Tony: You think you're the good guy, I'm the bad guy. Maybe you're right. But maybe, if I was born in a nice city in America, like Cincinnati, I could be the good guy too. Geography is destiny, my friend. The world is the kiln, we are the clay.
Jack Ryan: Wow, let me write that down.
Jack Ryan: Wow, let me write that down.
Jack struggles with ethical considerations as he and Greer use unsavoury connections in their investigation. They and Sulemain race to find Hanin and the children. Cathy investigates an Ebola outbreak that may be connected.
Tropes:
- Action Prologue: The beginning shows Sulemain and Ali taking a body from a grave in Liberia. Dialogue between Cathy and her colleague reveals that this body was infected with a vaccine-resistant strain of Ebola.
- Artistic License – Medicine: Ebola virus only stays viable in the body for about a week, so the body harvested by Sulemain would be of very little use. The bodies in Liberia were also burned.
- Asshole Victim: Yazid, who tried to rape Hanin previously, gets a Tap on the Head and dumped in a pool of sewage, and is later killed by Greer.
- The Atoner: Tombstone travels to Syria to find the family of the innocent man he killed and give them the winnings he accumulated from gambling his bounty money.
- Mexican Standoff: Jack, Greer and Yazid get into one over Hanin, Sara and Rama while Tony negotiates. They work out that the CIA will take Hanin while Yazid takes her daughters, although Jack protests that Hanin won't help them if they let her daughters get taken. Greer agrees to the compromise, but then shoots Yazid as soon as Hanin is clear.
- My Greatest Failure: Greer reveals to Jack the mistake that resulted in his being demoted. He was trying to bring in an asset from Pakistan, but the man changed his mind mid-conversation and threatened to turn Greer in to the police. Knowing he'd be tortured or killed in a Pakistani prison, Greer stabbed the man.
- Mythology Gag: Ebola has featured in Jack Ryan books, such as Executive Orders and Rainbow Six.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Jack is deeply uncomfortable using a human trafficker like Tony, while Greer knows that the man has knowledge and contacts that they need.Bailey: The good guys don't know about people trafficking.
