The penultimate episode of the global espionage series “Liaison” on Apple + premiered today, and we uncovered a massive secret about Alison’s past, which might change how the audience has viewed her all along. In the previous episode, Samir finally reunited with his wife and son, thanks to Gabriel and Alison, and they headed to General Jack Rowdy’s sprawling mansion. However, Antropa sent its men to the safe house, and Gabriel ended up having to shoot Alison’s dad when the intruders were at the door. Is her dad still alive, and will they be able to escape the armed intruders? Here’s what happens in this week’s episode:
Spoilers Ahead
Gabriel To The Rescue
After the Rowdy home gets invaded and the intruders cut the power line, Gabriel immediately gets to work and looks to bring down one of the armed men who are sweeping through the house. As Alison turns the power on inside the panic room, Gabriel strangles one of the intruders, strips him of his gear, and ensures that he takes the videotape that General Jack Rowdy had been sent to blackmail him. Alison sneaks out of the panic room and narrowly avoids coming across the intruders but manages to get to the garden, where Gabriel checks on Jack, whom he had shot in Episode 4, and then slides in a lit flare into the engine of one of the cars. As the car explodes, Alison flees in the other car, and Gabriel carries Jack into the house. Alison finds Gabriel waiting with the wounded Jack on the side of the road, and she goes to attend to her father. Jack is alive, but the bullet wound in his gut has left him struggling. While driving away, Gabriel tries explaining to Alison that it wasn’t his intention to kill her father and he had to stop him at the moment. He hands her the videotape and informs her that someone is blackmailing him. Finally, he confesses that in that split second, he had to choose between her father’s life and his own, and he chose himself.
Taraud Exposed
Thanks to Gabriel’s planted bug on Sabine Lousseau’s laptop, Alain Dumas, head of Telkis, can see in her bedroom the fight she has with Didier Taraud and how she wants to throw him out of her house. She vehemently refuses to hand him her EU passwords and threatens to reveal all of Taraud’s dirty secrets, including his involvement with Antropa. They walk out of the laptop’s range, and Taraud shouts at Sabine, saying Antropa has infiltrated the UK government, and if she goes to jail, there’ll be no one to take care of Pierre because Taraud won’t be taking care of an autistic child. He makes it clear to Sabine that since she won’t be accepting a bribe, she’ll have to hand him her passwords for free if she wants to stay out of prison. Dumas asks his tech guy to get him a copy of that recording because he plans to ruin Taraud for his crimes.
DGSE’s Sophie Saint-Roch meets Dumas on a boat, where he shows her the initial argument between Taraud and Sabine, minus the part where he refuses to take care of his autistic child. Saint-Roch tells the former commander that this evidence is barely enough to destroy Taraud; at best, he’ll be transferred to some other place where he can resume his dirty work, and she’ll lose her job in six months, which she doesn’t want. Dumas tells her that the only reason he accepted Taraud’s job was that he thought the man was working with the French government. He adds that with Sabine Lousseau’s Level 1 security clearance, anyone can access the deeply protected documents in cyberspace, while Saint-Roch realizes that Antropa can attack France the same way they attacked the UK. Gabriel calls Dumas to tell him that the plan worked and Samir is safe, but he’s waiting for news on Jack Rowdy because he doesn’t want to be accused of murder. Saint-Roch leaves with the evidence of Taraud’s involvement, and Alison meets her unconscious father in the hospital before leaving with Gabriel.
