‘Echo 3’ Recap: ‘Upriver’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Four of ‘Echo 3’. To revisit the series premiere, click here.
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Stories that feature special forces soldiers that rush in to either bring down a bad guy or save countless hostages, always end happily. Where freedom rings and evil is defeated and life goes on in a joyous manner, and if by chance, there is failure in that story… it happens in the middle. All so that same wondrous ending can come into play, and it makes sense as to why this is the case. For everyone loves a happy ending, and in America… our special forces don’t fail in their mission. But while that does indeed bring about some entertaining and patriotic storytelling, it isn’t realistic in the slightest. For heroes do fail and have failed in our lifetime and sometimes… hostages don’t make it back home and there is fallout for failure and struggles that come with that as well.
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Which is why the next episode of Echo 3 on Apple TV+ is of note. Simply because ‘Upriver’ isn’t a story that saw Bambi and Prince regroup and bring forth an all-out assault to heroically bring Amber home. Oh no, this was a story, mired in the failure of the first operation and the political and emotional fallout of that. Which made for one compelling tale, one that quickly hammered home the failure and the tone of this tale, by allowing for us to watch in horror as our villains teased and toyed with Amber’s life before dropping her off at a compound in Venezuela. One that was sanctioned by the state and that of course, made it off limits to everyone involved and that… put Bambi and Prince into some unique places mentally.

Because failure wasn’t something that Bambi was used to dealing with in life, and once he realized that the CIA and the White House were going to leave this be, he collapsed under the weight of not being able to bring his baby sister home. Which in turn, motivated him to just… stay and keep overwatch as best he could in a nearby town and when that wasn’t an option, getting drunk and eating food and running his mouth and his fists kept him busy. Making it clear that Bambi truly hit rock bottom because of failure, and it was powerful to watch a special forces soldier collapse mentally in this manner and push to live a simple life to try and heal and reconcile the horror of losing his sister to the evil of the world. Since he also took the time to basically become a fisherman in this quaint little town.

As for Prince, well his journey post-failure was vastly different than Bambi’s. For he was sent home to heal in a hospital and once his wounds did that, it was… back to work. For his father wanted him to just forget about this mess and forget about Amber. Which was stunning to say the least, but it spoke volumes to the kind of world that Prince grew up in and well, Prince did his best to abide by his father’s edict. Which did indeed bring him back to the office and the hum drum of daily life, to the point where he even began to ponder upon a political run. But make no mistake about it, Prince was haunted in this tale. Haunted by failure, haunted over a love lost… and despite doing his best to handle it in the worst way, having her in his arms before losing her would not and will not leave his mind. 

All of which made for a powerful episode. One that really put on display what failure actually looks like in the armed forces and political world and how the lives that we see as numbers or blurbs on the six o’clock news… matter to those that lost them and haunt them daily. Which really did make for one compelling hour of television. In large part because Michiel Huisman and Luke Evans turned in an acting clinic to really sell the gravity of this mess and most important of all, it compels us to continue this journey. So, we can see if healing is in the cards for these two broken men or if this will indeed haunt them to the end of their days, and to learn Amber’s fate since that remains up in the air, and that will indeed make the wait for next week’s episode quite difficult to say the least. For we are all now invested in this powerful and refreshing journey and simply have to know… what comes next in matters of love and war. Until next time.

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