In Atomic episode 4, Mohammed and Max went to Marrakech to deliver the uranium ingots to Alam. Mohammed was of the opinion that if both of them went into Alam’s lair at the same time, he’d kill them and take the ingots. So, Max planned to go by himself first, deliver one ingot, free his ex-girlfriend, and then hand the second ingot over once he was sure that all of them were safe. Mohammed agreed to do as instructed by Max, but Cassandra freaked out because those two had split up. Cassandra caught up with Mohammed, which caused him to freak out and make a run for it. Mohammed and Cassandra were both captured by Alam’s men, and while Mohammed was taken to Alam’s lair, Cassandra was taken to the lab where Ahman was making the nuclear weapons. Alam ordered the execution of Mohammed, Max, and even Laetitia. Due to some divine intervention, the trio managed to overpower their captors. While Laetitia parted ways with the two, Mohammed and Max went after the truck that was carrying the nuclear weapons, along with Ahman and Cassandra, to a port in Casablanca. In addition to all that, due to the involvement of the CIA, Oksana wanted to abandon this whole operation, but Alam killed her bodyguard and forced her to tag along until the project that she had set into motion was completed. So, who died and who survived the “explosive” finale of the show? Will there be a Season 2? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Ahman Dies
After some brief bickering about the fact that Max never revealed that Laetitia wasn’t his girlfriend anymore, the duo gets down to brass tacks: what’ll they do once they extract the bomb from Ahman’s clutches? Mohammed says that he’ll bury it in the desert, and he’ll do it on his own so that there are no casualties and no loose ends. Max is of the opinion that even if they deal with these uranium ingots, Alam will probably find some other way to create a nuclear bomb. Mohammed says that he can’t think of the bigger picture at the moment; he feels that neutralizing the threat of those uranium ingots is his “jihad,” and fulfilling this task set for him by Allah will be enough for him. Mark, who has been trying to track down Mohammed, Max, and Cassandra as well, sends a lookout notice for them so that every airport, train station, and port is being monitored for any kind of suspicious activity. After learning that the nearest port is in Casablanca, Mark orders his crew to send a team over to that place.
Ahman, while waiting in the truck at the port in Casablanca, notices the increased surveillance and realizes that something is wrong and decides to exit the place. He informs Alam about the change of plans, and tells him that they are heading north in the hopes of getting to their destination by road. Since Max and Mohammed are already on the highway that Ahman’s truck is using, they manage to intercept it. Mohammed enters the truck and gets into a bit of a scuffle with Ahman and Cassandra. Both Ahman and Mohammed get injured in the process, and while Ahman’s injury is fatal, Mohammed is relatively fine. While taking his last breaths, Ahman says that “there’s more than one.” He doesn’t elaborate, but I suppose he wants to say that this shipment of nuclear weapons is one of many.
Mark Wants To Kill Cassandra
Since Mohammed and Max have put a stop to Ahman’s shipment, Cassandra allows them to take care of the uranium ingots. Before parting ways with Cassandra, she asks Max about Laetitia, and he lies to her that Laetitia has been killed by one of the cartel guys. That’s because Mohammed told Max to never reveal any information about your loved ones to your business partners and enemies; they’ll use it against you in one way or another. Any claim can be fact-checked, but at least they’ll think twice before going after an allegedly dead person. Additionally, Cassandra asks what Alam’s next move will be, now that he has lost his uranium ingots. Max says that he’ll try to go to Guinea-Bissau via a route between Algeria and Mali. If the CIA wants to catch him, then that’s the road they should target.
On that note, Mohammed and Max hit the road, while Cassandra waits near the cargo truck so that Mark can catch up to her. When he does show up, Cassandra confronts Mark about lying to her about his association with Ahman. Mark brushes all that under the rug and says that they should be focusing on getting those uranium ingots and proving Russia’s involvement in this whole operation. Since Cassandra is sure that Max and Mohammed will hide those ingots, she wants to focus on getting Alam and neutralizing all the other bombs that he is making. Mark disagrees with Cassandra and orders her to return to Beirut. Instead of doing so, Cassandra avails a car and heads to the road Max was talking about. Hence, Mark sends one of his operatives after Cassandra in order to kill her, because if she reports to her higher-ups about how his work with Ahman has inadvertently led to the creation of nuclear weapons, his career is over.
