「老人」シーズン2、第7話：家族の教訓が探求される
Dan Chase, Angela Adams, and Harold Harper aren’t the only people whose lives have brought them inexorably back to where it all began. For nearly 40 years, a little Russian boy grew into a man (Nikolai Nikolaeff) with one goal in life: to find and kill the American intelligence agent who killed his father when he massacred an entire Russian unit. Since this unit belonged to the future titan of industry Suleyman Pavlovich, our vengeful friend will get his chance.
When Chase’s attempt to strike a deal with Pavlovich in exchange for the antidote that would save his life fails – someone, it seems, attacked Pavlovich’s men at his mining facility in Afghanistan, and Pavlovich suspects Chase’s involvement – the Russian oligarch leaves. our vengeful friend tasked with finishing off Chase. A classic villain mistake, as is the Avenger’s tendency to speak rather than pay close attention. Chase ends up slicing his femoral artery with a shard of glass, still holding him in his arms until he bleeds. An entire life lived for one reason, only to drop dead five feet from the finish line. It’s brutal.
This also serves a purpose. The Old Man characters spend this episode obsessed with the question of what they owe to the people they love, the living and the dead. But this was no less important for the murdered Russian son of the murdered Russian father than for any of them. We happen to be following Dan, Harold, and Zoe, not the Russian, so we sympathize with their plight over his. Including his plight is the show’s way of emphasizing that I would do anything for my family is not an inherently heroic way to live your life. After all, everyone has a family. The Russian has as much right to kill in the name of his family as Dan Chase does in the name of his.
Dan spends his time in the interrogator hot seat hearing Emily’s voice in his head, barking at him for being too cowardly to carry out his plan to die killing Pavlovich in revenge. Instead, he offers to take responsibility for all of Pavlovich’s crimes, in exchange for receiving the antidote to the poison he inhaled last episode and being allowed to go free with Zoe. Pavlovich cannot believe that a life with this woman would be so important to Dan that he would give up on avenging his daughter and fall from grace by falsely taking credit for the murder of his own mentor. It’s worth it, says Dan.
Dan’s partner in all this is Zoe, who plays the pivotal role of providing the person responsible for Bote’s murder to US intelligence via a local police station. Which name she gives depends on whether or not she receives a call from Dan telling her that the deal with Pavlovich has been made. Unfortunately for her, the response is immediate and Pavlovich sends a hitman to massacre everyone at the station.
Zoe, however, spent the day remembering her wedding day jitters and how her father-in-law talked her out of it by insisting that it was okay to not not feel love, since love is not real, but trust, comfort and security. are, and they are worth something. The same goes for the weapons she learned to use from her ex: she blows up the hitman herself. “Harold Harper sent me to make sure you were okay,” Julian Carson says when he arrives on the scene. “It looks like you’re okay.”
Harold, meanwhile, is working with the last relationship he has: Marion, his ex-wife based in Hong Kong. Since she is affiliated with Pavlovich in some unknown way, he believes she can undo the dogs. But his connection to the Russian warlord is not what Harold thinks. She has pitted Pavlovich and Hamzad against each other in order to maneuver into power the person she really wants, the Chinese-backed rare earth minerals cartel she represents in this region of Afghanistan: Parwana Hamad, aka Angela Adams, aka Emily Chase. Marion speaks of her blend of American and Afghan credibility and expertise as a member of the Bene Gesserit discussing the breeding of the Kwisatz Haderach.
Dune’s influence actually seems quite heavy at this point in the story, because there’s a new Lisan al Ghaib in town: Parwana Hamzad, alive and well and leading the local fighters in the massacre of Pavlovich’s last man in the region. We simply don’t know if Dan will live long enough to find out more, since he discovers there is no more antidote after killing the man whose father he killed decades earlier.
It’s a dirty little circle, isn’t it? The best hope these people have of leading a functional life is to lie forever, after they’ve killed enough people to move safely to a safe place? So what, someone could come from the past 40 years later to kill you or your loved ones anyway? When does it end? Earlier for some than others, I suppose.
Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about television for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times and anywhere that will have itReally. He and his family live on Long Island.