Onwards to Victory
In West Germany, in 1968, a Russian General called Boris travels to the headquarters of Radio Free Europe and records an incriminating plea. This plea is what drives most of the first episode.
RARET is a radio relay station in Portugal that helps operators keep track of conversations across the radio.
The Russian general had been ordered by the Soviet Union not to invade Czechoslovakia, but when he asked for soldiers not to do so, two men held him up at gunpoint and forced him to hand over the tape.
As they do, we cut back to Lisbon 48 hours prior. Joao is our protagonist and he attends a fancy ball run by his father, who happens to be the Portuguese secretary of state, Henrique. Joao is on the verge of leaving though. He’s traveling over to the small town of Gloria to become the new technical coordinator for the antennas up at RARET.
RARET is a secret part of Radio Free Europe, with tireless operators working to rebroadcast the network’s programming out into communist countries. Interestingly, a woman named Ursula is one of the translators there, someone whom Joao slept with the previous night out in his car.
Joao meets Goncalo and the American director running operations, James Wilson. The place is constantly busy, partly thanks to the need to switch broadcast channels and get around the Soviets, who remain dead-set on closing down the broadcasts no matter what. ..
The operators work tirelessly to keep the facility running smoothly, as we see them in action.
Goncalo and Joao continue their conversation at lunch. Joao has been out of love with Lisbon for some time now, and is no longer working at the National Broadcast company. He also has a hidden motive for being in Gloria: he wants to find old friends and rekindle relationships. However, Mia - a telegraphist he used to know - has gone missing. ..
Joao is working on antennas to spy on the United States. We find out this when he’s one of the hooded men in the car that intercepted the tape during the opening scenes of this episode.
The courier was caught with a fake tape that only had music on it. The real tape was handed to a US federal agent just prior to the courier getting in his car.
Joao realizes this, so he decides to use his ties with Ursula to infiltrate the translation process before it goes out over the air. In order to do that, Joao cuts the electrics before distracting Ursula, who’s working on the reel. The plan here comes down to switching the reel while she’s all hot and bothered, so Joao can take the real one and leave her with the fake.
Joao switches the tapes over while Ursula is in the bathroom composing herself, and the plan works a treat. He successfully changes the conversation so that Ursula is not talking to her husband about their sex life.
When James Wilson realizes he’s been duped, he demands a list of names for people who have been around the tape. He’s livid, and realizes they have a KGB agent inside RARET. With the cat out of the bag, Wilson remains dead-set on finding who this is and stopping them, no matter what. ..
In Russia, General Boris is betrayed and taken care of quickly. We learn this through the story of a busy street in which he is stabbed in the foot. As the episode comes to a close, we learn that Russia now controls Czechoslovakia.
The Episode Review
Netflix Netflix original “Portugal’s First Netflix Original” is off to a pretty good start here as espionage thrills combine with period drama in a pretty compelling set-up. The characters are nicely defined, there’s a lot of intrigue around Joao and the reveal that he’s actually a KGB spy is a nice way to subvert expectations across this episode.
This season of “RARET” is going to be full of twists and turns. With the spy hunt now in full swing, it’s going to become increasingly difficult for Joao to keep his cover and not get caught. ..
Gloria is a watch that could be quite the compelling purchase, as this first episode comes to a close. The door is wide open for where this one may go next, as it leaves the potential for a very interesting future.
