?!), overheard Danny and Lexi talking to Andrei about where the Spirit Banner could possibly be relocated from the giant box they found, and then killed her. Although, I saw that coming when Claudine left the room to go look at other ledgers. Andrei was the one who said the bunker was dangerous, and he just let his wife go off by herself?!

Make sure to tune in to Paramount+ next Sunday, July 31 for the next new episode.

A new episode of Blood & Treasure will air each Sunday on the streaming service.

You can also rewatch season 1 of Blood & Treasure on Paramount+.