At the end of Jack Ryan episode 3, Luka killed Konstantin and revealed himself to be Jack’s source, and Jack and Mike headed to Budapest to track down an arm’s dealer named Levan Zubkov who was dealing Uranium to the Sokol project, and he happened to be one of Mike’s client’s. Meanwhile Greer had helped president Kovac figure out that her chief of staff Radek was in fact one of the people behind minister Popov’s death.
The summary of this episode reads, “In Budapest, Jack and Mike plan a sting on a slippery arms dealer to ascertain the whereabouts of the Sokol nuclear device, as Greer discovers some intriguing and potentially incriminating information on Petr Kovac.”
Read the recap of Season 3 Episode 3 here.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR JACK RYAN SEASON 3 EPISODE 4
In a very smart move, when he returns to Moscow, Russia, Luka has a meeting with defense minister Petrova and hands him his own phone, which contains Jack’s texts and claims that Konstantin is the traitor, and accuses Petrov of trying to have him killed. He tells him Jack never showed at the meeting but Luka tried to kill him instead accusing Petrova of setting him up. Framing him as the leak inside the Sokol project instead. A masterful move on his part. Petrov apologizes and says he had nothing to do with it.
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In Budapest, Jack and November start planning how they will get to Hungarian arms dealer, Levan Zubkov. November talks about what a tight ship he runs and what a closely guarded operation this is and how Zubkov has a close relationship with the police. So getting to him is not going to be easy, now remember Zubkov is one of November’s clients, so Jack suggests they get him to need an extraction, getting him to come to them.
The first part of the plan starts with Jack hijacking one of Levan’s meetings. Jack meets one of Levan’s buyers and convinces him it’s too dangerous right now to work with Levan, the buyer, then backs out, messages Levan saying that he cannot make it. This gets the dominoes falling.
When Elizabeth has to brief their boss Miller on what happened in Vienna, she covers for Ryan and doesn’t tell him he was on the train, but when she does relay what he spoke about in the phone call from the previous episode, Miller begins to question if Jack is being played and whether he really can be trusted when he finds out who Jack’s asset is.
Meanwhile Greer is investigating Radek and Peter, Kovac’s father, and most trusted advisor. We see Greer and 2 other agent break into Radek’s apartment and search it, there they find an old army photo which shows Petr was Radek’s commander in the Army.
We then see a flashback that shows us Petr was one of the soldiers back in Matoksa, he refused to kill the scientists because he believed the Sokol project was their chance to save the union, but he was shot. Of course, it wasn’t fatal. We now know that he is one of the people working on the Sokol project to bring back old Russia.
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Flash forward to Jack and November abducting George, Zubkov’s assistant. Soon after we see November walk into a room with George’s bag and leave it there. Later on we see a paranoid Levan checking his room and his people for bugs and wires. George’s phone, which was left there by November then gets a call, with Jack listening to Levan panic on the other line. It was almost time for the last phase of their plan.
As for as politics is concerned, we see Greer question the President without telling her of his suspicions. Later on we see Greer ask a fellow agent to put a 24 hour detail on her. Which wouldn’t seem important at the time but when it comes to the end of the episode, it will be.
Meanwhile in the Russian war room, Luka seems to push the idea that Greer is putting ideas into Kovac’s head and the Russian president decides to strike back at the Czech Republic. Petrov on the other hand seems distracted by the fact that the Chief of Staff is missing. Cut to an underground bunker where we see Luka has a man tied up, it’s the Chief of Staff. Luka has found out that the Russian President’s chief of staff, was spying for Petrov. Luka gets him to write down the set of names of everyone linked to the project by convincing him his boss is giving everyone up, which of course he isnt. He plays him perfectly, before he eventually shoots him in the head.
A determined Greer questions Petr later, the two bond over vodka and he pulls some information from the old man that he is not “Czech” but Russian. Petr tells how his mother immigrated with him to the neighboring country. He is an exile and never had a home to go home to.
In the next step of their plan, Jack and November’s partner and IT guy drives a car with a fake bomb in the backseat into Levan’s compound which sends him and his security team into frenzy, after running away, Levan finally calls Mike November for an extraction. Mike then tells him to meet him at a safe house and transfer 100,000 into an account.
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When Levan walk into the safe house and sees a tied up George, Mike pulls a gun on him, and Jack very calmly explains to him just how screwed he is. Jack asked him where the Uranium was and when he didn’t answer, he explains, the account he transferred the money into was an ISIS monitered account, and his name was now on every country’s watch list. So he had no choice but to help them. When Jack asks the second time, he has no choice but to help them.
Where is the Uranium going? Back to where it all began. Matoksa. After contemplating it, Jack calls and gives this information to Elizabeth, he even tells her exactly where he is. But when Jack asks her for her help, she asks him to turn himself in.
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The episode ends with the president attending a military event, there Radek gets a call from his wife who warns him the CIA has been in there house. She warns what would happen if Petr were to find out they were on to him. He tells them to run. As the president gets into her vehicle he takes control leaving behind the rest of her security detail and while they are driving away, Radek turns and drives away with the president.
Tensions rise in this episode, both on the CIA and political side, and with both countries, what’s exciting is we get to see some old school secret agent work from Jack. This season though is a perfect example of the complex writing we always see on Jack Ryan, and we are only halfway through season 3.
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