The latest entry to Amazon Prime’s Citadel spy universe, Honey Bunny, centered on the fictional global intelligence agency’s India division, follows the same old milquetoast intrigue of wavering alliances, families, loyalty, relationships, and a fierce rivalry between secretive intelligence agencies. But in the adept hands of director duo Raj and DK, the series finds its own character through heart and humor—something which was severely lacking in the last Citadel spin-off series, Citadel: Diana.
The narrative stream of Honey Bunny itself shifts between two distinct timelines, following the series’ tradition, and connects with existing Citadel lore like a prequel installment. The makers have used India as a setting in a way that, with all its Bollywood references, the background score, clichés, and innuendos, the treatment feels relatable for Indian viewers and, to some extent, panders to a westernized perception of the country for global viewers at the same time. Despite that being the case, these aspects contribute to Honey Bunny having quite an independent flavor of its own as compared to the first two entries of the series.
Spoilers Ahead
The Foundation and M Key Program
Although the story itself begins in the past timeline of 1992, to provide context to the events we have to go further back to an unspecified period when Rinzy Shatsang used to be the director of Citadel India division. Despite being a so-called global peacekeeping intelligence agency, time and again Citadel’s pervasive control and destructive influence have been highlighted throughout the existing lore by alluding to the agency’s totalitarian control through brainwashing, tinkering with global events, and disregard for collateral damage. Perhaps this acted as a trigger for Rinzy and his brother/Citadel comrade, Guru, to consider creating a counterintelligence agency to take down Citadel. However, afterwards a mission went wrong, which resulted in Rinzy’s death, and to honor the memory of his brother, Guru went on to create the Foundation—a rival agency that aimed to destabilize the control of Citadel. After Rinzy’s passing, his wife, Zooni, became director of Citadel India.
Much like Citadel, the Foundation unfurled its wings in secrecy, as with the help of a global network spread through influential figureheads, conglomerate chiefs, and political personalities, the organization gathered significant strength. Guru and co. planned a specialized M Key Program, which was aimed at orchestrating surveillance on an unprecedented global scale, which could give the Foundation absolute control over geopolitical scenarios and would have brought Citadel to its knees.
Bunny Introduced Honey To The Foundation
Guru, who assumed the name of Vishwa (Indian readers will get the reference) during his tenure as director of the Foundation in India, created his network of highly trained spies by handpicking children from orphanages, giving them much-needed care and love, and emotionally manipulating them to turn them unquestionably loyal to his cause. Who needs Citadel’s brainwashing serum when you can emotionally exploit an orphan by being a father figure? This is how Guru roped in Bunny, aka Rahi Gambhir (“Citadel” reference explained in a separate article), the best spy of the Foundation’s India division, who brought in two of his orphan friends along with him as well: Chako and Ludo. While Chako and Bunny are more adept at field duty, Ludo proved his excellence as a techie, and the trio of them became the most vital members in Guru’s operations in no time.
Bunny and Chako worked as stuntmen in Mumbai, which was the cover for their real profession as Guru’s lackeys. In 1992, during the past timeline of the series, Bunny befriended Honey, an aspiring actress whose dreams to make it big in Bollywood were trampled beneath lecherous producers, misogynist directors, and an overall lack of connections. Honey was the illegitimate daughter of a South Indian royal (unspecified) and has endured hardships since a young age, which made her a street smart, tough as nails, sharp-witted survivor. But even she felt her resolve giving way after finding herself at rock bottom and agreed to Bunny’s proposal of earning some good cash in exchange for a shady job. It should be mentioned that Bunny didn’t inform Vishwa about his decision to recruit Honey for the particular mission of obtaining a hard disk from a certain David, which was originally meant to be delivered to Citadel Agent Shaan, sent by Zooni. Despite facing unforeseen hindrances, Honey risked her neck to get the job done, and her adaptability and courage prompted Bunny to vouch for her to Vishwa. Honey, who had put her trust in Bunny given how much he had helped her to stay afloat in tough times, shared her willingness to join the Foundation as well, as she felt it gave her a sense of purpose. Oblivious to Guru’s plan of using mass surveillance to impose the Foundation’s will on people, Bunny blindly put his trust in his mentor, and in turn, Honey complies with the command chain as she was trained to by Bunny to become a Foundation agent. As the time passed by, Bunny and Honey grew a bit close and finally fell in love.
