Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character

Pleased to see Tyrant 2.1 back on the air on FX last night.   The episode has a well-executed execution twist, predicable in that no series is very likely to kill off its major star, but, on the other hand, that never stopped Game of Thrones.

But putting Barry out in the desert rather than at the end of the noose was a wise move for many reasons.  First, it continues to deepen the character of Jamal.  He manages to resist the advice and pressure of just about everyone around him, other than his mother, and stay true to his inner, deeper soul: he's not going to have his brother's death on his hands, at least not directly.  But how does he know that Barry will survive in the desert sands? Maybe we'll find out that Jamal alerted some nomads or whoever to save Barry.  But even if not, leaving Barry's fate in the hands of the sands is consistent with Jamal's personality.

So is his refusal to resort to chemical weapons, as urged by his ruthless uncle.  Jamal is not just looking to stay in power at any cost.  He wants to say in a power in a way that history at very least won't condemn.  Presumably most of the people around him other than his uncle would want that. And certainly that's what Barry's best advice would have been.

Jamal's at his worst when dealing with his son and daughter-in-law, as he was last season.  But the stakes are much higher now, with his daughter-in-law carrying Jamal's grandchild. It occurs to me that we don't know for a fact that Nusrat's child was fathered by Ahmed, so we may have some provocative story ahead there, too.

One of the things I like best about Tyrant is the way the people in the fictional nation speak about and play off of real events.   Syria was named in a conversation last night, and it will be interesting to see if ISIS rears its head in the story this season, and how the people in power and in the streets of Abbudin deal with that.

See also: Tyrant: Compelling Debut ... Tyrant 1.2: The Brother's Speech and His Wife ... Tyrant 1.3: A New Leaf? ... Tyrant 1.4: Close to the Bone ...Tyrant 1.6: Don't Mess with Jamal ... Tyrant 1.7-8: Coup ... Tyrant 1.9: Tariq ... Tyrant Season 1 Finale: The Truest Tyrant

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and earlier in the Middle East ...