Money Heist Recap: Churchill Would See It As a Victory

The big question in “Do You Believe in Reincarnation?” seems to be how much collateral damage is acceptable in a situation like the Bank of Spain heist. Sierra, as we know, wishes she could leave a lot more, but for now she contents herself by getting the Professor on tape in his hideout, confirming that she was the one who apprehended him. While he grudgingly complies, he sees on one of his monitors that Benjamín and Marseille have pulled up, and he distracts Sierra as long as he can before just screaming at them that a cop is there. They don’t hear him, and after Sierra has knocked the Professor down (and reminded him that she’s not a cop), she sedates him with a jab to the neck, puts him into bed on the lower bunk, and hides under a blanket above until she can do the same to Marseille. Benjamín is in the can — lotta bowel-movement representation this season! — but hears glass smashing as Marseille falls down. He has time to put himself together and pull out his gun as Sierra approaches on the other side. After she takes the first shot, he is convinced to slide his weapon to her under the door, and we leave the hideout, for now, with her confusion about who he even is.

After a relatively sedate Part 5 premiere, the tension has ratcheted back up at the bank. Lisbon, Stockholm, and Tokyo all remove their vests, fold down the tops of their jumpsuits to reveal that they’re not hiding anything on their torsos, and walk out barefoot, flanked by two lines of unmasked hostages. Tokyo narrates that the purpose here is to show “the people” that Lisbon’s not in court or prison but back with the crew: “We were showing them if we could do that, we could do anything. And people began to believe in miracles.” “The people” do not, of course, include Tamayo, who’s ready to kill the women on sight. Ángel convinces him that he’ll look stronger if he hears them out. Lisbon gets her phone out to show Tamayo live video of Gandía: The shrapnel lodged in his back could paralyze him if he doesn’t see a neurosurgeon very soon. Tamayo refuses to send one inside but notes that if they release Gandía to police custody, it’ll buy the gang an hour before Tamayo sends in the military while the cops question Gandía for intelligence they can use.

The Governor, outside with the hostages, has also noted the military presence at the site and shares his alarm about the escalation with Arturo: “To the police, we’re hostages. To the army, we’re collateral damage … Their priority is to kill [the gang], not rescue us.” Sagasta later confirms this to Tamayo, letting him know he shouldn’t expect a survival rate higher than 30 percent — particularly given that the team he demands to use is a pack of Russian roulette–playing, monkey-fight-organizing psychos.

Anyway: Based on the way Tamayo is negotiating, Lisbon figures out that the cops don’t have the Professor and that Sierra is working alone. To make sure she’s right, Lisbon says she’ll release Gandía only after she has conferred with the Professor; when Tamayo agrees, she knows the gang has regained a little negotiating power.

But it doesn’t last long. Unbeknownst to the women outside, Bogotà has decided to kick Gandía’s ass a little while they wait. Gandía apparently has no fear about the shrapnel threatening his spinal column because he enthusiastically throws the first few punches before Bogotà just starts wrecking him, which is what Lisbon, Tokyo, and Stockholm walk back into. While Stockholm yells at Denver for not having objected harder to this fight, and Lisbon tells Palermo what she has learned about the Professor, Arturo takes advantage of the chaos by going for the unattended guns. The Governor had initially prevented Arturo from making a wild run for the tent while they were outside, since it would be immoral to abandon the rest of the hostages inside, but ultimately proposed an escape of 15-to-20 hostages to somewhere secure inside the bank.

And considering that Arturo is instrumental in it, the escape is shockingly successful? He starts out by shooting wildly around the front lobby, hitting Denver in the arm (several hostages get relatively minor injuries too), then provides cover as the Governor leads the hostages out, eventually reaching the loading dock. The Governor is horrified to find that the gang has blocked the exit with a steel barrier and armed it with explosives, but Arturo is pretty excited: The loading dock is where the gang has been storing all its weapons. Arturo orders a couple of hostages to cover a pair of high windows, and as the gangsters on-site slowly make their approach, Palermo sees the snipers. Cue another shootout, during which the guys at the windows get badly hurt. The Governor is ready to cease all offensive operations, but Arturo’s bloodlust will not be sated. He is barely remorseful when the recoil on his weapon makes him hit his own guys and only spits self-justifications: “This is war! Can’t you see? Churchill would see it as a victory.”

It doesn’t take long for the gangsters to get down to their last two clips. Tokyo suggests blowing the charges in the loading dock, but since that would light up all the ammunition, it would collapse the building and kill everyone. Then she remembers a safe with more arms, including grenades, and takes off to break in.

Then Helsinki reports that the military is moving in, so Lisbon tells Bogotà to release Gandía. Since Gandía can’t wait to tell the authorities about the hostage rebellion, Bogotà tapes a fentanyl smoke bomb to his chest before sending him out, so all he can manage is to keep repeating “The hostages —” before collapsing. Tamayo immediately calls off Sagasta. Time has been bought!

And the gangsters need it because, inside, Arturo is still popping off. He starts by screaming taunts to Denver (who by now has had his arm treated with a bootlace tourniquet thanks to Manila) about how much and how passionately Arturo and Stockholm used to bone back when she was still Monica, Arturo’s assistant. He also works in some jibes about Cincinnati’s parentage, since the baby is the product of that affair. Denver resists taking the bait as long as he can and then wishes he had waited longer when his shells are no match for the flamethrower Arturo has found. Hearing all of Arturo’s trash talk on the radio, Stockholm asks for Bogotà’s gun and races off to deal with the situation herself. As she’s finding her way through the vents, Tokyo and Rio return with the grenades they recovered (when they weren’t flirting, that is) and are dismayed to see that Arturo has decided to drive toward them in an armored vehicle, shooting a Browning in a nice hat tip to Berlin in Part 2.

The gangsters’ tiny amount of ammo is really no match for Arturo’s assault, which is why it’s convenient that this is the moment Stockholm literally drops in. While the rest of her crew remains hidden around the corner, Arturo tries getting the better of her by predicting that she won’t shoot the father of her child: He’s going to be the only one left to look after Cincinnati when the heist is over. When that doesn’t work, he slowly reaches for the gun in the back of his belt while purring, “You’ll never be one of them.” Stockholm responds by shooting him in what appears to be his right arm and then his left shoulder. Call this the latest situation Arturo has misread with catastrophic consequences.

The Spoils

• Don’t call me a foot perv, but I loved seeing the gang ladies striding out in their hot red pedicures.

• Let’s hear it for this vase, which I kept expecting to topple over as every successive gangster or hostage raced past it.

• After all the business with flashback Berlin in the premiere, I kind of expected to find out what Rafael’s whole deal is. Keep him in the back of your mind, I guess!