‘The Day of the Jackal’ Just Gave Us the Jackal We Deserve

The main criticism I’ve had of Peacock’s The Day of the Jackal is the changes they have made to The Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) to make him more sympathetic. These include the sub-plot of his wife, Nuria (Úrsula Corberó), and a son that he genuinely loves, and is the driving force for him wanting to retire. If you’ve seen the 1973 film, or read the original novel by Frederick Forsyth, you know that The Jackal is not a sympathetic character. He doesn’t murder for love, honor, or political favor. He kills because he is paid to and has no qualms removing any obstacles from his path. In comparison, Redmayne’s Jackal is rather merciful, almost being portrayed as not enjoying his job, only enjoying his time with his family.

While this tonal shift has been divisive among fans of the original story, the seventh and most recent, episode “Rivals and Friends” showed us the dark side of The Jackal that makes him such an interesting character to watch. He kills without mercy, and we don’t root for him, yet we can’t help but be engaged with his efficient methodology. In this episode, the Peacock series begins to deliver on the promise of the cold-blooded assassin we’ve been waiting to see.

Eddie Redmayne’s Jackal Has No Regrets for the People He’s Killed

We see that The Jackal does not have many, if any, regrets over the lives he has taken. When Nuria confronts him and asks if it was worth it, his answer — a cold and resolute “it was” — speaks volumes. It isn’t just a defense of his choices, but a revealing glimpse into his psyche. We can tell that the pressure has become overwhelming, and he cannot wait for it to be over, because of The Jackal’s wish to get out of this life. However, his answer shows that it isn’t the taking of lives that is his issue, but how much scrutiny he is now under, with this being the highest profile assignment he’s ever done, assassinating a tech billionaire, UDC (Khalid Abdalla), represents a practical challenge, not an emotional or ethical one.

This kind of professionalism, despite the amoral acts, is what makes The Jackal so fascinating. Even though he is a man, he operates with the precision and detachment of a machine, struggling to compute so much information at once while coldly calculating risks and rewards. By placing the burden on the practical — the logistics of his assignments, the meticulous planning, and the necessity of efficiency — rather than grappling with the moral weight of his actions, the series paints a chilling portrait of a character empty of conscience. We begin to realize that Jackal is not someone we should be rooting for, yet his methodical approach and unflinching resolve make him interesting to watch. His complexity lies in this duality, where his humanity cannot escape the clash of his almost inhuman detachment through work, leaving us both repelled by his actions and intrigued by his unrelenting professionalism.

The Murder of Rasmus Was the End of Our Sympathy for The Jackal

Furthermore, The Jackal’s murder of Rasmus (Andreas Jessen), a clerk who he seduced to sneak inside the theatre, broke all of our sympathy for the assassin. Jessen’s performance is brilliant as the boyish, charming clerk, as Rasmus genuinely seems to have feelings for The Jackal, and the moment he spots the hitman leaving the building after his botched assassination attempt is heartbreaking from the moment you realize it is the innocent civilian. We know the issue this causes for The Jackal, yet we hold our hope that he may spare him as he did the young man earlier on. The fact that the hitman breaks this poor person’s neck without a moment’s hesitation is almost disturbing. Yes, he had tears in his eyes, but he still made the snap decision, showing how, whilst he may not have wanted to kill this person, he also didn’t care for the consequences and the people that would miss Rasmus.

Overall, this cold-bloodedness is The Jackal becoming complete. It should be a test for the audience. How far can this man go before we stop wanting him to succeed? With this episode, The Day of the Jackal successfully pushed the audience multiple steps further. We see how The Jackal only believes the job is no longer worth it because the risk has become too great, not because his conscience has gotten the better of him. If it had, The Jackal would have become like any other anti-hero who the writers want to give a heart of gold. By making him a cold-hearted son of a b—, The Day of the Jackal may have unlocked another level of quality as we see our protagonist sink deeper into the moral darkness.

The Day of the Jackal is currently releasing weekly episodes on Peacock in the U.S.

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