Summary
Contrivance and circular plotting undermines “Grandfather’s House”, despite this penultimate episode featuring some of the strongest individual scenes of the series.
Episode 5 of The Veil, “Grandfather’s House”, is probably the best individual outing of the FX series thus far. It’s also the one I liked the least.
At this point, the contrivance is overwhelming everything. The conversations and plot turns are becoming circuitous, and the script is bending over backward to accommodate a startling level of ineptitude.
Adilah Escapes The Apartment
In Episode 4, Imogen didn’t deal with the revelation that her father was a Russian double agent very well, getting very drunk and falling asleep on a pile of CIA documents. While she’s out, Adilah manages to escape the apartment by switching places with a delivery driver right under the nose of the DGSE.
Since the apartment is bugged by both the CIA and the DGSE, Imogen roams around it like a mad spinster shouting at the walls, trying to figure out what happened. It’s pretty easy to deduce that Adilah switched places with the delivery driver, who remains in the building disguised as a cleaner. Imogen steals his phone in a bit of sleight of hand, but the French chase him off before he can surrender himself and then gun him down after a brief chase before he can reveal who he’s working for.
It’s an exciting opening to “Grandfather’s House”, but seriously, does anyone in this show know what they’re doing?
So, is Adilah the Djinn of Al Raqqa Or Not?
In all the confusion, Adilah meets with Emir. And I’m confused.
From this conversation, it’s clear that Adilah is a terrorist. The implication is that the plan to bomb a U.S. harbor was hers. She and Emir are getting married before he blows himself to kingdom come. And yet the bigger question is whether Adilah is the Djinn of Al Raqqa, and that I’m not sure about.
It’s clear that Adilah is being blackmailed by threats to Yasmina’s life. It’s clear she’s subservient to Emir. When she’s instructed to kill Imogen by luring her to her grandfather Mohammed’s house and stabbing her to death, she asks for another agent to do the killing. Why would a feared terrorist leader act this way? What else is going on here?
Max Takes Matters Into His Own Hands
Max is fuming about the latest developments in The Veil Episode 6 and uses them as an excuse to blame both the French authorities and Imogen. With no options remaining, he pushes for permission to kidnap Yasmina and use her as leverage against Adilah.
As we saw in the previous episode, the DGSE has Max’s communications tapped, so Imogen and Malik overhear this conversation. When Imogen gets back to the apartment, Max is waiting for her. He smugly lets her know that she has been removed from the operation and that he’s looking forward to hearing from her as soon as Adilah makes herself known. This is dumb on multiple levels since Max himself said to his bosses that Imogen is known for being erratic and not following orders. For some reason he expects her to play along no questions asked after he has taken her off the mission.
Again, does anybody know what they’re doing here?
Imogen and Adilah Can’t Make Up Their Minds
Adilah texts Imogen with the location of her grandfather’s house, and Imogen meets her there. She tells her what the Americans are planning to do with Yasmina and guarantees she can get her out of the country; whatever she says, she’ll never be allowed to see her daughter again unless she leaves Paris immediately.
Emir’s assassin tries to make his move but he’s thwarted immediately because he flicks his knife out across the street, making it extremely obvious to Imogen what he’s doing. Why is everyone so bad at this? Imogen has no idea that Adilah is still in possession of the detonator that Emir gave her earlier, but she is determined to save her at all costs despite having previously been convinced of her guilt and determined to apprehend her.
All of this comes to a head in what is arguably the best individual scene of the series, certainly in terms of performance. Imogen tries to use Yasmina to strongarm Adilah into revealing the target and name of the ship, Adilah feigns offense at being manipulated in this way, and both women have quite a nasty argument about ethics. Imogen thinks Adilah is ridiculous to act like she’s the only mother in the world, the only person who has ever felt pain and loss. Adilah thinks Imogen is speaking from a position of privilege, having enjoyed a life of choices and glamorous white espionage.
The issue is that this argument about spies and terrorists is taking place very loudly on a gas station forecourt. Someone filling up their car in the background could crack this case wide open.
Anyway, The Veil Episode 6 ends with nothing resolved. Imogen has spent the entire episode being all teary-eyed and bitter, Adilah is still trying to strike a sympathetic figure despite having planned a terror attack, and nobody knows what they’re doing. Hopefully, the finale will manage to bring all of this together in a satisfactory way.
