The Old Man (2022) s02e01 Episode Script
VIII
1
[ANGELA]
You don't sound like yourself.
You're preoccupied
when we're talking.
You're not sleeping.
I'm just asking you,
what's the difference now?
[CHASE] I don't know.
Something's just off.
[DOG BARKS]
[MAN GROANS]
You want to tell me your name?
They found me.
[ANGELA]
Are you sure it was them?
[CHASE] This is not a drill.
[ZOE] I want to amount
to more than just a complication
in your story.
It's a different thing now, Zoe.
I don't know who we can trust.
[MAN ON PHONE]
Uh, Assistant Director Harper?
- This is Harper.
- [WATERS] In July 1987,
a man under you went M.I.A.
near Torkham.
You know the man
I'm referring to?
[HARPER] This thing has been
buried in the ground for 30 years,
and I wanted it to stay there.
The nightmare scenario is
that Faraz Hamzad wants
to see you again
and he convinced someone
in the U.S. government
to make that happen.
Your daughter is about
to be a part of this.
[WATERS] Faraz Hamzad
was a warlord in Afghanistan
during the Soviet invasion.
He had a man in his camp.
Scared the living shit
out of everyone over there.
They called him Baba-khorkhore.
And word is,
Baba-khorkhore was Dan Chase.
[ABBEY] I heard from the Russians
that they had become aware
of a foreign prospecting crew.
This crew
had found a mineral deposit
of unimaginable value.
That mine makes Faraz Hamzad the
next president of Afghanistan.
Which is why I cannot tell him.
[HARPER] Chase had a relationship
with your client and with
your client's first wife.
Her name was Belour Daadfar.
[ANGELA] He's starting to
get suspicious about me,
and if I abandon him now,
he's going to know
that's not just something
that I would do.
[HARPER] You or Angela?
I'm starting to forget
what the difference is.
[BOTE] I gave you a daughter.
If Angela Adams
is never heard from again,
this can all be laid at her feet.
[CHASE] Where's my daughter?
I know she was with you.
Where is she now?
She's been taken.
We're gonna go get her back.
[WATERS] Look,
Farad Hamzad can have whatever he wants.
In this case, what he wants is you.
[MIKE] What the fuck is this?
Whoa, back up, back up.
[HARPER] I told you
not to leave Hamzad alive,
that it would come back and haunt you,
and you did it anyway.
I never told you
what happened that night.
It would've been so easy
just to kill him,
like I told you I would.
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't kill him
in front of his daughter.
[HAMZAD]
When you were a little girl,
I imagined there was nothing
that could ever come between us.
Then you were taken to a place
so far away,
I resolved to remember you
as only a ghost.
[HARPER] Wherever this leads,
we're in this together now.
[ENGINE RUNNING]
[CHAINS JANGLING]
[ENGINE RUNNING, SOFT CLATTERING]
[TRUCK WHOOSHING BY]
How long have I been out?
[CHASE] Not long.
[CHASE GROANS]
How far till the border?
[EXHALES] Not far.
Eh.
Gumdrops? Were
Were you telling me something about?
Was that a dream?
The Gumballs.
It was the name of her
Her soccer team.
- Yeah.
- Right.
Yeah. You were telling me
how she never had
any interest in sports.
And then she woke up one morning,
and suddenly it was a thing.
- She was what?
- Nine.
Nine years old.
Was that strange for you?
For her to surprise you in that way?
- Harold
- What?
We're gonna take a break
from story time now.
Things are about to get serious.
Get your head in the game.
Well, the stories are important.
When we see her again,
I want to be able to tell her
how we're trying
to make sense of all this.
I want to be able to tell her
how we're trying to understand her,
all of her,
the sides of her she can't
imagine we'll ever understand.
And the stories are how we're
gonna piece all that together.
[ENGINE SLOWING]
[BRAKES SQUEAKING]
We're about to find out
if your man knows
how to bribe a border guard properly.
His name is Hameed. He's not my man.
Look, we agreed on this plan.
- All right, all right
- Let's not do this like you had
any better ideas.
[MEN CHATTERING IN PASHTO]
[ENGINE SHUTS OFF]
[ENGINE STARTS]
[TRUCK CREAKS]
Welcome to Afghanistan.
[SIGHS]
♪
It's a problem if you feel the need
to make sense of things.
Excuse me?
[SIGHS]
We just crossed a line.
On the other side of it,
the deeper we get,
the closer we get to him,
the less sense anything is gonna make.
Well, everything makes sense
if you're willing to do the work
to make sense of it.
Not for us, not here.
And I don't mean this in a shitty way
[SIGHS]
but it scares me
when you talk like that.
- Like what?
- Like a cop.
Oh, yes, God forbid.
Uh, we don't have to make sense of shit.
We're not here to solve a crime.
Emily has been in his possession
for three weeks now.
It's taken us three fucking
weeks to get this far.
All that's important now
is to get to her as fast as possible
and get her out of here.
Please tell me you understand that.
Of course.
