NBC’s ‘The Endgame,’ created by Jake Coburn and Nicholas Wootton, is a spy drama TV series. It follows Valerie AKA Val Turner, a former federal agent, as she races against time to stop international arms dealer Elena Federova, who has planned seven bank heists across New York. Both ladies have a history, and Val must decipher Elena’s mind games and motives before she can cause further havoc.

However, along the way, Val finds that the criminal mastermind’s true objective is vengeance for a past wrong. Val and Elena are on opposing sides of the law, yet their fates are intertwined for a much greater good. The series delves into the lengths to which people would go to protect their loved ones and discover the truth. Here’s what happened in the first episode of ‘The Endgame,’ as well as the importance of the startling ending. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Recap of Episode 1 of The Endgame

Elena Federova, an international armaments dealer, is transferred to an FBI facility in Queens, New York, in Episode 1 of ‘The Endgame.’ When cops and Homeland Security try to question her about the names of her contacts, she refuses to give any information and rather smugly hints that her imprisonment will have consequences. Meanwhile, a group of masked assailants breaks into a large bank in New York and takes hostages, and Elena claims responsibility.

The heist generates a commotion among high security officials, and Elena goes on to say that there would be more if they do not free her. In another episode, federal agent Val Turner visits her imprisoned husband Owen, who is serving a 10-year term for collecting narcotics money from a criminal group. She turned him in a year ago after finding his involvement and is currently working hard to have him released. Owen, on the other hand, requests a divorce in order to keep her away from his problems.

Val denies Owen and arrives at the first theft site, where she is spurned by a supervisor and ordered away. She has lost the respect of her coworkers as a result of her husband’s detention, and she is struggling to establish her worth. When a second bank is targeted, Val follows her intuition and contacts Solomon Santillana, a former cartel boss with substantial holdings in the same bank. Solomon calls her from the bank and denies any participation while hinting to Elena.

Val, frightened, tries to inform her superior about Elena’s mercenaries known as “Snow White” being behind the heists, but he dismisses her. After a third bank heist, he takes her seriously and sent her to question Elena directly. Val tells Attorney General Doblin that she and Elena met in the Gambia five years ago. She also discusses Elena’s late husband, Sergei, and the likelihood that she was purposely apprehended by the FBI.

Elena notices Val and informs her of her impending divorce. Furthermore, Owen’s divorce lawyer turns out to be Elena’s attorney’s partner. He attempts to coerce Val into assisting her in exchange for proof of Owen’s innocence. Val refuses, warns Doblin, and requests SWAT intervention, but he mocks her. Despite high-security measures, three more bank robberies occur, and the FBI determines that Elena may attack the Federal Bank next.

Val arrives at the bank but watches a board member being kidnapped by Necati Acar, whom the FBI mistook for a mole. Suddenly, Elena’s mercenaries arrive and pose as a SWAT team, deceiving Val and allowing them to enter the bank. The FBI knows Elena has a far larger strategy behind all of this after seven consecutive bank heists and rushes to decipher her next move. To make matters worse, she especially targets Val, who is now forced to outwit her in her own game.

Is Sergei Alive? The Endgame Episode 1 Ending: Is Sergei Alive?

Elena’s husband Sergei died eighteen months ago, according to Val, after being poisoned by her. Elena denies the claims and proudly declares that she adored him and had a hidden kid with him. Elena had agreed to collect Sergei’s body from Crimea in exchange for six cruise missiles, according to Val. Elena eventually indicates that the motivations behind her plot may not be money or power, but love and honesty.

Sergei is revealed to be alive and in the same prison as Owen at the end of the episode. He is anticipating Elena’s arrival, and Owen appears to be aware of their plans as well. Thus, Elena’s motivations are most likely motivated by her love for Sergei and a desire for retribution for a previous wrong done to them.

When and how did Elena and Val meet?

Val has an extensive study file on Elena, which she uses to demonstrate her trustworthiness to Doblin. When asked how she knows so much, Val replies that she went to the Gambia five years ago to investigate a coup. Galeo, a warlord, was torturing a fishermen’s town when Elena and five mercenaries arrived and rapidly liberated the village by poisoning him with heroin-laced cigarettes.

The mercenaries then blew up Galeo’s diamond mine but refused to take any of the loot. Elena then attempted to shoot Val, but she managed to flee and return to New York. In the present, Elena admits that she purposefully targeted Val in order to pique her interest and make her look for her. Val, on the other hand, is perplexed as to why she and Snow White did not steal any of the million-dollar gems from Galeo’s mine. This causes her to realize that Elena’s motivation for the bank robberies is far more nefarious than money.

What is Elena’s story to Val?

Elena tells Val a legend about a young girl who adores her father but loses him in a sad accident that alters her life forever. It is revealed to be a factual story that occurred six months following the Soviet Union’s breakup. In it, a young girl and her father fire a missile at a car, only to discover that one of the two passengers has escaped. They find the little girl hidden in the woods after searching, and the other girl stabs her in the abdomen.

Val initially believes the father and girl in the narrative are Elena and her father. Val is taken aback when Elena reveals that the girl who was stabbed was her, and that she and her father died when their car caught fire as a result of the missile. Despite the attack, Elena was able to defeat and kill them. She finally recovered from the injuries, but the scar on her tummy remains, which she shows Val.

Elena begins playing with Val’s mind and dropping mysterious hints about the true reason behind her plans with this incident, which she refers to as a “fairytale gone bad.” In addition, her mercenary group is named Snow White, indicating her love of fairytales.