XII – The episode begins with Angela Adams/Parwana/Emily (Alia Shawkat) reading her goodbye letter to Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban) while his funeral and burial ceremony plays out on the screen. This continues for several minutes but is eventually punctuated when Angela puts Tarik (Amir Malaklou) and Farouk (Michael Sifain) on a chopper. She’ll abruptly step away to stand with Khadija (Jacqueline Antaramian) as the plane takes off. Khadija tells Angela that she hopes she gets the opportunity to know Farouk better because they are much more alike than she would imagine. Angela is right in the middle of explaining what she told him before he left when their attention is drawn to gunfire in the direction of the village.
Cheryl Harper (Jessica Harper) is right in the middle of a heated phone call about an absentee plumber when a frantic Harold (John Lithgow) randomly appears alongside her in the basement. He’ll apologize in advance for breaking his wedding vows of never letting work interfere with their family life while simultaneously rushing her off the phone. He only tells her that Angela is in Afghanistan and might be in danger. Just as he learns that Henry Harper (Milo Stein) no longer lives at home and is asking for more of an explanation, Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) now interrupts. There is a brief introduction before Dan occupies himself with a change of wardrobe, courtesy of Harold.
Dan attempts to reach Angela but fails to do so while changing clothes. Once dressed, he joins Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman) to discuss their predicament. He appears to be a bit taken aback by her concern for Morgan Bote (Joel Grey), but he answers all her questions, including how they ended up where they are. Dan can’t say for sure but he suspects Bote was right about more going on than a fight for mineral rights.
Harold isn’t happy to learn that Cheryl has sent Henry to live with his grandparents. She justifies doing so by saying that it isn’t right to put him in a situation where they have to lie to him. As for her, she knew what she was getting into when marrying Harold and agreed to it, but Henry is an entirely different story. This inspires Harold to share the truth about Angela and Dan with her. At the same time, Dan is doing the same thing with Zoe. Unfortunately, it isn’t long before Cheryl’s water heater problem becomes everyone’s plumbing problem by shorting out the electrical box. As luck would have it, Emily returns Dan’s prior calls right around the same time. He briefly apprises her of the situation but both he and Harold are nearly speechless after learning that the village is already under attack and Faraz is dead. They are nearly beside themselves when she refuses to leave and puts them on mute.
As they wallow in the dark over their inability to do anything and wait for Angela’s response, Harold, Dan, and Cheryl will trade stories about times they lost their kids when they were little. Although Angela returns to the phone, it isn’t long before she gets cut off by screaming and gunfire in the background. After this, Dan turns his attention to something he might be able to actually fix, the water heater. Zoe will join him but her attempts to comfort him only anger him.
When the electricity returns, Harold and Dan will ominously ask Zoe to keep Cheryl occupied while they ‘unload the trunk.’ While Dan and Harold bring their package into the basement in search of answers, Cheryl cryptically asks Zoe how much she knows about what’s really going on. Much to her surprise, Zoe claims to not really know. That appears to be a sufficient answer for Cheryl because she turns her attention to the loss she is feeling. Zoe surprises Cheryl again when she tells her that Angela’s death might have been ordered by Suleyman Pavolvich (Rad Serbdzija) to protect a business deal he had with Morgan Bote.
Once Dan requests some alone time with their package, Harold ends up in Chip Harper’s (Brad Beyer) room where he practically has a philosophical debate with himself in the form of Chip. Chip warns him that the hardest part of his journey is what’s coming next because it is where all of Harold’s fiction will come undone. Harold will admit to making many mistakes but claims he really tried because being Chip’s father was the thing he wanted most in the world. Chip appears to believe this but it only causes Harold to stew on not getting to say goodbye to Angela, Chip, or even Henry. As he carps about this, the phrase, ‘last words,’ shakes something loose in him because it’s only seconds later that he’s running to Zoe to ask her about Bote’s last words.
Being that everything unraveled so quickly, Zoe is unable to offer anything more than the fact that Bote died clutching his phone. Harold suspects he was sending a text or e-mail but they are interrupted by Dan’s return, who has gleaned very little from his time with their captive. As it turns out, the man only knew that he was hired to eliminate Bote, Zoe, Dan, and the Dixons. After learning this, they decide to pursue their only lead in London, Nina Kruger (Rowena King), who wanted to tell Zoe something but didn’t want to do it over the phone.
Harold pleads with Cheryl to not only stay in a hotel for a few days but to help him figure things out when he returns. Although she claims to now know even less than before about him, she promises to give it a go. Harold stays behind to lock up the house and the episode ends with him going to the basement with a handsaw.
The Old Man Review
This was actually a really good episode that was completely ruined by the dark. I understand that the electricity in the home was out and they probably wanted to create a dark, ominous feel but it would have been nice to actually see what was going on. Everything was practically self-explanatory but my god, what is with the fascination of darkness as of late. Over the past several years, I’ve noticed that more and more shows are darkening scenes way beyond what’s necessary. Is this something they are teaching in film school? Because of this, I’d have to give the episode a 5.4 out of 10.
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