S01.E04: IV

[formerlyfreedom]

Both Chase and Harper try to move forward with their plans, but their choices backfire.

Airing Thursday, June 30th, 2022.

[Medicine Crow]

Well!!!  THAT was very interesting!!!

[AimingforYoko]

Zoe might just have passed Angela/Emily as my favorite female on the show. I like that it took her a while to get her bearings, that's to be expected. But damn if she didn't arrive with a vengeance. Dan really doesn't know what to do with the women in his life.

[LittleIggy]

I love those dogs so much! I wish I could snuggle with them. I want that apartment, too.
I hate Zoë. 

[voiceover]

Well, we know what kind of woman Dan’s first wife was.  After I got over the jolt of Zoe’s throwdown, I thought: Of course.  Of COURSE, Dan would draw someone that strong, that smart & clever, into his life.

Plus I so ❤️ Amy Brenneman.

[LoveLeigh]

This was a super long episode huh?

[Dowel Jones]

You better have an out, Emily/Angela.  You're on thin ice.

I love it that big bad Chase gets taken down by a small town divorcee'.

So Hamzad has a Kobayashi working for him.  Watch out for that one.  But how did he acquire so much wealth that she is managing a huge financial empire for him?

[ChattyCathyLA]

He should have killed Zoe instead of taking her with him!  Did he not kill her because of the one night stand?  That last scene makes no sense when you consider that this woman was not savvy enough to even be prepared financially when her husband shorted her alimony payments!  I think he should hold a knife to her throat or a gun to her head and make her cancel the email … and then kill her anyway!  I missed the first 25 minutes — will catch it on demand tomorrow — maybe then it will all make sense to me?  At least the dogs are still alive and evidently Zoe was the one in the trunk.  UGH!  This is getting so convoluted, what with his daughter possibly going to meet her biological father, whom she’s asked her daddy to kill … and soon!  And, what was with Emily telling her adversary some details about her birth mother, which happen to be true?  The acting is great, but some of the dialogue gives me pause and some scenes were so dark that I couldn’t make out who was killing who.

[cardigirl]

10 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I hate Zoë. 

5 hours ago, ChattyCathyLA said:

He should have killed Zoe instead of taking her with him!  Did he not kill her because of the one night stand?  That last scene makes no sense when you consider that this woman was not savvy enough to even be prepared financially when her husband shorted her alimony payments!  I think he should hold a knife to her throat or a gun to her head and make her cancel the email … and then kill her anyway!  I missed the first 25 minutes — will catch it on demand tomorrow — maybe then it will all make sense to me?  At least the dogs are still alive and evidently Zoe was the one in the trunk.  UGH!  This is getting so convoluted, what with his daughter possibly going to meet her biological father, whom she’s asked her daddy to kill … and soon!  And, what was with Emily telling her adversary some details about her birth mother, which happen to be true?  The acting is great, but some of the dialogue gives me pause and some scenes were so dark that I couldn’t make out who was killing who.

I dunno, Zoe is someone who Dan (or whatever his real name is) has been manipulating since he met her. I think she's entitled to try to figure out a way to have some power of her own. She also had to make the amount big enough to make him pause in considering giving it to her. She has no idea how much he is worth, so he could still "short" her as far as half goes, but even so, he realized that half a million was not going to buy her off.

And he's not going to kill her (yet) if she doesn't give him the code to open up the computer and stop the email sending. Now he might torture her for it or threaten her son, but setting it on a timer to go in two hours unless she signs in and stops it buys her at least those two hours. And she was smart enough to realize that he's dependent on this company and they know about a Mrs. so she has a little leverage now. She can resume sending that email at anytime.

Poor Dan Chase. Two women in his life defying him. At least Angela/Emily finally did the thing I've been wondering about all series. She dumped her phone.  I still don't think that's enough to protect her from the CIA following her transmissions even if Dan is on a burner phone, but whatever. That was the first realistic thing I've seen done.

Three more episodes to go. Will they all be 1.5 hours long?

[Razzberry]

"The easiest thing for me to do now would be to apologize.  But it's important for you to understand why I can't do that. That guy, in your house, he was a professional.  Whoever hired him was serious about putting an end to me, and in my experience that means putting an end to anyone close to me.  Keeping you alive and safe, that became the priority, Zoe."

Oh please.  Dan met Zoe after going on the run from another hitman, so he's aware that just being around others is putting them at risk.  Zoe must have seemed like the perfect victim who needed rescuing.  Dan likes to think of himself as a hero, but he's really selfish and dangerous.  That's my take after this episode, but there's so many twists and turns that it may change.

