TV Review: ‘National Treasure: Edge Of History’ Season 1, Episode 9

Over the course of its first season, National Treasure: Edge of History has drifted further and further from the spirit of the movies from which it is based. Grand adventure was never really depicted in the show. Any adventure was shown on a relatively minimalistic scale. Instead, it focused on puzzles and riddles — which it had a lot of and did well. As the suspense and danger ramped up, the show moved into thriller territory. Now, with the season finale on the horizon, it has leaned heavily into that genre with a pretty big twist — another thing the original films were never really about.

This week’s episode was mainly centered on setting up all of the pieces for the finale. It had Agent Ross (Lyndon Smith) closing in on Billie (Catherine Zeta-Jones) while she took Jess (Lisette Olivera) and her father (Jacob Vargas) to Mississippi to find the treasure’s location. Meanwhile, Jess’s friends reunited to discover her location. This all comes to a head in the closing moments, when Agent Ross is killed by Agent Hendricks (Armando Riesco), who has been the mysterious Salazar all along.

Although it certainly makes things interesting, it appears as if the twist is shoved into the story for the sake of a twist. National Treasure was always about adventure and puzzle solving. The show started off on that foot, but lost itself along the way as it needed to create real danger for its heroes. Agent Ross’s death is completely out of tone and character for the series. But there’s still one more episode to try and right this ship. After all, they are on the doorstep of finding the treasure, which may provide the adventure that’s been missing from the series thus far.

National Treasure: Edge of History of streams Wednesdays on Disney+.