[TIRES SCREECH]
[MEN SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
- [GUNFIRE]
- [GRUNTING]
[GUNFIRE STOPS]
[WIND WHISTLING]
[HARPER GRUNTS]
[MAN GASPING]
♪
- [HARPER] Oh, shit.
- Your man Hameed.
- He's not my man.
- He was the only one who knew
where we were going.
Wait a minute. Wait. No!
So that's a problem.
[GRUNTS]
Drug gang, maybe.
Pirating cargo coming across the border.
Returning to the problem at hand,
the fact that we have no idea
where we're going.
You're gonna have to call her.
[SIGHS]
I can't.
She's your connection.
She set up this plan.
If the plan's in the shitter,
you got to call her.
He's not gonna be able to help.
Stop shooting people
without asking me first.
Stop assuming that you know
what I'm thinking,
and stop telling me what else
I should be thinking instead.
Look, we made it this far somehow
without killing each other.
It's just a little further to go.
Let's not fuck it all up now.
We've done it before, you know?
A long time ago maybe, but we did it.
Went into the shit, stuck together,
did a job, did it well.
We just need to remember.
There's a destination set.
It's safe to assume that that's
where we were supposed
to meet our contact from the resistance.
This used to be your neighborhood.
You know how to get us there?
That's how you remember it, huh?
That it used to go that well?
This is just outside the valley.
I can get us there.
The bigger issue is, without him,
how are we gonna find the guy?
Ah, Christ.
Please call her.
I'm not calling her.
[TIRES SCREECH]
♪
[HARPER] It says turn left here.
[SIGHS]
Okay, where the fuck are we going?
If you don't know, just say so.
I know where I'm going.
Because the phone seems
to think you're full of shit.
[SIGHS]
Feel better now?
This is how I remember it,
- in case you were wondering.
- How's that?
Doubt. Second-guessing.
Always knowing better. Oh.
I was never as dumb
as you thought I was.
I never thought you were dumb.
I was never as reckless,
as irresponsible.
Uh, never as
I don't know, whatever
you want to call that thing
that you were so certain
I was, I wasn't.
If I were some resistance guys
wanting to keep this quiet
I'd do it right there.
You haven't been here in decades.
How did you know that was there?
Well, I guess it takes longer than that
for things to change much here.
♪
[MEN CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
[DOOR CREAKS OPEN]
[ANIMAL BLEATS IN DISTANCE]
[DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
[GOATS BLEATING IN DISTANCE]
[FURNITURE SCRAPES]
[LIQUID POURING]
[CONVERSING IN DARI]
[FIREARM COCKS]
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[GRUNTING]
[MAN SHOUTING IN DARI]
Johnny.
- [MAN CONTINUES IN DARI]
- Johnny.
[OMAR SHOUTING IN DARI]
Where is Hameed?
We were ambushed on the road. He's dead.
A woman has been kidnapped.
We were assured that
the commander and his men
would help us get her back.
We're not soldiers for hire.
The woman was kidnapped by Faraz Hamzad.
They will not bother you anymore.
My name is Omar.
We have much to discuss,
but we must be careful.
The Taliban has spies everywhere.
Come.
Our unit is one of the last ones
in this part of the valley
offering any resistance
against the government.
We're small, but we have spies, too.
There were whispers in recent days
that an agent with the FBI
has been abducted
by Faraz Hamzad,
that everyone expected
a response from Washington.
A response that,
after several weeks, never came.
You two are the response?
- It's complicated.
- [OMAR] Apparently.
[SIGHS]
The FBI's hands are tied,
but
Listen, our friend who set this up
is guaranteeing a funding windfall
for your unit if you help us.
We were told that causing Hamzad trouble
wouldn't be a problem for you.
What kind of trouble
will this cause him?
The devastating kind.
- What would you need?
- [CHASE] Transport into the valley.
Supplies.
Day or two to observe
the village and build a plan,
and then we'd move.
20 men, small arms, in and out.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
Can you do that?
A day or two to observe
the village is not enough.
Oh, well, we have no time to delay.
[OMAR] No one I know has spent
any time inside his compound.
It is said that there is a web
of hidden passages beneath it.
It would take us weeks to plan it.
A day or two.
We'll handle the rest of it.
You gonna help us or no?
♪
[OMAR] He was a hero,
once, to our fathers.
To my friends,
we only knew Faraz Hamzad
as the monster that lurks
at the dark end of the valley,
an angry old man best avoided.
But when the Taliban took control,
the resistance commanders
all went to him,
to beg him to lead a fight
to keep Panjshir free.
To live up to the stories
and make them true.
He refused.
Why?
It turns out,
he has business with the government.
Business so valuable
he'd see the rest of Panjshir
on its knees
rather than risk losing it.
What kind of business?
Funny you should ask.
♪
[OMAR] You're looking
at what is believed to be
one of the largest deposits
of lithium in the world.
The Meshbahar deposit.
Faraz Hamzad found it.
He controls it.
He has plans to exploit it,
and it has made him
the most unexpected of friends.
Hamzad, he's no friend of the Taliban.
