Summary
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Season 2, Episode 6, “Persona Non Grata”, meanders a little, but it opens the door for what’s to come in the final two chapters.
With the stakes higher than before, Jack returns to Venezuela in Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 6, “Persona Non Grata”. Jim (Wendell Pierce) picks him up without Mike’s knowledge, but their plans are skewed when Venezuelan police hold them at gunpoint and shove them in their cars.
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 6 Recap
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 6 (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
Marcus is still on the boundaries of an indigenous village in the jungle in Episode 6. He is finally joined up with Matice’s task team, who have been attacked. Marcus helps them.
We learn that Jim and Jack were held at gunpoint by President Reyes’ men. They end up at an estate with Reyes, and the President tries convincing Jim and Jack again that he captured the men who killed the US Senator. Jack brings the truth to the table, that the real man who killed Moreno was Max. Reyes offers some chilling words — “All your assumptions are based on ignorance — you’ve disrespected me”. Episode 6 is getting uneasy for the Americans.
Meanwhile, back in the jungle, Matice tries his best to get out of heavy gunfire, but he ends up getting rifled to death. Another American dead.
With Reyes offering threatening words, he flares up tension in the media, and the US Embassy is suffering from intense protests outside the gates. Mike is furious at Jack for returning, but Jim explains that they are close to connecting the dots. The news shows the protests outside, the anti-American rhetoric, and the death of the American soldier Matice. The embassy is ordered to evacuate and Mike is accused of putting American lives in danger.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 6 closes with Mike deciding that he is not leaving Venezuela. All three men decide to stay. They head to a hideout and Jack secretly asks one of the men helping the drive to their next location to detour Jim to the airport. Jack is worried the stress may cause further health problems for Jim.
But unfortunately, the man driving Jim away is not on their team, and Jim is captured.
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 7 Recap
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 7 (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
It’s becoming increasingly dangerous for our Americans in Episode 7. Mike (Michael Kelly) and Jack head to a safe house momentarily to catch their breath. But their break is cut short when Mike learns Jim did not get on the plane — he has been captured. As Mike and Jack leave the safe house, they are attacked by Reyes’ men. Reyes also sends a threat to Ubirra, attacking his home town.
Meanwhile, Jim is tied up by Bastos and tortured. Jim is asked for information but laughs instead. Eventually, from the pain, Jim passes out.
Episode 7 sees Gloria try and ramp up her election campaign, but Reyes sends a veiled threat to her team as well, sending “extra security” outside of her offices. Venezuela is in a political, violent lockdown.
Mike wants to head to the border in “Dios y Federación” and claim asylum, but Jack tells Mike about Jim’s heart condition at the worst time. The duo must now help Jim escape. Jack bargains with a militiaman who ironically had his finger cut off by Jim earlier in the season. While Jack gets a team together, Jim finds Gloria’s husband in a prison camp.
President Reyes delivers a speech to the nation about more prosperous times. Afterward, there is a tense dinner between Reyes and General Ubirras, they find out the Americans have shut down their satellites. Reyes orders to kill the prisoners, despite Ubirras disagreeing.
Jack and the team venture into the prison camp in Episode 7. The camp has already started killing the prisoners. After an assault, they find Matice’s dead body. They learn that Jim was taken away from the camp. Meanwhile, Ubirra expresses his disappointment to Reyes about assaulting his home town in spite of him. Reyes cruelly goes up behind General Ubirras and slices his throat.
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 7 ends showing Jim shackled up — he is praying to God.
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 8 Recap
Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode 8 (Credit – Amazon Prime Video)
Episode 8 is fast-paced and filled with action — what more can we expect from a finale based on a Tom Clancy novel? Jack (John Krasinski) and the others scour the camp in “Strongman”. Jack makes sure to take recordings of what happened in the prisoner camp, showing Reyes’ crimes.
Meanwhile, on the news, it is announced that Reyes is going to win the election by a landslide. A situation that is blatantly not true. Jack shares a video of the prisoner camp on YouTube and sends it to news syndicates. Mike is ready to depart, believing he has all the evidence that links the mining and death of Gerry to Reyes, but Jack does not want to leave without Jim. Jim is in the weeds and Reyes now declares him as an American spy.
Once again, Mike changes his mind, and asks the helicopter to make a detour — they are going to the presidential palace to save Jim. Episode 8 turns into a full recon mission where all hell breaks loose.
President Reyes orders for the polls to be shut down, causing chaos at the stations. The people of Venezuela turn against the government on the streets, storming the palace — Reyes has lost complete control.
In his prison cell, Jim pretends to be dead and then stabs the guard, while Jack, Mike and the team storm the palace. It’s kill after kill as they route around the palace with ease. Reyes’ men have no chance. Eventually, they find an exhausted Jim, and they ask him to head to the roof for evacuation.
But as Season 2 has suggested, Jack is not in complete control of his emotions. Episode 8 sees Jack disappear — he’s going straight for the neck: President Reyes. Mike, concerned that Jack is going to cause an international fallout, goes to find him. Jack fights Reyes, throwing him to the floor and pressing a gun to his head. At this moment, I was convinced Jack was going to go for it, but Mike manages to calm him down, reminding him what is at stake.
As Jim, Jack and Mike escape, the palace is breached. It is the end of Reyes. News reaches Gloria — the electoral results were fixed and she had won by 70% of the vote. Venezuela has a new President.
On the military boat, Jim and Jack bond briefly. Jim explains it is time for him to move on after the range of health complications he has endured. Jim brings up the Moscow job again and states he understands why Jack did not take it. “When you work behind a desk, your friends don’t get killed”. Shortly after their conversation, Gloria is reunited with her husband.
The question pursed on everyone’s lips now in Episode 8 is this — it’s all good that Jack and company escaped, but who is responsible for the shell companies covering the mining projects and the death of the US Senator? Is it just Reyes?
In a last-minute twist, Jack meets Senator Mitchell Chapin for what looks like an impromptu chat. Jack describes the shell companies but points out that Reyes only owned half of it. The other half was a company in Philadelphia that had extremely savvy lawyers protecting it.
However, there was a phone number linked to the company North Lake Allied, which was conveniently in Rupert’s phone as well — it was the senator.
Jack has always been about following the money, but in this case, he followed the telephone calls as well. Mitchel tries to justify the veiled approach in mining the “blue gold”, stating that the USA cannot allow China to monopolize that chemical element. But Jack sees it for what it is; Senator Mitchell’s actions have led to the deaths of Americans. The senator tries bargaining with Jack, but he walks off as the FBI turn up to arrest him.
What did you think of Jack Ryan Season 2 Episodes 6-8? Comment below.
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