Photo Courtesy Of FX
Warning: Spoiler Alert
The First Lady of Abbudin Leila Al Fayeed, summed things up rather succinctly in the latest episode of the FX Network’s Original Series “Tyrant,” as she responded to a doctor encouraging the Al Fayeed’s to stay positive, during a medical crisis. As the doctor left the room, Leila exclaimed “Clearly she doesn’t know the family.”
Abbudin’s second largest city Ma’an, is under control of the Caliphate Army and their mindset’s quite simple, you can either join their fight, or lose your life. However there’s a small band of resistance in the city, that includes Bassam Al Fayeed, although he’s still hiding his identity and calling himself Khalid.
However we start the episode at the palace of the President, as Sammy Al Fayeed exits a taxi and is lead into an office to speak with his aunt Leila. He tells her that he’s there to talk with his uncle, she responds his uncle is the President and doesn’t see visitors. He says he’s family and asks that she please tell him he’s there, she says she already has.
Ahmed’s putting on a military uniform as his half-brother Rami Said’s going to introduce the country’s new military forces in a public ceremony. His wife Nusrat asks if she can skip the ceremony as she’s feeling some discomfort from her pregnancy. Ahmed convinces her to come to lend him moral support.
Jamal enters the room his nephew’s in and wants to know what Sammy wants. He pleads with him to allow him to get the $100 million inheritance that his grandfather left for him. Jamal says that’s for the court to decide and Sammy responds that everyone realizes Jamal determines the court’s decisions. The President warns his nephew to watch how he talks to him.
Sammy smiles at him and says he’s not afraid of him. He says he’s his Uncle Jamal, the guy who used to take him out on motorboats when he was a kid, the guy who tried to teach him to fish. The guy that took him to Disney-World, his crazy Uncle Jamal, his favorite.
Now Jamal smiles, he says that he’s going to get funds from a Swiss bank-account, he says he’s not getting the entire 100 million at once. Jamal will give him $10 million and Sammy will leave the country, never to return. During the next few months Sammy will get the balance in installments. Jamal then quietly says, you’re my favorite too.
The resistance group in Ma’an meets and Siddiq tells them that the Caliphate Army has the city locked down and every day they wait, it will be harder to try to fight them. They discuss that they need a lot more people to put up a fight and weapons as well. Suddenly Bassam’s cellphone rings, it’s Ahmos son Munir telling Bassam that he’s found where the Caliphate are keeping Daliyah.
Bassam meets with Munir, who tells him Bassam must strike that evening as all the men of the Caliphate will be involved in a meeting that will go through the next morning. He says the compound will have minimal coverage, just a couple of guards on duty.
Sammy goes to the man who owns the gay-bar that knows Sammy’s friend Abdul and tells him he has the money for the ransom for the nine gay men that are being held captive by the Caliphate. The man says that they’re all dead, that the Caliphate blindfolded the men, then tied them to chairs and dropped them from the roof of a building to the pavement below. Another man tells Sammy, they’re having a memorial for the nine men that evening and Sammy should attend in memory of Abdul.
Attorney James Timmons and Molly are at an Abbudin bar and Timmons’ proposes a toast to Sammy, for handling his Uncle so well and securing his inheritance. Both are a little bit tipsy and Timmons seems like he’s going to make a move on Molly.
Bassam sneaks into the compound and finds Daliyah and tells her they’ve got to leave immediately. However before they can escape we become aware that there’s a woman standing behind Bassam holding a weapon. She thinks Bassam’s one of the soldiers and she calls him by that soldier’s name and asks what he’s doing in Daliyah’s room? He puts on a Middle-Eastern accent and says that Abu Omar told him to fetch her, but the woman says she doesn’t believe him.
She tells him to turn around, then realizes he’s not the soldier, but she knows his eyes and tells him to uncover his face. At that point we realize that the woman holding the weapon’s Samira Nadal, the daughter of his childhood friend. Samira’s shocked when she realizes that it’s Bassam and he’s still alive.
Rami introduces the new Abbudin military to the country of Abbudin and the President. Jamal gives a speech praising the unit as the best fighting force the nation’s ever had. Just then Nusrat gasps and tells Ahmed she’s bleeding, she gets up from her chair then collapses on the ground. Everyone on the dais rushes to her.
Bassam tries to convince Samira to let them go, but she asks Bassam if he saw Ihab Rashid the next morning, would he try to kill him. His silence is the only answer she needs and she tells them to both sit on the floor. Bassam says he’s not going to let her make him a hostage, but Samira tells him that if he doesn’t cooperate she’ll kill Daliyah.
