‘Jack Ryan’ Recap: ‘The Boy’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​Be careful what you wish for. It’s a phrase that’s becoming quite common when it comes to the television shows that I watch, because as of late, I’ve found myself quite invested in the plot and the characters, to the point where I’m hoping something in particular will happen, only to have that desire wildly backfire on me when my dreams come true and well, that phrase applies to the next episode of Jack Ryan as well. Because for some time now, I’ve desperately been wanting the CIA and every agency available to properly go after Mousa bin Suleiman, especially after all the horrible things he’s done and well, they do just that in ‘The Boy’, but what happens when they do is an outright game changer.
 
However, before we get to the big surprise twist that comes about from the hunt for Suleiman, we have a few other things to cover in this tale since it was packed to the gills with more surprises and unexpected moments and most of them involved Jack and his overall development and growth when all is said and done and the first important one that came our way, involved a surprise meeting with Cathy at USAMRIID, wherein his cover was blown when he was forced to question her regarding the possibility that Suleiman and his late brother had figured out a way to weaponize a particularly nasty strain of Ebola and this moment mattered because for the first time in his budding relationship with Cathy, he was forced to be 100% honest about what he does and it was nice to see him own up and repair whatever damaged he had done to this relationship before the end of the episode.
 
But the other key moments in regard to Jack’s personal growth came about during his scenes at the CIA because it was clear that after everything that he’s been through, our dear Jack is no longer the mousey analyst he was when we met him. He’s hellbent on making a difference and proving Jim wrong about having to compromise his ideals and that was made evident by his push to send in ground forces to deal with Suleiman so that young Samir would come back to the United States safely in order to be reunited with his mom and perhaps his boldest and coolest moment to date was when he stood up in the briefing with the President and asked POTUS for the boy’s safe return and had his wish granted by the leader of the free world. But alas, while this was cool to watch, I did make mention of the fact that something ugly awaited us in this tale and all of that came about by way of the assault of the Suleiman compound.
 
Because once the Special Ops team arrived in Syria and the compound, they quickly came to discover, that Mousa and his entire army, were nowhere to be found. The place was simply vacant, robbing us of a grand showdown with this monster, but the lack of confrontation wasn’t a total loss. After all, there was intel to be found in this place and while Samir was missing as well, the rest of the hostages, one of which we learned had ties to POTUS, were brought home and well, this anti-climactic moment, was in fact, all part of Suleiman’s plan. Because while the hostages went off to meet the President at a ceremony, the CIA came to realize something terrible, that Suleiman was in essence, feeding the hostages a steady diet of Ebola laced vitamins and pills, making the hostages the weapon and exposing the President of the United States to one of the deadliest viruses on the planet…
 
So, yeah, holy crap. I was not expecting that kind of twist when all is said and done because Suleiman’s move to expose POTUS to Ebola is one of the boldest plans I’ve ever seen a villain undertake in either television or film and while the immediate impact of this move isn’t evident in this tale since we fade to black the instant we learn of this fact, no good can come from an assassination attempt on the President’s life and I’m sure this is only the opening salvo of a bigger plan for Suleiman and his men and well, as stunned as I am from watching this one, I have to know how it ends, so if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and press play and start the season one finale of this magnificent show and see what kind of pyrrhic victory comes about from my desire to see Suleiman pay for his crimes. Until next time.

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