"Carry on my wayward son; there'll be peace when you are done; lay your weary head to rest; don't you cry no more." Kansas
There are many sons "carrying on" despite exhaustion and frustration, fear and great risk in the penultimate episode of AMC's Rubicon. (Hey, AMC, if you are listening out there, DO NOT cancel this fine show and give it a second season!) Some carry on for glory, like our All-American type home-grown terrorist, known by the name Kateb. By the admission of friends and family this kid is a loser: the type that turns into a Timothy McVeigh, a skinhead or a Columbine killer. Instead he becomes (at least he thinks) a tool of Middle Eastern extremists.
Will Travers (James Badge Dale) carries on for his father-in-law,
murdered for his part in trying to expose a greed and hubris fueled conspiracy. And whose son is Kale Ingram (Arliss Howard)? API chief Truxton Spangler (Michael Cristofer) believes him to be a trustworthy protegee and long-time friend. And despite Ingram's horror that he's been working for a conspiracy possibly headed by his old and trusted friend, Ingram carries on to the truth whatever it may reveal.
Rubicon’s first season is almost at an end, and in an episode one might expect in a season finale, the terrorist Will and his team have been hunting for weeks blows up a devastating target right here in the U.S. Having finally figured it out, Will is devastated to learn that they are simply too late. Or are they?
Kateb’s target—an oil tanker in Galveston Bay—causes a strategic oil spill. It’s nowhere as large as the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but its location renders Galveston Bay is lost for months. API chief Truxton Spangler and his cronies have exactly what they want. Oil production and movement will by blocked, with a quarter of our oil supply needing to pass through Galveston Bay. Price of oil futures? Way, way up. Bet I know a certain API bigwig who’s got lots of those oil futures: big, big money. Oh, what’s a little terrorism and a lot of chaos when money’s at stake? But can it really be as simple as all that?
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Article comments
1 - Lisa McKay
Nice write-up, Barbara, I can't imagine being left hanging if AMC chooses not to renew this.
I think Spangler is way scarier and way more dangerous than the CSM ever was -- there was something about the way he was able to order a hit on Will one day and then casually assign him to NJ the next that really chilled my blood. And I think Kale is the most interesting character in the show.
Yeah, they really do need to renew this.
2 - barbara barnett
To me, Spangler is truly sinister. Cold blooded. Like you, I think Kale is the most interesting character there. I've always liked Arliss Howard.
3 - handyguy
This series began promisingly, but it has been so attenuated, with so little narrative or dramatic substance, that it tries my patience.
For the first 8 or 9 episodes, there was plenty of spooky hinting; the plot barely moved an inch. And now those dots have been connected in the most unimaginative way possible.
The everyday work of Will's team is just laughably simplistic. The dialogue between the supposedly scary conspirators [the "group of old guys"] is plain ridiculous.
James Badge Dale and Arliss Howard are decent actors, but no one is given enough to do or say. There is very little nuance, no layers of complication and detail to peel back. The plot is all holes, the characters as cardboard as 24.
I wanted to like Rubicon, but I won't be sorry to see it end. Of course, being scheduled right before Mad Men, one of the best series in history, invites unflattering comparisons.
4 - barbara barnett
I would agree with you if last night is was the finale (sort of). I ask the question: is it really as simple as it seems? Because it has sort of played out very straightforwardly (with only a few small twists). Sort of like a Ludlum novel rather than say something by Graham Greene. I'm hoping more Greene than Ludlum (tho I like them both, Green is more textured). So we'll see next week.
5 - handyguy
The cleverest thing in the plot is having the two plot strands converge: the spooky old guys causing disasters for financial gain, and the attempt to stop Kateb before he acts. The greedy conspirators plotted to blow up the tanker; they are the real terrorists. But really, couldn't we have moved from there to here with a little more panache?