Timmons and Molly return to the hotel with their buzz on and Molly wants to check on Sammy, but the attorney says let him be. He then kisses Molly and she pushes him off her saying it’s too soon. He then says something like you never recover, referring to the death of his wife a few years before. She then says that was the first time she kissed somebody else in about 20-years and they kiss again, this time she goes along with it.
The doctor tells the First Family, that the placenta ripped away from Nusrat’s uterus and she needs to operate and deliver the baby, even though he’s only at 24-weeks. His chances of survival are between 40-70% but Nusrat will likely die without the procedure.
Bassam’s trying to form a bond with Samira in hopes that she lets them go. He tells her that her father used to send him her class pictures starting in kindergarten. He tells Daliyah that Samira’s highly educated and Nadal says that she attended school for almost 20-years to become a lawyer.
Her face lights up as she tells them a story about when she was 12-years-old, she and seven of her classmates were chosen to form a model-debate team. She says they defeated all their opponents and they traveled all over, even to Lebanon. She then says that was just ten years before, but now she’s the only one left, the rest of the team either died in the gas attacks or are living in refugee camps in other nations.
Bassam asks Samira if she agrees with the Caliphate’s methods and she says she doesn’t. When asked why she’s there then, she says she’s stopped caring about everything but one goal. To make the Al Fayeed family pay for what they took from her, she then says Bassam’s her enemy, because if he wins then Jamal wins.
The doctor lets Ahmed know that Nusrat’s fine, but they lost the baby and they had to perform a hysterectomy to stop her from bleeding. So they can never have children. Ahmed asks if he can see his wife and the doctor says she’s still knocked out, but he can see her soon.
They have the memorial for the nine men and none of the local men knew Abdul very well, so Sammy gives a tribute to his friend. He says that Abdul was torn, because he wanted to become someone important, but he knew if he came out that would never happen in Abbudin.
Jamal and Leila are still sitting at the hospital, when Leila says they should go home and get some rest and return the following day. Jamal says the reason that he can’t sleep, is every time he closes his eyes he sees Bassam’s face with a sad smile. He says that all the bad started after he killed his brother, now he’s losing Abbudin and he lost his grandson. Leila says it’s all coincidence and as President he has to make tough decisions.
Bassam’s cellphone rings and he tells Samira that it’s the other soldier whose helping him free Daliyah. He says if he doesn’t pick up the phone and call him, he’ll soon walk through that door. She doesn’t believe Bassam, but the soldier walks through the door and Samira shoots him dead.
Sammy’s about to leave the memorial when this guy named Marwan says that his cousin was one of the nine killed by the Caliphate. He knows he was willing to pay the ransom for the men and asks him to contribute the money to the resistance group in Ma’an that are trying to stop the Caliphate. Sammy says if Marwan takes him to meet this resistance group, and they ask for money he’d help. The young man agrees and Sammy sends a text to Molly saying he’ll be back for brunch the next day. Molly’s asleep in bed with James Timmons.
Leila summons Rami and tells him to order an attack on Ma’an and lets him know that’s not a request. Rami calls the head of his Air Force and tells him to bomb the outskirts of Ma’an, he doesn’t care if they kill one Caliphate soldier as long as all civilians remain unharmed.
Bassam’s patience has finally run out and he tells Daliyah to stand up and then he places his body between her and Samira and tells Daliyah to leave. Samira warns Bassam that she’ll shoot him and he says you do what you have to do and once again tells Daliyah to keep walking. Samira shoots him in the thigh and Bassam picks the knife up off the floor and stabs Samira deeply in the abdomen. She’s mortally wounded and he doesn’t have time to save her.
He bends down next to her and says he can’t fix this. He says he won’t leave her like that and then tells her that her father loves her. He says he promises that he’ll turn Abbudin into the place she and her friends dreamed of when she was 12. However, that will be for other little girls and not for her. He then stabs her again with the knife this time killing her. He says no more pain and then she starts crying, Daliyah says they have to leave.
Ihab Rashid finds Samira’s body when he gets back from the meeting. He picks her limp body up in his arms and holds her to him then lets out a cry of pure anguish.
Bassam returns to where the resistance are living with Daliyah and she stitches up his bullet wound. He tells her that Ahmos was a very special man and that he loved her deeply. She says she didn’t love him when she married him, but grew to love him as he was such a good man.
Suddenly a blast from outside blows them across the room. The explosion’s part of the airstrike that Rami ordered. Bassam holds Daliyah underneath a table and promises to protect her.
The Story Continues Next Tuesday at 10:00 pm on FX.
