After being taken at the end of the previous episode, Chase (Jeff Bridges) is tied to a chair in an abandoned church at the beginning of The Old Man season 2 episode 7. However, he’s not alone. Emily (Alia Shawkat) in his head saying they’re close to the end, close to being even.
Pavlovich (Rade Serbedzija) enters, saying he’s known Chase by his various aliases for a long time, but now it’s time for all of them to come to an end. Though why did Chase give himself up now? Chase reveals he needs the antidote. Pavlovich details the neuro agent, which by now is altering Chase’s brain function (explains the Emily hallucinations), and in a few hours, it will render him disabled and by morning kill him. If Chase wants the antidote, he’ll have to give Pavlovich something that outweighs the danger of keeping Chase alive and risking his position with the rare earth metals cartel. Chase says he and Zoe can either ruin Pavlovich or solve all of his problems. The Emily hallucination says Chase has Pavlovich right where he wants him; he’ll be cut free and have the chance to kill Pavlovich. Sure, it’ll cost Chase his life and possibly Zoe’s, but Emily will know Chase loved her.
Read on for our full recap of The Old Man season 2 episode 7, which also sees Harper (John Lithgow) confront Marion (Janet McTeer).
Zoe turns herself in
Zoe (Amy Brenneman) arrives at a police station saying she needs to be taken into custody. She’s witnessed the murder of Nina Kruger and the murderers aren’t far behind. She wants the police to protect her and to call the CIA. This all sounds far-fetched to the officer behind the front desk (Lauren Baldwin), but Zoe pushes her to call the US embassy and say the people who killed Kruger also killed Morgan Bote; they’ll know the importance of that. When the officer asks for Zoe’s name she says Marcia Dixon.
Eventually, a man arrives to talk with Zoe. He introduces himself as Pete (Nick Boraine), saying he came running when he heard she knows the identity of Bote’s killer. Before she talks though, Zoe wants immunity from anything she has done. Pete explains that’s easy enough to get, but warns her that Bote’s death made a lot of dangerous people angry. He calls them monsters who won’t stop until they have their revenge, and if they have any reason to suspect Zoe had something to do with Bote’s death, there’s no immunity from them. Is she sure she wants to do this? Zoe tells him to make the call, then she’ll tell him everything.
However, someone else is also making a call. A spy for Pavlovich is stationed outside the police station, awaiting instructions on what to do next.
Chase makes his choice
Chase explains the chaos that will be unleashed if Zoe reveals Pavlovich killed Bote; the Russian will sleep with one eye open for the rest of his short life. The alternative is Zoe could give Chase’s name, telling a story that Bote’s former protege was looking for revenge after his daughter was kidnapped, killing Bote, killing Hamzad, but that when he came for Pavlovich, Pavlovich killed him. In exchange for this story, Chase would get the antidote, a bag of cash and he and Zoe would go free. But Pavlovich is skeptical, believing there is more. And there is.
Chase reveals Emily was Hamzad’s daughter and that she was in the village when Pavlovich’s men attacked. Both Pavlovich and the hallucination of Emily are confused by Chase sharing this info. In addition to the antidote and the money, he wants Emily’s body so he can say goodbye and put her to rest. Pavlovich asks how he could believe Chase isn’t harboring anger over Emily’s death. Chase admits all he has is anger, and normally Pavlovich wouldn’t have seen Chase coming, but Chase made a promise to Zoe to make it back alive, which he intends to keep. He's willing to give up his vengeance for a life with Zoe. Pavlovich cuts Chase loose and gives him a phone to call Zoe. Before he does he apologizes to Emily.
However, Chase soon notices something is off with Pavlovich. The Russian nixes the deal. Someone has attacked Hamzad’s mineral deposit and he can only assume Chase is involved. He leaves Chase with one of his assassins (Nikolai Nikolaeff), whose father was killed by Chase in Afghanistan years ago, and taunts Chase by breaking the vials of antidote one by one. Pavlovich also orders his men to kill Zoe.
Harper confronts Marion
In Hong Kong, Marion is spending time with her family in a market when she spots Harper, who needs to talk to her urgently. Once alone, Harper reveals he knows about the cartel and wants to know how Marion is connected.
Marion tries to dance around it all, saying she had nothing to do with Bote’s death. Harper admits in the past he may have fallen for her tricks, but now he’s tired and his friends are in trouble, so they need to stop “f***ing around.” Marion starts taking things seriously.
She reveals she no longer has a relationship with Pavlovich because he doesn’t need her anymore. She brought him into the realm of the cartel hoping to use his muscle and infrastructure as they tried to negotiate with Hamzad for the deposit. But Hamzad was determined to only work with American partners for American interests, something Marion couldn’t understand. That is until Harper called about rescuing Emily. Marion realized Hamzad needed a connection to the Americans to find his daughter. Harper then pieces together Marion wanted Harper and Chase to weaken Hamzad so he would be forced to partner with her, Pavlovich and Beijing, as Marion works with the Chinese government.
This last bit of info reveals Marion’s true allegiances. She was born in Hong Kong when it was a British colony. Despite it now being run by the communist Chinese government, she still places her loyalty to it. Harper knows, though, that in order to be trusted by the Chinese government she had to reveal the identities of multiple British undercover agents. But all that’s background, as Harper refocuses on what her role in all this is.
She says she was hoping for a new partner: Emily, or more precisely, Parwana Hamzad. Emily’s connections to America, Hamzad’s tribe and her counterintelligence training would have made her a valuable asset. Harper says Emily (though he still refers to her as Angela) was his daughter in every way that mattered to him, and he never would have let her anywhere near Marion.
Marion’s phone rings. It’s Pavlovich, asking if she knows why he’s calling? She doesn’t, but he hangs up before saying anything else. Marion realizes how scared Pavlovich must be to call her, but of what?
Taking action
At the police station, Zoe hears gunshots. Looking outside, she sees Pavlovich’s man kill Pete and the desk officer, and is now coming after her. She locks the door, but then she remembers something. The episode features flashbacks of a young Zoe (Caitlin Duffy) on her wedding day talking to her soon-to-be father-in-law (John Ales). He offers some advice about love and tells her the benefits of having a partnership, including the things you can learn from each other. As we see in the flashback, the family she is marrying into were hunters who taught her how to shoot. In the present, she finds the key to the gun locker, gets a shotgun and kills Pavlovich’s assailant. She then goes outside when Julian drives up, saying Harper sent him and asks if she is coming with him for the next part of the plan? We don’t get her answer, but come on, Zoe’s all in at this point.
Meanwhile, Chase has to deal with his own assassin. The assassin knocks Chase to the ground, but right near some broken glass that allows Chase to cut himself loose, grab a shard and stab the assassin. He then uses a chokehold and strangles the assassins to death. Chase goes to see if there is any antidote left, but he can’t find any.
Pavlovich is also in a tricky spot as we end the episode. Meeting with the other members of the cartel, he tries to assure them everything is fine at Hamzad’s deposit, that there’s no truth to the reports he has lost it. However, as the board discusses it, we see the aftermath of the battle that took place at the deposit. The camera zooms toward a figure amidst the smoke, eventually revealing Emily, alive and leading Hamzad’s tribe in the attack.
New episodes of The Old Man premiere Thursdays on FX, then are available to stream on-demand the next day on Hulu.
