Jack Ryan: S2E4

Remember the wonderful research Jack had done in season 1 to connect the dots between the monitory transactions and Suleiman's plan? Episode 2 of Season 3 of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan also starts with such an intensive tour of Jack's 'beautiful mind' when he connects the dots between the Mining equipment that we had found in previous episode and president Reyes's involvement in all of this as well as in the murder of Senator Moreno. But there is a missing link about a company in London. Unfortunately, Jack gets pulled off the case before he could investigate in London. But Jack being Jack, takes help from his Senator friend and goes to London on "vacation" ;-)

Meanwhile Mattice and his team are back in the Jungle to find Marcus but they are out of luck. Elsewhere General Ubbari's wife Cassandra and Nicolas Reyes's wife Claudia are having lunch where Cassandra asks Claudia if Nicolas mentioned anything about the americans who bugged their house but Claudia says she is unaware of any such thing. Greer does some follow up research on top of Jack's research and finds out about Gloria Bonalde's missing husband who was not a fan of Nicolas Reyes. Greer then decides to visit Gloria and offers to help her if she helps him in return. Gloria takes Greer in her husband room and gives him a rock that her husband was working on before he went missing. Reyes pays a visit to Gloria Bonalde and offers her a job if she agrees to drop out from the impending elections as a contestant. Gloria acts smart and asks for some time to think about it. Reyes doesn't like Gloria's answer and indirectly threatens her that she will lose the elections but Gloria replies that President Reyes's surprise visit suggests otherwise.

In London, after Jack's entry into the city, Max is also seen entering London dressed as a woman. Jack and Lee a.k.a. Harry visits the owner of the company that provides security to the mining operations in Venezuela and finds out that this company had introduced Max Shankel with Cinco Palmas in Venezuela. Max finds a date with a guy. This guy's sister is also his roommate and Max meets both of them. In Venezuela, Gloria's family is threatened; presumably by Reyes's men and she calls Greer for help with protecting her family. Max abducts his date's sister and makes the guy walk into a Cafe who is being watched by Jack, Harry and others from MI5. There is a wonderful chasing sequence between Max and Jack when Jack tries  his best to catch Max but fails. Max however learns that Lee or Harry is helping Jack. While all this is going on in London we forget about Mattice and his team looking for Uber Select in the Venezuelan jungles but Reyes hasn't forgotten about them. He gives Bastos the latest satellite technology which will help him finding the americans from the jungle and burrying them there. Brutal!

And just like that, we are midway between the season 2 of Jack Ryan. Do you like my blog? Do I write simple enough? Do you have any suggestions or questions for me? Do reach out to me on abhisheksathe12@gmail.com. See you next time!

Jack Ryan: S2E3

In case you missed reading my reviews of rest of the episodes, click the link below:

TV Series Reviewed: Jack Ryan

This season of Jack Ryan is different than previous season in that Jack spends no time exploring his romantic side. Previous episode also confirmed his relationship status as 'Single'. We still miss Cathy but there is no time to keep missing her since we have so much action packed story to cover.

Episode 3 of season 2 starts with Marcus joining Matice and his team. His buddies gives him a nickname as Uber which he doesen't really like. They get airdropped off the coast of Venezuela along with a boat. Meanwhile, Reyes announces to the world in a press conference that Senator Moreno's killers have been found and are going to get punished.

We have been hearing about Reyes's opponent Gloria Bonaldes since last two episodes. Finally we get to see her busy morning routine along with her family and closed ones. Jack and Greer decides to give a visit to Cinco Palmes but they couldn't find any leads. Uber fixes the boat and asks if he could get renamed to Black Mamba but all he gets upgraded to is Uber Select! Reyes and Ubbari discuss about the conversation that Ubbari and Cassandra had. They also talk about their childhood. Ubbari reminds Reyes that he has a responsibility towards Venezuela and Reyes confirms it. Elsewhere Gloria gives a speech to her supporters. She mentions how her husband has been missing after he dared to speak up against Reyes. Bastos is there in the crowd to evaluate her election campain. Jack and Greer leaves to pay a visit to a Foreign Militia Compound where Matice and his team will be there with them. Jack returns the pills to Greer that he had found earlier but Greer refuses to tell him anything about his health condition. When they meet with Mattice, Marcus and the rest of the team; Greer and Mattice gives instructions to the team about the nature of the operation to underline that there is no scope of making any mistakes. The first container doesn't have anything of value but Jack takes a huge risk and investigates a second container where he finds something suspicious. When he gets caught, Mattice saves him and they take an unarmed combatant into custody. Jack tries his method to ask questions and fails. Greer then tries his method, cuts the man's finger and tosses it to Jack saying that it will serve as a DNA.

Marcus observes that some soldiers were approaching and leaves the boat. Mattice and his party get into a minor fight and decides to flee without Marcus. Mattice confirms that after dropping off Jack and Greer, they will come back for Marcus. Bastos informs Reyes about the progress of Gloria's election campaign but leaves abruptly when Ubbari drops by in Reyes's office. Reyes asks Ubbari his honest opinion if he thinks Gloria could win. We don't see Ubbari giving him any answer but Ubbari's silence is enough for Reyes to understand what the Venezuelan people want. Finally Greer admits to Jack about his heart condition and we see how it makes Jack disturbed.

What do you think was there in the container that Jack found? What will happen in the elections when people will actually decide to vote for Gloria Bonaldes v/s Nicolas Reyes? We didn't see Max in the whole episode. What is he upto? And any leads about the missile launch in the south china sea? So many unanswered questions...Lets not lose patience and stay tuned!

Jack Ryan: S2E2

Jack announces at the beginning of the episode that he was not going back unless he finds out who killed Moreno. It is clear that Jack is here to stay. The intensity with which John Krasinski portray's the titular role is amazing. We understand why Moreno's death has affected him so much. Other thing to note is the locations which are filmed with so much precison that we end up experiencing the kind of turmoil that the people in Venezuela must be feeling in this political unrest and economic crises.

The police officer who took bribe to misguide Jack and team in the last episode; asks for asylum in US embassy who is questioned about the attack. Jack figures out Reyes's involvement. Jack then goes to a shipment to find more intel when he is saved my Lena or Lee and then Jack gets his hands on a recording between General Ubbari and his wife Cassandra. Jack decides to use this recording by capturing Reyer's head of security Mateo Bastos and playing this recording in front of him. When Lee visits Jack's room again Jack surprises her with the bugs she had planted in his room earlier. She reveals that she is finding Max Shenkel; the same person that attacked Jack's party last episode.

Elsewhere Matice (Remember him from season 1?) is trying his best to recruit Marcus. Marcus keeps on refusing his offers until the end when he finally decides to join him on a mission.

Jack and Jim attend a meeting with Reyes the next morning where Reyes brings justice to Moreno's death by announcing the killers in front of the world. Jack; obviously; figures out this bullsh*t and whispers in Reyey's ears that he knows Reyes is the real killer. He also grabs Mateo's arm which cause him a lot of pain. Clearly, he was the one who had attacked the police officer in earlier episode who got bitten by the dog. While Reyes is busy celebrating his daughter's grand birthday party, Jack is attacked, drowned, beaten by an attacker. Jack manages to put a knife in the attacker's eye. James hears this and tries to catch the attacker but fails due to his health condition. Lee tells Jack that it was Max who attacked him. Jack is disappointed to know that Lee knew that Max is a murderer and walks away from her.

Jack Ryan: S2E1

Before we jump into a brand new season, here is a link that will take you to rest of the episodes:
TV Series Reviewed: Jack Ryan

Season 2 of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan begins with a very short recap of previous season followed by a fresh title song. The song is full of glimpses about what can be expected in the new season. We start with a Missile Launch in South China Sea. Later we see James Greer in Moscow and we are reminded that he went there at the end of Season 1. Greer has formed an ally for obtaining more information related to the missile launch and believes it has something to do with Venezuela. After his meeting we learn that poor Greer has a heart condition. Also, similar to last season (when Syria was the country being looked at by the CIA) we have a new country to focus this season. We see Jack explaining to fellow agents at the CIA why he feels Venezuela is the largest threat to the US. Oh wait...Why is Jack still in DC and not with Greer in Moscow?

After the lecture Senator Moreno takes Jack to his house for a surprise birthday party. It was good to see Jack in a friendly environment but I was expecting to see Dr. Cathy somewhere around this scene when Jack's personal life is depicted. Looks like it didn't work out between Cathy and Jack after all!
Immediately after the celebrations, we are back to work when we see Jack and Senator Moreno discussing about the same suspicious ship which Greer is also tracking. When Greer learns that Jack is the only one from the CIA who is going to Venezuela to track the same suspicious ship, he asks for a transfer there. Senator Jim and Jack meets president of Venezuela Nicolas Reyes along with ambassador Lisa. Obviously, Reyes denies the claim that Russia is secretly supplying the weapons to Venezuela. We also see General Ubbari admitting to his wife Cassandra that according to a secret poll, Reyes's opponent Gloria Bonalde has a chance of winning the elections. Also, Cassandra thinks that her husband should lead the country and neither Reyes nor Gloria.

The series does a good job in explaining why there is a political unrest in Venezuela. We also learnt at the beginning how this country can be an actual threat to the US and not the commonly expected countries like Russia, China or North Korea. We also see how different characters have different motives behind the same crisis situation.

Finally Jack and Greer meet at a bar where we see Jack is being eyed by a woman named Lena. After spending some quality time with Greer and Senator Moreno, Jack turns his attention to Lena. After sleeping together, Lena bugs Jack's room and leaves quietly. It is finally reveled why Jack did not accept Greer's offer. We also see a police captain accepting bribe to supply information and the next morning when Jack, Moreno and rest of the team is attacked we learn why the police captain was bribed. The episode ends on a high note when Jack is seen calling Moreno's family to inform them of Senator Moreno's death. One difference in Last season's threat and this season's attack is that this time, its personal for Jack as we saw how close Jack and Moreno have been. The police captain who was bribed earlier is also attacked at his home but he manages to escape after his dog bites the attacker. The series doesn't waste any time in hooking the audience to binge the next episode. Gracias!

Here's the link to the next episode:
TV Series Explained: Jack Ryan: Season 2 Episode 2

Game Of Thrones: S2E9

The prenultimate episode of season 2 begins with Stannis's fleet slowly approaching King's Landing. Cersei prepares for the worst by obtaining Essence Of Nightshade from Grand Maester Pycell. Varys brings a map of the tunnels beneath the Red Keep to Tyrion. Joffrey asks Sansa to kiss his sword Hearteater as a symbol of the luck while he is going to fight. While Cersei keeps ordering more wine and spilling nuggets of wisdom to Sansa; Stannis's fleet is almost at the shores. Joffrey is furious to see only one ship sent by Tyrion who plans to please his nephew by displaying his trick with wildfire.

Boom!

Although Stannis undergoes a major loss, his dreams haven't died. He continues to sail his forces towards the mud gate even if this means that thousands of his soldiers will die because of the defense of King's Landing. When Cersei hears this, she orders to bring Joffrey back from the battlefield. Tyrion then decides to raise the morale of Joffrey's men by boasting their confidence. Sansa gets an offer to flee King's Landing with The Hound but she rejects this offer. Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne with her youngest son Tommen and the vile of Essense of Nightshade in her hand. On the battlefield when Stannis has almost won the war, Tywin Lannister brings Lannister and Tyrell forces and sweeps away the victory from Stannis.

What an exciting episode it was! Did you enjoy it? Do comment below.
Chaos.

Game Of Thrones: S2E8

Sometimes you need just a small revision of where every character is placed and what will be they facing next. This was one of such episodes. Also, I think this was one of the slowest and uneventful episodes of Game Of Thrones season 2. Maybe they were warming up for the prenultimate episode to come.

If you also need a revision then you can read my reviews of all episodes of Game Of Thrones here:

TV Series Explained: Game Of Thrones

So Cersei accuses Tyrion of plotting to get Joffrey killed. As a safety measure for her son's life, she catches Ros instead of Shae thinking that Ros is Tyrion's w*ore and Tyrion is in love with her. Varys informs Tyrion about Danny and her dragons but he seems to be more focussed about the impending war at hand. Arya takes Jaqen's help and escapes Harrenhal with Gendry and Hot Pie. Robb hears that Jaime escaped the previous night. Upon returning to his camp, we learn that it was Cat who freed him in return of her daughters' safe return to her. Furious by his mother's deed, Robb imprisons her. That night he and Talisa finally decide to let their hair down and let their legs up; if you know what I mean!

Beyond The Wall, Jon is a prisoner along with Qhorin Halfhand who tells him to enter Mance's army to learn their secrets. Elsewhere Sam finds draggonglass weapons hidden inside an old Night's Watch cloak. We see Danny and Ser Jorah only for a couple of minutes where Danny orders Jorah to take her to The House of The Undying. Theon's sister Yara comes to Winterfell, not to help Theon keep the castle but to take Theon back with her who refuses to go with her. Maester Luwin follows Osha to the cripts of Winterfell where Bran and Rickon are hiding. He figures out that Theon murdered some farmer's boys and burned them to pass them off as Bran and Rickon and Bran overhears this conversation with a sorrowful expression on his face.

Game Of Thrones: S2E7

There were some intriguing questions asked. Some of them were answered and some of them were not. And some of them made us think. If both the members of the old houses such as the Starks and the wildlings shared the same origins then why was The Wall built? If Cersei and Jaime were noy fully convinced that The Targaryns interwedding themselves was alright then why did they do it themselves? Even after knowing the King Joffrey is a monster but Sansa is to be married to her, shouldn't she love her?

Welcome to Game Of Thrones. The seventh episode shows us Sansa finally getting fit to bear Joffrey's children. Tywin is on the hunt of his killer while Theon is on the hunt of Bran and Rickon. Robb continues her romance with Lady Talisa. Jon loses catch hold of Ygritte only to find himself surrounded by the wildlings. Jaime kills Ser Alton Lannister and a Karstark prison guard and escapes. He gets caught again and Lord Karstark demands killing him but Lady Catlyn urges him to wait till Robb comes back. Khaleesi is still searching for her dragons. She orders Ser Jorah to find her dragons to gain back her trust. Cersei shares some womanly advice with Sansa and tells her never to love anyone except her children. The new King of Quarth Xaro Xoan Daxos makes a deal with the warlock king who murders other members of The Thirteen. He also reveals to Danny that she should visit The House Of The Undying where he has kept her dragons. . Theon hangs burned bodies of Stark children to teach everyone else at Winterfell a lesson and to prove a point that he is the new lord of Winterfell and everyone should obey him.

Will Theon's lordmanship come to an end when Lord Bolton's basterd take back Winterfell or will Theon be able to get his sister's help to defend the attack on Winterfell? Will Lord Karstark be able to convince Robb to let him kill the Kingslayer as revenge? Will Sansa finally be married to Joffrey? And will Jon become Ygritte's prisoner now? Watch this space to find out...

Game Of Thrones: S2E6

The sixth episode of Season 2 of Game Of Thrones starts with a major turn of events when freshly minted ‘Prince’ Theon captures the castle of Winterfell. He also shocks everyone when he executes Ser Rodrik who denies accepting Theon as the new Lord of Winterfell.

Strange people doing unexpected things, isn't it? In case you also strangely stumbled upon this post out of nowhere and want to check out all my reviews about Game of Thrones then you can click here:

TV Series Reviewed: Game Of Thrones

Alright. Back to the current episode.
At King’s Landing, everyone is gathered at the riverside to see off Princess Myrcella who is being shipped off to Dorne for her safety. But Cersei is still thinking that this is some vicious plot by Tyrion against her and she threatens Tyrion that she will also take away some loved one from him one day as revenge. On their way back to The Red Keep, the people of King’s Landing who are unhappy because of the effects of the ongoing war, attacks the King and his entire party. The King orders everyone to be assassinated as an act of punishment but somehow everyone escapes. Everyone except, poor Sansa. Sansa is almost going to get raped and possibly killed when The Hound saves her and brings her back to the castle. Beyond The Wall, Jon and his brothers of The Night’s watch encounters some wildings who are killed off except a pretty wilding Yiggrite. Jon is unable to kill her and thus takes her as a prisoner and they begin to walk together in search of his other brothers. Lord Tywin is enraged when one of his council members sends a letter to the wrong house and is impressed to know that Arya who is posing as his cupbearer can read. Lord Bealish visits Tywin and he also notices Arya but Arya manages to keep her identity safe. She smuggles one of the notes with her that contains Lannister’s battle plan but is caught red handed by one of the Lannister knights. To save herself, Arya gets him killed before he could see Tywin. A wounded Sansa is being treated by Shae who gives her a good advice to never trust anyone to stay safe. At Winterfell, Osha lures Theon into bed thereby gaining his trust only to take Bran and Rickon to safety. Beyond the narrow sea, The Mother of Dragons is sad after meeting multiple Kings in Quarth because no one is ready to give her ships to cross the narrow sea so that she could take back all seven kingdoms. Upon returning home, she witnesses a mass murder of her people and also her dragons are missing. Finally we see dragons crying for help which are being taken away by a hooded man to The House of The Undying.

Are you keeping the count of how many new characters have been introduced recently? Have you stopped counting number of deaths per episode? Well I have. But the series somehow manages to keep the interest alive even with all the innovative ways to kill people, the politics, different houses and their allies and of course with so much nudity!

By the way, just in case you missed reading my reviews of Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan, click the link below:

TV Series Reviewed: Jack Ryan

Thank you!

Game Of Thrones: S2E5

The episode starts with Cat and Renly forming an alliance. But immediately after this, a shadow kills King Renly and Cat flees with Brianne.

In King's Landing, Tyrion learns that Cersei is preparing wildfire for protecting the city from Stannis's fleet and armies. Renly's Bannerman forces join with Stannis except The Tyrells. Jaquen agrees to kill 3 men named by Arya while Theon is disappointed when his men insults him and takes help from a stranger man to prove himself.

Beyond the wall, Jon Snow joins The halfhand to sneek into Mance's camp and kill him so that the Wildlings will be deafeted. Khaleesi looks beautiful in a blue dress that was gifted to her. She also gets a marriage proposal from Xaro in return of a promise of a lot of wealth which she can use to conquer Westeros. Ser Jorah advices not to accept this marriage proposal and make her own way. Finally, we see a  smile on Arya's face when she witnesses that Jaquen has successfully killed her first target and the episode ends.

This was one of the episodes which had slower momentum because it was setting up the storylines for what is coming up in future. Yet, as always it was filled with so much content that you can't afford to miss it.

Do you like my reviews? If you want me to write about some other show then do let me know in the comments. You can also reach out to me on abhisheksathe12@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

Game Of Thrones: S2E4

Life is not simple. Sometimes you have horrible people in life. Sometimes your fate is just bad. Sometimes it's the combination of many unfortunate events that throw curve balls at you. What this episode of Game Of Thrones teaches is how to learn from your previous mistakes and adopt to your current circumstances to make the best out of available resources. Some of the major players are learning from maliable aquatic plants who survive even the worst of storms and floods because of their 'agility'. Because if you are stubborn and not ready to get adjusted to the surroundings then the chances of survival are pretty thin.
Okay. Enough of our free dose of life lesson parallels drawn out from the episode.

'Garden Of Bones' starts with Robb Stark winning yet another battle. He rejects Roose Bolton's advise of flaying the Lannister captors. He also meets a nurse who gives him a lecture on the cons of wars which was pretty convincing but Robb has totally forgotten about his bethrowed Frey girl and starts falling for this nurse girl.

In King's Landing, Joffrey has arranged for another one of his torturing sessions. He is making Sansa's life more miserable who gets saved by Tyrion just in time before Sansa was going to get badly beaten. Listening to Bronn's council, Tyrion sends two who*es to calm down Joffrey's raging hormones. But Joff being Joff; does unspeakable things to them and sends his uncle Tyrion a message. What a waste!

Littlefinger arrives at King Renly's camp. He meets Renly, Queen Margaery and they talk. But the main thing is when he talks to Cat. He lies to her face and offers her daughters back in exchange of Jaime. Yes he offers her both of her daughters. He also delivers Ned's last remains as a token of good faith. Meanwhile, King Stannis also arrives there. Cat tries to get the two brothers to be peaceful with each other and not go to war against each other but in vain!

At Harrenhal, Arya, Gendry and other prisoners are being tortured. Tywin Lannister arrives to stop this and recognizes Arya is not a boy but a girl posing as a boy. Smartness overloaded!

For Danny, there is a lot of Drama at the gates of Qarth. But after a considerable give and take with the 'Thirteen', the gates of Qarth are finally opened. At this point we understand the difference inside the gates and outside the gates and why the episode is named Garden Of Bones.

Back to King's Landing, Lancel Lannister (who is now doing Cersei because Jaime is unavailable) meets Tyrion to demand Grand Master Pycell's release from the jail. Tyrion agrees to Cersei's demand but he also makes Lancel to agree to secretly help Tyrion by giving him updates on Cersei moves (while he is moving it with Cersei; if you know what I mean!)

Finally, we again meet King Stannis who asks his man Ser Davos to take his woman Melissandre somewhere discreet. The episode ends on a horrific note when The Red Woman delivers an evil shadow like baby and even Ser Davos loses his sh*t after witnessing this incident first hand.

Breath.