The Fantasy Review’s recap and review of The War Between the Land and Sea, episode 5, The End of the War.
You Can’t Eat Our Dogs!
After the dramatic cliff-hanger at the end of episode 4, The War Between the Land and Sea, episode 5 begins hilariously – with the Sea Devils calling a bunch of dogs down to the shore and eating them.
This causes a bit of a kerfuffle at the diplomatic meeting with Sir Jonathan, but Tide says “you eat our fish” and I can’t really argue against that…
After that bit of fun, it’s down to the serious business of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart being seriously distracted. She sees Colonel Ibrahim everywhere she goes – including at work and home. I’m worried what this might cause her to do/miss.
She blackmails her therapist into not signing her off work, which is both a very Kate thing to do, and not like her at all. It’s hard to say, as we’ve now had three writers for this same character and they’ve all put a different spin on the character.
No one knows what to do with me
It seems something is up with Barclay. Sure, the obvious – he misses his fishy girlfriend – but the show seems to be implying there is more to it, listing a few symptoms like headache, rash on his leg, and sore legs.
Could be nothing, we’ll see.
The Ice Caps are Melting!!!
…but it’s the Sea Devils doing it.
Some tactics guy comes in at UNIT and lets everyone know that the Sea Devils have been using diplomatic talks to distract humans from what they’ve been secretly doing: melting the ice caps.
While the humans were busy trying to buy time, the Sea Devils were busy winning the war.
At the diplomatic talks, Tide walks all over Sir John, not letting the posh boy finish a sentence. Humans have five years to meet the demands of the Sea Devils, or they melt all the ice in the world, and humanity dies.
You fell in love with a fish!
With Barclay, he is heaving a visit with his ex, Barbara, and his kid, Kirby. One-on-one with Barbara, he – for some reason – tells her his feelings for Salt, and then tells her – again, for some reason – that he drives down to the coast every night (without UNIT knowing) and swims in the sea, looking for Salt.
Turns out, Barclay has had some inside help from a UNIT soldier who works for the American and French generals – the ones who want to use whatever “Severance” is on Salt. They’re watching and waiting for Barclay to make contact with Salt.
Cheap meat: you can’t beat it
Kate barges into Number 10 and asks the Prime Minister what we’d all like to ask: what is severance?
He refuses to tell her what it means, claiming to have no knowledge, but Kate sees through the lies. She tells him that he’s not cut out for this task and will be swept aside by the voters in no time at all.
Kate’s threat is too much for the Prime Minister who sends an alert out to the American general, setting into motion the drugging of Barclay.
A bunch of people in hazmat suits go into Barclay’s apartment while he’s passed out on the bed and inject him with something in the stomach. Then they run off.
Barclay wakes and takes off into the night again, heading for the sea, except this time he has that stuff in his stomach. He screams into the sea for Salt and sits on the sand and waits.
This time, Salt actually turns up (I assume because the French general had their sound barrier, or something, stopped temporarily). Salt tells Barclay to go back to UNIT and get them to ask Aquakind for “Accord” because there are “tides within tides” – something is coming, something more than the ice melting.
Accord
So, with Salt gone, Barclay tells Kate everything Salt told him on the beach. The group of UNIT people in the room decide to send a coded message of “Accord” along with other diplomatic packages they send every day, so the governments of the world can’t try to stop them.
There’s a nice moment here, when Kate is deciding what to do, when Shirley asks her “what would Christofer do?”, giving us a positive reaction based on his passing. Maybe she won’t go crazy afterall.
Cut to days later, and the sea has gone silent. There has been no response.
We soon find out why: Sea Devils are found washed up all over the world, dead. This must be Severance. That injection they gave Barclay must have been a plague or something, that transferred when he kissed Salt?
Kate then says the same thing outloud, confirming my quick theory – she then looks MAD.
Thus Ends the War
Barclay is then called up to take his stand as Ambassador once again – the request comes from surviving Sea Devils. While he’s busy with that, Kate looks busy herself, surely trying to get some proof together about Severance so that those responsible for this genocide can be held accountable.
Salt enters from the chamber and tells mankind that the war is over. The Sea Devils have lost. Salt makes it clear she knows Barclay had no knowledge of what was done to her people, but she tells the others in the room that water would and does know who is responsible, and they will be found, and killed. This is implied, but it’s clear.
Kate tells Barclay to read from the monitor and through that he offers Salt and the Sea Devils a haven they would protect from viruses, pollution, etc. Salt says they will accept, but only if humans call it a “hunting ground” – showing an image on the screens of Aquakind hung up for sport on a boat.
“We will accept, because we are terrified of you.” – Salt
Accord
After the Sea Devils leave, we have a brief, quiet moment of grief for Barclay, and sorrow for all those with conscience, but then the glass of the tank in the diplomacy room begins to crack and everyone gets out to safety.
Kate, sitting with Shirley, gives us the reason for the Doctor not showing up: he told her once that he saves the human race, he doesn’t shape it. So this time, perhaps, he knew humanity didn’t need saving.
As much as this sounds like a good reason for him not being there, maybe he should have turned up to protect the Sea Devils from humanity? Seems strange for the Doctor not to save life if he knows it will be lost.
Kate then has a message from Barclay’s doctor. She takes him to the Sea herself and he calls out to Salt. He then grows gills and they dive into the water together, and Kate waves goodbye as they swim away.
This is the “Accord” – a way humans and Sea Devils might live together in peace.
The final scene is of Kate walking back along the beach where she threatens a runner with her gun, forcing him to go back and pick up a plastic bottle he threw on the floor. It’s a weird, cringey way to end the show, but felt very much like Russell T Davies’ kind of humour.
We Were the Villains
I’ll write up my full series breakdown and analysis in the future, but for now, to end this recap and review of The War Between the Land and the Sea, episode 5, the end of the war was not quite what I had expected.
The Sea Devils had been built up to be this all-powerful force the humans could do nothing about, but they weren’t. Humanity were the villains, poisoning the water in the first place, then weaponising a virus to kill one-in-ten of the Aquakind when they complained.
Barclay and Salt get there happily ever after, which is something, at least, but I do wonder where his earlier concern about regular visits with his daughter has gone now he’s got gills.
Kate and UNIT didn’t really do anything, did they? In a worldwide conflict, where their input was needed most, they were in the dark, useless, helpless. They tried to do secret stuff, with the “Accord” code, etc, but it was too late by then.
Overall, The War Between the Land and the Sea, episode 5 fell a little flat, but it still feels like a decent ending. It wasn’t bad – I enjoyed it, as much as one can enjoy being reminded of humanity’s greatest flaws while listening to a haunting cover of David Bowie’s Heroes.
