So Jennifer Finnigan (the actress who plays Molly on the show) gave this interview with TV Line before the season premiere debuted. In this interview she was surprisingly open and candid, speaking honestly about the strengths and weaknesses of the show and about the problems with how her character has been written to date. She also ensured the interviewer that this would change in season 3, especially in the second and third episodes. She spent a lot of the interview teasing these two episodes, and her excitement about them was evident. But was her excitement (at least about episode two) justified?
Overall, I think it probably was. The sequence in which the car carrying Molly and Emma was attacked by the Caliphate could have been...problematic, but here it was handled fairly well. This sequence sort of reminded me of that recent Owen Wilson movie No Escape, in which his character and his family travel to an unnamed Asian country, and are attacked by nameless, faceless non-white people for the entire movie, just for being American. A technically well-crafted movie, it was unsurprisingly criticised of being racist and xenophobic, because the only characters given any sort of development were the white characters being chased.
So the similarities between that movie and the ambush sequence in this episode of Tyrant are indeed rather striking, with two white people being chased through the streets by nameless, faceless non-white men. The optics of this are still troubling, but this sat with me much better than No Escape did, because the motivations for the ambush were clear and well-explored. Ihab Rashid's reasons for doing this are understandable, and have been reasonably well developed. This show has a very diverse cast, and so it would have been unfortunate if they had fallen into such a trap, but I think they avoided it.
As a result General Said was killed (an underdeveloped character meets a disappointing end) and Emma was kidnapped. Molly got away, with the help of Emma, who showed a bit of resoucefulness by hiding her mother (who had fallen and been knocked unconscious) from the attackers. This plot line gave Jennifer Finnigan more to do than she ever has before on the show, while also serving to simplify her character's motivations: get her daughter back. This episode didn't fix Molly as a character (I doubt anything can), but her role in the show going forward is now much clearer, which is a step forward.
Just as Finnigan was great in the episode, so was Adam Rayner (something I never expected to say two years ago). In this episode Barry not only lost his daughter (though I doubt she'll be killed off), he also lost his wife and best friend (hey, Fauzi's back! Remember him? I do...sort of). Molly wanted to trade herself for Emma (which is what Ihab Rashid wants), but Barry wouldn't allow her to do so, a decision that may lead to a possibly permanent division between the two. And Barry also decided to tell Fauzi the truth of how his daughter died (which happened in what was probably the best episode of the show), and Fauzi proceeded to attack Barry. Both men cried, and their friendship came to an end. It was a well acted scene, no doubt, but I can't help but think it would've been more effective if Fauzi had been more of a presence on the show up until this point.
Thi episode also saw two notable actors join the cast. Chris Noth (Mr. Big himself), fresh off the trainwreck that was the final two seasons of The Good Wife, has joined the main cast (even receiving an "and" credit) as General William Cogswell. Right now he doesn't seem to have much to do other than be a love interest for Leila, but I'm sure that will change. Also joining the cast (but only as recurring) is the wonderful Annet Mahendru from The Americans, an actress that can do no wrong. Hey, she even managed to make Chris Carter's sorry excuse for dialogue in the recent The X-Files reboot somewhat bearable. An actress of her calibre joining the show can only be a good thing. Let's hope the writers don't completely waste her.
The developing relationship between Leila and Mr. Big isn't the only example of romance in the episode, as sexual tension has developed between Sammy and his new professor, and Barry and Daliyah grew ever closer. There is probably no better way to sum up the current state of Barry's marriage than in the scenes towards the end of the episode, one between him and Molly, the other between him and Daliyah. In the first, Molly is distraught, and cries into his shoulder, while in the other Barry cries into Daliyah's shoulder. These scenes mirror each other, and show the continued deterioration of Barry's marriage. To be honest though, given Molly' decision at the end of the episode to make contact with Ihab Rashid without Barry's knowledge, I wouldn't be too surpised if Molly dies in the next episode in a "shocking" twist (note: I have not seen a screener of episode three).
What haven't I talked about yet? Oh yeah, Jamal. As expected, his role early this season is somewhat diminished, in order to give him time to recover. Barhom does make an appearance in the episode though, as Jamal is moved to the palace and bitches to his nurse about how unfairly he has been treated. It's a pointless scene that only serves to remind the audience of Jamal's selfishness and self-pity. I'm still glad he's back, but I was hoping that getting shot might lead to some character growth. It doesn't look like that happened. Ah well. Minus this Jamal scene I was quite impressed by this episode, and I eagerly await next week.
