Tyrant 3.9: Al-Qadi and Tea

In many ways, Al-Qadi was the centerpiece of Tyrant 3.9.   Everyone wants him dead or neutralized.

The Caliphate wants him dead, seeing correctly that he's the last chance for any kind of unification in Abuddin, given his alliance with Leila.  In a scene in which a pot of tea never had so much pivotal power, his wife Nafisa can't bring herself to poison her husband with a cup of tea.  And he - because he's a fundamentally good person - can't bring himself to let her poison herself, after challenging her to drink the tainted tea.   Given Annet Mahendru's prior record of playing characters who die - actually, just one, but it was a major character on The Americans - I was pretty sure she was a gonna, but glad to see that she's still alive.

But Al-Qadi also faces a threat from the other side, with Bassam, getting worse and worse as a tyrant, setting loose his military to confront Leila.   Fortunately the American general disobeys orders and prevents the Abuddinian military from proceeding.   I like Chris Noth's General Cogswell, and hope this doesn't mean he's recalled or whatever and therefore off the show.

Back to Bassam, he's really dug himself into a huge hole, egged on by his now maniacal wife, and their thirst revenge for the murder of their daughter.   He has Daliya locked up.   She was wrong and Leila was right when she warned Daliya about Bassam - he may love Daliya, but that didn't stop him from arresting her.   And her going on a hunger is a strong next move in this chess game.

Will he let her die?   My prediction: he won't, and he'll break free of the downward spiral of Molly and revenge at all costs.   But then again, I'm an optimist, and we'll just have to see in the season finale next week.

See also: Tyrant 3.1: Barry -> Bassam ... Tyrant 3.2: Whither Molly? ...Tyrant 3.3: Double Death ... Tyrant 3.5: Bassam and Daliya ... Tyrant 3.8: Poor Bassam

And see also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate ... Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to be Renewed 

And 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

#SFWApro



and earlier in the Middle East ...

Tyrant 3.8: Poor Bassam

Well, Bassam finds himself in about the worst place he's been all season in last night's Tyrant 3.8:

Molly's back, but she doesn't love him anymore, doesn't even want to sleep in the same bed with Barry.  Her main role now is to goad him to do the worst possible things, politically - suspend the election so he has more time to destroy their daughter's killer, but in so doing suspending the very democracy that he worked so hard to install in his original now re-adopted country.

Daliyah still loved him at the beginning of the episode, when Molly returned, but Bassam's totalitarian impulses have shattered her feeling, leaving her with pain and at best mixed emotions about Bassam.  This will likely push her into Fauzi's arms, and we saw the beginning of that last night.

Leila is now totally against what Bassam is doing, even changing her Al-Fayeed name back to her maiden name to underline that opposition.   Her American general, well played by Chris Noth, is still trying to be helpful to Bassam, but one word from the U. S. could change that, obliging Bassam to rely on his own military, and we know how that has worked out in the past.

About the only bright spot is Aziz the aide-de-camp is still alive - I thought he had been killed in the attack that almost got Daliyah - and it was good to see Sammy and Ahmed talking, however testily.

Well, I guess that's two bright spots, but they're weak ones, in comparison to what is going wrong with Bassam's presidency, and it's hard to say where all of this will land in the two concluding episodes of this season - which is a good thing, because we want to be kept off-balance.

Footnote: I coincidentally started watching Hunted this week, with a slightly younger Adam Raynor, with his native British accent, and he's good in that, too.  And I find his American accent in Tyrant right up there with the best of them (i.e., American done by Brits, like the American characters played by Dominic West).

See also: Tyrant 3.1: Barry -> Bassam ... Tyrant 3.2: Whither Molly? ...Tyrant 3.3: Double Death ... Tyrant 3.5: Basham and Daliya

And see also: Tyrant 2.1: The Tyrant's Character ... Tyrant 2.5: The Caliphate ... Tyrant Season 2 Finale: Deserves to be Renewed 

And 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

#SFWApro



and earlier in the Middle East ...

Jeff Goldblum on Law and Order Criminal Intent

Just caught last week's debut of Jeff Goldblum on Law and Order: Criminal Intent on the USA Network. I thought Goldblum's Det. Zach Nichols was outstanding, and could be one of the best characters ever, in all the Law and Orders across history.

Nichols is a high-energy, happy version of Goren. Both are clearly geniuses - in contrast to Chris Noth's Mike Logan, just a very smart detective, whom Nichols replaced. But whereas Bobby Goren - brilliantly played by Vincent D'Onofrio - is morose, wounded, almost sadly pathological in his quirky, brilliant insights, Nichols brings a winning smirk and a joie-de-vivre to his work.

Genius, whether dark or light, works best in the Criminal Intent format. Much as I liked Chris Noth's Mike Logan, and enjoyed following him from Lennie Briscoe (also one in a million, Jerry Orbach is irreplaceable) in the original Law and Order old days to Criminal Intent, the shows with Goren were usually more memorable. It takes a slightly cracked out of the stratosphere mind to best catch the criminals on this show.

Nichols' partner Det. Megan Wheeler is not on this level at all. She wasn't with Logan, either, but since he was no genius, and wasn't supposed to be, they worked pretty well together. Whether Wheeler's sidekick character will work with Nichols remains to be seen - but, to make matters even more interesting, actress Julianne Nicholson will be off the show for an episode or two (the character and the actress are pregnant), so Goren's partner Alexandra Eames (played by Kathryn Erbe) will step in as Nichols' partner.

Eames has been a more powerful character than Wheeler - Eames had to be, given that she's partners with Goren - and it will be fun to see how she works with Nichols.

I liked Goldblum best in The Fly, and of course the Jurassic Parks, and I'm thinking Criminal Intent has the potential to make him even better known, in the long run, as Zach Nichols.

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