The Old Man Recap: Church of the Poison Mind
What’s frustrating about The Old Man is that, while it’s a quality thriller, too often, we must endure bloated scenes and expository monologues to get there. Also, now that we’ve been blessed with several episodes featuring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow together, the series just doesn’t have the same magic when an entire hemisphere separates their characters.
I need to be honest here: I have a love-hate relationship with the expository monologues. They are so ridiculously obvious that they take me out of the action most of the time. But, since The Old Man’s plotline approach is more convoluted than straightforward, I need those monologues to understand what is happening. So unlike last week’s episode, “XIV” was a lot to take in. Here’s what we know going into next week’s season finale:
In the most non-shocking of shockers, the big reveal of “XIV” is that Emily Chase is still alive. Not only did she evade her Russian assassins, but she has ostensibly triumphed, David-and-Goliath style, in Afghanistan: Emily, along with a small militia loyal to the Hamzad family, has wrested back control of the Meshbahar deposit from a now-shitting-his-pants Suleyman Pavlovich.
Yay! Well, not exactly. See, this so-called good news caused Chase’s carefully articulated plan to go up in smoke. The old man spent most of the episode trying to obtain a life-saving antidote from Pavlovich (to counteract last week’s deadly poisoning). Now that the Russian oligarch has abandoned his negotiations with Chase to do business-damage control, we’re left to wonder if the grizzled spy will still have air in his lungs by the time we get to “XV.”
We also learned in “XIV” that Janet McTeer was worth the wait. Yep, with only two episodes left in the season, the enigmatic Marion finally made her onscreen debut, and oh, boy, she is a delight! The ice-cold Marion is a Hong Kong–born–and–bred former British spy now using her particular set of skills for personal benefit. As suspected, she is heavily involved with the rare-mineral-deposit cartel, where enemy nations like China and Russia are principal members. Okay, so why was she so willing to help her ex-husband Harold Harper with Operation Exfiltrate Angela Adams From Afghanistan? Because she wanted to cultivate the Afghan-born, U.S.-raised (and trained!) Parwana Hamzad as a Chinese asset, of course.
By the end of the episode, everyone is in a pickle, but it’s the women who are on top, which is why I can’t quit The Old Man. Marion is deliciously evil, but good God, I’m dying to see her mess with Harper even more (sorry, Harold!). Emily, despite her biological ties, has obviously inherited Dan Chase’s monstrous Baba Ghor-Ghori tendencies and has proved herself not to be fucked with. Even novice operative Zoe McDonald is in a better position than her veteran intelligence mentors: It turns out she’s a deft hand with a rifle (heh, the “laser rifle” term didn’t just come out of nowhere), walking away unscathed from a group of Russian assassins.
The first half of the episode mainly focuses on Chase’s elaborate plan to persuade Pavlovich to halt the poison slowly seeping into his organs. Now Pavlovich’s prisoner, Chase is being held somewhere in England in a remote ruined church overlooking the sea, decorated in the finest production-design cobwebs. Not only is Chase fighting against his killer instincts, but his increasingly addled brain is throwing him off his game: There’s a part of him that’s trying to do penance for his lifetime of secrets, lies, and murders, while simultaneously forcing himself to stay alive for Zoe’s sake (he promised her he’d come back!). But all of these conflicting feelings are manifested in the specter of Emily, who criticizes him at every opportunity for betraying her memory.
Meanwhile, Zoe shows up at the local police station, identifies herself as Marcia Dixon, explains she was an eyewitness of the murders of Morgan Bote and Nina Kruger, and demands to speak to the chief of station at the U.S. Embassy. Oh, yeah, this is definitely a Dan Chase–penned script. Zoe may be a quick study, but there’s no way she’d know to drop all these names and make such specific requests on her own. A not-the-chief-of-station embassy official shows up. Totes fine; that’s what Chase wanted. (It’s also established that Zoe/Marcia Dixon is being watched by Pavlovich’s men.) Middling Embassy Official, who has written Zoe off as some random naïve American, warns her that, sure, he can offer her immunity, but she’s about to put herself in a whole heap of danger if she opens her mouth about these high-profile murders.
Back at the Church of the Poison Mind, Chase offers Pavlovich a deal: Right now, Marcia Dixon is speaking to an embassy official, and she can either tell him Suleyman Pavlovich killed Morgan Bote, or she can say it was Dan Chase — if Pavlovich hands over the antidote. Pavlovich is incredulous that Chase is willing to take the blame for his mentor’s murderer and forgo vengeance against the man who murdered his daughter. All so he can ride off into the sunset with Zoe. (Pavlovich is equally baffled by Chase’s sudden devotion to a woman who isn’t Belour.) I’ll admit I was perplexed by Chase’s sudden romanticism toward Zoe — unless it’s all part of the act to get the antidote, which it very well may be.
