'Money Heist' Season 5 Part 1 Recap: What Happened in the Final Volume's First Half?

The hijinks of The Professor (Álvaro Morte) and his gang of thieves is about to come to an end in Money Heist Volume 5 Part 2.

Launching on Netflix on Friday, December 3, the final five episodes will reveal the fates of Lisbon (Itziar Ituño), Denver (Jaime Lorente), Rio (Miguel Herrán), Helsinki (Darko Perić), Stockholm (Esther Acebo), Palermo (Rodrigo de la Serna), Bogotá (Hovik Keuchkerian), and Manila (Belén Cuesta).

The gang, who all use code-names of cities, took over the Bank of Spain in Season 3 following the illegal torture and detention of Rio, and have since been trying to steal the gold and state secrets locked within the vault.

However, things took a turn for the worst in Part 1 of the fifth season, which was released on September 3.

Here, Newsweek will provide a recap of everything that happened over the course of those five episodes.

What happened in Money Heist Volume 5 Part 1?

Volume 5 Part 1 opened exactly where Season 4 left off, with The Professor being held at gunpoint by Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri), the recently disgraced inspector of the National Police Corps.

Alicia's sadistic torture of Rio had been leaked by The Professor, and now she's out for revenge and a way back into the police force by finding out the gang's plan.

Despite her uncouth methods The Professor refuses to share what he and the thieves are doing, which leads Alicia to threaten him, shoot him in the foot, and even push him off a ledge to hang from a chain until he eventually calls off the heist and apologizes to his crew.

While this is going on, Colonel Luis Tamayo (Ferando Cayo) begins to make plans for the army to enter the bank, enlisting the help of Special Forces officers to get the job done, and leave no survivors.

Before he can enact his plan, though, Lisbon, Tokyo (Úrsula Corberó), and Stockholm take out the hostages to initiate a negotiation with him, saying they will release the bank's chief of security Gandía (José Manuel Poga) before surrendering.

He agrees to the plan, leading the trio to realize that Alicia is working as a lone agent and hasn't yet informed the police she has captured The Professor, meaning they still have an ace up their sleeve.

When the trio return to the bank with the hostages they find Bogotá fighting with Gandía and try to break it up, but this gives hostage Arturo Román (Enrique Arce) the opening he needs to take their weapons and attack them.

Arturo takes his fellow hostages into the bank's loading dock, where they find an arsenal of weapons which he uses to launch an explosive fire-fight against them.

Stockholm, Arturo's former lover, manages to sneak past his guard and shoots him down, and after realising what she did attempts to revive him.

The gang release Arturo to the police so that he can receive the medical attention he needs to survive his gunshot wounds, but this gives Tamayo the perfect reason to send Special Forces and Gandía inside the building.

Focusing on this imminent threat, the gang figure out how they will deal with the army when they attack, meanwhile Tamayo lies to the press about Alicia, saying she is a traitor and is now working with the thieves.

In shock, the pregnant inspector starts to go into labour and tries to deliver her baby alone despite warnings from The Professor, Marseille (Luka Peroš) and Manila's father Benjamín (Ramón Agirre), who she also captured.

Alicia eventually concedes and unties the trio so they can help deliver her baby, who is in breech position.

The Professor is able to safely deliver Alicia's daughter, and as this is happening the Special Forces blow up the bank's roof and get inside.

The explosion leads to Helsinki becoming injured and trapped under a marble statue, and the rest of the gang attack the soldiers using a pincer movement so they can free their fellow thief.

While they are able to get Helsinki out from under the statue, and The Professor blackmails Tamayo into not giving the soldiers backup, the gang's success is short-lived.

The soldiers force them to split up and lock them in separate rooms, before leading an attack on Tokyo, Denver and Manila, who are trapped in the bank's kitchen.

Lisbon, Palermo, and Bogotá try to break the army's defences so they can save Tokyo, Denver and Manila, while Rio uses a jack hammer to try and make a hole from the floor below the kitchen to help them get out.

Stockholm saves Helsinki from his life-threatening injuries, but her guilt over shooting Arturo leads her to see visions of him and she begins to break down, and takes morphine to stop the hallucinations.

Tokyo is shot by police forces based outside the bank so Denver and Manila try and figure out a way out to save her, leading Denver's wife Stockholm —in her drug-addled state— to tell them of a service lift they could climb down.

Despite Denver's pleas for her to join them, Tokyo stays in the kitchen to fend off the soldiers; Rio manages to make a hole in the floor but it's not big enough for her to climb through.

Rio tells his love that he can make the hole bigger but she warns there's no time left and says that he will be able to find someone else after she's gone.

The soldiers close in on Tokyo and she gets shot multiple times, they surround her and prepare to give the final blow only for her to reveal she's taken the pins out of all the grenades strapped to her body.

The explosion leads to her and the Special Forces' soldier's deaths, and The Professor and the gang are left mourning her loss.

Money Heist Volume 5 Part 2 is out on Netflix on Friday, December 3.