The Old Man (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - V - full transcript

There are places
in our souls so remote,

no light can reach them.

And the truths that inhabit them

grow accustomed to the darkness.

They cannot fathom
ever escaping it,

and they do not want
to be disturbed.

A woman and her son

are walking down the beach

when a huge wave

crashes onto them,

and when it clears,
the woman looks down,



and her son is gone.

She falls to her knees, and...

and she looks up to
the sky, and she says,

"Please, I'm-I'm begging you,

"I-I-I can't live without
him, he's everything to me.

"Whoever is up there,
whoever can hear me,

please send my son
back to me alive."

Just then, she looks
up at the horizon,

and an albatross

appears in the sky.

It follows a ray of sunshine

from the clouds onto the water,

and it dives under the surface,

and when it emerges,



the boy is riding on its back.

So, it flies to the beach,

and it gently deposits

the boy at its mother's feet.

And the woman looks at the boy.

And then she looks to the sky,

and she says,

"He had a hat."

Seems a little
soon for dead kid jokes.

Was that supposed to funny?

Not "ha-ha" funny.

Well, what was it
supposed to be?

Well, we haven't spoken
since the door closed.

We have no idea
where we're going.

We have no idea when
we'll get there,

or what we'll find when we do,

so I guess maybe I just
thought I'd start preparing us

for what happens
when the door opens.

Well, I guess if Shecky
Greene is there on the tarmac

when we land, now
we'll have an opener.

What am I to you?

Excuse me?

What... am I...

to you?

We're just gonna do
this right now, huh?

Well, I guess it depends.

Up until today, I would've
said you were someone

I considered to be
a part of my family.

What changed?

You want me to say it out loud

or would you like to do it?

Hello, Emily.

How in God's name
did this happen?

- What do you mean?
- You know what I mean.

There are safeguards on top
of safeguards to prevent

exactly this kind of
thing from happening.

- I don't know, exactly.
- You don't know.

My father asked me what I
wanted to do with my life.

It was 2002,

and I told him I wanted
to protect my country.

He said he knew someone

who could help.

Some guy who was a mentor to him

back at the Agency who could
pull some strings, he said.

Once I was in, I...

never asked again.

That's just not how we work.

It was done. I just
put my head down,

- and I did the work.
- You did the work.

Is that supposed to make
a difference, Angela...

Jesus, I don't even
know what to call you.

You think I'm someone different
now than I was five minutes ago?

I think you've been
someone different

as long as I have known you. I
think you've been lying to me

- for as long as I've known you.
- I have been

nothing since I've known
you but loyal to you.

And devoted to you.

And fucking
determined to make you

proud of me.

I am still the same person.

I'm maybe more that person now

than anyone else I've ever been.

I'm sorry I lost my hat.

I must have taught you
more than I thought.

When faced with the
reality that you are guilty

of more crimes than I can count,

that you represent
maybe the most serious

security breach the FBI
has seen in recent memory,

you throw the first punch

and make me out
to be the villain?

My honest-to-God
question to you is:

Do you really think
this was gonna work?

I suppose that, for as
long we're in the air,

you can claim to be
two different people,

and pretend that it's tenable,

but as soon as this plane lands,

you're going to have
to make a choice

about which one of you emerges.

And then I'm going to have to
decide what to do about it.

There are
places in our hearts

so inhospitable,

no sounds can penetrate them.

Hard and secret places

in which unspeakable
things are stored.

Therein lies the
unspeakable thing

out of which our life
together was born.

Every time you think of me,

I feel the old ties pulling.

Every time you look at her,

you feel new ones growing.

She isn't you.

No.

She still has a choice.

That's the Marcia login info.

Check the balance.

I trust you're able
to divide by two.

I don't understand.

What don't you understand?

You just said no.

Now you're saying yes.
I don't understand.

Money isn't a measure
of anything to me,

except the ability
to protect my family.

My daughter... She's
in danger right now.

I just found out
before I got here.

All I can think about are
all the ways that things

could go wrong, ways
she can get hurt.

I had to do something about it.

I don't have time for this.

And once I leave,
I'm not coming back.

I'm on a plane to Morocco
tomorrow, early morning.

- Morocco?
- Yeah.

What... I don't... W-W...