He hated those guys almost as much
as he hated the Russians during the war.
Yes.
So, how much money must be
in the ground over there
to have brought mortal enemies
together like this?
How much money must be in the ground
that no one will even talk about
how much money is in the ground?
The details of the deposit
are held as state secrets.
What do they need Hamzad for?
Why doesn't the Taliban just come in
and take it for themselves?
Because your government
has sanctioned them all.
Them and everyone here they know.
Everyone.
Except Faraz Hamzad.
For reasons no one seems
to be able to explain,
his name was kept off all the lists.
So he's the man in the middle.
He's indispensable,
and that makes him
a very dangerous enemy to have.
Your friends aren't afraid to cross him?
We aren't.
I just want to make sure you aren't
before we go any farther.
I want to make sure you
understand what kind of enemy
you face should you choose to continue.
Beyond this point, we will be
entering his territory.
The deeper into it we get, the
the more his presence will be felt.
The stronger his influence,
the harder it may be to turn back.
We're not turning back without her.
This woman who is so important to you
This woman who is
so important to Hamzad.
This woman no one seems willing
to talk about.
Complicated, indeed.
Well, I look forward to meeting her.
♪
[ABBEY] What are we gonna call
these new people we're about to be?
Uh I'm a little more worried about
what we're gonna tell each other.
What we're gonna tell her.
We're going to tell her nothing.
She will come from nowhere.
In this place,
that is the dream, is it not?
To build a future
without regard to a past.
[SOFTLY] Yeah.
That's what she will have.
That's what we'll give her
the opportunity to do.
She's afraid of me.
Yes.
But less and less every day.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
Well
Who will we tell her I am?
You will be her father.
The only one she will ever know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you must promise me this.
She can never know his name.
She can never know anything
about Faraz Hamzad.
I promise.
He will look for her.
And he cannot be allowed to find her.
She would be in such grave danger.
I won't let that happen.
I promise.
[HARPER] Hey.
Hey.
What? I'm-I'm fine. What is it?
I don't know what's happening
to her right now
but I also don't know
how it helps her
for us to pretend
not to be worrying about it.
[GROANS]
Listen.
What is it?
What, you need to stop again?
Yeah. You?
Not really.
Okay. I'll wait.
No reason to stop again so soon.
Oh, fuck it.
We're gonna stop!
Again?
Tell me about it.
This is the partner
you chose to do this thing?
[CHASE] Yeah.
I assume there are good reasons, but
he does not fit.
Not like you, at least.
Uh-huh, how do I fit?
I'm not certain, but you do.
- Can I ask you something?
- What's that?
You know things about Hamzad.
I think you might have been
inside his compound.
You are connected to him somehow,
aren't you?
♪
Among the many stories
I have heard about him
but find hard to believe
is the one about an American
who secretly fought in his
service against the Russians.
A living terror, willing to do
unspeakable brutality
in the name of his master.
So connected they were,
it was said a monster
could be compelled into action
with no more than a thought
in Hamzad's head.
They had a name for him, even.
They called him
Baba-khorkhore.
Is that story true?
Is that monster you?
A good story.
But that's all it is.
A good story.
Nothing in the world more dangerous.
Don't you think?
[ENGINES REVVING IN DISTANCE]
[HARPER] You guys hear that?
- Yeah.
- Taliban patrols.
With Hamzad as an ally,
they grow ever bolder.
Camp isn't far.
Let me take you to the commander.
♪
[FLIES BUZZING]
You need to call her.
Now.
[SIGHS]
Yeah.
[LINE RINGING]
- [MARION OVER PHONE] Harold?
- Marion.
I'm sorry, I know I said
I wouldn't call again,
but we've got a problem here.
We connected with Abdul Nazary's
man, as you arranged,
he brought us to their camp, but
someone had gotten here first.
- Survivors?
- No.
Are you all right?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
- And Johnny?
- Is he still with you?
- We're-we're both fine.
But listen, we need to find
another way forward.
What else might you be able
to do here to help?
- Give me some time.
- We don't have time.
You might as well be
on the moon right now, Harold.
I will need some time
to manufacture an outcome.
Harold?
I'm just
trying to figure out
how concerned I should be
about who manufactured this outcome.
Until a few days ago,
I hadn't heard your voice
in 30 years.
You ask me to help you
do the impossible,
I offer you that help freely.
If your first instinct
when things get difficult
is that I am trying
to manipulate you into ruin,
honestly, why on earth
did you call me to begin with?
Do you want me to attempt to
find you a new source of help?
Yeah.
Then I shall.
In the meantime,
I recommend you ask Ali
to help you find
a safe place to hide.
Who's Ali?
Commander Abdul Nazary's man.
Ali.
The man who came to meet you.
I assume you're still with him.
♪
♪
Who is she?
Excuse me?
An FBI agent is abducted,
the U.S. government should be
moving heaven and earth
to rescue her, and where are they?
Their hands are tied
because she is complicated.
This happens the day
when you arrive to rescue her.
Please don't ask me to believe
one has nothing to do with the other.
That one hasn't caused the other.
It certainly seems as though
this complicated woman
is the reason my brothers are dead.
What are you not telling me?
Who is this woman
my brothers just died for?
Who is she?
♪
Who are you?
[ENGINES REVVING IN DISTANCE]
[GRUNTING]
♪
[GRUNTING]
[STRAINS]
[SHOUTS]
The Taliban has many spies.
But I'd like to be something
more than one of many.
Faraz Hamzad is jeopardizing
all of his influence,
and no one seems to understand why.
I'd like to be the one to know why.
[SHOUTS]
Tell me.
[SCREAMING]
[HORSE NEIGHS]
[PANTING]
♪
[ENGINES APPROACHING]
♪
[ENGINES IDLING]
♪
[PANTING]
[CHASE WHIMPERS]
[HARPER] What is this?
This is where Abbey would come.
A place she could hide, disappear.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
I used it once or twice towards the end.
I left some things in the ground.
[ROCK GRINDING]
Hey, stop. Let me do that.
- [GRUNTS]
- Come on. Get up.
[BOTH GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
There's a first aid kit in there.
So, what did we just
walk into back there?
Taliban intelligence.
I should've seen it. Stupid.
Well, it's not like
it was the first time
you got someone mad enough
to put a knife in you.
I was there for one or two of 'em.
Can't imagine how many I missed
since you stopped returning my calls.
Yeah, I sort of stopped doing that.
That's one of the nice things
about Vermont.
[HARPER CHUCKLES] Yeah, I bet.
This is him?
[GRUNTS]
When was the last time
you spoke to your wife?
I don't know.
Maybe you should call her.
Yeah.
You should call Marion, too.
No, she needs time to find help.
It's not like there are
competent armed units for hire
growing on trees around here.
You should call her and see
if she can get you out of here.
I was wondering
how long that was gonna take.
You have people at home who need you.
This is a different thing now.
You know
I was never as weak
as you thought I was.
Never as afraid. Never as incapable
of keeping up with your heroism.
She's dead.
Emily.
Almost certainly.
She's been dead for a few days now.
What are you talking about?
Well, maybe it took him
a day to get her here.
Maybe it took him two days
to work up the courage
to talk to her.
Well, and from there,
it's just a matter of time
before she says the wrong thing
and he can't bear it anymore.
What's the matter with you?
- Why are you saying this?
- [SIGHS]
Because I've been pretending
[EXHALES]
that it isn't true for days,
and right now it seems
silly to continue.
Bullshit. She's trained for this.
She's not going to antagonize him.
No, it won't be like that.
It won't be something she chooses.
[HARPER] Bullshit.
Y-You have no idea
what she's capable of.
Uh, you don't even have
any idea who she is.
Yeah, I know who he is.
And I know what it's going to feel like
the moment he hears
something in her voice
or a look in her eye,
the way she moves, something
it's gonna remind him of Abbey.
Or worse [CHUCKLES] remind him of me.
And the moment that happens,
nothing can protect her
from the reaction.
You want to know what it felt like
when she asked us to play
soccer out of the blue?
Wasn't surprise, no, it was dread.
Because
she asked with such conviction.
She looked so courageous.
Reminded me of him.
And it reminded me that there
would always be some part of her
that didn't belong to me.
The part we were lying to her about.
Part that I promised Abbey
I'd pretend didn't exist.
The part that eventually would
demand to be heard and seen.
[HARPER SCOFFS]
You are so afraid of seeing her again,
of having to explain yourself
in some way
where this isn't all your fault,
that you don't know what to do.
You're ready to give up
rather than just face it.
I'm not giving up.
There's no place else
for me to go. There's
there's nothing else for me to do.
I couldn't leave if I wanted to.
You can.
You have to.
You should.
[FOOTFALLS DEPARTING]
- [CRICKETS CHIRPING]
- [ANIMAL HOOTING]
[DIALING]
[LINE RINGING]
[CHERYL] Harold?
Hey.
Are you all right?
Yeah, yeah, I'm okay.
Where are you? Are-are-are you
in the hotel or?
Yeah. We're still
still working on this.
We might have a lead
on Angela's location,
but it's taking a little longer
than I was hoping.
Harold, I got a phone call
this morning.
Oh, shit, Cheryl,
y-you don't have to take those.
Just tell them
they have to call the lawyers
and let them handle it.
It was from Marion.
It was from your ex-wife.
Sh she called the house?
She said you'd been in contact.
And she wanted
to leave you a number
that you could call day or night
if you needed her.
I thought you told me that she'd
become someone so dangerous,
you hoped she'd forgotten
she ever knew your name.
And you're in contact with her?
Cheryl, you understand how this works.
Sometimes I have to do things
that I can't talk about with you.
Our life is falling apart here.
When are we going
to see you again?
Are we gonna see you again?
[ANIMAL HOOTING IN DISTANCE]
[CHASE GASPS]
♪
[FOOTFALLS APPROACHING]
[GUN COCKS]
[DISTANT GUNSHOT]
[ROOSTER CROWS]
[ANGELA]
You don't sound like yourself.
You're preoccupied
when we're talking.
You're not sleeping.
I'm just asking you,
what's the difference now?
[CHASE] I don't know.
Something's just off.
[DOG BARKS]
[MAN GROANS]
You want to tell me your name?
They found me.
[ANGELA]
Are you sure it was them?
[CHASE] This is not a drill.
[ZOE] I want to amount
to more than just a complication
in your story.
It's a different thing now, Zoe.
I don't know who we can trust.
[MAN ON PHONE]
Uh, Assistant Director Harper?
- This is Harper.
- [WATERS] In July 1987,
a man under you went M.I.A.
near Torkham.
You know the man
I'm referring to?
[HARPER] This thing has been
buried in the ground for 30 years,
and I wanted it to stay there.
The nightmare scenario is
that Faraz Hamzad wants
to see you again
and he convinced someone
in the U.S. government
to make that happen.
Your daughter is about
to be a part of this.
[WATERS] Faraz Hamzad
was a warlord in Afghanistan
during the Soviet invasion.
He had a man in his camp.
Scared the living shit
out of everyone over there.
They called him Baba-khorkhore.
And word is,
Baba-khorkhore was Dan Chase.
[ABBEY] I heard from the Russians
that they had become aware
of a foreign prospecting crew.
This crew
had found a mineral deposit
of unimaginable value.
That mine makes Faraz Hamzad the
next president of Afghanistan.
Which is why I cannot tell him.
[HARPER] Chase had a relationship
with your client and with
your client's first wife.
Her name was Belour Daadfar.
[ANGELA] He's starting to
get suspicious about me,
and if I abandon him now,
he's going to know
that's not just something
that I would do.
[HARPER] You or Angela?
I'm starting to forget
what the difference is.
[BOTE] I gave you a daughter.
If Angela Adams
is never heard from again,
this can all be laid at her feet.
[CHASE] Where's my daughter?
I know she was with you.
Where is she now?
She's been taken.
We're gonna go get her back.
[WATERS] Look,
Farad Hamzad can have whatever he wants.
In this case, what he wants is you.
[MIKE] What the fuck is this?
Whoa, back up, back up.
[HARPER] I told you
not to leave Hamzad alive,
that it would come back and haunt you,
and you did it anyway.
I never told you
what happened that night.
It would've been so easy
just to kill him,
like I told you I would.
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't kill him
in front of his daughter.
[HAMZAD]
When you were a little girl,
I imagined there was nothing
that could ever come between us.
Then you were taken to a place
so far away,
I resolved to remember you
as only a ghost.
[HARPER] Wherever this leads,
we're in this together now.
[ENGINE RUNNING]
[CHAINS JANGLING]
[ENGINE RUNNING, SOFT CLATTERING]
[TRUCK WHOOSHING BY]
How long have I been out?
[CHASE] Not long.
[CHASE GROANS]
How far till the border?
[EXHALES] Not far.
Eh.
Gumdrops? Were
Were you telling me something about?
Was that a dream?
The Gumballs.
It was the name of her
Her soccer team.
- Yeah.
- Right.
Yeah. You were telling me
how she never had
any interest in sports.
And then she woke up one morning,
and suddenly it was a thing.
- She was what?
- Nine.
Nine years old.
Was that strange for you?
For her to surprise you in that way?
- Harold
- What?
We're gonna take a break
from story time now.
Things are about to get serious.
Get your head in the game.
Well, the stories are important.
When we see her again,
I want to be able to tell her
how we're trying
to make sense of all this.
I want to be able to tell her
how we're trying to understand her,
all of her,
the sides of her she can't
imagine we'll ever understand.
And the stories are how we're
gonna piece all that together.
[ENGINE SLOWING]
[BRAKES SQUEAKING]
We're about to find out
if your man knows
how to bribe a border guard properly.
His name is Hameed. He's not my man.
Look, we agreed on this plan.
- All right, all right
- Let's not do this like you had
any better ideas.
[MEN CHATTERING IN PASHTO]
[ENGINE SHUTS OFF]
[ENGINE STARTS]
[TRUCK CREAKS]
Welcome to Afghanistan.
[SIGHS]
♪
It's a problem if you feel the need
to make sense of things.
Excuse me?
[SIGHS]
We just crossed a line.
On the other side of it,
the deeper we get,
the closer we get to him,
the less sense anything is gonna make.
Well, everything makes sense
if you're willing to do the work
to make sense of it.
Not for us, not here.
And I don't mean this in a shitty way
[SIGHS]
but it scares me
when you talk like that.
- Like what?
- Like a cop.
Oh, yes, God forbid.
Uh, we don't have to make sense of shit.
We're not here to solve a crime.
Emily has been in his possession
for three weeks now.
It's taken us three fucking
weeks to get this far.
All that's important now
is to get to her as fast as possible
and get her out of here.
Please tell me you understand that.
Of course.
