Jack Ryan season 4 has two episodes under its belt, with two more due for this Friday (July 7). But what can we expect out of the final season of this Tom Clancy thriller? Having read all of the books decades ago, I think there are a few clues in the first two episodes that might give us an indication of what's next.
Spoilers about the Jack Ryan books and movies — but not the current TV series —follow in case you'd like to remain completely in the dark.
What the Tom Clancy books tell us
Jack Ryan is available on Prime Video. Episodes 3 and 4 will be available Friday, July 7.
So far, season 4 of Jack Ryan seems to be borrowing from Clear and Present Danger, which was published in 1989, and subsequently made into a movie in 1994. In the novel, the National Security Advisor — with the tacit approval of the President — authorizes the CIA to send special ops forces into Colombia to start killing cartel leaders and disrupting illicit drug flights. The leader of one of the cartels discovers the plot, and blackmails the National Security Advisor into giving up the location of the troops; in return, he promises to decrease drug shipments to the U.S.
Jack Ryan, now the acting CIA Deputy Director (Intelligence), uncovers the whole scheme and then flies to South America to rescue what's left of the soldiers. He then confronts the President with the information and testifies before the Special Intelligence Committee.
Examining the cast
While season 4 is definitely different from Clear and Present Danger, it already features one character who was prominent in both the novel and the film: Domingo Chavez.
In the movie, he was played by Raymond Cruz (later of Breaking Bad fame); in Jack Ryan, he's portrayed by Michael Pena. The Chavez in the Amazon Prime series has a bit more agency than the character in the film; there, he was an exceptionally good sniper, but stuck in the jungle when his team is betrayed. In the series, he's more like a spy, having embedded himself with one of the cartels, while still managing to direct a special ops team to take out other dealers.
Like the movie, Ryan has already discovered the illegal ops run by his predecessor, Thomas Miller and has shut them down, but the scope here is larger than just an illegal drug war, as it not only involves South American cartels, but ones in Southeast Asia, too.
Wendell Pierce's James Greer appears to be on a different trajectory, too. In the novel and the film, Ryan's former boss was dying from pancreatic cancer. Here, he's exploring his options in the private sector.
After being mysteriously absent for seasons two and three, Abbie Cornish has returned as Kathy Mueller (the future other Dr. Ryan), and hopefully she'll be used for more than just Jack's fiancee-in-waiting.
What I expect — and what I hope — will happen
In the very first scene of season 4, we see John Krasinski strung up and being electrocuted in some dingy basement, so it's safe to say that Ryan won't be spending all his time in cubicles and Senate intelligence briefings.
The first episode of the season also spent too much time on Nigerian lobbyist Adebayo Osoji (Okieriete Onaodowan) and Zeyara Lemos (Zuleikha Robinson), the host of a gala attended by Ryan, Ryan's CIA boss, and Mueller. The way the camera lingered on Lemos, I suspect that her organization is being used as a front for some nefarious activities.
In Clear and Present Danger, we also see more of John Clark, a CIA operative who was running the special ops troops, and who helps Ryan get them out of Central America. I'm hoping beyond hope that he'll be brought into this series in the form of Michael B. Jordan, who played the character in the Prime Video series Without Remorse, though it's highly unlikely this will happen. And that's a huge missed opportunity.
At this point, your guess is as good as mine as to what will happen next in Jack Ryan. I hope it ends up as strong as the first season, which I think was the best to this point. We'll know more this Friday.