[LoveLeigh]

5 hours ago, cardigirl said:

Three more episodes to go. Will they all be 1.5 hours long?

I don't like these long episodes... I have a short attention span. I also do not like Zoe. Plus, I find Emily's position at the FBI to be absurd. The FBI or CIA would have figured out who she is already. 

[dubbel zout]

According to my DVR, this ep is about 75 minutes long. A lot of it is ads, though, which makes it that much more annoying.

[cardigirl]

I'm curious as to why people don't like Zoe?  Does she not add to the story? What would the story be if she were not in the show?

Serious question.  

2 hours ago, LoveLeigh said:

I don't like these long episodes... I have a short attention span. I also do not like Zoe. Plus, I find Emily's position at the FBI to be absurd. The FBI or CIA would have figured out who she is already. 

This I agree with, which is why I have no idea why she's continued to communicate with her father on a cell phone throughout the show, and just now gets rid of it.  I suspect that Harper may really know who she is already anyway. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by cardigirl

[dubbel zout]

3 minutes ago, cardigirl said:

I suspect that Harper may really know who she is already anyway. 

I hope so. He's been shown to be a smart guy.

I also hope that now that Harper is on his way to talk to Faraz, the story picks up the pace a bit.

Zoe on the sofa watching a Bon Appétit cooking video, drinking wine and snuggling with attack dogs, was my favorite scene.

[SunnyBeBe]

Why are FBI higher ups cowering to Hamzad’s rep? 
 

And why does Hamzad get to threaten and order FBI agents around? 

Edited July 1, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[Affogato]

45 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Why are FBI higher ups cowering to Hamzad’s rep? 
 

And why does Hamzad get to threaten and order FBI agents around? 

He knows a secret? Can’t be just the guns, right?

Edited July 1, 2022 by Affogato

[Clawdette]

Another Bridges makes an appearance as Jordan plays the snotty investment manager. I haven’t seen him in a while. 

[aghst]

2 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Why are FBI higher ups cowering to Hamzad’s rep? 
 

And why does Hamzad get to threaten and order FBI agents around? 

Yeah that's the part I don't get.  Some connected Afghanis got rich, siphoning money off the billions in US aid which went to the country over the years.

But why would all these agencies that Krueger threatened to inform about Harper's failure to apprehend Chase care what an Afghani wants?

Krueger is also a UK international from her accent.  So again, why would American agencies care what she has to say about a high-level official in the FBI like Harper?

But apparently Hamzad is loaded and can make things happen, like force Harper to get on a jet to Afghanistan in an hour?

Chase also turns out to be some mogu, though he seems to have spent most of his time in some isolated cabin in the mountains.  It's interesting, the picture on Marcia Dixon's passport looks like Chase's late wife yet Zooey can pass for her because she's an older woman with similar length dark hair.

Dan mentions Corsair Finance once and that's enough for Zoe to threaten to send an email announcing a divorce.  OK, usually, the company owned by the founder or executive is usually partitioned from family finances.  Even if she expressed intention to divorce, the proceedings would take at least months if not years.  So it wouldn't wreak havoc like Zooey says it would.

But I guess it's a plot device to give Zooey a bigger role and some agency, rather than being the hapless abductee who's complying meekly with what Chase wants from her.  Because while it would take him some time, he could kill her and dispose of her, though he did introduce her to some of his employees.

That apartment isn't exactly keeping a low profile for someone on the run.

As for the rest, in the flashback, the GRU agent whom Chase abducts has the same name as the guy in charge of the mining company Chase wants to invest in?  Maybe I misheard it and the name is similar but not the same?

The apparition of Abby, Dan's deceased wife, says that Hamzad killed the agent and it turned Hamzad into a monster from that point and Chase and she had to become monsters themselves to get away from him.

Julian, the assassin, told Harper that there's a mole who warned Chase to get away, so that puts Angela/Emily in danger, from both Chase and Hamzad, since she went on the plane against Chase's wishes.

But Chase has a plan to take out Hamzad now so that will be something to pull off.

[LittleIggy]

6 hours ago, cardigirl said:

6 hours ago, cardigirl said:

I'm curious as to why people don't like Zoe?  Does she not add to the story? What would the story be if she were not in the show?

I don’t think she adds to the story. She’s just a drag on Dan, IMO.

[SlovakPrincess]

This show just seems needlessly convoluted.

Seriously, what is the point of being a hitman if you still have to work a low end job washing bed pans?  WTF LOL why is Julian working in that job.  Isn't the only point of selling your soul to be a contract killer that you get a ton of money?