[TIRES SCREECH]
[MEN SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
- [GUNFIRE]
- [GRUNTING]
[GUNFIRE STOPS]
[WIND WHISTLING]
[HARPER GRUNTS]
[MAN GASPING]
♪
- [HARPER] Oh, shit.
- Your man Hameed.
- He's not my man.
- He was the only one who knew
where we were going.
Wait a minute. Wait. No!
So that's a problem.
[GRUNTS]
Drug gang, maybe.
Pirating cargo coming across the border.
Returning to the problem at hand,
the fact that we have no idea
where we're going.
You're gonna have to call her.
[SIGHS]
I can't.
She's your connection.
She set up this plan.
If the plan's in the shitter,
you got to call her.
He's not gonna be able to help.
Stop shooting people
without asking me first.
Stop assuming that you know
what I'm thinking,
and stop telling me what else
I should be thinking instead.
Look, we made it this far somehow
without killing each other.
It's just a little further to go.
Let's not fuck it all up now.
We've done it before, you know?
A long time ago maybe, but we did it.
Went into the shit, stuck together,
did a job, did it well.
We just need to remember.
There's a destination set.
It's safe to assume that that's
where we were supposed
to meet our contact from the resistance.
This used to be your neighborhood.
You know how to get us there?
That's how you remember it, huh?
That it used to go that well?
This is just outside the valley.
I can get us there.
The bigger issue is, without him,
how are we gonna find the guy?
Ah, Christ.
Please call her.
I'm not calling her.
[TIRES SCREECH]
♪
[HARPER] It says turn left here.
[SIGHS]
Okay, where the fuck are we going?
If you don't know, just say so.
I know where I'm going.
Because the phone seems
to think you're full of shit.
[SIGHS]
Feel better now?
This is how I remember it,
- in case you were wondering.
- How's that?
Doubt. Second-guessing.
Always knowing better. Oh.
I was never as dumb
as you thought I was.
I never thought you were dumb.
I was never as reckless,
as irresponsible.
Uh, never as
I don't know, whatever
you want to call that thing
that you were so certain
I was, I wasn't.
If I were some resistance guys
wanting to keep this quiet
I'd do it right there.
You haven't been here in decades.
How did you know that was there?
Well, I guess it takes longer than that
for things to change much here.
♪
[MEN CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]
[DOOR CREAKS OPEN]
[ANIMAL BLEATS IN DISTANCE]
[DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
[GOATS BLEATING IN DISTANCE]
[FURNITURE SCRAPES]
[LIQUID POURING]
[CONVERSING IN DARI]
[FIREARM COCKS]
[DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[GRUNTING]
[MAN SHOUTING IN DARI]
Johnny.
- [MAN CONTINUES IN DARI]
- Johnny.
[OMAR SHOUTING IN DARI]
Where is Hameed?
We were ambushed on the road. He's dead.
A woman has been kidnapped.
We were assured that
the commander and his men
would help us get her back.
We're not soldiers for hire.
The woman was kidnapped by Faraz Hamzad.
They will not bother you anymore.
My name is Omar.
We have much to discuss,
but we must be careful.
The Taliban has spies everywhere.
Come.
Our unit is one of the last ones
in this part of the valley
offering any resistance
against the government.
We're small, but we have spies, too.
There were whispers in recent days
that an agent with the FBI
has been abducted
by Faraz Hamzad,
that everyone expected
a response from Washington.
A response that,
after several weeks, never came.
You two are the response?
- It's complicated.
- [OMAR] Apparently.
[SIGHS]
The FBI's hands are tied,
but
Listen, our friend who set this up
is guaranteeing a funding windfall
for your unit if you help us.
We were told that causing Hamzad trouble
wouldn't be a problem for you.
What kind of trouble
will this cause him?
The devastating kind.
- What would you need?
- [CHASE] Transport into the valley.
Supplies.
Day or two to observe
the village and build a plan,
and then we'd move.
20 men, small arms, in and out.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
Can you do that?
A day or two to observe
the village is not enough.
Oh, well, we have no time to delay.
[OMAR] No one I know has spent
any time inside his compound.
It is said that there is a web
of hidden passages beneath it.
It would take us weeks to plan it.
A day or two.
We'll handle the rest of it.
You gonna help us or no?
♪
[OMAR] He was a hero,
once, to our fathers.
To my friends,
we only knew Faraz Hamzad
as the monster that lurks
at the dark end of the valley,
an angry old man best avoided.
But when the Taliban took control,
the resistance commanders
all went to him,
to beg him to lead a fight
to keep Panjshir free.
To live up to the stories
and make them true.
He refused.
Why?
It turns out,
he has business with the government.
Business so valuable
he'd see the rest of Panjshir
on its knees
rather than risk losing it.
What kind of business?
Funny you should ask.
♪
[OMAR] You're looking
at what is believed to be
one of the largest deposits
of lithium in the world.
The Meshbahar deposit.
Faraz Hamzad found it.
He controls it.
He has plans to exploit it,
and it has made him
the most unexpected of friends.
Hamzad, he's no friend of the Taliban.
He hated those guys almost as much
as he hated the Russians during the war.