What is happening?

Zoe, it's-it's a
very long story.

Come with me, I'll
tell you everything.

Come with me, please.

Why are we here?

What are you so afraid
that Russian is gonna say?

My name.

How would he know your name?

You are kidding me.

I would think out of anyone,
you would be able to understand.

That you're spying for the
Russians against your husband?

For my husband.

The Russians will leave one
day. I know it, you know it,

and the Russians know it.

Sooner or later, everyone will
realize the important question

is the one I have been asking
myself for over a year now:

Who rules when they're gone?

For some time now,

I have been feeding
information to the GRU

to undermine and
weaken our rivals,

so that, when the
time comes, my husband

will be in a position to
finish what we started

and lead this country forward.

I see it.

I mean,

if anyone here were to
catch even a whiff of this,

you'll hang for it.

So would your husband.

Probably me, too, for
whatever that's worth.

I know.

You have to tell him.

- I can't.
- Sure you can.

He's smart. He'll understand.

He might understand this,
but certainly not the rest.

I seriously doubt there's
something more difficult

to understand than this.

A few months ago,

I was visiting the
wife of a tribal elder

in a village I will not name,
in a valley I will not name.

And one late night
we were alone,

and she confided in me a story.

A man had descended from
the mountains, alone.

He spoke no language
she recognized.

He died on their doorstep
and they burned his body.

A few weeks later, I
heard from the Russians

that they had become aware of
a foreign prospecting crew,

Greek pirates.

This crew had found something

beyond their wildest
expectations.

A mineral deposit of...

unimaginable value.

- What kind of a deposit?
- A copper lode

that, alone, could alter
this country's economy.

And secrets buried beneath it.

Deep veins of lithium, uranium.

The Russians need it.

They just can't find it.

So, the Russians don't
know where it is.

Do you?

That mine makes Faraz Hamzad

the next president
of Afghanistan.

Why wouldn't you tell him?

It would make him king.

Which is why I cannot tell him.

He must prevail.

He must be the one to lead
us once this war ends,

but as the Faraz
Hamzad I believe in,

the one you believe in.

Not like this. Too much
power, too quickly.

This kind of power

turn men against each other.

It turns them dark.

He isn't that kind of a man.

Eventually, all men break.

You are juggling
chain saws, lady.

I'm pretty good at this,

and even I'm having a
hard time keeping up.

There are so many ways
this could kill you.

Which is why I can no
longer do it alone.

So, that's what this is about?

That's why Hamzad is after you.

Yeah.

I'm feeling that there's a

difficult conversation
that we should have.

Oh, fuck, what's that?

I am forging the name
of this woman who

toyed with empires and...

I'm not the Marcia
Dixon you planned for.

I am not built for
this kind of thing.

Yeah, says the woman who just
separated me from half my money.

Well, that was different.

You don't get what
you can do, do you?

Well, in my world,

you spend a lot of time

learning to find the
cracks in things,

you know, fractures.

Fragile points in things

where pushing a little
can change a lot.

It's a sense that you
work hard to develop,

an intuition for weakness.

Most people, you know,

they don't see the
world that way.

No, we prefer to,
well, see things whole.

Taught to keep things whole.

Life's easier when
things are whole.

I look at you,

I see a person who
doesn't need to

look for cracks in
anything. You...

You just see 'em.

I think no one's

ever offered you any
idea how to use it

or what it's for,
and I think that

you can only ignore an
ability like that for so long

before it finds a way to
remind you it's there.

How can you say
something like that?

How can you... You
barely know me.

Well, um, I barely know
you, but I know the game.

I know when someone's
seeing the angles.

So, unless you're a
highly-trained operative

pretending to be a
suburban divorcée,

I have to assume that this is
a natural ability you've got.

I am not a
highly-trained operative

pretending to be anything.

Oh. Yeah.

I didn't think so.

So, I'm here.

You want me to be here

because this is...

curious to you...

Someone who has this ability?

Yeah.

Or I-I'm here, you
want me to be here

because this is the
only way to keep me safe

from whoever's
trying to kill you.

Yeah.

Or maybe I'm here

because I am someone

who can see the
cracks in things,

and there's something
you're worried is broken,

and you just can't
figure out where.

