Well, this is mildly embarrassing. I try to get these out on a schedule and have, for the most part, been able to follow it save the occasional site outage or some posting misfire that happened because of something in the website’s code. But this here might be the first one that came out behind schedule due entirely to me. I used to have these written up at least a week or so in advance, but an increased work load at my (paying) job and the fact I finally caught that COVID everyone’s been talking about meant I fell behind, and here is where it all comes down, with my writing up a quick write-up for a TV episode with maybe 20 minutes before it would need to go live. I mean, no one who reads these is sitting on pins and needles waiting for the clock to strike 5PM Central for the Jack Ryan write-up. It’s not like it’s gonna go anywhere.
Besides, I think Jimmy is the only one reading these. He is hitting “like”. Hi, Jimmy.
Alright, so here I am with Jack on the run, Greer getting help from a head of state for another country, and finally I have an idea what’s going on and who’s behind it.
Heck, it even makes sense why the father of the Czech president is behind a plan to revitalize the old Soviet Union. I mean, that on the surface makes no sense. Why would a Czech think wistfully back to the days of the Soviet Union? Short answer: Petr Kovac is not a Czech but an exiled Russian who can’t go home again. He even tells Greer as much in one of those old-fashioned sorts of scenes where two rival intelligence agents sit down, both knowing the other knows what the other is up to, and have a conversation that is equal parts vague threats and tense looks while both end up looking kinda cool.
It certainly seems more appropriate than Luka Goncharov’s threats to members of his own government, including one cabinet minister that he basically kidnaps, grills for the information he needs, and then executes. If anything, the series is doing a good job of showing how these very different people are looking into the situation in their own unique ways, and Luka’s are just perhaps the scariest.
But Jack’s are the most entertaining as he and Mike November basically realize they need to get information from an arms dealer, and the guy is basically paranoid. Mike’s one guy, ex-Mossad, is a good hacker, and all it takes is an intercepted schedule, doubts placed in a buyer, kidnapping the one guy the arms dealer trusts implicitly, and then amping up all the little things that can make a paranoid man even more crazy until picking him up is outright easy. Plant a bag here, sneak into a compound there, leave a suspicious stuffed animal somewhere, and then it’s not really much of a surprise that the crazy man cracks.
Too bad the folks in charge back home still think Jack is a problem because Luka is a known liar. I mean, it is part of his job and all.
Still, no sign of a subplot that doesn’t go anywhere with a character I don’t care about because it’s obvious the plot isn’t going anywhere.
More Stories
Weekend Trek “Ship In A Bottle”
Vikings: Valhalla “Pieces Of The Gods”
Noteworthy Issues: The Amazing Spider-Man #52 (September, 1967)