Yes.
So, how much money must be
in the ground over there
to have brought mortal enemies
together like this?
How much money must be in the ground
that no one will even talk about
how much money is in the ground?
The details of the deposit
are held as state secrets.
What do they need Hamzad for?
Why doesn't the Taliban just come in
and take it for themselves?
Because your government
has sanctioned them all.
Them and everyone here they know.
Everyone.
Except Faraz Hamzad.
For reasons no one seems
to be able to explain,
his name was kept off all the lists.
So he's the man in the middle.
He's indispensable,
and that makes him
a very dangerous enemy to have.
Your friends aren't afraid to cross him?
We aren't.
I just want to make sure you aren't
before we go any farther.
I want to make sure you
understand what kind of enemy
you face should you choose to continue.
Beyond this point, we will be
entering his territory.
The deeper into it we get, the
the more his presence will be felt.
The stronger his influence,
the harder it may be to turn back.
We're not turning back without her.
This woman who is so important to you
This woman who is
so important to Hamzad.
This woman no one seems willing
to talk about.
Complicated, indeed.
Well, I look forward to meeting her.
♪
[ABBEY] What are we gonna call
these new people we're about to be?
Uh I'm a little more worried about
what we're gonna tell each other.
What we're gonna tell her.
We're going to tell her nothing.
She will come from nowhere.
In this place,
that is the dream, is it not?
To build a future
without regard to a past.
[SOFTLY] Yeah.
That's what she will have.
That's what we'll give her
the opportunity to do.
She's afraid of me.
Yes.
But less and less every day.
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
Well
Who will we tell her I am?
You will be her father.
The only one she will ever know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you must promise me this.
She can never know his name.
She can never know anything
about Faraz Hamzad.
I promise.
He will look for her.
And he cannot be allowed to find her.
She would be in such grave danger.
I won't let that happen.
I promise.
[HARPER] Hey.
Hey.
What? I'm-I'm fine. What is it?
I don't know what's happening
to her right now
but I also don't know
how it helps her
for us to pretend
not to be worrying about it.
[GROANS]
Listen.
What is it?
What, you need to stop again?
Yeah. You?
Not really.
Okay. I'll wait.
No reason to stop again so soon.
Oh, fuck it.
We're gonna stop!
Again?
Tell me about it.
This is the partner
you chose to do this thing?
[CHASE] Yeah.
I assume there are good reasons, but
he does not fit.
Not like you, at least.
Uh-huh, how do I fit?
I'm not certain, but you do.
- Can I ask you something?
- What's that?
You know things about Hamzad.
I think you might have been
inside his compound.
You are connected to him somehow,
aren't you?
♪
Among the many stories
I have heard about him
but find hard to believe
is the one about an American
who secretly fought in his
service against the Russians.
A living terror, willing to do
unspeakable brutality
in the name of his master.
So connected they were,
it was said a monster
could be compelled into action
with no more than a thought
in Hamzad's head.
They had a name for him, even.
They called him
Baba-khorkhore.
Is that story true?
Is that monster you?
A good story.
But that's all it is.
A good story.
Nothing in the world more dangerous.
Don't you think?
[ENGINES REVVING IN DISTANCE]
[HARPER] You guys hear that?
- Yeah.
- Taliban patrols.
With Hamzad as an ally,
they grow ever bolder.
Camp isn't far.
Let me take you to the commander.
♪
[FLIES BUZZING]
You need to call her.
Now.
[SIGHS]
Yeah.
[LINE RINGING]
- [MARION OVER PHONE] Harold?
- Marion.
I'm sorry, I know I said
I wouldn't call again,
but we've got a problem here.
We connected with Abdul Nazary's
man, as you arranged,
he brought us to their camp, but
someone had gotten here first.
- Survivors?
- No.
Are you all right?
- Yeah, I'm fine.
- And Johnny?
- Is he still with you?
- We're-we're both fine.
But listen, we need to find
another way forward.
What else might you be able
to do here to help?
- Give me some time.
- We don't have time.
You might as well be
on the moon right now, Harold.
I will need some time
to manufacture an outcome.
Harold?
I'm just
trying to figure out
how concerned I should be
about who manufactured this outcome.
Until a few days ago,
I hadn't heard your voice
in 30 years.
You ask me to help you
do the impossible,
I offer you that help freely.
If your first instinct
when things get difficult
is that I am trying
to manipulate you into ruin,
honestly, why on earth
did you call me to begin with?
Do you want me to attempt to
find you a new source of help?
Yeah.
Then I shall.
In the meantime,
I recommend you ask Ali
to help you find
a safe place to hide.
Who's Ali?
Commander Abdul Nazary's man.
Ali.
The man who came to meet you.
I assume you're still with him.
♪
♪
Who is she?
Excuse me?
An FBI agent is abducted,
the U.S. government should be
moving heaven and earth
to rescue her, and where are they?
Their hands are tied
because she is complicated.
This happens the day
when you arrive to rescue her.
Please don't ask me to believe
one has nothing to do with the other.