How in the world did Pavlovich survive whatever they did to him in the 1980s when Chase brought him back to Hamzad to be tortured and killed ... and live to become a Russian mogul?  Chase, buddy, you might be able to get Pavlovich to go after Hamzad after all these years but it's not like he's gonna be fond of you, either!

How did Chase stay off the grid from the CIA and FBI for decades when apparently he's been investing huge sums of money in this Corsair company and buying an apartment that must cost a fortune?  Oh, and apparently embedding his own daughter in the FBI.  He hasn't actually kept a low profile at all.  

At least Zoe got more interesting in this episode!  I'm not really sure her plan is gonna work or if it's wise to piss off Chase, but I like her trying to gain some leverage on her situation.

[Rickster]

Maybe I dozed off somewhere….How does Zoe have access to a computer? Her phone was destroyed after she called her son, and if there’s a computer in the apartment wouldn’t someone like Dan have multiple layers of security around it?

[Milburn Stone]

I'm starting to like Dan less, and I'm starting to like Zoe less.

The Zoe we saw at the end of the episode took me back to the "two stories" she told Dan about her marital breakup. In one story she was the victim. In the second story she was the knowing agent of destruction who didn't care what havoc she caused or what victims she created. That second Zoe, the one who's not a good person at all, now seems to be the real one.

[SlovakPrincess]

4 hours ago, Rickster said:

Maybe I dozed off somewhere….How does Zoe have access to a computer? Her phone was destroyed after she called her son, and if there’s a computer in the apartment wouldn’t someone like Dan have multiple layers of security around it?

Yeah, this show is RIDDLED with plot holes!  

And I literally did doze off at one point and had to go back and watch what I missed and I don't think there was any explanation of how Zoe got her hands on a computer.

2 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I'm starting to like Dan less, and I'm starting to like Zoe less.

Yeah, they both are not great people, but I'm enjoying Zoe giving Dan trouble right now, because he deserves it after kidnapping her and throwing her in a car trunk.  Whatever he claims now about caring about her safety, he should've never put her in this situation -- never should've started a romantic relationship with her, never should've told her even the partial truth about who he is, etc.  He could've just been some loner dude she rented the guest house to for a few days and then moved on.  THAT would've kept her more safe.  

Edited July 2, 2022 by SlovakPrincess

[cardigirl]

4 hours ago, Rickster said:

Maybe I dozed off somewhere….How does Zoe have access to a computer? Her phone was destroyed after she called her son, and if there’s a computer in the apartment wouldn’t someone like Dan have multiple layers of security around it?

She said she ordered in dinner. Perhaps she ordered other things in as well. Plus, the assistant contacted her. There's a link to Dan's money and the ability to buy things. 

8 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

This show just seems needlessly convoluted.

Seriously, what is the point of being a hitman if you still have to work a low end job washing bed pans?  WTF LOL why is Julian working in that job.  Isn't the only point of selling your soul to be a contract killer that you get a ton of money?

Keeping a low profile comes to mind. He's living a simple life so he can be overlooked by most people.  Maybe he likes being part of the hospice community. Mostly, though, I think he does it for cover. 

[Rickster]

1 minute ago, cardigirl said:

She said she ordered in dinner. Perhaps she ordered other things in as well. Plus, the assistant contacted her. There's a link to Dan's money and the ability to buy things. 

I had assumed she ordered dinner via the assistant or a landline phone. I find it hard to believe Dan would let her start buying a new phone or other equipment immediately after arriving, given the tenuous nature of their relationship. Or maybe he’s somewhat oblivious?

What I’m really curious about is how she drafted an email and set it up to be sent  without access to a computer, ipad or phone. On further thought, I can’t think that Dan has a computer set up in an apartment he never visits, either.

[SunnyBeBe]

Yeah, if law enforcement were investigating a murder for hire…..would a working guy with few assets seem likely?  
 

Zoey really did get me at the end though.  I still haven’t forgotten an early comment I made about her around here.  I wondered if her husband was buried in her backyard. Lol. I still wonder how evil she really is.  I would think that Chase has methods he could use to make her delete that email.  Of course, she might be toothless and without nails in the end.  She really is naive.  

Edited July 2, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[cardigirl]

3 minutes ago, Rickster said:

I had assumed she ordered dinner via the assistant or a landline phone. I find it hard to believe Dan would let her start buying a new phone or other equipment immediately after arriving, given the tenuous nature of their relationship. Or maybe he’s somewhat oblivious?