Why, is there something
that looks broken to you?

I don't know yet.

You want me to guess?

No.

What you are asking of me,

it isn't possible.

- Why not?
- He's my father.

He raised me,

he gave me life.

You're my father, you raised me,

you gave me purpose.

You are each a part of...

of who I am. I-I
don't divide that way.

Sure you do.

Everyone does. We all do that.

Well, I don't know
how to do that.

Okay then.

Let me make it simple for you.

Take me to him.

Do that. Lead me
to him. End this,

and you will have made a choice
about who you want to be.

Fuck you.

Maybe I was wrong.

That I mattered
to you in any way.

That I've ever mattered
to you in any way.

Because if I did,
you would understand

how confusing this is for me.

And just how hard I am trying

to do the right thing.

Make a choice?

I mean, you're
asking me to amputate

parts of myself that
are connected in ways

that I don't even understand.

And why?

So that you can trust me?

There are so many different ways

we could've gone about
having this conversation,

and you have succeeded in
choosing the absolute shittiest.

This isn't about my state
of mind. You're a criminal.

Well, I guess I'm in
good company, then.

Or did you not send an assassin

to kill my father before

our SWAT team arrived?

And you know what?

I found a way

to be okay with that.

You helped my father escape

Faraz Hamzad,

and you didn't want
anyone knowing about it.

It's all in the game.

If the shoe was on the
other blah, blah, blah.

But you know what's

actually making
it very difficult

for me to look you
in the eye right now?

You knew that
there was something

I had never told
you about myself.

And you waited till we were all

under a spotlight
with that lawyer.

And you said...

my mother's name.

Her birth name.

Just to see if I'd react.

To see if you were right.

Do you know that that was the
first time I had heard her name

since she had told it
to me when I was a kid?

Can you imagine what that
would feel like if I-if I

sharpened Chip's name and
used it to cut you open

just to see what came out?

How would you like
me to address you?

Jesus.

What difference does it
make what my name is?

It makes all the difference.

It's how you choose.

It what... It's
what keeps all of us

from having to juggle
all the different people

that we feel like
we might want to be.

The name's the thing.
You only get one.

It plants a flag in the ground

that-that says,
"This is who I am.

Here is where I stand."

You protect it with your life.

When I'm gone, my name

is all that my family
will have left of me.

And the greatest threat to it

is the mole that
I have apparently

been harboring for a decade.

You made that decision

for all of us.

And at this moment,

I'm not inclined to make
you feel better about it.

Where are we?

Just, uh...

wait here.

Come on, guys.

Come on.

Bleib!

Bleib.

You know, in my experience,
it's polite to ask someone

before leaving them
two giant dogs.

They don't know anybody else.

Wherever we're going,
you don't plan on

coming back at all, do you?

What I'm good for...

what I'm built for,
is defending things

that need d-defending.

All the best things
I've done in my life

have been in service of that.

Once I'm done with Hamzad,

both you and Emily'll
be all right.

You know? And what
happens to me, um,

happens to me,
that's-that's not important.

Both of you will be all right.

Ray.
- Chief.

Listen, you're about
to get a phone call.

I want you to answer it

and I want you to do
whatever you're told.

Yes, sir. Uh, may
I ask who it is

- I'll be talking to?
- Just want you to do whatever you're told, Ray.

And I cannot stress
this enough...

Don't question him, don't pry,

- don't...
- Don't be me.

Yes, sir.

This is Waters.

Mr. Waters, how are you?

I'm fine.

Grand.

Mr. Waters, at this
moment in time,

I believe you and I are fated

to mean something
to one another.

You see, I need some help,

and I believe you're
the only person on earth

who can provide it.

I'm glad to hear that.
What can I do for you?

Harold Harper is missing.

I understand you were
the last to see him,

is that correct?

Yes. Yes, sir,
I believe it is.

Oh, good.

I'm putting together
a small team.

I'd like you to be a part of it.

Please stand by,

and I will get you instructions
on where to go next.

Where were you hit?

I'm fine.

Where did the bullet

hit you?

You know that I'm a liar
when it suits me to be.

An apology from a liar
is no apology at all.

But I hope you will believe
me when I tell you this.

I'm very sorry

that I put you in that position.

I believe you believe that.

But I'm not really
here for an apology.

I just need to
know what happened.

I want to know if you're
apologizing because

you didn't want to
tell me Harold Harper

had a mole in his office,

or if you couldn't tell me
Harold Harper had a mole

in his office because
you didn't know.

Didn't know?

I put her there.

- Hold on.

Where are you going?

Mike was worried

that you were
losing your marbles.

This is just you up to some shit

that I don't want to know.

- You're fine.
- If I were fine,

would I be sitting here
with you right now?

What do you mean?

I put the mole

in Harold Harper's office

because Dan Chase

asked me to.

I did the one thing
you must never do

in this business. I...

I tried to be a good father.

I'm sorry,

Dan Chase is your son?

More or less.

More...

than less.

He and Harold both.

I broke the rules.

And I never wanted
anyone to know about it.

I don't think anyone
should've known about it.

But I should've known about it.

Well, now you know.

And now I'm gonna ask you
to help me clean it up,

so that no one else ever will.

Gonna ask you to do the one
thing a good father must

never, ever do.

I'm gonna ask you
to hurt my sons.

Nine hours. East-southeast.

North Africa somewhere.

Hey, w-where the hell are we?

I think it's Tunis.

Okay.

Does that mean anything to you?

Oh, it could be
once I stopped here

on a Mediterranean
cruise with Cheryl

for our 15th anniversary.

Or it could be the last place
your mother and father stopped

on their way from Afghanistan
to the United States.

If he looked for her,

this is almost certainly

where he lost her trail,

where she disappeared.

Though, what that matters now...

I couldn't say.

Someone's coming.

Harper?

Yeah.

That's his
house... Zachary?

Yeah.

What are you gonna do in there?

Well, to get this meeting
I need with Pavlovich,

I need Zachary to
authorize this investment,

uh, open the door.

I asked him nice at lunch.

Now I just need to get it done.

You're gonna threaten him?

What if I went in there instead?

What?

Wasn't... Marcia Dixon

somebody to them, too?

Yeah. Why?

Well, you asked nicely,
you-you can't ask nicely again,

or you're weak,

but I could ask nicely,

or at least I could
ask differently.

Well, sending my wife in there

i-isn't exactly gonna make
me look like John Wayne.

I think that's the
problem, exactly.

You're not going in there

to get what you need,
you're going in there to...

to force him to give it to you.

A little while ago...
Just for a second...

You saw me as a threat
to your daughter.

Just for a second.

And I didn't mean to be,

and I wouldn't
want to be, but...

just for a second,

I feared for my life.

Now, maybe it's-it's
been a long time

since you've had to be that guy.

To use violence to protect
the people that you love.

But maybe...

that's an urge that can only
be suppressed for so long

before it finds a way

to remind you that it's there.

And maybe, once it's out,

it for damn sure doesn't
want to be put back.

What would you say?

Uh...

Uh...

I don't know. Uh...

- I might...
- Well, he's risk averse

when it comes to money,

but he's not to
rule-breaking. You know,

you could...

Uh, yeah, you could
tell him that you...

you overheard me on the phone,

you think I maybe I
might have some kind

of inside information
on this deal,

and that, uh, you're
concerned that, uh,

it's illegal, you know.

Um... All right, this
is a real bad idea.

- No, wait, uh, wait here.
- Why?

Well... if you fuck
it up a little,

he slams the door in
your face, you know,

you fuck it up a lot, uh...

Zoe. Zoe, wait...

Oh, fuck.

- It's 11:00.
- Yeah.

- I'm dressed like this.
- Yeah.

How do I explain that to him?

Rich folks don't explain shit.

- Hello.
- Zachary?

Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't
quite catch your name.

Uh, Marcia.

Dixon. We haven't met yet.

- I'm, uh, I'm Henry's wife.
- Uh, yeah.

- Hi.
- Right, of course.

- Pleasure to finally meet you.
- Likewise.

Um, so, listen, I-I'm, uh,

I'm sorry to bother you,
I know it's really late.

Yeah, a bit.

But there is something I'd
like to talk to you about,

and it's a little
time-sensitive,

so I thought maybe it would
be better out of the office.

I'm happy to chat,
but, uh, now is...

not really a great time.