That one hasn't caused the other.
It certainly seems as though
this complicated woman
is the reason my brothers are dead.
What are you not telling me?
Who is this woman
my brothers just died for?
Who is she?
♪
Who are you?
[ENGINES REVVING IN DISTANCE]
[GRUNTING]
♪
[GRUNTING]
[STRAINS]
[SHOUTS]
The Taliban has many spies.
But I'd like to be something
more than one of many.
Faraz Hamzad is jeopardizing
all of his influence,
and no one seems to understand why.
I'd like to be the one to know why.
[SHOUTS]
Tell me.
[SCREAMING]
[HORSE NEIGHS]
[PANTING]
♪
[ENGINES APPROACHING]
♪
[ENGINES IDLING]
♪
[PANTING]
[CHASE WHIMPERS]
[HARPER] What is this?
This is where Abbey would come.
A place she could hide, disappear.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
I used it once or twice towards the end.
I left some things in the ground.
[ROCK GRINDING]
Hey, stop. Let me do that.
- [GRUNTS]
- Come on. Get up.
[BOTH GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
There's a first aid kit in there.
So, what did we just
walk into back there?
Taliban intelligence.
I should've seen it. Stupid.
Well, it's not like
it was the first time
you got someone mad enough
to put a knife in you.
I was there for one or two of 'em.
Can't imagine how many I missed
since you stopped returning my calls.
Yeah, I sort of stopped doing that.
That's one of the nice things
about Vermont.
[HARPER CHUCKLES] Yeah, I bet.
This is him?
[GRUNTS]
When was the last time
you spoke to your wife?
I don't know.
Maybe you should call her.
Yeah.
You should call Marion, too.
No, she needs time to find help.
It's not like there are
competent armed units for hire
growing on trees around here.
You should call her and see
if she can get you out of here.
I was wondering
how long that was gonna take.
You have people at home who need you.
This is a different thing now.
You know
I was never as weak
as you thought I was.
Never as afraid. Never as incapable
of keeping up with your heroism.
She's dead.
Emily.
Almost certainly.
She's been dead for a few days now.
What are you talking about?
Well, maybe it took him
a day to get her here.
Maybe it took him two days
to work up the courage
to talk to her.
Well, and from there,
it's just a matter of time
before she says the wrong thing
and he can't bear it anymore.
What's the matter with you?
- Why are you saying this?
- [SIGHS]
Because I've been pretending
[EXHALES]
that it isn't true for days,
and right now it seems
silly to continue.
Bullshit. She's trained for this.
She's not going to antagonize him.
No, it won't be like that.
It won't be something she chooses.
[HARPER] Bullshit.
Y-You have no idea
what she's capable of.
Uh, you don't even have
any idea who she is.
Yeah, I know who he is.
And I know what it's going to feel like
the moment he hears
something in her voice
or a look in her eye,
the way she moves, something
it's gonna remind him of Abbey.
Or worse [CHUCKLES] remind him of me.
And the moment that happens,
nothing can protect her
from the reaction.
You want to know what it felt like
when she asked us to play
soccer out of the blue?
Wasn't surprise, no, it was dread.
Because
she asked with such conviction.
She looked so courageous.
Reminded me of him.
And it reminded me that there
would always be some part of her
that didn't belong to me.
The part we were lying to her about.
Part that I promised Abbey
I'd pretend didn't exist.
The part that eventually would
demand to be heard and seen.
[HARPER SCOFFS]
You are so afraid of seeing her again,
of having to explain yourself
in some way
where this isn't all your fault,
that you don't know what to do.
You're ready to give up
rather than just face it.
I'm not giving up.
There's no place else
for me to go. There's
there's nothing else for me to do.
I couldn't leave if I wanted to.
You can.
You have to.
You should.
[FOOTFALLS DEPARTING]
- [CRICKETS CHIRPING]
- [ANIMAL HOOTING]
[DIALING]
[LINE RINGING]
[CHERYL] Harold?
Hey.
Are you all right?
Yeah, yeah, I'm okay.
Where are you? Are-are-are you
in the hotel or?
Yeah. We're still
still working on this.
We might have a lead
on Angela's location,
but it's taking a little longer
than I was hoping.
Harold, I got a phone call
this morning.
Oh, shit, Cheryl,
y-you don't have to take those.
Just tell them
they have to call the lawyers
and let them handle it.
It was from Marion.
It was from your ex-wife.
Sh she called the house?
She said you'd been in contact.
And she wanted
to leave you a number
that you could call day or night
if you needed her.
I thought you told me that she'd
become someone so dangerous,
you hoped she'd forgotten
she ever knew your name.
And you're in contact with her?
Cheryl, you understand how this works.
Sometimes I have to do things
that I can't talk about with you.
Our life is falling apart here.
When are we going
to see you again?
Are we gonna see you again?
[ANIMAL HOOTING IN DISTANCE]
[CHASE GASPS]
♪
[FOOTFALLS APPROACHING]
[GUN COCKS]
[DISTANT GUNSHOT]
[ROOSTER CROWS]