Jack Ryan is probably one of those few shows that could have gone on for an infinite amount of time (and number of seasons) and maintained an audience. With their different mission (sometimes plural) per season style and the star power of John Krasinski, the action-thriller with a heavy political background has always been a top draw for Prime Video, and its latest season is no exception. Now that the producers have decided to draw the curtains on it, they are going all out to end things with a bang.
Season 4 of Jack Ryan has as many as five major characters and story arcs, all coexisting parallelly, and we can bet that everything will come together as we head to the big finale. The clock is already ticking with the opening scene of this season, which happens to feature our favorite hero being hanged and tortured in Myanmar. We know for a fact that the infamous Silver Lotus Triad is behind that, and that Jack got himself into the mess thanks to his habit of poking around and obviously trying his out-of-the-box methods, which only makes the show hella exciting. However, with Jack’s ally, former CIA chief of Venezuelan station Mike November, around, we can be fairly certain of Jack getting rescued. But Mike is not the only one who is looking out for Jack. The MVP of the season has to be Domingo Chavez, a newly introduced character who has taken the internet by storm. Chavez is being portrayed by Michael Peña, an actor widely known for both his acting abilities and comedic chops. While Pea’s casting has given away the initial intrigue regarding the character, we have to admit that he has been hitting it out of the park. A spin-off featuring Chavez as the central character is under development, which makes perfect sense. For now, we are going to dig deeper into this character and make an attempt to understand his motives in the show.
Chavez is first introduced as this ruthless assassin who is working for the Marquez cartel in Mexico and coolly eliminating all their competition. He has a family connection inside the cartel, as his cousin Marin is the de facto right-hand man of the cartel head, Marquez. The first impression we get from the character is that this is a man who gets things done without speaking much. It is sort of funny to see Pea in a role where he barely utters a word. But he sells Chavez with the utmost earnestness and a subtle amount of swagger.
It is soon revealed that Chavez is much more than a Cartel Assassin. He is, in fact, an undercover CIA agent who has purposefully gone deep into the cartel for the sake of a black ops operation. While Chavez is under the impression that whatever he is doing is for a good cause, i.e., saving American citizens from external threats, the reality is rather twisted. To get into that, we need to talk about Operation Pluto.
What Is Operation Pluto?
We still don’t completely know what it is, but from the information we already have, it can be deduced that Operation Pluto was some sort of secretive operation that was being run by former CIA director Miller. Chavez was doing Miller’s bidding with the belief that he was playing for the good side. Miller was, of course, not alone; as we all know, this seemingly normal-looking character named Walter is running the operation from a private business facility. The other major player in Operation Pluto was, of course, Chao Fah, the Burmese ganglord of the infamous Silver Lotus Triad.
How Does Jack Ryan’s Action Affect Chavez’s Fate?
After ascending to the Deputy Director post, Jack made it a point to close off every single dubious operation initiated under Miller’s regime. He, of course, had the blessings of his superior, acting CIA director Elizabeth Wright, who is far off from the Chavez plot as she is currently neck-deep in the Lagos conflict.
Thanks to Jack shutting down Operation Pluto, Chavez’s supply of money ran dry, and he failed to pay this Mexican Police Officer, Morales. The deal Chavez had with Morales was that he’d help him with the cartel-related business in exchange for money. But thanks to Chavez not being able to pay up, Morales probably went rogue. We can assume that’s how the Mexican Border Patrol ambushed the meeting between Chao Fah and the Marquez cartel, with Chavez and Marin present.
Unfortunately, Chavez ends up losing his seven team members, and Chao Fah flies back to Myanmar. With Chavez’s help, Chao Fah was planning to get himself out of the triad along with his wife and daughter. That obviously couldn’t happen. Meanwhile, Chavez got his cover blown, so he had no other option but to run back to America and seek help from his agency.
What Does Domingo Chavez Really Want?
The way this story is moving, there can be two very essential things that Chavez could look for: answers and retribution. In this week’s episode, we see Chavez arriving in America and confronting Jack before everyone. Their first interaction is anything but friendly, as we see Chavez breaking into Jack’s house and pointing a revolver at him. However, Jack believes in addressing the problem instead of attacking it. So we soon get to see a cool team-up between the two heroes. While both Jack and Chavez try to learn more about Operation Pluto from Miller, their methods are vastly different. Miller is also a tough nut to crack, and he is under the impression that his way is the only way. While Jack is concerned about how things are going and where it will land them, Chavez feels betrayed, and it has now become personal for him.
Miller is obviously connected to Chao Fah, so naturally, getting hold of Chao Fah becomes a necessary requirement for both Ryan and Chavez. However, there are other players at the table, and Walter is clearly more than someone who is working under Miller’s direction. This theory gets its hallmark when Walter threatens Jim Greer, Jack’s former boss and best friend, who has taken over the deputy director mantle from Jack. Walter doesn’t stop at threatening Greer; he even tries to kill him. Greer survives and ends up in the hospital. But Miller doesn’t, as Walter gets to him before Chavez and kills him in the coldest possible manner.
With Miller dead, the only other option for the terrific trio is to go to Mexico and get Chao Fah’s whereabouts from the cartel. Given that Chavez now holds an esteemed position on the cartel’s enemy list, that proves to be a difficult task. However, he manages to squeeze the information out of his cousin Marin with the help of Jack, Mike, and the CIA team. The information leads Jack, Chavez, and Mike to Dubrovnik in search of this exclusive thing called “The Marketplace”, where all the high-end drug deals in the world take place. While they thought Chao Fah would appear and they would somehow extract him, Chao Fah clearly has other plans as he ends up in Geneva. Chavez, Mike, and Jack do manage to infiltrate the marketplace and stop a lot of women from being trafficked. However, Chavez’s ultimate goal has not yet been achieved. That can only happen when he manages to reach Chao Fah. With the show ending next week, I am sure we are going to see that happen.
