Sumith Prasad
The fourth episode of FX’s thriller series ‘The Old Man,’ ‘XI,’ follows the aftermath of Emily Chase/Parwana’s decision to retaliate against the Taliban by killing Omar. She makes a life-altering choice and sends her two adoptive fathers, Dan Chase and Harold Harper, to find help safeguarding her new community. The two Americans return to their home country to meet someone who shaped their lives. Chase is surprised by a former ally’s presence in an unexpected place. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes Emily, who finds herself in the middle of reasoning and sentimentality. While she deals with her sorrow as a daughter, Chase confronts a new enemy! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Dan Chase and Harold Harper Embark on an Impossible Mission
‘XI’ begins with Emily Chase/Parwana deciding that she cannot return to the United States when her community in Afghanistan is expecting deaths in the form of Taliban soldiers. She asks Dan Chase and Harold Harper to return to the United States and meet Morgan Bote, their mentor, to withdraw the sanctions the latter had implemented on Faraz Hamzad. She believes that when Bote unfreezes the militant leader’s accounts, their people can use the same and escape from the Taliban soldiers. Her two adoptive fathers reluctantly return to their country to meet their mentor. Hamzad asks his daughter to leave Afghanistan since she can do many more from abroad for his people.
Tarik, Khadija’s son, makes plans for himself and Emily to leave the Afghan community. When she fails to accept her potential departure from her family, the young man tells her that the place is not the heaven as she believes. Chase and Harper arrive at Bote’s mansion and plead to him to help their daughter. He makes it clear that he cannot. The “old man” tells his two mentees that they are part of a story they are unaware of, hinting at a larger scheme involving Hamzad. When they ask him about it, Bote informs them that their new “ally” has a business partnership with Suleyman Pavlovic, the Russian man Chase freed from the custody of the Afghan militant leader when they were young men.
Bote adds that Pavlovic has been buying the lithium Hamzad has been extracting from the deposit in his country. Chase dismisses the revelation, stating that the militant leader hates the Russian man, seemingly forgetting that the two worked together to trap the former CIA operative in the first season. As the discussion between the mentor and his two mentees progresses, Zoe McDonald reveals herself as the ally of the old man. She is planning discussions with Hamzad’s lawyer, Nina Kruger, to learn enough information for their advantage. After collecting them from their pet hotel, Zoe has been looking after Dave and Carol, Chase’s dogs.
Back in Afghanistan, Hamzad dies because of the bullet wound he sustained after Harper shoots him. Emily feels guilty of hiding the cause of his death and comes clean to Khadija, who lets her know that she knows how he died. The old woman clarifies that Hamzad didn’t want his people to know about the secret since he wanted her to belong and be loved in his community. Tarik tells his mother that they cannot stay for long in the country after the funeral.
The Old Man Season 2 Episode 4 Ending: Is Morgan Bote Dead? Who Kills Him?
After the discussion with Dan Chase and Harold Harper, Morgan Bote recedes to his office, only to get confronted by a killer. The assassin shoots at the old man, kills him, and sends his photograph to his client. Even though the killer gets mauled by Chase’s dogs to reveal who sent him, the photograph reaches Suleyman Pavlovic, indicating that he orchestrated the killing. The Russian crime lord kills Bote as retaliation for freezing the accounts of his business partner, Faraz Hamzad. The unholy partnership has enabled him to be the owner of an immense amount of lithium, a metal used in making nuclear weapons.
Pavlovic is rising to the heights of the global crime scene with the lithium in his custody. He is in a place to negotiate with any country since the acquired metal threatens any of his enemy nations. When Bote freezes Hamzad’s accounts, two developments unravel. First of all, it limits the Afghan militant leader’s ability to mine the deposit and exposes him to the Taliban government officials, who need money to let him take advantage of the mine. Secondly, the action is a call for war, announcing that Bote’s next enemy is Pavlovic. Considering the old man’s connections and experiences, the Russian terrorist cannot let the former walk over him.
Therefore, Pavlovic kills Bote to secure himself and his business partnership with Hamzad and the militant leader’s group. With Bote out of the picture, the Russian man has free reign to trade as much lithium as he wants. He may even consider hijacking the Afghan lithium deposit because of Hamzad’s group’s vulnerability. However, after killing the strategic mastermind, he concerns himself with two individuals, who are described as his “real targets.”
Who Are Suleyman Pavlovic’s Targets?
Suleyman Pavlovic’s real targets can be Dan Chase and Harold Harper. When the former CIA operative shows up in Morocco in the first season of the thriller series, the Russian crime lord must have realized that his old ally is back in the game. The two Americans’ partnership must have even scared him. Since Harper is the assistant director of arguably the strongest federal force in the world, the FBI, he poses a significant threat in the United States if Pavlovic wants to find his footing in the country. Meanwhile, Chase’s righteousness and resilience are second to none. As the beneficiary of the same, the former Russian soldier knows what the ex-CIA operative can do to ensure the “right” thing.
If Chase realizes that Pavlovic is a global threat to international peacekeeping, the former may not hesitate to hunt him down and kill him. He has flexed what he can do by landing in Morocco when the Americans and Bote’s men try to capture him. Allowing these two courageous forces to live is expected to backfire on Pavlovic immensely. Thus, he decides to kill them for a threatless future where he can move all the pawns he wants to control the world. Since Chase and Harper now know who the real enemy is, they must be expecting a second attack from the Russian crime lord anytime soon. As the second progresses, the two Americans may need to deal with him and protect Emily from the Taliban army at the same time.
Read More: Is The Old Man Based on a True Story?
