WARNING: Major spoilers for episode eight ahead.

In 2013 Afghanistan, The Jackal is seen on duty as a sniper in the British Army. He argues with his spotter, Gary, about his target, urging his partner to be patient to get the right man. His name is revealed to be Alexander Duggan.

In the present day, the world is watching the news as the fallout of the UDC assassination attempt continues. In New York, Winthrop is furious, believing they’ve missed their chance.

The second shooter is identified as a man who had infiltrated UDC’s security team, leaving behind a manifesto where he claims UDC wants River to launch because he wants information, not the good intentions he keeps spouting.

UDC is now back at his mansion in Croatia, saying the Jackal is the least of his problems if he can’t trust those in his own house.

Back at MI6, the team are trawling through security footage to find someone that matches the e-fit they have of The Jackal. Damian sends over updated information on Alexander Duggan, the soldier that was believed to have died in Afghanistan.

His entire file, and that of his unit, has been heavily redacted due to being “strap two”- two ranks above top secret, suggesting they did something that the Ministry of Defence wants to keep covered up.

In another flashback, the trip snipers are still waiting for their man, focusing on a Taliban compound. They shoot their man, and then make a run for it with the rest of their unit in trucks they’ve named “Phantom” and “Jackal”.

Back at base, Alexander is seen messing around with his comrades, and being given a bottle of booze for a job well done. During time off in Cyprus, the team get exceedingly drunk. Gary gets into an altercation with a man in the bar, who keeps the peace by offering to buy him a drink while his friend continues to talk to them, asking questions about their time in the Army and if they should earn some more money. He comments that someone is willing to pay them 20,000 each to ‘take care’ of someone for a friend. They decline and the revelry continues, but Alexander is clearly still thinking about it.

Bianca is informed by Isabel that she needs to meet with the foreign secretary. When they meet, they push him to get access to Alexander’s file. Reluctantly, he agrees.

It’s revealed Gary and Alexander took the job, shooting out a man in Turkey. Those who hired them are impressed, happily handing over the cash and offering them another job. They reluctantly decline, as they both still have duty time to serve in the army.

In Spain, Nuria and her brother Alvaro see the news reports, and he believes it’s Charles. Nuria is hesitant to believe it, but when she calls The Jackal, his reaction confirms her worst fears. The Jackal urges Nuria to tell Alvaro not to say a word about his suspicions, and they will reunite tomorrow. Furious, Nuria demands that when he gets home, she needs to know the full truth.

Back in London, Bianca is visited by her daughter, Jasmine. Despite the direct questions about Larry’s claims she killed his family, prompting the earlier attack, Bianca continues to deny that she had anything to do with it.

During an extraction mission in Afghanistan, Gary and Alexander are put on overwatch duty while the rest of their unit head to the assigned compound to get their target out alive. But the rest of the team prove aggressive, and their attempts at negotiation results in a machine gun warfare, which kills dozens of people inside the compound who were celebrating a wedding in a bloodbath.

Realising they were injuring civilians, Alexander makes a run for it to try and stop them, and is left stunned at his comrades killing senselessly and without remorse, before planning a cover up. The group leader demands everyone keep their mouth shut about what happened.

The men are later seen celebrating as the compound is blown up, with Gary and Alexander looking upset and withdrawn from the rest of the team.

Bianca visits Larry in jail. He tells her they’re more alike than she realises - they kill and lie but for their own ‘right reasons’, and believes she does the same. She says she’s sorry about what happened to Emma and Alison, but he doesn’t believe her, says she’s more sick than him, before using a shiv he snuck into the room to slit his own throat in front of her.

Rocked by what she’s witnessed, she speaks to Victor who tries to comfort her, urging her to remember why she does her job: to protect people. To cheer her up, she’s told she’s been granted access to Alexander’s file - but there are conditions including a signed NDA.

The file states the covert unit Alexander was part of was killed completely by a big explosion caused by an IUD. But Bianca doesn’t buy it, sensing the connection between Alexander and The Jackal.

After reading the file, Osi is forced to hand it over to Isabel, before being taken away by Carver.

In the final flashbacks to Afghanistan, the two cars are driving through the desert when Alexander tells them to stop, believing he spotted something suspicious. Fearing for an IUD, the unit stays behind as Alexander scopes out the area, taking Gary with him. When it looks like they’ve found nothing, Alexander sets off a remote controlled bomb in the two vehicles, killing his entire unit except Gary.

Gary, in a panic, thinks they’re under attack, prompting Alexander to assure them they’re not and they need to go somewhere they can’t be found.

For the first time in the history of the character, The Jackal’s true identity and background are revealed – exposing horrific experiences within the British Army.

Eddie Redmayne, who plays The Jackal – aka Alexander Duggan – says: “Before we started filming, I had met many snipers who had been working in Helmand, and it was through the specificity of their experience, for example, the way the disguises are built and where you see jackal and Gary emerge out of the rock, that is all unique. In fact, Paul Biddiss, our wonderful specialist, built that by hand himself.”

He adds that scenes from the show, including the team playing cabbage football at base and having a dark, gallows humour, is rooted in Biddiss’s real experience of his time in the military.

“One of the compelling things for me about this was trying to find his moral compass and what it was, and it's really confused and screwed up,” Eddie adds of The Jackal’s motivations. “But there is a sense of doing the right thing, and I think that he's an extraordinary soldier, but there is a morality in the soldiering, about the clean death or the purpose and the specificity of what he does.

“I think in the moment when the wedding turns into an utter blood bath, and he sees this behaviour in some of his team that is pretty appalling, inhumane and monstrous, something clicks in him, and I think it's a conflation of various things that are going on in his head at that moment, but it's a way for him to start again.”

Over the course of the series so far, Bianca has been seen slowly going down a more shady path as her determination to find the Jackal overtakes everything.

So far, it’s resulted in the death of several colleagues, informant Alison’s daughter, Emma, and Alison herself when her husband Larry killed her in rage for her work with Bianca.

In episode eight, Bianca is forced to grapple with what it is she’s doing or looking to achieve, especially when visiting Larry in prison.

“Bianca, that moment for Bianca and Larry is really important, because Bianca is in a place whereby she's learning what the word sorry means,” says Lashana Lynch, who plays her.

“She's toying between wanting to confront him and admit part of herself to him, but also hearing herself out loud and then pulling that back and saying, ‘actually, no, maybe I did do that for a reason. Maybe it was on purpose. Maybe I just didn't care the entire time’.”

“She is the reason for this family's demise,” she adds. “But there's also something really thrilling in it for her, which is strange to watch, but also really wonderful to play.”

“I've been in the MI6 world before,” continues Lashana, in a nod to her work on James Bond movie, No Time To Die. “But what does it mean for a woman of her age, of her generation, of this time, to have a good, working, functional, flourishing marriage and be the best mum that she can be, even though that wasn't her plan?

“The family aspect of the show is so complicated. It's so messy and disheartening and really had me kind of grapple with what I want to represent in the world. It's beautiful though.”

She also notes that Bianca’s daughter, Jasmine, could be considered the character’s “agency” and “rock”.

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