The CIA’s Dar Adal was eventually revealed as the mastermind of a plot against the incoming President, but in this episode, the villain emerges as the very personification of evil. We shouldn’t be surprised. Dar’s warped conspiracy has involved a terrorist attack on U.S. soil to undermine an incoming president considered soft on terrorism. So far, Dar’s machinations have resulted in the death of two innocent civilians in the staged car bombing and the murder of an FBI agent. In this episode, his perfidy reaches new heights.
Dar tries to eliminate remaining obstacles to his plot, which happen to be Carrie, Quinn, and Saul. Carrie is advised by a Child Services social worker that she may lose custody of her daughter after the police raid on her house. A court hearing the next day isn’t going well while Carrie struggles to explain Quinn’s living in her house and his actions the day of the raid. The social worker delivers the final blow when she reveals that Carrie also suffers from bipolar disorder. At the end of the episode, we learn that Dar provided the social worker the information on Carrie that results in the judge’s decision: Carrie must undergo psychiatric evaluation and her daughter must stay in a foster home. The staged terrorist plot is no longer her main concern.
Dar dispenses with Peter Quinn as well. Quinn’s ex-lover, German intel officer Astrid, now tends to him in a remote lakeside cabin. Astrid catches Quinn trying to escape to return to Carrie and tells him he’s out on a “deal,” arranged, not surprisingly, by Dar. The deal involves him staying put in the cabin or returning to the psych ward. Dar visits Quinn to drive a wedge between him and Carrie. He reveals that Carrie insisted on rousing Quinn from his coma after his terrorist poisoning the past season, despite medical warnings he could suffer a stroke.
If the viewer isn’t yet convinced Dar is pure evil, his lakeside conversation reveals in not so veiled terms that he molested Quinn as a teenager. This misdeed seems like gratuitous overkill – there’s no shade of gray in this villain at all.
Finally, Dar has to deal with Saul. Alone in a bar, Dar watches a TV interview with President-elect Keane criticizing the U.S.’ aggressive counterterrorist policies. To remind us that this isn’t just a CIA plot, one of Dar’s co-conspirators, a general, comes into the bar and slaps down a photo of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) chief Javadi arriving in New York. Saul can’t meet Javadi, the general says, or their plot will unravel. Dar snaps back that Saul won’t meet him.
To prevent the meeting, Dar reveals to the Iranians that Javadi works for the CIA. The IRGC chief is seized by his cohorts in New York and accused of treason based on information from a “source inside the CIA.” Fortunately, another Iranian saves Javadi after only one of his fingernails is painfully extracted. An angry Javadi meets Saul and confirms Saul’s suspicions were correct—the Israeli operation was a charade, and there is no parallel nuclear program with North Korea. Now that Javadi is burnt, he demands asylum and the $45 million stashed away in his CIA savings account. Saul admits it might be difficult to arrange this but offers a meeting with the ultimate red tape cutter –- the President-elect.
With Carrie and Quinn effectively sidelined, Saul remains the only obstacle to the fulfillment of Dar’s plan. Saul now knows that Dar betrayed Javadi, so next week’s episode should feature an epic clash between these two old wily CIA warriors.
Nailed it: Saul is surprised in New York station when the deputy chief of CIA counterintelligence arrives to debrief him about his activities in the West Bank. Dar and his Mossad conspirators are behind the debriefing, but Saul has engaged in unauthorized and unreported activities in the past, which require not only a full debriefing but disciplinary action, no matter how senior he may be.
Failed it: Dar’s intentional betrayal of a high-level Iranian source is a clear violation of the Espionage Act. Beyond the criminal violation, Dar has also betrayed the sacred oath of CIA officers to protect their sources. CIA officers painstakingly plan communications and contacts to ensure their sources’ security, especially when these sources come from adversaries like Iran and have high profiles like the IRGC chief. Then again, espionage is only another item on Dar’s growing charge sheet, along with murder, kidnapping, and plotting against the incoming President. Assuming that Dar will eventually be caught, his trial could be long and tedious. I suspect jungle-style justice may be meted out instead. Quinn is bursting with pent-up rage, and he would be an excellent candidate to thrash our villain to a bloody pulp for his heinous crimes.
Failed it: Planning a clandestine meeting with a highly placed agent like the IRGC chief, even on your home turf, is difficult. Javadi is high profile, known to scores in the FBI and CIA, as well as Iranian and other diplomats at the United Nations. There are over 106,000 hotel rooms in New York, but Saul opts to meet at a professional hockey game, a major sporting event attended by thousands. Sometimes “hiding in plain sight” just isn’t hiding at all.
