Blood & Treasure Review: The Revenge of Farouk (Season 1 Episode 13)
Blood & Treasure Season 1 Episode 13, “The Revenge of Farouk,” is a befitting season finale for the wildly uneven action series, accentuating exactly what worked and didn’t in its first season, a strange amalgamation of last-minute plot twists and undeniably satisfying character moments.
It is fascinating to watch the many facets of Blood & Treasure suddenly collide in the semi-claustrophobic setting of Reese’s big unveiling of Antony and Cleopatra’s tombs.
But everything from Blood & Treasure‘s penchant for strangely abrupt action sequences, to its ever-loving addiction of nonsensical plot twists, are on full display in “The Revenge of Farouk.”
If there’s anything interesting to pull out of the many eleventh-hour plot twists, it’s how Blood & Treasure was ultimately a story of two equally evil men, driven by each other to their ultimate downfalls.
That’s not explicitly the story of “The Revenge of Farouk,” but it’s a much more interesting thorough line than the superficial plot beats, which ultimately abandon so many of the season’s running plots, in ways that make little sense.
Take the Brotherhood of Serapis: built up as this all-knowing, integral organization, their role in the last four episodes was… lacking to say the least, a collection of cult-y simpletons who seemingly never grasp the true identity of Karim Farouk.
(Though, admittedly, we don’t really know, since they all but disappear in this final act, save for a bunch of them getting blown up early on.)
There’s so many plots dropped in these final episodes: Lexi’s lineage, Danny’s struggles with the limits of his morality, why Reese hired someone to basically investigate himself. Pull at any of the surface-level threads of “The Revenge of Farouk,” and the facsimile of it all is exposed rather quickly.
Thankfully, there’s plenty of other enjoyable moments obfuscating some of these larger, endemic frustrations with “The Revenge of Farouk.”
An obvious highlight are the (all-too) brief action sequences with Danny and Lexi; both allow them to kick ass for a moment, and even offer up an endearingly corny moment where they consider what each other would do at critical junctures in each scene.
While Blood & Treasure has absolutely no grasp on the romance between Danny and Lexi, nods like that to their shared emotional journey through the first season give the first season some much-needed perspective.
Without it, “The Revenge of Farouk” is a logistical mess, often unable — or unwilling — to answer some of the aforementioned questions raised throughout the season finale.
An expected disappointment, yes, but where “The Revenge of Farouk” decides to place its biggest twists are strange and deeply unsatisfying.
The reveal of Simon as the real Karim Farouk, plotting to kill his father, begs so many obvious questions (like wouldn’t the government realize a well-known terrorist suddenly changed his name?) it’s almost laughable — thankfully, it’s just fun and driven enough to hold together through those final moments.
Where Blood & Treasure heads from here is an interesting question — and surprisingly, one “The Revenge of Farouk” plays extremely coy with answering.
There’s a massive wink towards Karim continuing with the series, and I’d imagine Gwen and Shaw have their roles to play in season two — but there’s no hints whatsoever towards how season two is going to take shape, an equally exciting and unnerving proposition.
Lexi and Danny are essentially untethered from everything: neither of them are wanted (or wanted to work in) law enforcement, and the bigger mysteries of their story are seemingly resolved.
Reese’s organization is presumably toast, as well — do they join the Brotherhood next season? Will the Italian mobster they keep referencing (and not actually bringing back) play a role? What about all the mysticism? Can we please make Chuck a series regular?
As it did throughout its first season, Blood & Treasure plays too coy holding its cards tight against its chest.
It’s easy to see what a disservice Blood & Treasure did to its story, by keeping it all hidden until the second act of “The Revenge of Farouk,” muting the effect of its cascading series of reveals through the final 15 minutes (as well as Shaw’s weird attempt at a heroic suicide, which is just nonsense on its face).
Seeing Blood & Treasure take that same approach with the future direction of the series could make “The Revenge of Farouk” an unfortunate, simple demarcation point for viewers to simply forget its existence.
There’s very little meat left on the bone by the time “The Revenge of Farouk” ends with Danny and Lexi making out on an exotic beach; whatever intrigue does remain, is mostly for stories that are completely absent, an inherently dissatisfying way to manufacture drama.
Which is a shame: for all of Blood & Treasure‘s issues, it does feature a true breakout performance in Sophia Pernas’ Lexi Fazeli, the true embodiment of a “thief with a heart of gold.”
She’s so good, in fact, I could see season two ditching Danny McNamara and simply following her character around the world — though that’s an obvious pipe dream, it speaks to how clear Blood & Treasure‘s voice comes through with her character (and rarely anywhere else).
Neither encouraging or disheartening, “The Revenge of Farouk” is a rather tepid season finale for the boisterous world-hopping adventure of Blood & Treasure, not exactly a satisfying culmination of its passion for exotic locales and conspiracy-laden narratives.
And though there’s little sign Blood & Treasure will embrace the opportunity of a clean slate in season two, there’s just enough hints of character throughout “The Revenge of Farouk” that offer a glimpse of what a different, superior series it could eventually become.
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Blood & Treasure returns in 2020 — all of season one is currently available on CBS All-Access.
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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.
One thought on “Blood & Treasure Review: The Revenge of Farouk (Season 1 Episode 13)”
Amen to making Chuck a series regular! As I watched the show throughout the season, I kept thinking please don’t hurt Chuck. I felt as though the finale wrapped up the story in case the series wasn’t renewed so I am clueless as to where the story will go. I enjoyed watching the show, loved the main characters, and was pleasantly surprised the show was renewed. I look forward to watching it next year.
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