The Old Man
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As someone who has covered TV for over a decade, I need hard evidence of a characters death.
Sorry,The Old Man, but youve gotta give me more.
Its Harper who seems to be in the worst mental shape for this upcoming mission.
Undoubtedly, there are many bleak moments in XII.
Adding to the tension is the decision to have most of XII take place during an electricity-spotty stormy night.
But the words are more for the audience than Emilys biological father.
She states that Afghanistan is her home and that shes dedicating herself to healing generational wounds.
She tells the little boy that he will be scared, sad, and hurt.
Its her first step toward breaking the cycles of the past.
But Chase is too consumed to play therapist right now: He needs to warn Emily about Pavlovichs mercenaries.
Meanwhile, down in the basement, the cracks are showing in the Harper marriage.
All shes allowed to know is that theotherscruffy-looking man is Angelas father and that Angela herself is a fiction.
Sure, no biggie.
Eventually, Chase connects with Emily over the phone.
With time running out, Emily uses her precious seconds to say good-bye to her American dads.
Poor Cheryl is so confused.
But theres no time for tears because the Taliban has breached the hiding place.
DAMN, JEFF BRIDGES!
That means its time for some answers, and they may just be sitting in Harpers driveway.
Well, now we know why they were so worried about the car.
It turns out Chase and Harper stuffed the one surviving Russian assassin from last week into the trunk.
You know, Spy 101 stuff.
He knows URM was probably just hired muscle and wont know anything.
He also gets that Chase needs to take his anger out onsomeone.
She also voices her growing resentment over agreeing to remain ignorant of her husbands work for so long.
So Zoe does Cheryl a solid by regurgitatingThe Old Mans loglines from the past two episodes.
But I feel like Zoe is making a rookie mistake here.
While Zoe is spilling most of Chases and Harpers secrets, Harper is upstairs, slowly unraveling.
Theres a truth thats ready to boil over; Im just not sure what that truth is yet.
He also has a lightbulb moment about the importance of last words.
Harper then frantically asks Zoe if Bote said anything to her right before he was killed.
She verifies that he was holding his phone and was possibly sending something.
So why is Pavlovich after Chase and Zoe?
Why dont they jet off to London and ask Nina Kruger some questions?
As XII wraps up, I really feel for Cheryl Harper.
Her husband is dumping her at a hotel before deserting her once again without explanation.
To be fair, Harper has an important household chore on his to-do list.
In keeping with the episodes dark tone, the final scene is of Harper descending into the still-flooded basement.
But its up to us to visualize the chilling task of disposing of URMs body.
The saw in Harpers hand is our only clue.
