‘Jack Ryan’ Recap: ‘Triage’ & ‘Convergence’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

John Krasinski as Jack Ryan in Episode 402 of ‘Jack Ryan’ – ‘Convergence’. (Photo Courtesy of Attila Szvacsek/Prime Video.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Season Four Premiere of ‘Jack Ryan’. To revisit the Season Three Finale, click here.
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Over the course of the past three seasons, the Prime Video series, Jack Ryan, has elevated this already iconic characters to new heights. For this series, took the time to really ground the American equivalent of James Bond… in more realistic stories. The kind that has seen him tackle men ready to bring harm to America from abroad because of their hate of this nation, battle political corruption in other nations and he even had to fight to stop the reformation of the Soviet Union. All of which are plots that echo our own worries about our world, giving us context and depth amongst the stunning moments that this series provides us with and well, Jack has handled such powerfully relevant challenges in such a succinct manner, that one has to wonder what’s left for him to save the world from on a global scale. 
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Well as it turns out, for the show’s final season, the writer’s room saved Jack’s biggest and most important mission for last. One that indeed will give us plenty to ponder upon regarding some of our current world concerns. But of course… that was only revealed to us… after we caught up with Jack and Elizabeth Wright. For ‘Triage’ spent a lot of time exploring what followed Jack’s bold move to save the world from resurgent Soviet ambitions and World War III and well… life was good. After all, Wright was the Acting CIA Director and Jack became her deputy and together, they planned to purge the department of the incompetence that former Director Miller brought to the table and more changes were coming into Jack’s life. 

After all, his longtime friend and mentor, Jack Greer was pondering upon leaving the service to head into the private sector, giving rise to some adjustments for him in life. Not to mention, Dr. Cathy Mueller was back in Jack’s life, offering up the romantic connection we’ve been waiting for when it comes to this duo, and to top it all off, the purge at the CIA is another positive notion of note worth diving into deeper. Since Jack and Elizabeth truly made it clear that they wanted this organization to function with honor and integrity once again and that meant… they had to clean up Miller’s messes and bring them to a close. To ensure moving forward this wasn’t the mantra of the department and well, that’s when this story took a sour turn.

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Michael Peña as Domingo ‘Ding’ Chavez in Episode 401 of ‘Jack Ryan’ – ‘Triage’. (Photo Courtesy of Attila Szvacsek/Prime Video.)

For Jack pulled the financial plug on every single mission that Miller left active and that… brought forth trouble for an agent named Domingo ‘Ding’ Chavez in ‘Convergence’. For he was embedded in Mexico working a critical operation. One where he was coming to discover that something awful was brewing. Since the Cartels in Mexico were consolidating power in the hopes of bringing some Chinese drugs and drug dealers into the mix. Why exactly, Ding didn’t know, but he knew such a move was trouble and kept his head down until the moment arrived to learn the truth. Which he did, right before he was forced to cease operations because of Jack’s decision to cut funding and well… that brought Jack and Ding face to face in America wherein, Jack was able to put the pieces together as to what the hell was going on.
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In that, all the strange black ops that were happening around the world, combined with this mission, weren’t designed to protect America’s interests and safety abroad, but designed to help bring about its end the long way round. For the Silver Lotus Triad wanted unfettered access to the United States of America, wherein it would sell the finest drugs and sow discontent that way, and well… a unified Cartel would help that happen no problem. And then… once they had a stronghold, they could move anyone and anything into America, and bring it to its knees. All because of Miller and his stupidity and well… just like that… Jack is facing his greatest threat to date, one born of the very ignorance and ego that we currently worry about. 

Since we too are worried deeply about what all this infighting and ‘in it for me’ attitude will bring since our enemies are watching and waiting to use that to their advantage, adding another powerful bit of commentary to this tale. But that aside, this really was quite the quality premiere. One that finally brought a Tom Clancy legend back into the fold via the latest on-screen appearance of Ding Chavez, and it was a story that truly did a phenomenal job of setting the stage for an epic season. The kind that will do this story justice and bring Jack’s long and winding saga to a close in a perfect manner, and truly… we will be waiting with bated breath for Friday’s next batch of episodes. So, we can see how exactly how on earth Jack is going to be able to bring down a powerful organization that may be mere minutes away from infiltrating America. Until next time.

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