Spoils of the Red Empire

**Spoils of the Red Empire** the third episode of Season 2, and the fifteenth episode overall of the *Blood & Treasure (TV Series)* on Paramount+. It aired on July 24, 2022.

## Premise

*A visit with Simon in prison yields new information on the Spirit Banner's last whereabouts, sending the team to Russia.*

## Plot summary

The hunt for the Soul of Genghis Khan takes Danny and Lexi from Vietnam to Russia, with a stop to see an old “friend” in Ireland along the way.

Danny, Lexi and a very reluctant Shaw put on a performance for the listening device they had discovered, so as to bait Kate and her CIA pals into following Lexi to a made-up meet-up. When the time for said assignation rolled around, and as Kate & Co. tailed Lexi, Shaw and the pint-sized Han created a streetside distraction, allowing Danny to isolate and confront his ex-fiancee, though not long before Lexi showed up to taser the duplicitous blonde.

Now tied up back at Shaw’s place, Kate was wholly uncooperative, saying not a peep. While Chuck watched over Kate, Danny and Lexi went downstairs to see what Vince had gleaned from a cell phone pinched from Zhang last week. The only noteworthy lead was a series of calls to a “Graham Townsend” — aka Simon Hardwick. Danny and Lexi made tracks for the supermax Irish prison their former foil now calls home, and where they tried to avoid being “Lectered” by the imprisoned, knowledgeable asset. Simon, after registering his considerable surprise that Danny and Lexi were still together, ultimately offered up the name Andrei Lenchekov, a former Russian gang member who found love and now runs a restaurant in Moscow with his wife.

Sneaking into Russia, where Lexi is a wanted woman, and by way of an old mark that “American” Lexi used to date — the duo swing by Andrei and Claudine’s restaurant, and drop Simon’s name. Alas, doing so without making clear that Simon is no friend almost gets many of Danny’s fingers chopped off by Andrei. But once everyone’s agendas become clear, Andrei suggest they check out the old bunker where Stalin amassed many of the knick-knacks he’d come across.

Meanwhile in Vietnam, Chuck leverages his, Danny and Kate’s old times together; including an anecdote about how Kate is the reason he became a priest, to make her loosen up. Kate talks of how being disappointed by her father colored her view of the world. She also explains that the CIA, which years ago used the Great Khan to take down assorted crime syndicates, now realizes the monster it created, and planned to use the banner to draw him out, for capture.

Back in Stalin’s bunker, Danny finds the carrying case for the banner, but not the artifact itself. As one of the Great Khan’s goons KOs Andrei’s bodyguard and infiltrates the bunker, Danny & Co. glean from dusty ledgers that the banner made a stop in “The Forbidden Zone,” an old Red Army Base that is considered to be Mongolia’s Area 51. After the Great Khan’s goon kills Claudine, and Andrei in turn shoots dead the other bodyguard who failed him, Andrei summons his old gang, the Night Devils, to escort him, Lexi and her solnyshka Danny to The Forbidden Zone.

The Great Khan, meanwhile, hears from the aforementioned henchman that Danny and Lexi had been in touch with Simon Hardwick, so now the crime lord is determined to also see what Simon knows, all as his minions stack drums of radioactive and nuclear something at his compound.

## Cast and characters

### Starring:

* Matt Barr as Danny McNamara
* Sofia Pernas as Lexi Vaziri
* Michael James Shaw as Aiden Shaw
* James Callis as Simon Hardwick
* Mark Gagliardi as Chuck Donnelly

### Guest-starring:

* Victoria Diamond as Kate Reece
* Zach McGowan as Andrei Levchenko
* Byron Mann as Vince Tran
* Ron Yuan as Batu
* Amber Goldfarb as Claudine

### Co-starring:

* Chew Connor Sze Yuan as Hahn
* Marc-André Boulanger as Valentin, the Night Devil
* Pongpat Pathumsuwan as Batu Lieutenant
* Nobuya Shimamoto as Sukh
* Dimitri Pavlakos as Claudine's Chef
* Alex Kudrytsky as Motorcycle Courier

## External links

* Watch *Blood & Treasure*  on Paramount+
* Spoils of the Red Empire on the Internet Movie Database

## References

1. ↑ [https://directories.wga.org/project/1170614/blood-and-treasure/ Blood & Treasure
2 Seasons (2018 - 2020) - WGA]