Armada, Project Talwar, and Belgrade Mission Botched
The hard disk obtained by Honey had information about an accomplished physicist, Dr. Raghu Rao, whom Zooni had approached to initiate Project Talwar. The project was Citadel’s attempt to keep tabs on the members of the Foundation by amping up their surveillance system using a specialized chip called Armada, which Rao’s former colleague, Dr. Pavel, was supposed to deliver to him in a conference in Belgrade. Guru wanted to get his hands on the Armada, as it would have completely revolutionized the M Key Program and could have given the upper hand to the Foundation. As Honey’s first mission, she was sent to Belgrade along with the trio of Bunny, Chako, and Ludo, and Bunny assigned her to extract information from Dr. Rao.
Vishwa hadn’t trusted Honey since the beginning, and expressed his disapproval towards Bunny’s unshakable faith towards her. He arrived at Belgrade to keep a close watch over the situations and brought another new recruit to the Foundation, an orphan named KD, whom he brainwashed using his emotional manipulation and who, like Bunny himself, was loyal to Vishwa to a fault. The trouble began when, during the mission, Honey fell ill and discovered that she was pregnant with Bunny’s child. As Dr. Rao tended to Honey, shared the plight of his own failed marriage, and treated her like the daughter he never had, Honey started to see him more as a father figure than the target of her mission, which, given her troubling upbringing, makes a lot of sense. Honey retrieved the information and reunited with her team, but eventually got into an argument with Bunny over his blind allegiance to Vishwa, whose commands she could no longer trust after getting acquainted with Dr. Rao. Honey doesn’t get a chance to reveal the news of her pregnancy to Bunny, as she realizes, unlike her, the family and future Bunny fantasize about begin and end with Vishwa and his Foundation. Given the fact that she was familiar with Vishwa’s modus operandi, Honey asked Bunny to ensure no harm comes to Dr. Rao after the Armada is obtained.
Honey Betrayed the Foundation
However, while obtaining the Armada, Bunny ended up following Vishwa’s command, and while Chako and KD took care of Dr. Pavel, Bunny ended up killing Dr. Rao to remove any loose ends. Citadel Agent Shaan and his comrades were unable to either stop the Foundation from stealing the Armada or to save any of the innocent scientists.
This proved to be a breaking point for Honey, who was forced to reassess her perspective after realizing that Bunny’s loyalty lies with Vishwa only. She couldn’t have trusted a man like him to be a father figure to her child and decided to betray their organization by directly going to meet Zooni and Shaan to make a deal with Citadel. Honey agreed to hand them the Armada and rat out Vishwa as well, as she had realized at that point that such a dangerous technology at the hands of a totalitarian can only mean disaster. Honey’s information led the Citadel agents to engage in a gunfight with Foundation operatives, and Honey managed to steal the Armada in time. A bewildered Bunny confronted her and, shocked upon learning that she was carrying their child, allowed her to escape. However, KD ended up blowing Honey’s car up, prompting an aggrieved Bunny to shoot at him, while Vishwa was captured by Citadel.
Why Did Zooni Help Guru?
Honey had somehow survived the explosion and still had the Armada at her disposal, which she didn’t take to Citadel, knowing how important it could be for her own survival. After her daughter, Nadia, was born, Honey sought refuge in her ancestral home with her half brother Pratap and guardian, Sheshadri for a while – and eventually settled in Nainital, assuming a new identity, leaving her past life behind. On the other hand, Chako and Bunny settled with their own lives, as with Vishwa captured, the Indian division of the Foundation went into hibernation. KD kept the agents under his control, while Ludo continued to be the organization’s tech support.