What I’m really curious about is how she drafted an email and set it up to be sent  without access to a computer, ipad or phone. On further thought, I can’t think that Dan has a computer set up in an apartment he never visits, either.

If the assistant helped her order dinner, why couldn't he have helped her with other things?  I really think it takes no big leap to believe that. But maybe it will not be answered in the show. 

[WritinMan]

The weakest episode of the show so far. Way too much talking. We'll have to see how this all plays out until the end of the season, but some things just don't make much sense right now.

[SlovakPrincess]

Chase is running the leakiest damn kidnapping operation in TV history.  Only the plot device of Zoe deciding she wants to make a fortune off of this crazy situation is keeping her in that apartment.  She's ordering out for food and emailing away to her heart's content LOL.  

I find the show interesting enough to keep watching, but I have to laugh at it, too:  Chase is a one-man operation living off the grid when it suits the plot, and then has a massive shadowy corporation at his beck and call and money to burn a few episodes later; Harper is super duper smart but Emily/Angela has been flying under the radar on his watch for years (and she is constantly calling her father ... like every single day she chats with him on the phone in public places, it's laughable); Zoe is scared enough to follow Chase's orders in public but in private she threatens him.  🙄

[dubbel zout]

13 hours ago, aghst said:

It's interesting, the picture on Marcia Dixon's passport looks like Chase's late wife yet Zooey can pass for her because she's an older woman with similar length dark hair.

Chase did say Zoe would take a new photo once they got to L.A.

8 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

How did Chase stay off the grid from the CIA and FBI for decades when apparently he's been investing huge sums of money in this Corsair company and buying an apartment that must cost a fortune?

He's been using a bunch of aliases. And there are ways to anonymously buy real estate; using an LLC is one way. I think the CIA was happy to let Chase be until the Hamzah situation came up, so it's not completely unrealistic that Chase could stay under the radar until now. Corsair is how he's paying his expenses.

[SunnyBeBe]

So, did Zoey know that she was going to go for a scam on Chase when she didn’t leave a message for her son?  Better for her to be known as a victim or dead……she’s not that concerned that her son would be very worried.  

[aghst]

11 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:

So, did Zoey know that she was going to go for a scam on Chase when she didn’t leave a message for her son?  Better for her to be known as a victim or dead……she’s not that concerned that her son would be very worried.  

She had no way of knowing Chase would be rich.

Probably wasn't sure where he was taking her.

Maybe she just didn't want to leave a long message.  Probably expected to be able to call him later, even though Chase said he'd destroy her phone after she made that call.

[Razzberry]

The bedpan hitman was built up to be "good at what he does".   Yet he enters a home at 10:00 am, when people are bound to be up and alert?  4:00 or 5:00 am is when you catch them sleeping.  Everybody knows that.

[WritinMan]

26 minutes ago, Razzberry said:

The bedpan hitman

That made me laugh out loud.

[LittleIggy]

27 minutes ago, Razzberry said:

The bedpan hitman was built up to be "good at what he does".   Yet he enters a home at 10:00 am, when people are bound to be up and alert?  4:00 or 5:00 am is when you catch them sleeping.  Everybody knows that.

It’s in the official Hitman Rule Book.

[SunnyBeBe]

I wonder why Harper didn’t warn hit man about the dogs.  They just happened to be in the vehicle when the hit man attacked Chase, but what would he have done, if they were inside the house?  

Edited July 2, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[LoveLeigh]

On 7/1/2022 at 5:46 PM, cardigirl said:

I suspect that Harper may really know who she is already anyway. 

Of course he knows.... that's why he calls her "kiddo." He is letting her know he knows 

[ChattyCathyLA]

I just read somewhere that this is not a mini series, but a regular series and a second season has just been ordered.  That’s IT for me!  Not getting any more involved with this.  There are better shows to follow.  Officially jumping the shark and not watching anymore.  Too convoluted, photography is too dark, too many obvious plot holes and I’m not hooked enough to continue.   Sayonara!

[Rickster]

9 hours ago, LoveLeigh said:

Of course he knows.... that's why he calls her "kiddo." He is letting her know he knows 

He may know, although I’m not sure how he would know about kiddo unless they’re monitoring her conversations.

There’s  an article link somewhere here that mentioned that the writers wanted to explore the concept that Emily/Angela effectively has two dads, and the nature of her relationships with each of them. Having both of them call her kiddo might be a somewhat clunky way of emphasizing this.

[Dminches]

14 hours ago, LoveLeigh said:

Of course he knows.... that's why he calls her "kiddo." He is letting her know he knows 

If he did know then why not track her phone and outgoing calls to find Chase?

