Summary
“Love All, Trust A Few, Do Wrong To None” took a delve into the past, as old and new connections became clearer.
This recap of Bard of Blood Season 1, Episode 4, “Love All, Trust A Few, Do Wrong To None”, contains spoilers. You can check out our spoiler-free season review by clicking these words and our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these ones.
Jannat (Kirti Kulhari Sehgal), who rescued Kabir (Emraan Hashmi), is the elder sister of Nusrat Marri (Abhishekh Khan), which is one of the many things we learn during Bard of Blood Episode 4, “Love All, Trust A Few, Do Wrong To None”, which devoted much of its runtime to an extended flashback sequence which helped to flesh out both previous and current events and the dynamics of the characters involved in both.
Following the climax of the previous episode, all of the major factions in Balochistan are affected. The local authorities insist that they have found the body of a Taliban operative, but Shehzad (Jaideep Ahlawat) denies it; he, in turn, cannot accept that Indian spies are operating in the area since he can’t fathom that they would send a woman in that capacity. Nonetheless, he sends reinforcements to follow Jannat’s vehicle right back to the safehouse where Veer (Viineet Kumar Singh) is currently holding Isha (Sobhita Dhulipala) hostage after the revelation that she lied about their mission.
There is still friction between the group, but when the police raid the safehouse, everyone is forced to flee. Meanwhile in Bard of Blood Episode 4, Nusrat confronts Jannat about seeing Kabir again, hinting at a previous relationship — she’s married, and dishonoring her husband and faith can only mean one thing. Nevertheless, Kabir goes to see her at home. He needs help and information that she can provide, including a safehouse where they can plan their next move. Some of the dialogue in “Love All, Trust A Few, Do Wrong To None” touches on the political state of Balochistan, its relationship with India and the Taliban and Pakistan as a whole, but this show isn’t great at tackling this kind of meaty material. It’s much more comfortable communicating through action, which is probably why the dense flashback sequences went on for so long.
There were lots of juicy details in those sequences, though. We saw Kabir and Vikram’s original mission, which was to investigate the murder of an Indian spy posing as a diplomat, and how that mission evolved — thanks to a slightly younger-looking Shehzad — into the extraction of a defector. We know how the story ends; with betrayal and Vikram’s death by booby trap. But Bard of Blood Episode 4 also reveals how Kabir posed as a reporter in order to ingratiate himself into the BAF through a relationship with Jannat that became all too real, and how her father rumbled his cover. We also got to finally see some real examples of Kabir being an elite operative in a decently lengthy action sequence aping those masterful extended tracking shots you saw in True Detective and Daredevil and such. It wasn’t as good as any of those, but it was the best slice of action the show has delivered thus far.
In a last-minute twist, Jannat calls Shehzad to tip him off about Kabir’s plan.