However, things changed when, seven years later, in 1999, Vishwa managed to escape from Citadel confinement, and even though it is initially assumed to be the handiwork of the Foundation’s global network, eventually it is revealed to have been the assistance of a mole in Citadel. Vishwa had shared details about Rinzy’s aspirations of taking down Citadel with Zooni, who decided to betray the organization she was a part of rather easily, and allowed Vishwa to once again take control of the Foundation. Zooni’s betrayal remains a secret from Shaan and the rest of the Citadel agents, who were risking their lives on a regular basis on her command.
KD’s Quest for Vengeance
A year later, in 2000, KD finds out Honey’s whereabouts and begins a manhunt to capture her. Oblivious to Vishwa’s manipulations, KD was already quite jealous of how Bunny was highly regarded by his mentor and wanted revenge against Honey for initiating the downfall of the organization—his family. In a sense, KD had a personal score to settle with Honey, and Vishwa was aware of the fact that Honey still had the Armada with her, which prompted him to encourage and taunt KD further to ensure this time the Foundation obtains the tech. Eventually, Bunny learned about Honey, her daughter, and their present predicament of being pursued by KD; and reuniting with his old friends, Chako and Ludo, he began his pursuit of finding them as well.
Amidst this tumultuous situation, Shaan and his Citadel lackeys got embroiled in this mess as well after learning about Honey’s survival. After a prolonged cat and mouse chase between these four parties, Bunny and Honey reunited and, after initial disagreements, managed to reconcile with each other. Bunny, who had blamed himself for Honey’s predicament, was relieved at long last and was prepared to face his father figure, Vishwa.
Honey managed to get Citadel off her back after Ludo’s investigation revealed Zooni to be the mole assisting Vishwa all along, and as she relayed this information to Shaan, he ensured that Zooni got detained by their agency promptly. On the other hand, Bunny stood up to Vishwa and destroyed the Armada in front of him, and after a cathartic exchange while recalling their past, managed to convince Vishwa to leave her family—Honey and Nadia—alone. However, it is quite possible that Bunny destroyed a decoy Armada while keeping the original tech to himself, as it can give his family much-needed leverage in troubling situations in future. Bunny decided to spare Vishwa’s life as a gesture of refusal to his teachings.
Did KD Kill Bunny At The End?
However, KD isn’t as forgiving as Vishwa, and ignoring his commands, he went on to target Bunny and everyone he held dear. KD visited Chako’s family, and it is implied that he had killed them while extracting information about Bunny. However, KD might have abducted them as well, in which case a future installment of the series might shed some light on their predicament. Ludo learns about KD’s vengeful mission just in time to warn Bunny, who finally met his daughter, Nadia, for the first time as Honey took him to her ancestral place.
KD was able to track down Bunny and Honey, and along with his lackey/lover Nakul, arrived with a large convoy of Foundation agents to hunt them down. However, the couple managed to eliminate most of the agents, and Honey killed Nakul—much to KD’s dismay. KD continued to chase the family, and Bunny eventually decided to let Nadia and Honey go in order to stall their pursuer. After a prolonged battle, both KD and Bunny got shot, and with an emotional exchange, Bunny helped KD to realize how he had been a lifelong pawn of Vishwa, like Bunny himself used to be. KD was able to put aside his jealousy and hatred for Bunny and his family and decided to spare his life. However, as another convoy of Foundation agents arrived, Bunny decided to stay with KD instead of returning to his family to escape from this mess.
As the first season of Honey Bunny comes to a close, the fates of most of the characters hang in question. Bunny, aka Rahi Gambhir, appears much later in the future in Citadel, and his daughter, Nadia, is none other than future Citadel Agent Nadia Sinh, connections regarding which I will discuss separately. KD’s survival remains in question, and whether Vishwa is going to appear in future series remains unanswered as well. What we do know is the fact that the Foundation was the blueprint of Citadel’s rival counterintelligence agency, Manticore, as hinted throughout the series.
