Robert Langdon’s hunt for a sacred portal continues in The Lost Symbol Episode 3. An unknown assassin, Mal’akh, has kidnapped Freemason Peter Solomon. If Robert fails to find ancient wisdom by solving the Pyramid Puzzle, Mal’akh will kill Peter. With high stakes in front of him, Robert plunges into the pit of mysteries.
‘The Lost Symbol’ Episode 3: Recap & Ending
Robert rigorously tried to decipher the Pyramid but failed to find anything concrete. He even scrutinized the Solomon story, the page Katherine found in Peter’s safe and compared it to Masonic themes. But his mind couldn’t find any link.
Katherine convinced Robert that the key to decoding these puzzles was buried in his mind. Just at the moment, his brain was cluttered. To dig out the information, Katherine ordered her assistant, Trish, to bring her Noetic science equipment to police officer Nunez where Robert and Katherine were hiding.
With auditory stimuli, Katherine boosted Robert’s neurological activity and decreased the noise in his head. Robert finally decoded the Solomon story and found the keyword cipher hidden in the altered Biblical text. The words formed an incomplete sentence, “Buried Ezra Dove.”
Nunez searched the name and figured out that Ezra Dove was a freemason who died in 1848 and was buried in Washington DC’s Oaken Hill Cemetery. They believed the capstone to the Pyramid might be hidden in Ezra’s grave, and without wasting a moment, Robert and Katherine visited the cemetery.
At the cemetery, Robert found a videotape hidden inside a secret chamber. A protector of the Leviathan group attacked the two treasure hunters. Hence, they ran out of the cemetery without further ado.
In the videotape, Robert and Katherine saw a man who had accessed the hidden reservoir of power. He was controlling things against their will. The man magically tamed a flock of birds in the video and bent them as per his will. This was the hidden wisdom Mal’akh desired, and Robert was hunting. In the wrong hands, it could mean the end of free will, but Robert refused to believe in such witchery. He stated his beliefs and claimed that the video could be edited. However, before he could find out the truth, Mal’akh killed Katherine’s assistant, Trish, to send a warning message.
‘The Lost Symbol’ Episode 4: Recap
Mal’akh had warned Robert to continue his quest alone, without Katherine. The sacrifice of Trish was a punishment because Robert disobeyed Mal’akh’s order. After Trish’s brutal murder, Katherine accepted Robert’s advice and returned home, leaving Robert to continue the hunt.
Robert found a hidden microdot on the video reel that contained another riddle pointing at an architect with 46 dollars. Robert contacted Warren Bellamy, the architect of the Capitol and a freemason, to aid him in solving the riddle. Warren informed him about a Mason architect, Prince Charles L’Enfant, who designed the plans for Washington D.C. According to Warren, the last earthly possessions of Charles L’Enfant were valued at 46 dollars at that time, and thus the riddle might be hinting at the three watches, three compasses, two books, and a map left by him.
Robert solved the riddle that gave him the coordinates of Aquia, a town in Stafford County. Warren connected the link and informed Robert that Charles L’Enfant purchased a quarry in Aquia. The sandstone from the quarry is used in the Capitol building, and thus, the capstone might be buried in the quarry.
Robert discovered a capstone with the words “The secret is hidden within the order” engraved on it in a cave inside a quarry. Robert left the cave and returned to Washington to decode the Pyramid that would eventually lead him to the hidden portal.
Death of Zachary Solomon
Without any concrete suggestions, ‘The Lost Symbol’ Episodes 3 & 4 tried to establish Peter and his bitter relationship with his son, Zachary. Peter, a Freemason, wanted Zachary to join the Masons. It was Peter’s predominant wish. However, Zachary had no interest in the secret arts. The difference in opinion created distance between father and son. In Araf, Peter, swinging between life and death, consistently saw Zachary. Peter blamed himself for Zachary’s death.
CIA agent Inoue Sato remembered hiring Zachary for a covert mission in Istanbul four years ago. Due to his conflict with his father, Zachary sold drugs to earn an income. In Istanbul, he sold coke to a Saudi prince that led to a massive car accident. In return, Sato contacted Zachary to help him escape the mess but wanted him to become a CIA informer in Turkey.
However, Zachary was too young and naive to become a CIA asset. Sato lost Zachary after he was thrown into prison for trafficking. Sato was ordered to disavow Zachary, and he died in prison. She held herself responsible for Zachary’s death and thus keenly investigated Peter’s abduction. She believed that Mal’akh was the same killer who killed Zachary in Ankara, Turkey. Mal’akh’s original name remained a mystery, but at the prison, he was known as “Samyaza.” In the biblical dictionary, it means “fallen angel.”
Samyaza ran an extremely violent drug gang at Ankara prison and inspired slavish devotion. He killed those who wouldn’t devote, and Zachary was one of them.
Katherine Solomon and Psychometry
While Zachary was never interested in the world’s hidden secrets, Peter’s daughter, Katherine, was curious enough. She followed her father’s legacy and became a Noetic scientist. In Episode 3, Katherine helped Robert reduce the noise in his brain to amplify his neural activity.
Katherine launched psychological surveillance to find her father in episode 4. She sought help from Sato and discussed a secret CIA project, Stargate. According to Katherine, the research was a part of psychometry through which some people could sense things off of personal objects. However, in the CIA project, the people with psychotic powers didn’t need objects. The CIA referred to them as “remote viewers,” and Katherine negotiated with Sato to use the remote viewing program to find Peter in exchange for letters sent by Zachary from Turkey.
Ario Fazeli, a remote viewer who worked for the CIA, helped Katherine to locate Peter. However, Fazeli sensed Peter in a large tub hanging between life and death during the noetic search. In the end, Fazeli concluded that Peter stopped responding, which could mean he was dead.
However, in Mal’akh’s den, Peter’s pulse stopped, though his devoted medic, Nicholas Bastin, brought him back to life with the help of heavy drugs.
In the end, Katherine observed the drawings scribbled by Fazeli. An image reminded her of Sundial drawn by Peter on a greeting he sent on Katherine’s graduation day. It gave her new hope that her father might be alive, and she decided to find him at all costs.
The Lost Symbol is a thriller television series adapted from Dan Brown’s fiction novel.
