‘The Old Man’ Recap, Season 2, Episode 1: ‘VIII’

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably both excited The Old Man is finally back on our screens after its prolonged two-year hiatus (due to the 2023 writers’ strike) and still invariably confused by the plot. But there’s good news on that front: The more we peel back the layers of the convoluted storyline — which, regrettably, doesn’t reach anything close to clarity in season two — the easier it is to accept that The Old Man is, at heart, a family drama merely disguised as a spy thriller. While it’s more difficult to digest, generational trauma is more compelling than global intelligence games. However, it will always be a joy to watch Jeff Bridges maim a Taliban villain half his age without breaking a sweat.

As it’s been a minute since The Old Man’s season one cliffhanger, I needed a brief refresher before going into the second season, so here’s a quick cheat sheet for you, too:

Last we saw Bridges’ rogue ex-CIA agent Dan Chase and John Lithgow’s ex-FBI Assistant Director Harold Harper, they were heading into Afghanistan to rescue Alia Shawkat’s character, whom they both view as their daughter. First presented as exemplary FBI agent “Angela Adams,” Shawkat was eventually unmasked as “Emily Chase,” the secret daughter of Dan Chase and his Afghan-born wife, Abbey (real name, Belour Daadfar). In the season finale, however, an 11th-hour twist disclosed that “Emily” was, in fact, Parwana Hamzad, the biological daughter of Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban), the Afghan warlord Dan Chase betrayed decades earlier when he ran off with Belour, Hamzad’s wife.

During the last moments of season one, we saw Emily/Angela abducted by Hamzad’s sister, Khadija (Jacqueline Antaramian; bumped up to the main cast for season two), and brought back to her childhood village in Afghanistan.

The season two premiere opens approximately three weeks after Emily was taken (thanks, expository dialogue!) and focuses on Chase and Harper’s attempt to enter Afghanistan undetected. Difficult to do now that the Taliban are back in control. I also feel obligated to acknowledge the most glaring bad news from The Old Man’s two-episode premiere: Dave and Carol are still MIA. In all fairness, this is because “VIII” takes place in Afghanistan, and last we saw Chase’s loyal Rottweilers, they were being handed over to a nameless woman in an L.A. underground garage.

So Chase and Harper are being smuggled into Afghanistan in the back of a truck. All seems to be going smoothly until they’re set upon by Taliban soldiers who kill their driver, who is the only person who knows their next contact’s identity. So that’s fun. We get some stellar buddy-spy-comedy work from Bridges and Lithgow as these Grumpy Old Men bicker over how they can avoid not dying. There’s also an exchange about how Harper needs to call a mysterious “her” for help.

They manage to arrive at the meeting location without issue (thanks to GPS and satellite phones!), but the men inside don’t take too kindly to two grizzled white guys barging in. But it’s all good: Seconds before Chase and Harper are scheduled to take a bullet to their brains, a dashing Afghan named Omar (Artur Zai Barrera) rides up on horseback, dropping all the correct names and instantly getting the old men to trust him as their point of contact.

At first, Omar seems too good to be true (always a red flag): He’s a member of the Taliban resistance, and he offers excessive expository intel on Faraz Hamzad. Basically, Hamzad, thanks to his control of a large lithium deposit, is tangled up with the Taliban government while also trying to protect the people of his community. The convoluted details here are negligible; what’s more important about this scene is that Omar might as well wear a giant sign that reads, “Hi! My name is Omar! I’m a Taliban double agent!” He knows this “woman” Chase and Harper are trying to locate is an asset, and that makes him, to put it politely, curious.

We also get our first flashback of the season, learning more about Belour’s role in Emily’s family trauma. During that fateful diner meal from the series premiere, Young Johnny (Bill Heck) and Young Belour (Leem Lubany) are plotting out their new lives as Dan and Abbey Chase. (With toddler Emily sleeping in her mother’s lap the whole time.) The decision to withhold Emily’s identity came from her mother, with Belour thinking this kind of clean slate would provide her daughter with unlimited opportunities. Not, you know, decades of anguish, grief, and untold friction between mother and daughter.

I can understand why Belour is so resolute about this, though. She’s petrified Faraz Hamzad will come after Emily, and that’s why she decides that Johnny will be the “only [father] she will ever know.” (Heck does a fantastic job here by silently running through several different emotions before landing on acceptance.) So when we cut back to Bridges in the present day, and his face telegraphs sheer failure, it’s clear he feels he let Belour down.

At this point, Chase and Harper still think Omar is on their side, even though Omar is completely onto Chase. He knows this old man is the same American who fought beside Faraz Hamzad against the Soviets, capable of “unspeakable brutality.” Sigh, ever heard of the phrase “Fuck around and find out,” Omar? The three men arrive at their next safe house, a rebel soldier encampment. But uh-oh, everyone there has been massacred! Chase implores Harper to call “her” already.

This mystery woman is Marion (Janet McTeer), and even though she only appears in voice-over, she’s apparently the one person capable of getting Harper and Chase out of their current pickle. Is she a fixer? Either way, she’s clearly someone from their past: Not only does she know Chase’s real name, but she and Harper haven’t spoken for 30 years. The writers also use Harper’s conversation with Marion to reveal, dun-dun-dun! Omar wasn’t their point of contact!

Just as Harper is performing the age-old “Your ally is really your enemy!” apprehension trope, Chase is doing the same with Omar and his relentless interrogation. This culminates in the big season-premiere fight scene, where Chase, once again, mauls a guy half his age with his bare hands. Or rather, teeth. That’s right: Chase takes a huge bite out of this guy’s face!!!!  Well, this guy is known as a monster…

But not before Omar stabs Chase in the chest while reciting his character’s mission statement: “I’m a Taliban spy who wants the glory of sussing out why Faraz Hamzad is jeopardizing his influence with everyone!” There’s no better time for Harper to come galloping up the path so the two friends can escape into the mountains while Taliban soldiers give chase on motorcycles. For the sake of the plot, Chase has left Omar alive.

Also, for the sake of the plot, Chase somehow survives his ordeal because, despite his fatal-looking wounds, he remembers the exact location of his cave hideout from 35 years ago! And, hey, look! His first-aid kit from the 1980s, with all its inexplicably not-expired supplies, is still there, too! Once Chase and Harper are safely ensconced in the cave, the episode’s denouement begins by tying the narrative back to their opening-scene conversation about Emily’s childhood soccer team. This wasn’t just some anodyne after-school activity: The day Emily demanded to play soccer with the kind of conviction he had only seen during his years in Afghanistan was the moment Chase knew she was still Faraz Hamzad’s daughter and that “there would always be some part of her that didn’t belong to me.” He’s gutted that she’s about to learn the truth. Chase also showcases some reasonable fears: There’s a good chance Emily will remind Hamzad of Belour, and he’ll take out his anger on his own daughter.

But we can’t worry about that right now because it’s time to wrap up this episode with a triple whammy: First, while Harper is on the phone with his wife, Cheryl, we learn that the enigmatic Marion is his ex-wife! Then, we take a quick excursion into the recesses of Chase’s subconscious, where an apparition of Young Faraz Hamzad (Pej Vahdat) taunts his former friend over his vicious true self — and for keeping Emily’s identity a secret all her life.

Finally, as Chase awakens, he notices that Hamzad’s presence isn’t entirely a dream. Old Faraz Hamzad slowly approaches Chase, pointing a gun at him, the camera cutting away just as we hear a gunshot.

Normally, I’d roll my eyes at such a cliffhanger cliché, but since the season premiere is a two-parter, I’ll let this one slide. Meet you over at the next recap!

• If you’re as captivated as I am by the artwork in the episodes’ title sequences, you can read more about the artist, Hana Shahnavaz, here.