The Transporters
Alison requests that Gabriel let her bring Samir to the UK, lest she is in severe trouble, but Gabriel says it’s complicated because he doesn’t work for her. He takes her to meet some old friends in a fishing cabin, and the people there aren’t exactly friendly towards Alison because she didn’t keep in contact with them after Nathalie’s death, and she didn’t visit Gabriel when he was behind bars. He continues keeping the peace between the two parties, even when a woman named Annick says Alison didn’t want to share Gabriel with Nathalie, hinting that there was a rift between the two women over Gabriel. Before they can board the boat, one guy stops Alison and tells her that the only reason they’re helping Samir is that he’s Syrian and against Assad and also because Gabriel is their friend. It’s not because they wanted to help Alison in the slightest, and she says she knows already. Meanwhile, Madame Saint-Roch brings a whole convoy to Telkis HQ and shows Dumas the reconstructed audio from where Taraud orders Sabine to hand him the EU passwords. Saint-Roch’s associate also informs Dumas that Antropa wants a security list from the EU cybersecurity center because it aims to exploit the weaknesses in the cybersecurity of 27 countries. These are flaws that either the nations didn’t even know about in the first place or didn’t have the capacity to do anything about. Saint-Roch promises to create a report for the president while the associate plays the recording where Taraud says Sabine has no idea who’s behind Antropa. Dumas realizes that the UK government has a mole who’s working for Antropa and shows pictures of the offices Antropa has invested a significant amount of money in near the Thames River.
In the UK, the PM’s advisor Toby Gleason tries forcing Minister Richard Banks into establishing a contract with Antropa, while Banks refuses to let the country’s security be handed over to private companies. Gleason pays no mind to Banks’ concerns and asks him to keep the contracts ready for the following day or hand in his resignation with the PM, while the elderly minister expresses his shame for what has become of the government. Didier Taraud meets with Bob, who tells him they won because the UK will be signing with Antropa and that he’ll be leaving for the UK the following day. Taraud says he’s spoken to someone named Miller, who has found a way to launch an attack on every EU nation. Taraud adds that, with his brilliance, the entirety of the EU shall be forced to sign a contract with Antropa.
Antropa’s Plans
Alison and Gabriel board the boat that’ll take them to the UK, and the captain of the boat greets her and says she hasn’t changed much, which goes to show they know each other from the past. He also tells Gabriel that nobody saw him bring in Samir’s family or them going below the deck. Myriam asks why they need to move to the UK while they’re safe in France, while Samir says Alison can help him meet important people. Gabriel and Alison arrive in the mess, and while she plays with Myriam’s infant son Hicham, Gabriel asks Samir to open the USB and make them a copy. The first-mate brings in a laptop and tells Alison that she reminds him of his sister Nathalie, whom he remembers daily, and then leaves for the upper deck. Samir opens the coveted USB, which reveals pictures and files of all the ways Antropa plans to attack the UK, and Samir adds that he and Walid found these when they hacked into Assad’s police files. Their original plan was to wipe the police files of the Assad regime, but when they realized they were being supplied by Antropa, they hacked the private organization as well. Their plan was to steal the data and sell it, and they even went to UK cybersecurity expert Mark Bolton, but the man never showed up. Alison says that Antropa murdered Bolton to ensure his silence, and Samir decides against going to the UK. Alison pleads with him to come to London with her so that she can protect his family and ensure he and his wife have jobs and security, and she asks him to trust her, but Samir trusts Gabriel. The Frenchman says they’ll speak to the French and reminds Alison once again that he doesn’t work for her. He gets a call from Dumas saying they’re near his location and asking him to bring Alison because they want to speak to her.
Alison and Gabriel arrive at a restaurant where Dumas and Saint-Roch are awaiting them. Saint-Roch tells Alison that Samir Hamza shall be arrested on suspicion of terrorism in London, but Alison reminds her that unless Samir is brought back to the UK, more terrorist attacks shall happen until the UK signs with Antropa and there’s a possibility the French want that since Antropa is a French organization. Saint-Roch says, on the contrary, they want to destroy the organization, and Alison asks Saint-Roch to let her bring Samir to London with Gabriel, and in return, she’ll give them a copy of Samir’s USB. The DGSE employee tells Alison that a French advisor to the president shall use his top-secret meetings in London the following day as a covert meeting with Francis Miller, the CEO of Antropa, along with a British mole who has access to all the secret files and is a professional. After much deliberation, Saint-Roch agrees to let Alison take Samir to London with Delage as a bodyguard but asks Alison to help the French stop Taraud with a detailed report of everything he does in London. While Gabriel and Alison are leaving, Dumas calls him and asks him to inform his boss after watching the tape Antropa used to blackmail Jack Rowdy. While on their way to the UK, Alison gets a call from Richard telling her that unless she can present Samir before him by the next day, he’ll have to sign with a private organization, and Alison will be charged with partnering with a foreigner. She assures him that she’ll send him their location, and there will be four of them when they arrive in the UK.
