Blood & Treasure Review: The Shadow of Projekt Athena (Season 1 Episode 9)
With another dramatic reveal involving Lexi’s family, and a death of a major character, Blood & Treasure Season 1 Episode 9, “The Shadow of Projekt Athena,” should be one of the season’s most dynamic, revealing hours. And it is, at least on paper.
In action, “The Shadow of Projekt Athena” is a head-scratching disappointment, thoroughly underwhelming on all fronts.
The first two acts are a particular waste of time, narrative thumb-twiddling in the form of Lexi and Danny chasing a vague lead to the St. Denis Dam in Quebec. Again, the bullet points are strong, involving a reticent (and elderly) Nazi hunter and a trip to Canada, an unexpected part of the world-hopping extravaganza.
But Blood & Treasure loses any thread of intrigue by drowning its characters in perfunctory details.
It’s almost laughable how much useless information it takes to get Lexi, Danny, and Fabi into the rural Canadian cabin: and by the time it gets there, Blood & Treasure has neither the time, nor patience, to make sure these moments land with the proper weight.
Though he hasn’t exactly been the most developed character, Fabi’s presence as the connective tissue between the Brotherhood, the government, and our heroes was vastly important in grounding Blood & Treasure‘s story in anything besides mystical connotations and boilerplate “hunting down eccentric terrorists” drama.
Given that, his death seems premature at best — and catastrophic at worst, potentially undercutting any sense of tension built between Lexi and the powers that be forming her family’s destiny.
And Fabi dies without every really being a character: even Gwen’s been given some semblance of personality, the government employee who uses her fists first and her head last — but it’s something, at least.
Fabi isn’t even offered that before he’s killed for the sake of a petty reveal (both of Lexi’s parents were involved in shady business!), which in turn is treated as a depressing moment for Lexi? What???
Emotionally, “The Shadow of Projekt Athena” desperately searches for connection: but beyond brief images or statements, Blood & Treasure makes no effort to build out the necessary humanity of these moments to make them work.
It amounts to a series of missed opportunities, best reflected in the randomly-inserted scene of the old Nazi hunter burning his trophy medals.
After a single line expressing vague disappointment, Blood & Treasure kicks in the violins and string arrangements to express a man letting go of personal vendettas; but it’s a completely unearned moment, and one strangely isolated from Lexi’s own struggles with revenge.
Of course, these shortcomings would be tolerable if “The Shadow of Projekt Athena” had something else to offer.
But lacking the distinct visual settings of the last two episodes, and nothing happening except plot points talking at each other, there’s nothing to build a meaningful moment on — which leads to Blood & Treasure flailing around in its final moments, killing Fabi and inexplicably reigniting the Lexi/Danny romance.
I just don’t get what Blood & Treasure is going for here, especially with Danny.
His most distinct character trait is what a neurotic ass he is with Lexi. First, he wants to be with her, but then he feels betrayed by her. And then by the end of this episode, he’s taking advantage of her emotional state because he wants her again?
The red flags are flying high, my friends — and Blood & Treasure doesn’t even recognize their presence, a thoroughly disturbing sign of leaning heavily on traditionalist cliches and stereotypes, which completely undercuts the central romance (which it really hasn’t established beyond some general horny-ness and “opposites attract, duh!”).
There’s so much to want to like about “The Shadow of Projekt Athena;” but once again, Blood & Treasure struggles to distinguish itself, its voice and sensibilities constantly compromised by its own mediocrity. It’s hard to make a world-hopping adventure of sex and Nazi cults boring, and yet, Blood & Treasure is finding a way.
What did you think of this episode of Blood & Treasure? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Blood & Treasure airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.
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Randy Dankievitch
Randy Dankievitch is a TV critic living in Portland, Maine, whose obsession with pop culture began as a child, watching reruns of The Muensters while listening to Paul's Boutique on repeat. A writer since 2011, Randy is currently the writer of TV Never Sleeps, TV Editor at Goomba Stomp, and a columnist for Up Portland, with previous bylines at Sound on Sight, Processed Media, TV Overmind, and many others.