“Jack Ryan” is back for a fourth and final season. Jack who is now the CIA’s Deputy Director finds himself having to face the fallout of the previous season, as well as the actions of the former CIA director which leads to him uncovering a conspiracy within the CIA. This season introduces two new key characters, Domingo Chavez played by Michael Peña and Chao Fah played by Louis Ozawa.
The season opens in Shan State, Myanmar, where key parts of the series takes place. Season 4 starts on a very suspenseful and promising note that is enough to get fans hooked in just a few seconds. We see someone with a hood covering their face dragged into a building and then strung up. Once the hood is removed, we see it’s Jack, he is badly injured and is being tortured.
We then cut to Three weeks earlier in Lagos, Nigeria where a team of four mercenaries infiltrate what appears to be a civilian residence, after making it upstairs they then shoot a man in his bed, who we soon find out was the Nigerian President, Udo. One of the men takes a photo for proof. We do not see who the men are but we do see who their man behind the chair is, after handling the operations for the mission, he then leaves the mercenaries to be captured. The man behind the operation, who is using a fake name Bill Tuttle then walks out of a shared office building and calls Mr Chao Fah in Myanmar to confirm the hit.
Thanks to the events in Lagos, the US President Bachler asks to speak with Acting Director Elizabeth Wright and Acting Deputy Director Jack Ryan for a briefing. Jack makes it clear that although thry don’t know enough, they did not authorize this operation and the men who conducted it were not CIA, although the weaponry recovered from the scene does belong to them. According to Jack they have captured one of the assassins. The president makes it clear that anything that former Director Miller did is now on them (This becomes much clearer down the line).
We now move to Yucatan, Mexico, where Domingo Chavez is waiting for us. We find Chavez in a church, after a few moments, he picks up a wooden box and heads to a party, there he finds a man named Emilio, the head of the Perez Cartel. Later on we see him carrying that box to the head of the Marquez Cartel. Inside we see Emilio’s severed hands. Now they are the last standing cartel in Mexico. We see the head of the Cartel do the same as with Udoh and take photographic evidence to send as we will soon find out, to Chao Fah.
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At the Senate hearing following president Udoh’s death, Jack is questioned about the CIA’s involvement, Jack’s integrity is called into question when they bring up Ryan’s mission in Russia from season 3 as well as the fact that he went rogue, Senator Jennings repeatedly goes after Jack about Russia, saying that “You may appear to be our saving grace, when you may in fact be part of the problem.”
Rodrigo Marin, Chavez’s cousin and Marquez’s right-hand man, congratulates Chavez for his good work. When Chavez asks why the picture, his cousin tells him that Emilio’s hands hold the keys to Asia. To the Silver Lotus Triad. He explains what their plans for the partnership looks like, how their shared networks with the Triad can be leveraged to open the floodgates of the world for them and what it can bring. He also mentions that they will be arriving soon to meet them.
We see Jack arrive at his apartment where Cathy Mueller played by Abbie Cornish, his old flame who we last saw in Season 1 is back in the picture. Jack and Cathy are back together, we see them sit down for dinner to help get Jack’s mind off the terrible day he’s had, Cathy reminds him if he hadn’t done what he did in Russia, he wouldn’t have a home to protect. She tells Jack “Nothing but Vipers beyond these walls”, which is a very profound heavy line. Their dinner is soon interrupted by Greer. Once Cathy leaves Jack and Greer start talking about recent events and most importantly about Miller. Greer tells Jack that Miller used to muddy every file into a type of code so that it was deniable at best unreadable at worst. Which meant many unauthorized hits were sanctioned. Luckily for Jack, Greer does know how to read the files.
At the Wukong Palace Casino in Shan State, we see Fah enter an office, on the desk is a picture of his wife and daughter, he then changes the sim card on his phone from a case of sims that he has, once he does he receives the picture of Emilio’s hands. He then immediately decides to head to Mexico with his bodyguard who we find out is also his son.
Chavez goes to see Lieutenant Morales, who is on the Cartel’s payroll. He tells Chavez that the police know a shipment is coming and they know the Cartel isn’t as strong as they were. Chavez asks him how much he wants, Morales asks for double his amount, Chavez says it’ll be done but warns him he’d kill him if he didn’t stay in his place.
Chao Fah’s son worries as to why they have to go to Mexico, Fah makes it clear that he needs to look Marquez in the eye to see what kind of man he is. He says with their business changing they have to change too. In order to keep their mother and sister safe.
Meanwhile, back in the states Greer and Ryan are sifting through the mess Miller left behind by going through the encrypted files in his office. They find nine operations with no evidence they even exist. Later on Wright is woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call, Jack tells her that they’ve narrowed it down to nine operations, but it’s impossible to decipher them, and if they have any chance at stopping the people behind Lagos, he’s going to shut them all down and cut off the money. Wright agrees.
We then see Greer visit his family for a dinner in an efforts to mend fences. He hasn’t been home or seen his kids for a long time. Greer and Jasmine have a long way to go before they can fully mend they’re relationship, but like he told Jack, do the work.
Back in Mexico, we see Chavez getting a group of his men ready for the meeting with Chao Fah. Chavez has already planned to abduct Chao with his team of mercenaries. Rodrigo Marin isn’t happy that Chavez has changed the plan, which originally included Marquez himself going to meet Chao at the dock, but now, Marin will be going on his behalf and then Chao will be taken to Marquez. Chavez warns him that the original plan would have made Marquez look weak.
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Chao and his entourage arrive in Mexico. He gets a look at the Cartel’s drug business. They will be providing pure ingredients to the Mexicans to use in their drugs and other products. Meanwhile Morales sees his bank account has been deactivated and Chavez hasn’t deposited the money. Fah then heads to the docks for the meeting. Chao’s sun is not too pleased at the fact that plans have changed, but Chao agrees to go with Chavez to meet Marquez. However they are soon interrupted by the sound of the police, no doubt sent by an enraged Morales. Things quickly escalate resulting in a shootout between the two gangs and the police, Chavez tries to get his hands on Chao but he slips away.
For a brief moment we see Chao’s wife and daughter about to board a plane in Myanmar, until they suddenly receive a text from him saying “Stay put. Change of plans” a key point to remember for the next episode.
After the Nigeria Foundation Gala which Jack and Elizabeth were invited too, where Elizabeth meets philanthropist Zeyara Lemos who also knows Cathy and Nigerian lobbyist Osoji. Ryan and Cathy head home, the episode ends on a cliffhanger, we see Jack open and close his fridge ND behind it, is Chavez himself, he points a gun to Jack’s head asking him to “Turn Pluto back on”, despite Jack denying any knowledge of it, he goes on to say he has 24 hours to do so. This confirms Jack’s suspicion that it was in fact one of Miller’s missions that Ryan shut down that lead to the death of president Udoh.
Season 4 kicks off in an intense and exciting fashion. This first episode sets the precedent for what is about to come in the rest of the season by perfectly building up each aspect of the story, as well as each character’s arc.
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Michael Peña’s performance is absolutely incredible. So intense, powerful and aggressive with a stoick personality. He has completely disappeared into the role of Chavez. He immediately establishes himself as a lead character. Theres a lot of mystery surrounding him, and this character has established that he has both a brutal and an emotional side.
For the final season of Jack Ryan, we wanted them to go all out, and they have, the plot of this season is an exciting conspiracy mixed with some good old fashioned terrorist and Triad chasing. The first episode sets up a broader Jack Ryan universe which will make the adventures ahead all the more interesting.
“Jack Ryan” is now streaming on Prime Video
Fangirl and Writer with a huge passion for entertainment.
