‘Jack Ryan’ Recap: ‘Sources and Methods’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​Our moral compass is something that often guides us through every phase of our life. It helps us selects jobs/careers, friends and the people who will potentially become our husbands and wives somewhere down the line simply because, we want to be surrounded by people who reflect what we believe in, and letting that compass guide us to those elements in our lives, allows for us to enjoy a sense of stability and security, especially when we find our morals challenged, and they will be at some point in life because that’s simply the kind of surprise the world sometimes sends our way. But what we rarely think about in life, is how we will respond to said challenges when they arrive because of the fact we work so hard to avoid them.
 
If anything, I think that’s one of the many, many reasons we often turn to stories that feature good people being pushed by fate and circumstance since it gives us guidance and ideas about how to deal with that kind of adversity when it does drop into our laps and it just so happens that a good man’s moral compass was pushed to the limit in the next episode of Jack Ryan since ‘Sources and Methods’ put Jack in quite the tough place mentally. Because in order to find Hanin, he and Greer were going to have to bend to the will of some not so savory characters to get help in locating her and well, it was simply fascinating to watch Jack struggle with this compromise so mightily.
 
In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a time in the entire Ryan-related Tom Clancy universe where I’ve ever seen the man this pissed off, but it would seem that working with and paying a man deeply involved with sex trafficking is the straw that breaks his proverbial back and well, he’s not wrong to be upset with that, because it takes an unsavory mindset to choose that kind of disgusting career field. But what I didn’t expect to see in this episode, was Jack losing his cool. Because his ire over dealing with this kind of scumbag got the better of him to the point where and the help eventually came to blows and Jack’s anger wasn’t just solely directed at this piece of human garbage, Greer got a taste of it as well since Jack challenged this particular mission parameter every step of the way.
 
But, despite the fact that this uneasy alliance was seemingly ready to fall apart at any given moment. The trio stuck to the mission, and payout at hand and eventually, they were able to rescue Hanin from the clutches of her husband’s disgusting henchman, Yazid, and gather the intel they so desperately needed on Mousa’s exact whereabouts. But while a fair chunk of this episode operated in morally ambiguous territory, it did find a way to deliver a particularly beautiful moment and that was accomplished by way a sub plot involving Victor, who ventured to Syria to meet the family of the man he killed in his introductory moment since it was revealed briefly in the last episode, that he made a mistake with that kill and in an act of kindness, he gave that man’s family all of his Vegas winnings and apologized for his mistake.
 
However, despite that magnificent moment of levity, and the fact that Jack and Jim earned quite the important win in this tale, there is still cause for concern as we barrel toward the season one finale. After all, Hanin’s son Samir is in grave danger now that the CIA knows where his home is located, and there’s no doubt in my mind Jack will be pushing to keep that young boy safe and then there’s the whole mysterious matter involving Suleiman and Ebola. Because that mysterious strain has been hanging around the story for some time now and now that we know the Suleiman brothers dug up the body of an EVD-27 victim, this virus is suddenly taking the center stage and I fear that Mousa is working to weaponize the virus. But in the here and the now, what a great episode this turned out to be. Seeing Jack be challenged in new ways is paramount to his growth and I suppose time will tell if he can indeed find a way to maintain his morality in the coming days now that he has Suleiman in his sights. Until next time. 

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