Michael Kelly & ‘Jack Ryan’ Cast Promise Classic ‘Thrill Ride’ in Final Season
Preview
We don’t have to wait long for action hero Jack Ryan (John Krasinski) to find a gun aimed at his head in the fourth and final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.
It’s a common scenario for the now-acting CIA deputy director, who, over the past three rounds, has been abducted, beaten, tortured, and shot while saving the world from ISIS terrorists, a nefarious Nicaraguan regime, and a rogue Russian cabal. (New episodes of the drama, loosely based on the late Tom Clancy’s novels, roll out weekly from June 30 through July 14 on Prime Video.)
The patriot’s final mission: uncover the true intentions behind a potential alliance between a Mexican cartel and a Burmese triad that would flood the United States’ southern border with drugs — and likely more heinous cargo — while exposing how the CIA could be involved.
“The drug trade, terrorism, and international espionage converge this season,” explains Wendell Pierce, who returns as James Greer, Ryan’s loyal colleague. “The antagonists are more involved and complicated, and the internal conflict at the agency may go deeper than a difference of opinion.”
Trying to suss out a CIA mole and short-circuit the Burmese triad’s dangerous plans, Ryan (Krasinski) works with trusted colleague \ Pierce’s Greer (Credit: Prime Video)
Ryan learns just that after an unpleasant first meeting with fearsome CIA black-ops specialist Domingo Chavez (Michael Peña), who spills on CIA malfeasance. As the shocked deputy director puts it to the repentant Chavez: “I need to find out exactly how deep the rot [in the CIA] goes.”
In order to prevent a catastrophic disaster, however, Ryan and Acting CIA Director Elizabeth Wright (Betty Gabriel) must convince a skeptical congressional committee they both deserve permanent appointments — no easy task when they’re tainted by the crimes of shady former CIA chief Thomas Miller (John Schwab).
Among them: sanctioning nine secret kill operations, one of which could seriously affect the country’s international relations, not to mention the agency’s reputation. It doesn’t help Ryan’s case that he is known for going rogue.
While the hearings grind on, Ryan focuses on Chao Fah (Hunters’ Louis Ozawa), the brains behind the powerful Silver Lotus Syndicate, which produces and runs drugs and operates a glitzy casino in the Myanmar jungle.
Ryan works with notorious special-ops killer Chavez (Peña) to keep the country safe from terrorism (Credit: Prime Video)
“Chao Fah is the smartest person in the room,” says Ozawa. “He’s always thinking of all the angles.” Chao Fah facilitates the cartel’s destruction of its competitors, for reasons the triad leader says are “much bigger” than the drug trade.
How much bigger? To find out, Ryan reaches out to his consiglieres, Greer and former CIA station chief Mike November (Michael Kelly). Success seems assured when the three friends work together. Also in Ryan’s corner: returning Season 1 love interest, the smart Dr. Cathy Mueller (Abbie Cornish).
As always, the stakes are high as the good guys try to save the world from all kinds of villains, whether they lurk in steamy jungles (shot on the Grand Canary Island) or in federal offices. “We are laying it all out there,” Kelly teases. “It’s another Jack Ryan thrill ride.”
This is an excerpt from TV Insider’s July issue. For more in-depth, reported coverage devoted to streaming shows from the publishers of TV Guide Magazine, pick up the issue, currently on newsstands, or purchase it online here. You can also subscribe to TV Insider Magazine here now.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Season 4 Premiere, Friday, June 30, Prime Video