But, hey, whether it was Chase’s excellent spy skills or genuine affection for Zoe, his strategy worked. And not a moment too soon because Chase barely still has agency over his facial muscles. Pavlovich cuts Chase’s ties and hands him a phone to tell Zoe it’s blame time.
Once Chase gets Zoe on the phone, their dialogue confirms that they’re both on the same page: Zoe was fully prepared for Middling Embassy Official to threaten her with “a lifetime of trouble,” and as soon as Chase gives her the green light, she will reluctantly implicate her lover. The two have a sweet “I do” exchange (instead of wedding vows, they’re pledging their commitment to the scheme), and everything appears to be going to plan.
That is, until Pavlovich storms over to Chase, announces the deal is off, and leaves in a huff. Expository dialogue between Pavlovich and his minions reveals that he’s lost authority over the Meshbahar deposit and the pissed cartel principals want to see him pronto.
Naturally, Pavlovich isn’t leaving Dan Chase to rot to death alone. Meet Russian Inigo Montoya, a Pavlovich goon written in to ramp up the whole will-he-or-won’t-he-survive-the-season tension. Decades ago, Dan Chase killed Russian Goon’s father, a member of Pavlovich’s unit in Afghanistan. And Russian Inigo Montoya has waited his entire life for this very moment to execute his vengeance (and Dan Chase!). He taunts his prisoner by emptying the antidote vials and preparing to butcher him to death, just as Chase did dear old Dad. In any other situation, Russian Inigo Montoya would likely succeed in his mission. But this is The Old Man, and Jeff Bridges is an executive producer. So despite being twice this guy’s age and jacked up on poison, Chase snuffs out two generations of this very unlucky Russian family.
And that’s where we leave Dan Chase until next week’s finale: abandoned, without an antidote, and near death. Will Zoe rescue him in time?
Well, first, she’s got to rescue herself from her own set of Russian assassins. While waiting for Middling Embassy Official to finish arranging her immunity (how she bought time for Chase to negotiate with Pavlovich), she witnesses yet another murder: MEO is gunned down in the street by Pavlovich’s men, and now they’re coming after Zoe. But what the Russians don’t know — because they’re not privy to The Old Man’s convenient flashbacks — is that even though Zoe’s marriage didn’t work out, she gained some valuable riflery skills from her well-to-do in-laws. Girl takes out a Russian assassin with a single blow to the head. Wow, isn’t it lucky she was hiding out in a police station?
Right on cue, Julian Carson rolls up with assurances that he’s an associate of Harold Harper’s (confirming that Harper, too, was in on this plan from the other side of the world). Zoe wisely looks at him with skepticism, but we also know she’s a good judge of character, so GO WITH HIM ZOE!!!!!
Speaking of Harper, he’s been in Hong Kong this whole time trying to shake down his ex-wife, Marion. And she will not be shaken. She’s a mind-games expert, trying to woo Harper to her side by stressing how Morgan Bote treated him like dirt and slickly evading his questions about her cartel involvement. Even though she’s betrayed many of her fellow British spies’ covers, she’s still got the best job in the world: Playing people for a living.
But Harper isn’t buying her bullshit anymore. Eventually, he gets her to spill on what she’s after, and my, my, it’s a doozy. She knows the cartel will only succeed if there is American involvement (highly unlikely given the Chinese and Russian presence). And there just so happens to be a partner out there who fits the bill perfectly: Parwana Hamzad, a.k.a. Angela Adams, a.k.a. Emily Chase.
Why did Marion demand dinner in exchange for getting Harper out of Afghanistan? Because she wanted an introduction to his surrogate daughter. Emily represents everything Marion needs to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world. She’s American, she’s multilingual, she has Hamzad blood, and she has the best counterintelligence training in the world. Brilliant. Evil, but brilliant.
A disgusted and exasperated Harper is ready to go full-on Papa Bear here, but Marion gets a perplexing phone call, forcing him to cool his heels. Pavlovich is on the other end of the call, and Marion knows that can only mean bad news — and that the Russian is “terrified.”
He’s terrified because, as revealed in the next scene at the secret cartel meeting, Emily Chase not only is alive but has retaken control of the valuable Meshbahar deposit — by murdering Pavlovich’s Afghanistan-based mercenaries. Like father, like daughter.