‘Fightland’ Season 1, Episode 5 Review

1.3K This week’s episode of Fightland can basically be summed up as a mission straight out of the early 2000s hit 24. Duke and Jay have one job: find Aidan and get him back alive. What follows is a tense rescue mission that pushes Duke further into the chaos surrounding The Marshalls while giving us another look at just how much Calvin’s death is still affecting him. The episode picks up with Aidan being held by Sergei’s men, and the situation immediately feels dangerous. There is something almost surreal about seeing Aidan sitting there while the people holding him try to act casually. I was genuinely gobsmacked when one of Sergei’s men offered him a cigarette. This is something so casually ridiculous about the moment that it somehow makes the whole situation feel even more unsettling. There is also a interesting detail in the episode. Aidan is using a Nintendo Switch 2, which was released in June 2025, meaning the episode appears to have been filmed sometime after that. It is a tiny detail, but once you notice it, it is hard to unsee. The rescue itself gives Duke one of his better action sequences of the season. I particularly liked the hallway fight, especially because of the way the camera occasionally moved outside the building. Those shots gave the sequence a different perspective and made the fight feel bigger than it actually was. Duke and Jay eventually manage to save Aidan, but getting him out is only one part of the problem. What makes Duke’s situation so compelling is that the rescue gives him a chance to change his path, but the latest twist threatens to pull him right back into the conflict. His anger is becoming harder to control, and with Kingsley suddenly back in the picture, Duke has even more unfinished business waiting for him. I did appreciate that Duke and Jay spent more time talking about Calvin. This is now the second episode in a row where we have seen Duke genuinely affected by his brother’s death. Those moments give Duke some much needed emotional depth and make his desire for revenge easier to understand, even if it is becoming increasingly clear that revenge could end up destroying whatever future he has left. Meanwhile, things get much worse for Kim. Lazaro kills Lewis before attacking her and throwing her out of a window. Whether Kim is actually dead remains unclear, but considering the height and the way she was thrown, surviving would be quite a feat. Then again, Kim has been determined to dig deeper into The Marshalls and Duke’s connection to everything happening, so I would not count her out yet. And then comes the big twist. Kingsley is alive. After Duke returns Aidan to Kingsley and Joy, he gets one final shock when Kingsley appears in London. Duke clearly was not expecting to see him, and honestly, neither was I. After everything that has happened, Kingsley being alive completely changes the situation and gives Duke another problem to deal with. By the end, Duke has saved Aidan, but his problems are only getting bigger. The question now is whether he can finally put revenge aside long enough to survive what comes next.

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