Rab Unmasks Mohammed
Alam and Oksana get word of the fact that they have lost the ingots again. Oksana makes the mistake of saying that if her father learns about this mess, he’ll punish Alam. So, Alam takes Oksana out into the middle of the desert, orders his right-hand woman to shoot her in the back, and leaves her to die, while he himself heads back to Guinea-Bissau. In addition to that, he orders his henchwoman to send someone after Mohammed and Max to retrieve the uranium ingots. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. I thought Alam left Oksana to die so as to keep her father from learning about how he has messed things up. But if he plans to get the uranium ingots anyway, then why take down Oksana? She wouldn’t have complained to her father if Alam had managed to get the ingots and put the plan back on track. I guess Alam sensed that, no matter what he did to salvage this situation, Oksana would report Alam’s ineptitude to her dad, and her dad would give Alam the thrashing he deserves. Hence, he chose to delay the inevitable. Going back to Max and Mohammed, they seek refuge near a stranger’s encampment, tend to their wounds, and take a nap. When they wake up, they find Rab looming over them like a hawk. After getting his hands on the uranium, Rab tells his associates to inform their higher-ups that they have secured the payload. Then he proceeds to take Mohammed for his execution.
Max pleads for Mohammed’s life, but nothing seems to move Rab. And this is when the root cause of Rab’s “enmity” with Mohammed is revealed. Mohammed wasn’t always a “jihadist.” He was a member of the British Intelligence forces and a colleague of Rab. He was sent to infiltrate the Jihadists in Syria and help the Brits dismantle ISIS. However, after spending some time there, he fell in love with Janat, they had Kamal, and the Brits assumed that he had turned against his own country. Therefore, when Mohammed asked Rab to extract him and his family out of Syria, the Brits bombed the village Mohammed was in, thereby killing Janat and separating him from Kamal. Even after hearing all this, Rab thinks that Mohammed is a traitor and prepares to finish the job. However, the execution is interrupted by the cartel, which prompts Rab to actually avail Mohammed and Max’s help to protect the ingots.
Max and Mohammed Try to Trigger an Explosion
Mark gets word of the shootout and heads in that direction because the uranium is there. Mark’s associate closes in on Cassandra, but Cassandra gets the better of her and kills her. When she picks up the deceased individual’s phone and hears Mark trying to confirm whether or not “the job’s done,” she comes to the realization that she has been branded a traitor. Hence, she decides to go rogue for real and join hands with Oksana of all people. Yes, the gunshot hasn’t killed Oksana, and by some stroke of luck, she has been discovered in the middle of nowhere by Cassandra. When Cassandra promises to help her out if Oksana scratches her back, I suppose she gets her into her car and takes her to a hospital; I say “I suppose” because we don’t exactly get to see that.
At the end of Atomic episode 5, Max and Mohammed decide to drive away from the shootout between the Brits and the cartel and resume their plan to bury the uranium ingots in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, they are spotted by Mark and his team. So, they decide to abandon their plan of hiding the ingots and choose to destroy them by putting them close to each other. While this is going on, a solar eclipse takes place. For some reason, everyone views it with their naked eyes. I don’t know if this is an attempt at mocking the need for solar eclipse glasses or a metaphor for the blind belief that Allah will make everything right. Either way, in an attempt to avoid getting captured or killed and also to ensure that nuclear weapons aren’t made out of the ingots, Max and Mohammed rush towards each other while holding on to the uranium ingots with the intention of detonating and destroying them. That said, we don’t get to see if Max and Mohammed are able to trigger an explosion.
Season 2 Expectations
Since this isn’t a miniseries, I think the writers won’t kill off Max and Mohammed that easily. At the time of writing this article, Pulse Films and Sky Studios haven’t cancelled or renewed Atomic, so all I can do is speculate. If a second season does get greenlit, I suppose the showrunners are going to reveal that the ingots that Max, Mohammed, Mark, and Rab have been obsessed with are fake or simply not potent enough to make nuclear weapons. Maybe someone swapped them out, and the real ingots are somewhere else and have been secured by Alam already. That’ll prompt Mark and the rest to follow Cassandra’s original plan of going after Alam instead of worrying about those two uranium ingots. Since Cassandra and Oksana will be doing the same, it remains to be seen if they’ll be working with each other or against each other. Oksana will definitely look to get back at Alam and his henchwoman for shooting her in the back. Technically, Cassandra can’t allow it, but since she is in the “Wild Wild Middle East,” I think she’ll turn a blind eye towards Oksana’s act of retributive violence. But not before he reveals where the rest of his nuclear weapons are because keeping the world safe is more important than revenge. Speaking of revenge, Cassandra will surely look to get even with Mark since he sent someone to kill her.
Then there’s the curious case of Kamal. Will Mohammed get to reunite with his son? Will Kamal turn out to be a big hoax? In addition to all that, I think we should get some info on Laetitia? Did she make it out of Marrakech? Did she die somewhere in the middle of the desert? Will she reunite with Max, if he is alive, and take his help to get back home? Charlie Murphy is a pretty popular actress. So, there should be more to her role, right? I don’t know, and I have my doubts if we’ll get the answers to all the questions we have. Based on the number of ratings that the show has received on the various online databases for movies and shows, not a lot of people have watched it. By some miracle, if the number of people who have watched the show is much, much greater than the number of people who have rated it, then maybe Atomic will get a season 2. If not, then we have to assume all the characters died in the nuclear explosion set off by Mohammed and Max. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the finale of the show. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
