Recap: Angela Makes A Choice In ‘The Old Man’ Season 2, Episode 3

Emily/Angela/Parwana is a woman of many names and many fathers, all of whom rally around her in Episode 3 of The Old Man Season 2, titled with the usual level of creativity, “X”. This is a tight installment, built around the tension of a standoff in Faraz Hamzad’s village. With Omar and the Taliban waiting at the gates, Chase, Harper, Hamzad, and Angela have to work through three decades worth of family issues to figure out a solution to their respective problems.

While there’s some action here and there, this episode really excels in conversation, with the reunion allowing for some new — or old, I suppose — dynamics to explore. The big question now is, after just three episodes, where might this season be heading?

Three Dads Are Better Than One

The mystery of what happened in the cave at the end of Episode 2 is solved promptly in “X”. As it turns out, Hamzad got the drop on Chase in there, but Harper shot him. That was the gunshot Angela heard. She staggers into the cave to discover that her surrogate father shot her biological father to save the life of her actual father (or something like that.)

Angela is visibly happy to see Chase — aww, Harper’s face when they cuddle is tragic — but she’s primarily concerned with saving Hamzad’s life and getting him back to his village posthaste. She knows Omar and the Taliban are there and are threatening to cause carnage unless Hamzad can explain why he’s harboring an American FBI agent. Neither Chase nor Harper is keen on the idea, but neither of them would be in the country if they weren’t willing to do anything to save their “daughter”, so they agree to help.

Leadership Dispute

Back in the village, Khadija is doing her best to keep Omar busy, but the situation is complicated when Tarik arrives in a helicopter with a bag full of money. He hopes the payment will compel Omar to leave them alone for the time being while they internally discuss whether Hamzad’s actions have doomed the community unnecessarily.

And he has a point, to be fair. As he explains to Khadija, Morgan Bote has somehow managed to cut off all their money after Hamzad went rogue to kidnap Angela. He has put them in an impossible situation, now enemies of both the Americans and the Taliban for the sake of a personal crusade thirty years in the making.

Pictured: (l-r) John Lithgow as Harold Harper. CR: FX.

And things get quickly worse. Omar isn’t satisfied with his bribe, and on the way out, he begins interrogating Faruza’s son Farouk about Angela’s recent arrival in the community. When Faruza rushes to intervene, one of the Taliban soldiers shoots her, and all Hell breaks loose.

All Guns Blazing

In the hills, Chase and Angela take out a couple of Taliban scouts. Hamzad jumps on the radio and tells Omar he’s coming back, and Angela wants to join him to help defuse the situation. Again, Chase and Harper aren’t keen, and even Hamzad doesn’t like this particular idea, but she holds so much sway among these men that they all concede.

Luckily, Hamzad puts his foot down and heads back into the village to confront Omar alone. But Angela, seeing that he’s obviously going to get killed, follows him anyway. When she spots Faruza dead on the floor she’s obviously incensed, and when Omar demands to know who she is she reveals herself as Parwana Hamzad before stabbing him in the neck.

Once again, all Hell breaks loose. Harper, who had arranged a special forces helicopter through Marion in exchange for taking her out to dinner — this guy is really going to have some personal problems when he gets home — redirects it to bomb the Taliban while Chase provides covering fire with a rifle.

The Taliban are wiped out, and Angela seals the deal by putting two bullets in Omar’s head as he attempts to crawl away. This is a clear turning point for the character, who is rapidly figuring out her own identity and what she’s willing to do to protect it. But where things go from here is really anyone’s guess.