[aghst]

5 hours ago, Rickster said:

He may know, although I’m not sure how he would know about kiddo unless they’re monitoring her conversations.

37 minutes ago, Dminches said:

If he did know then why not track her phone and outgoing calls to find Chase?

If he started calling her kiddo after monitoring her calls with Chase, I would think Angela/Em would be freaked out.

Why doesn't he start calling her Em?

5 hours ago, Rickster said:

There’s  an article link somewhere here that mentioned that the writers wanted to explore the concept that Emily/Angela effectively has two dads, and the nature of her relationships with each of them. Having both of them call her kiddo might be a somewhat clunky way of emphasizing this.

I wouldn't be surprised if she turned out to be Hamzad's daughter.  I don't know if the story line works exactly but maybe when Abby ran away with Chase, she was already pregnant with Hamzad's child who turned out to be Angela/Emily.

[LittleIggy]

16 hours ago, LoveLeigh said:

Of course he knows.... that's why he calls her "kiddo." He is letting her know he knows 

Owens calls El “kiddo” in Stranger Things.

[Affogato]

I'm late to the party, so my thoughts on this episode:

Harper has the conversation on the tarmac. "do you have children?...at some point they will break your heart." He also talks to her about her mother. Yes, he knows Emily/Angela is who she is, the question is whether he knows because there is a mole or if he knew earlier. I think the mole the hitman told him about was the clincher.  At this point we have seen she is very deeply entangled in his life, including with the seven year old he is now raising. He isn't going to be confronting her for no reason, but he is certainly taking her on the plane trip, because you keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Goodness, folks, have you never played 'the game'?

Emily knows he know, I expect, because she throws away the SIM, but it is possible she did this (or also did this)  because they are going to meet Hamzad. I thought she should have done more than flush it. What if it gets stuck in a pipe?

I think Emily is correct that the mother, deceased, is the third player in this game. While at first John and Belour looked like an epic romance, this facade is crumbling. Emily is probably Hamzad's child, and we know Belour (I may have the name wrong) wanted a western upbringing for herself. She would risk that for a child. We know from this episode that Hamzad became 'a monster'. 'Chase' is a white savior of women--like the receptionist at the beginning of the company, Zoe, his wife, but there is some toxic masculinity and entitlement there that isn't really sitting well on him. We are seeing more of this in his behavior.

The question is whether the mother set up something before she became impaired with Huntingtons or whether it happened when she was forgetting who and what she was (as we saw). I wonder if Huntingtons will be significant? It is hard to think how. But it is a pretty specific diagnosis.

I think Chase wants to show Zoe he trusts her, and would let her have access to a computer set up with security safeguards to order clothing, etc, under her name. it is possible he is keeping a clone of what she looks at and who she calls. As we saw, Zoe needs to show Chase that she isn't a bumbling idiot, if she means to continue with him, or he will take advantage. So they are both playing to type, there. So far we haven't seen her show the cunning to do that, though. I wonder if we will find out more about her innate cunning. Maybe we are just seeing her through Chase's eyes, so far, and he is underestimating her.

[dubbel zout]

15 minutes ago, Affogato said:

he is underestimating her

Which is ironic, considering he's being underestimated, too.

[Tachi Rocinante]

For someone well-trained in spycraft, Chase must have missed the chapter on altering your fucking appearance.

[SlovakPrincess]

2 hours ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

For someone well-trained in spycraft, Chase must have missed the chapter on altering your fucking appearance.

Also, traveling with two giant murder dogs makes one a bit more conspicuous, I would assume.  

[Razzberry]

Yeah, he puts her in the trunk, but you'd think his two dogs would give him away if anything.

[Bcharmer]

In that flashback scene, after the Russian guy was captured, "Johnny" was sitting alone, and had a "conversation" with his future, older, dead wife. Could someone explain how that made any sense? Did I miss something?

[Razzberry]

19 hours ago, Bcharmer said:

In that flashback scene, after the Russian guy was captured, "Johnny" was sitting alone, and had a "conversation" with his future, older, dead wife. Could someone explain how that made any sense? Did I miss something?

Was it this scene?  IIRC, she was saying that he DOES have it in him and he's full of crap, in a manner of speaking.  I may need to watch it again though.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Razzberry

[SlovakPrincess]

23 hours ago, Bcharmer said:

In that flashback scene, after the Russian guy was captured, "Johnny" was sitting alone, and had a "conversation" with his future, older, dead wife. Could someone explain how that made any sense? Did I miss something?

It makes sense to the extent that the writers think everything in the show must be needlessly convoluted.