XIII – Episode 6 begins on a rainy night outside a hospital where Julian Carson (Gbenga Akinnagbe) is approached by a young woman. The ensuing conversation reveals her as a former patient who was intentionally hoping to run into him. The next several scenes focus on the development of their relationship until Julian arrives home one day to find Harold Harper (John Lithgow) awaiting his arrival.
Elsewhere, Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman) check into a London hotel where he requests a room on the twelfth floor. The Receptionist is more than happy to accommodate him. Although Dan continues to spiral from his recent loss, he recognizes that he needs to get ahold of himself. He also realizes the urgency to strategize and meet with Nina Kruger (Rowena King), given that they’ve only got 24 hours before the meeting they’re in town for.
Harper wastes little time letting Julian know why he’s in his home and although Julian isn’t pleased he clearly recognizes the danger of his exposure now that Morgan Bote (Joel Grey) is no longer around to protect him. Harper offers him that same level of protection if he is willing to play ball.
While waiting for their meeting with Nina, Zoe begins to have a crisis of consciousness by asking Chase how he is funding their operation. He simply tells her that you do what he does long enough and you find opportunities. It isn’t much longer that they suspect Nina isn’t coming to the meeting. Chase’s brief phone call with Nina’s assistant, Anna Rollins (Ana Mulvoy Ten) confirms as much. Despite this, a quick visit to the hardware store and a prior rental next to Anna’s apartment reveals that Chase had anticipated this. Zoe continues to be amazed by his ability to compartmentalize and act on the go. Before long, Chase has a fully functional listening device.
As Chase pays Anna a little visit to urge speed up her contacting Nina, Zoe pairs the listening device to her cell phone. It’s merely minutes later that they have Nina’s location. Zoe is stunned, once again, by how easy it was for her and Chase to manipulate Anna into doing exactly what they wanted. She mentions this to him when he returns to the rental later that evening but it isn’t until the following morning that he attempts to comfort her. He does that by telling her how Abbey Chase’s (Hiam Abbass) illness practically removed her filter and she would often say cruel things to him that were made even crueler by the realization that they were true.
Upon arriving at Nina’s house, Zoe stays with the vehicle while Chase goes inside. It doesn’t take him long to find Nina or her gas-masked visitor. There is a brief struggle and Chase comes out on the winning side but realizes that both he and Nina have been poisoned. As Nina dies, she ominously tells Chase that they got lucky; it’s on the middle shelf in the study. This is later revealed to be a USB stick, containing an explicit message to Zoe. The beginning basically confirms what she already knows about Suleyman Pavlovich (Rade Seerbedzija) using his army to take control of Faraz Hamzad’s (Navid Negahban) mineral deposit, by any means. What she doesn’t know is there is a cartel doing the same thing with other mineral deposits from all around the world. Their ultimate goal is to take control of the world’s markets of rare earth metals, allowing them to practically cripple any or all Western economies. Pavlovich wants a seat at this table and nearly has it, but his previous ties to certain individuals like Bote and The Dixons are making the cartel suspicious. His goal is to eliminate all and any trace that could deter his membership.
After watching the video, Zoe isn’t at happy to learn of Chase’s plan to allow himself to be captured. Now that he’s been infected and the antidote was destroyed during his fight with the intruder, she sees it as his only option while she sees it as his chance for revenge. As they argue about this, Julian meets Harper at a dinner and tells him that he wants out of the covert life. As it turns out, Julian was the recipient of Bote’s final e-mail, but he immediately deleted it without even looking at it. That was until curiosity got the best of him and he retrieved it the following morning. Rather than a message, it’s a photo of Pavlovich along with several others, including Harper’s ex-wife, Marion (Janet McTeer).
The episode ends with Harper being picked up.
The Old Man Review
I don’t know if the series is starting to grow on me or if it’s just becoming more interesting but these last several episodes have been decent. As I’ve said time and time again and will always say, a lot of this can be attributed to the shortened runtimes. That aside, I was expecting to learn right at the very beginning of the episode that Angela was still alive. I’m guessing they are saving that for the finale if this is the case.
I’m honestly not feeling the cartel or the whole mineral deposit situation but bringing in Harper’s ex-wife was a good addition. I don’t much care for Zoe’s self-loathing either, but despite all that, the episode held my attention right up until the end. I’d give it a 5.6 out of 10.
Get more of The Old Man recaps here. Join our newly established forum to see what others are saying. Support our site by donating. Learn about our advertising packages here.
