The first half of the final season of Álex Pina’s crime thriller Money Heist/La Casa de Papel dropped on Netflix last week and we’re already impatient with the wait until Volume 2 arrives on December 3. To tide you over until then, here are our 10 favourite, most awesome moments, from Money Heist, Part 5: Volume 1 (including spoilers).
1. The End of Episode 1
The final minutes of the new season’s first episode reminds us of all the things we love about Money Heist. From Berlin’s memorable speech about how “the things that are really important in life… have a high price: rebellion, liberty, ideals,” through to the Professor’s apologies to each of the gang members as he’s captured by Sierra. Seeing the team’s reactions while operatic music builds, accompanied by Tokyo’s voiceover, stresses just how high the stakes are this season.
As Tokyo explains: “everything we’ve experienced while dressed in red was coming to a close, this was the end of our journey together.” It’s the perfect blend of tension and drama.
2. Gandía’s “Gas Mask” (Episode 2)
So much of the enjoyment of Money Heist comes from marveling at the unique solutions the gang come up with in the heat of the moment. In Episode 2, they need to release Gandía in order to buy more time from Colonel Tamayo, but they can’t afford to have Gandía informing the Colonel that the other hostages had escaped and taken weapons. Bogotá’s solution? He straps a smoke grenade to Gandía’s vest, pulls the pin, and lets him go. The bodyguard tries to warn the police forces waiting outside but passes out before he can pass on his message. Genius.
3. Stockholm Finally Shoots Arturo (Episode 2)
While the gang has tried not to shoot hostages (mostly), on order to avoid being classed as murderers, which would invite a much stronger response from the authorities, Arturo has been asking for it since day one!
Stockholm might be having issues dealing with the fact she might have killed someone, but you can tell from her face immediately after that it was worth it.
4. Nairobi and Tokyo (Episode 4)
Since her shocking death at hands of Gandía in Part 4, this is the first time we get to “see” Nairobi again, and it’s a beautiful moment with Tokyo, that sets up a lot for subsequent episodes.
As the two talk about their thoughts on life after death, Tokyo reveals that she believes that when you die you get to live on in whatever was your final thought. This is why she always thinks of how she was happiest “when the chaos begins.”
We don’t know about you, but we got choked up just at the sight of Nairobi again. Her tragically blunt, prophetic clarification, “What do you think happens – after they shoot us in the head?”, moved us to the verge of tears. While we couldn’t know what was to come with Tokyo, this scene planted plenty of seeds that we suspected would eventually lead to number 10 on our list.
Plus, the jokes about all the statues of Jesus in Nairobi’s room were pretty funny.
5. Checkmate Denied! NOT! (Episode 2)
When Lisbon realizes that Sierra is working alone and hasn’t handed the Professor over to Tamayo, it’s another tremendously satisfying moment that comes from the build up of the characters. As Lisbon explains to Tokyo and Stockhom outside the bank, with Tamayo right behind them, “He came here to give us an ultimatum, but he didn’t even use his best move. If you had the option to checkmate in one move and you don’t do it… then it’s because you don’t know you can.”
Lisbon’s realization arrives due to her past as a police inspector and negotiator, and knowledge about all the players in this game. While the show could have just had the idea come to her, as a bolt from out of the blue, it feels far more natural to watch her figure it out with Toyko and Stockholm. It only adds to the experience as the women test their theory on Tamayo without giving the game away, once again snatching survival from the jaws of seemingly unavoidable defeat. At least for a little while longer.
6. OF COURSE THE PROFESSOR KNOWS HOW TO DELIVER A BABY! (Episode 3)
He is ready for anything!
7. Sierra Oscar Lima (S.O.L.) (Episode 3)
As a major “moustache twirling villain” from Part 4, it’s been immensely gratifying to watch Alicia Sierra lose everything as news of her misdeeds was made public. A pleasure soon matched by horror as she discovered the Professor’s hideout and took him captive. Which was the “perfect” time for her water to break and go into labour.
Watching her realize that she is not in control, and that she has to put her faith in The Professor (as all of us have learned to do), was a great turn for someone who was a monster in previous seasons. What a fantastic performance from Najwa Nimri.
8. Chicken Grenade! (Episode 5)
Tokyo put a grenade in a chicken and threw it. Again, genius.
9. The Rescue of Helsinki (Episode 4)
With the arrival of Sagasta’s team in the bank, the Spanish authorities declared all out war on the gang. Appropriately Money Heist transformed from a crime caper into a war movie.
With Helsinki bleeding out and pinned under a giant statue, the whole gang had to come together to provide cover for Palermo, Rio, and Bogotá’s rescue efforts. The build up was classic Money Heist as the Professor, back in control once again, maneuvers all the chess pieces into place for a pincer movement on Sagasta’s commandos. Tokyo, Berlin, and Manila assemble on the roof as everyone else provides cover fire. All waiting for a single word to unleash hell. “Stampede.”
Palermo’s refusal to amputate Helsinki’s leg only increases the tension as Rio and Bogotá struggle to find a lever big enough to free the hulking Serbian. Which they do!
10. Farewell Tokyo (Episode 5)
After the flashback to the heart to heart with Nairobi we kind of suspected this was coming. The series started with Tokyo, it’s fitting that she ends with it, even if she’s leaving the party a little early.
Pina makes sure to give his heroine a memorable send off, with numerous threads coming together for her farewell. After numerous scenes of Tokyo reminiscing about her happy times with René, it’s her first dance with Rio in Toledo that she’s thinking of as she faces death. It’s an admission that’s all the more heartbreaking as she gets to tell Rio himself though a hole in the floor as he desperately tries to rescue her.
For the final twist of the knife in our hearts, Pina has Tokyo’s final lines echo her first, from all the way back in Part 1, Episode 1.
“Growing old in a prison cell isn’t for me, I’d rather be on the run. And if I can’t run with my body, at least let my soul be free.”
Bonus points for taking out one of her most hated enemies.
Suck it Gandia.
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