Of course, of course.
It'll only take a minute.

Tell you what,

why don't we connect

tomorrow over coffee?

I'll cancel a meeting. Cool?

- Yeah. Of course.
- Great.

- Okay.
- Night.

All right. Sorry to
have bothered you.

Everything cool, Marcia?

I wasn't finished, Zachary.

Here we are again.

A closed door.

Something new
preparing to emerge.

Something that will change
everything about you and I.

She can do it.

Not that door. You.

So much

stored away.

No one to confess it to.

You.

I cannot be your confessor.

I don't belong here.

Held to you by...

a whisper, a leash,

a sorrow.

I am your prisoner here.

When you are finally opened,

I cannot be the
one to forgive you

for what spills out.

Someone

- must choose to do that.

Someone whole enough

to choose.

I will miss you.

Maintenance records.

Passenger manifests.

- What the hell is going on?
- It's a test.

They want to see if I can find
the needle in the haystack.

You want to find
something in here,

you have to be here to find it.

Find what? What are
you looking for?

A flight from Karachi.

April of 1987.

The flight that
your parents took.

You know that flight?

I arranged it.

When you exfil an
asset from a hot zone,

you fly them out
on an agency bird.

When things go so wrong
that you don't want anyone

at the Agency to
know about it...

that's when you have
to get creative.

And this was a part of it.

What went badly?

He didn't tell you?

You can be a spy

or you can be a parent.

It's exceedingly difficult
to be both at once.

Your father

has always

believed

that he could be
whatever he decides

in whatever moment
he decides it.

That's how all of this happened.

I'm sorry this is the
hand you were dealt.

You didn't deserve it.

Mr. Harper.

Azur Maroc Air. Flight 31.

That's what you wanted
me to find, isn't it?

Yes.

So why am I here?

What else do you want to know?

On the manifest.

What were their seat numbers?

You mean, do I
remember what their aliases were

30 years ago?

Fuck.

7A and 7B.

Is that all?

What else is there?

Haven't I proven that I
know what I'm talking about?

Isn't that what
this is all about?

The memorandum
detailing your guilt

will be distributed
before end of day.

What?

- I'm sorry.
- Hello...

Hello?

- Oh, fuck.

Jesus.

You were framed.

Targeted by a bad actor

from your past who
had an axe to grind.

The U. S. government,

who you dedicated
your life's service,

turned its back on you,

so you fought alone
to unveil the truth.

And when you did,
that government

welcomed you home
with open arms.

What the fuck are
you talking about?

That is the story
that we will tell.

After Faraz Hamzad is dead.

My father's working
on it right now.

I suggest we go find him.

And lend a hand.

You did good tonight.

Can I ask what you said to him?

I just asked for what I wanted.

Oh, you just asked, huh? Okay.

When-when you asked, I think he

saw... an old man

telling him how to do his job,

but when I asked, I-I...

Who knows what he saw, but...

but that was his weakness.

And it was apparent to me,

and I pushed on it, and...

- he gave in.
- He gave in.

Yeah, that must have felt good.

It did.

You know, where we're going,

weakness is a lot
harder to find.

The weak are mostly dead.

You go, uh, bolting out
of the car like that again

because you feel you've
got something to prove...

Hell, because you think you
can save me from myself...

You take a run at the wrong guy,

we both end up
dismembered in a bathtub.

Well, good thing you're someone
who would never let that happen.

Yeah, good thing.

That isn't all
you are, you know?

That isn't all you're built for.

A person who protects things.

A person who doesn't want
or need anything else.

A person who isn't
even a person at all.

There's more than that.

There's other parts.
There's better parts.

And I see them.

I see you.

What is it?

The series of
events that it took

to create this moment,

well...

From where you and I
started before all this,

you know, to reach this point...

I don't care.

However we got here, we're here.

And where I started,

before all this began,

I think...

it maybe is a place that
I don't miss very much.

Do you?

No.

Maybe that's why I'm here, then.

A reminder.

Of what it's easy to
forget when you're alone.

I may not be the partner

that you planned for.

I may not be the partner that

you would have
thought you wanted.

But maybe I'm the
partner that you need.

Mr. and Mrs. Dixon?

Yes?

Captioned by Media
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