Those who follow me or know me know that I have no problem with spoilers and that I am quick to spot the plot twists and turns, so praising the electrifying and unexpected ending of The Day of the Jackal is no small feat. The series is definitely one of the five best of the year.

Remaking a classic of cinema and literature, bringing it up to date, and making it more intriguing is no easy challenge, and the Paramount Plus series has the advantage of an exceptional Eddie Redmayne flying in the role of the incredibly talented psychopath for crime, with the equally superb Lashana Lynch as the MI6 agent on his tail. Only he was nominated for a Golden Globe, which is unfair; I hope the Emmys fix that.

The series went through 10 episodes that honestly were just right to tell the adventure at the right pace, even if the addition of the personal lives of Jackal and Bianca (the agent) seemed a bit out of place. It wasn’t, and only the final episode confirms that it was a smart choice.

Bianca and Jackal were two sides of the same coin, a precise parallel of good and evil, with two obsessive people who are excellent at what they do but terrible at more meaningful relationships (didn’t we mention sociopathy?). Their story is tragic, lonely, and claustrophobic, and it’s maddening to root for a cruel killer in the same way that we want the agent to catch and destroy him. That’s because the script is perfect.

Beware of SPOILERS.

After the “botched” job in which he failed to fulfill the contract, Charlie (Redmayne) does not give up and in a long and distressing episode, he FINALLY executes UGC (Khalid Abdalla), a crime so absolutely unbelievable that it justifies the millions he receives. The problem is that from then on, the siege closes in and a series of unforeseen events only expose the jackal more and more each day. The trail of deaths he leaves in his escape are inevitable and the bad luck of the innocents who inadvertently cross his path.

Redmayne’s brilliance needs to be highlighted. He shows that a “callous” man is far from robotic. The Jackal falls in love, regrets the people he kills, and avoids executions when he can, but he will never deal with the consequences of his actions or sacrifice himself for anyone. The information that the series would have a second season was already a sign that he would escape, but no one imagined that Bianca would not accompany him. We will get there.

Charlie is determined to return to Cádiz, but when he gets home, he has to deal with his nosy brother-in-law and try to eliminate the traces back to his house. He can’t because Bianca, clever, draws a parallel and unintentionally alerts those who want to eliminate the killer. Yes, just like at the beginning of the season, after completing the job, Timothy Winthrop (Charles Dance) decides to kiss the Jackal and try to kill him to eliminate any connection between them. He clearly wasn’t paying attention to the killer’s ethics. Nobody puts him in a corner.

This is the hook for the sequel. Charlie is now after Nuria (Úrsula Corberó) and her son, who ran away from him and is going to kill the executive who hired him to get the UDC out of the way. Unfortunately for Bianca (and Vince), they managed to solve the mystery that is the Jackal and in the confrontation, both got the worst of it. The Jackal kills the MI6 agent and prepares for his personal revenge. Inside the British intelligence agency, where corruption is at the helm, lies the mystery of who is lying to whom and whether anyone will want to avenge Bianca. She deserved it!

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