Welcome to Ending Explained for Echo 3, a new action thriller series developed by Apple TV and starring Michiel Huisman, Luke Evans, Jessica Ann Collins, and Elizabeth Anweis. The series is created by Mark Boal, who rose to fame by winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay twice for his work on The Hurt Locker (2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Boal brings his love for military fiction to the streaming service and with it the same tone and drama that made those movies the realistic feeling experiences they were.
Echo 3 feels very much in line with Boal’s previous work and tells the story of a team of operatives on a black op mission set in Colombia where they must secure an asset at all costs. The series was mainly shot on location, and it really helps sell the entire situation in ways that shows filmed on set do not. The characters are quite interesting and while some fall into the military stereotype that Hollywood has been feeding audiences for decades, as the story progresses the characters develop into more three-dimensional and compelling subjects.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for episodes 1-3 of Echo 3, now available on Apple TV. Read at your own risk.
Why Are Prince And Bambi Going To Colombia?
The series begins with the introduction of our main characters. We have three, all of them family to a point. We start with a cold opening where we see a young woman being dragged through the jungle. She is then put on her knees alongside other people, and it seems like all of them are going to be executed. It is at this moment that we jump six months back in time, and we are revealed to be on the day of a wedding. The bride is that same young woman who, six months from now, will be praying to go for her life.
The bride’s name is Amber, and she is getting married to the love of her life. We see Amber and her brother Alex discussing the event, and it is revealed that Alex is in the military, and he is the leader of a unit that includes Prince, Amber’s future husband. Alex, also known as, Bambi, and Prince, are best friends. So, the three of them comprise a very tight unit. However, the military unit that Bambi leads is not just any unit, they are a black ops unit. This means that they are deployed around the world at voice notice.
For example, that same night after the ceremony, Prince gets the news that he will have to deploy the next day for a mission. This ruins her wedding night and honeymoon, but it needs to be done. If he doesn’t go, lives could be in danger. Amber, on the other hand, is a scientist, and she travels around the world collecting samples for the development of new medicines. The couple clearly loves each other, but their jobs ask a lot of them, and there are some fights here and there.
When Amber gets ready to go on a work trip to Colombia, Prince gets worried. Colombia is very well known for kidnapping, and Amber will be going into the jungle, which is the home of several guerrilla groups that are active in the country. He proposes to Amber that she should take a tracker with her, but she dismisses the suggestion. Without her noticing, Prince plants the tracker in one of her backpacks. In this way, he can keep track of where she is at all times.
Are Prince And Bambi Able To Rescue Amber?
Prince’s worst nightmare comes to fruition, almost like a prophecy. When working on her project, Amber and her team are approached by members of some paramilitary organization. They find the tracker Prince put on her backpack, and even though they have permission to be working in that place, they are captured. Amber’s team is executed, but she is left alive because she is American, which means they can use her as a hostage and gain some leverage. The plan of the kidnappers is to cross the border to Venezuela and deal with Amber there.
Prince sees the strange movements of the tracker and knows something bad is going on with Amber. Bambi receives a call from one of his superiors, and he is informed about Amber being kidnapped. Both her husband and brother don’t know what to do, but things get more complicated when Bambi reveals something about Amber that Prince didn’t know. Bambi reveals that Amber is a CIA agent, a low-ranking informant, but a CIA agent either way, and that puts her in a very dangerous position if the kidnappers find out.
The Colombian military executes a rescue plan, but they fail, and a kid is killed during an encounter between both forces. Prince and Bambi go to Colombia and come into contact with the high-ranking military there. They approach the officers and want to be included in the rescue operations. The officers need to be convinced, but in the end, they allow Bambi and Prince to go with them. Bambi and Prince even make contact with a journalist, and they follow her as she is invited to talk to the leader of the kidnappers.
The rescue operation begins, but things don’t go as expected. The journalist is taken hostage as well. Amber believes her brother will come to save her, and she is right. Bambi and Prince have been following the journalist to the kidnappers’ den. They attack, and a gunfight ensues. Bambi, Prince, and the Colombian military kill many of the kidnappers, and Prince gets his hands on Amber, but he is shot in the back. A new group of kidnappers takes Amber away as Bambi watches them go and his friend bleeding to death on the ground.
