New-character time! After a premiere that is told almost entirely from Peter’s and Rose’s perspectives, this follow-up starts to build out the true supporting cast for this season. We haven’t glimpsed the mysterious buyer again yet, nor have we learned anything really new about Catherine Weaver or the man who killed Alice. But “Disconnected” does introduce us to the world of the Iranian Embassy in New York City in the week leading up to the annual U.N. General Assembly convening, and there are some promising conflicts developing.
Noor Taheri (Arienne Mandi) and her friend Haleh are the two aides of Iranian ambassador Abbas Mansuri (Navid Negahban, who previously appeared on 24 and Homeland). Haleh doesn’t understand why Noor won’t pursue a relationship; she’s the one unmarried woman at the mission, and the handsome head of security, Javad Rahmani (Keon Alexander), is clearly interested in her.
What Haleh doesn’t know — what nobody knows, including Noor’s mother, Azita, and brother, Farhad, back home — is that she’s caught in something dangerous, something that takes priority over dating: She’s a potential CIA informant, stealing intelligence from her boss in the hopes of securing asylum for her family. But copying the details of Iran’s drone program isn’t enough; she needs to provide info the CIA doesn’t already have. Luckily, Noor heard through the grapevine about the ambassador’s secret meetings with an American in the intelligence community. If she can find proof, her handler will honor the deal.
For obvious reasons, though, Noor is torn. For one, she’s starting a flirtation at the most inopportune time possible; she and Javad both have families from Isfahan, and he’s very interested in sampling some good bodega food with her. On a deeper level, though, she feels understandably conflicted about selling out the embassy, where she does good, important work that makes her family proud. Javad’s complimentary words remind her of that fact.
Noor seems like a likable, interesting new character to base a story around, but how does this all tie in to the conspiracy that Peter Sutherland is beginning to unravel? Well, as Director Gedney and Deputy Director Mosley tell Catherine, Warren Stocker could be the one responsible for the apparent intelligence leak to the embassy. It’s possible that after the drop in Bangkok, he came back to the country to sell intel to Iran.
“Disconnected” is really the Warren Episode, considering he’s dead by the end. After Peter and Rose escape from the goons and return to his place, Rose stays up all night putting Warren through her scary algorithm. She turns up several hits from the past week using “publicly available” camera footage, which will become important later.
Peter’s apartment is the first place where he and Rose can actually sit down and talk properly, and much of the episode is about everyone catching each other up on what they need to know. There’s clearly still warmth between the two as Peter vents about the difficulty of being a Night Agent and Rose vents about adjusting to being an employee, but there’s also a slight stiffness in their interactions. He never called her during the mission in Bangkok, advised by Alice to cut off all communication with personal contacts. There’s still part of him resistant to starting up again with Rose for obvious, manly-hero reasons: He doesn’t want to put her in danger.
Peter also can’t contact President Travers and reenter society until he gets hold of Warren and finds proof of the sabotage that led to Alice’s murder. Sensing that his target will snatch Ethan away at the basketball playoffs, Peter heads with Rose to the school. Sure enough, by the time they arrive, Warren has already intercepted Ethan and coaxed him into ditching the game with him — not to mention he beat the shit out of Ethan’s stepdad, Frank. Peter outs himself as FBI to Frank and Patricia, the latter of whom helps Rose pinpoint the location of the small airport where Warren has taken Ethan.
The fight between Peter and Warren is satisfyingly savage, and in the end Peter wins out, throwing him into the back of his van to take … somewhere. Our hero clearly still has some baggage related to his father, which he projects onto the traitorous Warren and his unknowing son. The scenarios seem pretty alike, to be fair. But Rose appears worried about this slightly more grizzled, lone-wolf version of Peter, and before she heads off on her taxi ride to take Ethan home, she warns her almost-boyfriend to never stop being “the real Peter.”
Now, if Rose really thinks he’s going to get dirty and torture Warren for information, I understand her concern. But it’s not as if this version of Peter is unrecognizable — he didn’t even keep the beard from Bangkok — so I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at the suggestion that this “isn’t him.” Let’s wait until he does something really sick before we get dramatic.
For now, while Peter sorts stuff out, Rose will fly back to California and wait again for his call. She leaves on an awkward note with him, but I have to say that I still don’t care very much about the glum relationship drama between these two. The show is typically at its best when they’re on the same page, jelling as they partner up on some insane mission, and the sooner the show gets back to that place, the better. I have a feeling Rose won’t be leaving the Big Apple after all.
Peter gives a tied-up Warren the opportunity to come clean, threatening to turn him in to the FBI if he doesn’t share what he knows about the leak. He brings his own experience with his dad in, painting an unpretty picture of how Ethan’s life could turn out if the FBI rewrites the narrative of his dad’s life. Warren doesn’t know as much about the buyer as Peter (or we) might wish, but he does offer some solid information to follow up on next time, mentioning a covert military program called Foxglove that supposedly shuttered years ago and dealt with experimental weaponry. It’s at that point that he gets shot in the head through a nearby window, quickly answering the question of whether he’ll ever see his son again.
Again, the “cliffhanger” in this episode isn’t much to write home about: Peter answers Warren’s ringing phone while a sniper possibly lurks nearby. But paring down the cast a bit by killing off Warren means this season can move into its next phase. Now that there are new characters to invest in, the real story can begin in earnest.
Classified Information
• The opening flashback in Bangkok shows Peter meeting Catherine and Alice for the first time nine months ago, but it doesn’t offer much new information besides establishing Peter’s reasons for cutting ties with Rose.
• Catherine figures out Peter and Rose’s role in saving Ethan from his dad, which leads her to follow Rose’s taxi. But she’s not the only one following Rose.
• There’s some really good fight choreography in this one even outside the Warren fight, especially during that back-alley skirmish when Peter bashes a guy in the head with a metal trash-can lid. Well captured by director Guy Ferland, too.