What happens in The Day of the Jackal episode two?
WARNING: Major spoilers for episode two ahead.
In London, Bianca is facing the wrath of her informant, Sparrow/Alison, who is fuming about daughter Emma being arrested. Bianca chooses not to tell Alison that Emma died, having suffered cardiac failure from an undiagnosed heart condition while in police custody.
As MI6 scrambles to cover up the death, they bring in someone called Mr Carver, but that doesn’t make the higher-ups any less furious that Bianca hasn’t told her informant the fate of her daughter.
However, head of the task force, Isabel, encourages Bianca, saying “it’s a means to an end”, so she continues to string Alison along, pretending she can get Emma to safety in exchange for Norman Stokes’ number.
In Spain, The Jackal is at home with his wife and child, Carlito. He reads up on Ulle Dag Charles (UDC) and his project, River, which promises a “new era of financial transparency” but has led others to believe it could lead to untold chaos.
He also begins to track down the client who refused to pay him the final €3.5million for his assassination of Manfred East.
The Jackal later shares a tender moment with his wife, sharing his frustrations in a vague way which she appeases. Later that day, they celebrate Carlito’s birthday, with The Jackal giving their little boy a plane. Family members, who know him as Charles, take pictures but he makes sure to tell them not to post online.
While the family celebrates, The Jackal is distracted after receiving a message from his bank, informing him they have traced his previous client’s first payment back to Munich. Cutting his time at the party short, his wife drives him to the airport.
Over in New York, the team who want UDC killed have a meeting about whether they can meet The Jackal’s financial request. UDC is making an appearance on a chat show, advocating total financial transparency, even of his own.
As Alison mulls over Bianca’s demands in Belfast, she speaks to husband Larry, saying she wants to fly to London, and they should ask Norman for money.
Bianca and the MI6 team find security footage of the Jackal as Ralf from the assassination, deducing him to be a mimic, but spot key elements including that he shoots right-handed, and favours a 9mm gun.
After his wife drops him off at the airport, The Jackal jumps into a taxi cab and heads to the bank to pick up a new passport and money – however his wife spots him being driven in the car, and realises he’s been lying to her. She later confides in her mother, who shares that she doesn’t trust him, later inflating the issue by telling others Charles is having an affair.
Bianca continues to dig for information from the CCTV footage, deducing the Jackal is British due to his choice of gun being standard Armed Forces issue until 2013, and his backpack being from a small British start-up company. She requests more time, but is denied it, with the others telling them she’s already on thin ice with the manoeuvres she’s making.
The Jackal heads to Bavaria, Germany, where he receives word from New York that they’re prepared to front the $100million - but want to meet in person again. He reluctantly agrees, but on his instructions. During the meeting, they agree on a $20million commencement fee on the grounds the assassination is completed by the 28th of the month.
Bianca joins friends for a dinner party, but it’s disrupted by a message from Sparrow who has managed to distract her husband long enough to get the phone number needed for Norman Stoke. With that, she ducks out of the party with a bag, unsure of when she’ll return, and heads to Riga, Latvia, with Norman located in Belarus.
The Jackal heads to a bank and discovers the initial half-payment for the Fest assassination leads to a company which, after a lot of tracing, can be brought to a rich company based out of England – one Elias Fest was associated with. He realises that Elias set up the murder of his own father.
In Belarus, Bianca and a team move in on a house where Norman Stoke is believed to be. However, on breaching the house, they are met with bombs and machine gun fire, killing two of the men working with her. While she knows they’ve been rumbled, her eye catches sight of a suitcase.
The Jackal and Bianca Parallel
During the course of episode two, it becomes increasingly obvious that Bianca and The Jackal are two sides of the same coin – especially when it comes to their work/life balance.
For Bianca, her husband and child come second place to her passion for work.
“I'm mostly interested in Bianca grappling with how to run a family, how to run a household, how to be a wife and a mother, how to do that job well, even though her favourite job is her occupation,” explains Lashana Lynch, who plays her.
“When I first got the script, I was delighted that the family was already included. Her environment was already included,” she says. “She's married, she has a child. She lives in Ladbroke Grove, which is not far from where I grew up, and I recognised the person. I recognised the foundation of who Bianca is and could be.”
In contrast, The Jackal – played by Eddie Redmayne – is drawn back into work but would rather spend time with his family, an element of his character that didn’t exist in the original source material.
“I think The Jackal's family, and the introduction of that, sort of humanises him,” explains Redmayne. “I think that what this side of him does is you see the guy who is a genuinely loving father and loving husband.”
“One of the things that attracted me to this character was the enigma of him trying to unpack him, trying to unpeel him,” he adds. “He does horrendous things, and yet he also has other sides of his character that are warm, kind, loving.
“He's a family man in many ways, and trying to marry those two things is kind of at the core of what the series is.”