National Treasure: Edge of History episodes 1 and 2 recap & review

‘National Treasure: Edge of History’ premiers with two episodes that set up the world of a new hunt for a huge treasure, lying dormant for centuries; a powerful villain and a brave girl with her friends compete with each other to track down the treasure.

Episode 1 recap: I’m a Ghost

‘National Treasure: Edge of History’ opens with Peter Sadusky talking about the history related to a huge treasure and how different civilizations came together to hide it away from the conquistadors.

The map to this treasure was bifurcated into three relics and women from the Inca, Mayan, and Aztec empires came together to hide them away from the Conquistador Cortés.

Jess is a 21-year-old undocumented immigrant working and living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She works hard to one day get her dream job in the cryptanalysis division, which explains her penchant for puzzle-solving and a remarkable talent for finding patterns and stories where others can’t.

One day, she gets tasked with finding the owner of an abandoned unit, with the only hint to the owner being their cryptic name — “I am Phasma”. Jess cracks the code and tracks down the real man behind the alias — Peter Sadusky.

The retired FBI special agent has been contending with dementia for the last decade and has spent most of his time in solitude after his son’s passing, following which his grandson Liam also grew to resent him.

Jess goes to meet Peter who recognises her necklace and later gives her a letter meant for his grandson. In it, he has a message for Liam as well as a photograph. Later, Jess learns that Peter has passed away.

She goes to Liam and hands him Peter’s letter but he refuses to take it. Finding clues in the photograph, Jess and Tasha find the Aztec relic in one of the Freemason holds.

However, another treasure hunter, Billie Pearce, takes note of Jess and gets her tracked down by her henchmen. She needs the clue to the treasure Peter might have passed onto Jess.

Eventually, Billie kidnaps Jess’s friend Oren and in exchange for him, wants the relic from her. Jess manages to open the relic box and Tasha takes a photo of each of the walls, which are pieces of a bigger puzzle that makes up a map.

Episode 2 recap: The Treasure Map

Jess and Tasha try their best to outwit Billie but fail. In the end, Jess is happy with getting Oren to safety. Later, the three decide to resume their treasure-hunting adventure, with Jess returning to Peter’s house to look for more possible clues.

She does find something but also runs into Liam, who has gotten Peter’s house as per the late Freemason Grand Master’s will. She wants to learn more about this treasure hunt and the similarity that her necklace’s symbol shares with that of the relic.

Liam isn’t nearly as keen on the treasure hunt since his father died looking for it and the resentment that grew after that has embittered him.

FBI agent Ross gets involved in the case after she realises her mistake of not taking Jess and Tasha’s report against Billie and the allegations of a conspiracy involving Peter Sadusky’s death seriously.

Elsewhere, Billie figures out that Jess has already opened the box and knows how to crack these puzzles. Liam, meanwhile, has a couple more encounters and run-ins with Jess.

While victims of misunderstandings at first, the two eventually end up running into each other a couple of times and Liam finally

Review

• ‘National Treasure: Edge of History’ has opened with a two-episode premiere that fails to inspire the same kind of thrill that its predecessors in the franchise had been able to.
• While the young central characters are competent and interesting, a charm akin to that of Nicolas Cage’s Benjamin Gates or Justin Bartha’s sardonic sidekick Riley Poole is sorely missing.
• Overall an inoffensive affair, ‘National Treasure: Edge of History’ episodes 1 and 2 do little to hook viewers into what is a very basic, cookie-cutter tirade of a treasure hunt without all the fun or campy elements one would expect from it.

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