Alison’s Secrets
After seeing off his daughter and ex-wife, Alison’s boyfriend Albert receives a letter meant for her, which is from Mark Bolton. Albert immediately takes it to Richard and the mail details how Bolton had been contacted by Antropa five years prior, and he also sent the cryptocurrency accounts that the organization used. While Richard sighs that this clears Alison’s name, his personal bodyguard seems suspiciously upset about the papers reaching the minister. In the boat, Gabriel rests beside the sleeping Alison for a while before heading into the TV room and waiting until it’s empty to pop in the video. As the protesters walk with young Alison, Gabriel, and Nathalie and start playing, Alison wakes up from her sleep, and Nathalie’s brother, the first-mate, and Annick arrive. Gabriel pauses the video, but the deceased girl’s brother spots her red hair and demands that Gabriel play it. An argument breaks out between Nathalie and Alison, and the latter throws a Molotov at Nathalie, whose body catches fire and she burns to death in the video. As everyone, including Nathalie’s brother, watches how she died, Alison walks in, and the Frenchman chases after her immediately. Gabriel sits in silence as the screams of the enraged Frenchman, and the cries of Alison can be heard. Myriam tries helping her, but Gabriel makes her return to her room while the others douse Alison in gasoline and threaten to set her on fire. While Annick flicks her lighter and considers burning Alison to death, Gabriel intervenes, beats the Frenchman back, and says Nathalie’s death might’ve been his fault. He says he never stepped into jail ever, and that instead, he was a part of the Military Intelligence. He infiltrated their group and sold them out to the police without them ever suspecting he was the mole, but his first task was removing Alison because her father was a very high-ranking official in NATO. There was no way a general’s daughter could be found to be a part of the radical group, which is why Gabriel helped Alison escape. The humiliated and betrayed fishermen make Gabriel and the lot depart their boat while they’re at sea itself, and the four of them—Gabriel, Alison, Samir, and Myriam with Hicham—get on a steamer and head to the shore.
‘Liaison’ Episode 5: Ending Explained – Why Did Antropa Use The Video Tape To Blackmail Jack Rowdy?
The secret videotape that became the bargaining chip to get General Jack Rowdy’s daughter Alison to stop investigating Antropa contained footage that’d sent Alison to prison immediately. The video was from the year 2000, when during a protest, Alison had an argument with another girl in the group called Nathalie, and the two women were already not fond of each other because both of them loved Gabriel Delage. The argument during the protest was what pushed Alison to her tipping point, and she threw a Molotov in Nathalie’s direction. The bottle exploded, and Nathalie caught fire and burned to death, but no one knew of Alison’s involvement other than the video footage. Gabriel got Alison out of the situation and had Jack transport his daughter to the UK, away from all the heat that the protest invited in France. Gabriel told everyone that he was imprisoned to avoid suspicion, but apparently, he was a part of military intelligence and was never imprisoned. Given that the video implicated Alison directly in the murder of a woman, Antropa considered it to be the perfect weapon to blackmail her into silence.
However, Gabriel’s speech to the fishermen, where he reveals his true identity as the mole in their radical group, seems a little convoluted because even his boss, Alain Dumas, knew that Gabriel spent time in prison because of Alison. If Gabriel managed to lie to his boss as well, that makes him a superb spy, but it’s also possible that at the moment when Alison might’ve been burnt to death, Gabriel leaped into the scene and concocted a tall tale of how he was a double agent to save the life of the woman he still has feelings for.
