State of Affairs: Ar Rissalah Review

In the latest episode of State of Affairs, Nick Vera goes missing, while Charlie Tucker (Katherine Heigl) works to prevent Omar Fatah (Farshad Farahat) and Sheik Hakam from re-emerging.

The show opens in Egypt. Two men exit a bar and are taken hostage. One of the men happens to be American. The men are taken to an abandoned location, where Omar questions the American, before threatening him in front of a camera. Next, President Constance Payton (Alfre Woodard) questions David (David Harbour) about the leaks. She questions the team and Charlie about Nick Vera. The team is currently working on finding Nick (Chris McKenna). The room is cleared and Charlie reveals to the President about her relationship with Nick in Afghanistan. The President tells Charlie to find Nick.

Charlie and Maureen (Sheila Vand) discuss Nick, as it reveals the American taken was a journalist. The pair go over Nick’s files. Charlie and Maureen agree to find Nick. Next, Raymond Navarro (Nestor Carbonell) tells the team about the kidnapping and shows them the video of Omar, in which he kills the hostage.

The American journalist, Thomas Logan (David Furr), is interviewed. It seems he was given an exclusive interview with Fatah. Next, Tucker returns to headquarters and views videos of terrorists attacks, in which all of the terrorists are wearing the same emblem, which happens to be Arabic script. When translated, the script means, “The Message”. It seems Omar Fatah and Sheikh Hakam have put together a massive terrorist organization, which is known as Ar Rissalah.

The President, Charlie and David watch the interview of Omar, who seems to be rallying the groups. The President orders for David to prevent the video from airing. Charlie meets with Syd (James Remar) and questions him about Nick. Syd insists that Charlie should just leave him alone. Instead, Charlie visits Nick’s apartment and instantly discovers a cache of evidence and a gun, within his globe. The show flashes back to when Nick gave Charlie the gun. Meanwhile, she continues checking out evidence in the globe and finds passports, with her picture and name. As she leaves and shuts the door, someone steps out from the shadows.

When Charlie returns to the office, she inspects the Fatah interview and discovers it has been edited, which allows the FBI to seize all of Logan’s tapes. Charlie speaks with Logan alone and tells him that Fatah has been using him. He admits Fatah knew Charlie would say such. Omar has sent a message to Charlie through Fatah. Logan knows about Charlie’s actions, which resulted in the attack on the convoy and the murder of the President’s son. Omar’s message to Charlie is, “Pegasus takes wing”.

Meanwhile, David has lunch with a TV network owner. In order to prevent the interview from being aired, David gives up Nick’s name, which is a bigger news story than Omar Fatah. Next, the President meets with Senator Green (Melinda McGraw) and tells her she knows it was her who leaks the Kabul report. The Senator brings up her suspicions regarding Nick Vera and Charlie’s relationship.

The show flashes back to Omar having diner with Charlie and Nick. Nick suggests Omar hasn’t betrayed his people, but Charlie truly believes he has turned. It is revealed that they’ll be the only ones aware of Fatah, besides CIA Director Blake. It turns out that Fatah’s code name is Pegasus. Meanwhile, the team has been watching the Fatah footage. The video shows the Camerman, who happens to be a radical, by the name of Aleek Al Moosari. The extremist faked his death and began to work with Fatah.

David speaks with the President and requests her to fire Charleston Tucker immediately. Logan drives down the road and is happy with his condition, when he begins coughing and crashes into a big rig. Goodbye Logan. The network owner, Jules, speaks with David and tells him that the deal is off now that Logan is dead. He goes ahead and airs the interview with Fatah. After the interview ends, Charlie meets with the President and tells her about al Moosari. The President questions whether Nick is involved with the terrorist, but Charlie denies it. She admits to having Nick’s gun. She says the gun was taken and used to kill Aaron. When Charleston leaves, the President tells David to keep an eye on Charlie.

Review


This episode was much like the previous episodes. However, it took a step backwards. There was nothing that really held my interest throughout. Too much of the storyline seemed to jump from place to place, without giving the viewer a chance to breath and comprehend the information. There really wasn’t much to like about this episode, except perhaps for the President growing suspicious of Charlie. Otherwise, the show is going nowhere fast. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10.

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