‘Jack Ryan’ Season 3 Episode 1 Recap: “Falcon”

Since its Prime Video debut in 2018, Jack Ryan has come to fully understand something the films featuring Tom Clancy’s crusading CIA man always knew: these stories work best when the main character is the tip of the spear. It’s certainly fascinating, the amount of data that can be sourced and scrubbed by a dedicated analyst working inside the global intelligence apparatus. But how exciting is it for an audience to just watch John Krasinski clacking keys in an, er, office? We’ve done that. It’s more exciting to place the star and co-executive producer of the series in the field, in the center of the action, and in direct confrontation with the collection of international terrorists, dark money operators, and foreign government shot callers he’s encountered since becoming the mentee of Company lifer Jim Greer, played on Jack Ryan by perennial scene stealer Wendell Pierce. That immersion is what made the season two finale such a thrill, as Jack and the impossibly-named Mike November (House of Cards veteran Michael Kelly; don’t worry, we’ll see him again) led a helicopter assault on Venezuela’s presidential palace as an imprisoned Greer fought his way to them from the inside.

“If I can’t do it, somebody else has to.” That was Greer’s gruff self-assessment after the rescue. At his age, and with a serious heart condition, it was time for someone he personally vetted and totally trusted like Jack to officially take Greer’s place as a CIA field agent. And so we’re brought to Jack Ryan Season 3, where the newly-minted Rome Station case officer is passed a piece of tantalizing evidence by Russian government operative Zoya Ivanovna (Ana Ularu). In a flashback, we’ve already seen the Soviet Army mow down a room full of scientists upon the cancellation of a research program called “Sokol.” Now, Jack’s intel points to that secret initiative’s restart, which essentially means that somebody in Russia wants to use conflict in Eastern Europe and the introduction of small, radar-undetectable nukes to foment unrest on an international scale. Putin, Zelenskyy, Biden: none of these politicians exist inside the “Ryanverse.” But the plot of Jack Ryan Season 3 is seeded with contemporary geopolitical zest.

Greer isn’t retired yet. He kicked the booze. He eats healthy. And he’s taken up philosophy. But he hasn’t retired. And the CIA veteran is on hand in Rome to assist Jack as he lobbies station chief Elzabeth Wright (Betty Gabriel) to take a chance on the admittedly scanty intelligence received from Zoya. “You have a thesis that’s not proven out,” Elizabeth says, tossing the cold water. And besides, she warns her newbie field agent, “I’ve never really liked heroes. They tend to think more of their actions than they do the repercussions.” 

The Kremlin is certainly considering repercussions. At a tense meeting in the president’s office, diplomat Aexei Petrov (Alexej Manvelov) warns that NATO plans to move missile systems into the Czech Republic with the blessing of progressive Czech president Alena Kovac (Nina Hoss), whose cagey father Petr (Peter Guinness) is retired from government but still active in intelligence circles. Then Luka (James Cosmo), the crusty old Russian intelligence chief, rises from his chair. “Keep our enemies close,” he says, sucking on an unfiltered Java. “Easier to slip in the knife, if necessary.” And the Russian foreign minister is dispatched to the Czech Republic.

In Prague, President Kovac says she’ll slow the NATO missile deal if the Russians agree to cease their incursions into Ukraine. She also displays a knack for gamesmanship, blindsiding the Russian contingent with a media scrum that puts their hardliner politics on the spot. As Alena Kovac, Nina Hoss’s barely perceptible smile as the Russian minister leaves in a huff is completely delicious and another reason why Jack Ryan’s plausibility is cultivated with the hiring of talented supporting cast members like Hoss and Betty Gabriel as no-nonsense CIA boss Elizabeth Wright.

Wright and her CIA higher-ups have authorized Jack and a small team of special operators to hit a container ship in the Black Sea on the hunt for absconded nuclear material. But instead, what they find is a guy. A nuclear scientist, in fact, secreted in a compartment like he was gift-wrapped for the Americans. It’s suspicious. But the guy confirms that the Sokol initiative is real, active, and in motion. Jack confirms the intel to Elzabeth and Greer back in Rome, who inform him that the Russian Minister was just assassinated at a soccer match in Prague. (In a brief scene that will surely become significant, we saw an area bartender being set up as a patsy for the shooting.) Russian diplomats murdered on foreign soil? Sokol seemingly spinning up as a viable nuclear threat? Something’s clearly afoot. But then Jack is ambushed at his supposedly secret landing site in Greece. And after a running shootout and bruising car chase leads him to bustling Athens, he accidentally shoots a Greek police officer while taking heavy fire. And who is the square-jawed, extremely not Greek blonde guy leading the attack? 

Politically-motivated assassinations, a covert op compromised, and plenty of unfortunate collateral damage: it’s enough to make somebody miss the deskbound life of an analyst. But Jack isn’t in the habit of going backwards. Already suspicious of the CIA brass – it’s something Greer taught him – Jack’s convinced that they’re hanging him out to dry once Elizabeth says to turn himself in. “If you run, this is going to get much worse for you.” To which Jack Ryan smashes his agency-issued phone into fifty pieces and promptly melts into the hubbub of downtown Athens at night. The Company’s newest field agent is now an international fugitive.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges