HERE'S HOW JACK RYAN SETS UP SEASON 2

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for season 1 of Jack Ryan.

Starring A Quiet Place's John Krasinski, new Amazon Prime Video series Jack Ryan has been going down a storm with viewers.

Ryan, an analyst with the CIA, is called upon to exert some serious physical skills as he tracks down a Yemen terrorist across the world with his new boss Jim Greer (Wendell Pierce).

The global thriller had already been commissioned for a second season by the time the first 8 episodes were released last month, so we have more political intrigue – and explosions! – to come.

By its close, the first season successfully tied up most of its loose ends, with Jack's terrorist foes all dead and their threat neutralised. But there are a few strands which are left suggesting what could be in store for season 2.

Here's how the first season of Jack Ryan sets up the second.

Related: Jack Ryan movie timeline explained: All the big-screen outings leading to Amazon's series

"I booked you a flight to Moscow."

Most obviously, the closing moments of the final episode in the first season tell us two things:

  • Greer has been promoted and is now heading operations in Russia
  • He's invited Jack to join him.

Ryan has also been promoted (we think he deserved it – he did, after all, help save the President's life) but he's left with a note from his old boss reading: "I booked you a flight to Moscow."

We're left with a trademark Krasinski grin, with the implication that Jack will be Russia-bound next season.

Now, Russia is familiar territory for Tom Clancy fans. The Ryan-verse has been there in novels such as The Hunt for Red October and The Cardinal of the Kremlin, whilst The Sum of All Fears saw terrorists trying to trigger a war between the US and its opposing superpower.

With much intrigue surrounding Russia and the Trump administration (not to mention poisonings that took place on British soil), the country seems like the perfect destination for new Jack Ryan.

However, the show's creators are suggesting this might not be the case, at least not for the entire season. Showrunner Carlton Cuse has stated that season 2 will be a political thriller set primarily in South America, "an allegory for the decline of democracy".

How they'll link Jim in his new post in Moscow and Jack in South America remains to be seen, but we're sure it will be more than just emails and phone calls across the Atlantic and the two will be brought together in person once more.

What's Cathy's dad up to in South Korea?

Joe Mueller (Victor Slezak) is an old business buddy of Jack's from back in their Wall Street days. In the opening episode, whilst phoning from his fancy private jet plane, Muller invites Ryan to a party in the grounds of his impressive mansion.

It's here that Joe reveals his ulterior motive, to find out what the state department are saying about North Korea. He's currently managing funds in South Korea and needs to find out which way the wind is blowing. Muller even offers cutting him in to the deal, but Jack isn't keen.

"You got the wrong guy," our self-righteous Boy Scout tells his future father-in-law. Nice one Jack, now continue to lie to your new girlfriend about what you do and go shoot a terrorist in the back.

But with Joe's strand unresolved, could his investments and connections in South Korea come back to haunt Jack?

The, how shall we say, interesting political climate in North and South Korea lends itself perfectly to a Tom Clancy-style Jack Ryan adventure. The makers of the show could be planting seeds early on and playing the long game.

What's left of Suleiman's Syrian terrorist network?

With Suleiman's son Samir back in the loving arms of Hanin, it was a happy family ending (of sorts).

Ryan was satisfied with perhaps thwarting another potential child terrorist – like the one that almost killed him in a helicopter several years previous – by saving Samir and reuniting him with his mother and sisters.

But what of Suleiman's fellow terrorists? Only a few travelled with him to the US to conduct their attack on the President, leaving many more back in Yemen. Will they just get a new leader and continue with their plans at some point in the future?

It's feasible that Samir himself may have a larger part to play, too.

What's the deal with 'Tombstone'?

One of the more confusing subplots in season one concerned remote drone pilot, Victor Polizzi. Nicknamed 'Tombstone' by his colleagues, he was not too happy with his job – killing people at the touch of a button.

In a bizarre set of scenes in episode 3, Polizzi (played by John Magaro) takes $107 (he was given one dollar for every kill) to a Vegas casino, where he does pretty well.

Not only that, he attracts the attention of a couple (named "Blanche DuBois" and "Stanley", no really) who he takes back to his place – there he has sex with the wife in front of the husband and then gets violently beaten up by said hubby.

This particular sub-plot ends there, though. We were expecting, perhaps, that the duo were working undercover... but, no. They were just an odd couple. A very odd couple.

It didn't end there for Tombstone. Upon discovering he'd killed an innocent civilian, he set off to make amends and apologise to the deceased's family. But, again, that was that. Nothing more.

Curiously, his path did cross with Jack Ryan's when both were at the same airport, though they didn't meet. Surely this will be rectified in the future?

Will John Clark appear?

Clark, a former Navy Seal, is familiar to fans as a major player in the novels (and has been played by Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber on the big screen) but it's unlikely we'll see him any point soon.

Rights issues mean that Clark's role is currently been filled in by CIA Black Ops operative Matice played by John Hoogenakker. The Nirvana-loving agent will be seen again in season 2, we assume on the side of good.

Jack Ryan season 1 is available on Amazon Prime Video now.

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2023-06-08T16:46:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd