Based on Tom Clancy’s acclaimed novel series “Ryanverse,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” tells the story of former American Marine and stock broker Jack Ryan, who now works as an analyst at the CIA. After coming across some suspicious monetary transactions based in Syria, he is pulled out of his office and has to step into the field to prevent what will be a world-level catastrophe. In pursuit of the mastermind, Mousa Bin Suleiman, he has with him his partner, Jim Greer, chief of TFAD (Terror Finance and Arms Division) of the CTC (Counter Terrorism Center) of the CIA’s NCS (National Clandestine Service). (Bear with the acronyms.)
Spoilers Ahead
Episode 1
The year was 1983. Two kids, Mousa Suleiman and his brother Ali were playing on the roof of their home in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, when bombs dropped over the place. Their whole family was killed except for the two brothers. CTC’s Terror Finance and Arms Division (TFAD) at CIA Headquarters, Washington, DC, gets its new chief, James “Jim” Greer. He negates Jack Ryan’s doubts over suspicious transactions worth $9 million that are related to a guy named Suleiman. Jack goes behind Jim’s back and asks a friend at the Treasury to freeze the accounts. Greer gets a call from his friend Pete Cortwright (CIA Annex at the US Embassy, Sana’a, Yemen), who tells him that a demarche has been ordered from TFAD. Greer realizes that Ryan went behind his back and closed the account. He calls Ryan to his office and charges him with disobeying his officer and losing a potential way to track Suleiman if he, in fact, exists. Later that night, Jack’s former boss and friend from his time in the US Marine Corps, Joe, invites him to his birthday party. Jack arrives at the party and meets Cathy (Joe’s daughter), an epidemiologist at the Washington Memorial Hospital. She specializes in infectious diseases. Before they could talk much, a helicopter arrived at the party and took Ryan away.
At Suleiman’s compound in Al Mnajeer, Syria, his wife Hanin has a new visitor sent by Suleiman himself. He and his friends are her new guests and will be staying at their house for the time being. She sees them working on some kind of chemical weapons that are being sent somewhere in olive oil bottles. Under Greer’s orders, unbeknownst to Jack, Operator Matice (CIA Special Activities Division) and his team captured two men in Aden, Yemen, Omar Rahbini and Soufan. Both are brought to a US black site in the Sarawat Mountains, Yemen. Ryan and Greer arrive there to interrogate them. Suleiman’s brother Ali infiltrates the compound disguised as a dead body. He is brought, along with three other real dead bodies, to the US soldiers at the gates of the site by Yemeni militants, who are paid for every corpse they provide for identification. The site is then attacked by Suleiman’s men and using the distraction; he escapes with his brother. Jack realizes that the guy they are interrogating is not Soufan but Suleiman himself.
Episode 2
The situation at the Black Site in Yemen is assessed by the board (CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia), which includes CIA Director Sue Joyce, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Bobby Vig, and Director of Operations (DO) Shelby Farnsworth. Ryan and Greer are also present, along with other officers. Ryan decides to meet Cathy at the Washington Memorial Hospital, where he has come to get his back looked at. She gives him her phone number. Ryan returns to his office. Greer gives him Suleiman’s encrypted cell phone that he left in Yemen while escaping. He is then called by Deputy Director of Operations Nathan Singer, who wants him to lead the investigation alongside CTC Europe. Ryan says that he wants some time before he can decide. Back in his cubicle, he is unable to find the passcode for the phone until he accesses French prison records. The name “Mousa Bin Suleiman” pops up on the screen immediately. With Greer watching, Ryan types Suleiman’s prison number into the phone, and it unlocks. The numbers on the phone are traced back to Paris. Ryan and Greer tell Director of Operations Farnsworth about it, who greenlights their trip to Paris to look into it.
Father Joseph Morel was killed by two men in Paris, France. Ali bids Suleiman goodbye and leaves for Paris from Yemen, while Suleiman returns home to his family. Ali receives a bag full of SIM cards from a contact in Belleville. Greer, Ryan, and Matice arrive in Paris. They meet DGSI Captain Sandrine Arnaud and SWAT-in-charge Lieutenant Tariq La Pointe. They are going to the location where they traced multiple phone calls from the number Ryan gave them. The calls were made to a building in Seine-Saint-Denis. Greer tells Sandrine that since Suleiman’s account was frozen, he must have come to France to collect new money and is sending it to his cells using a phone app called TracEuro that loads money on SIM cards and allows transfers worth up to $10,000 at a time. They arrive at the building. Inside the building, Ali and the other militants who have been transferring the money (just as Greer and Ryan had guessed) are notified of the presence of cops. They bring out their guns immediately and prepare for an attack. Shots are fired from both sides, and Ali receives a bullet wound. He somehow manages to come out of the building, but Ryan notices him and chases him out. He is about to shoot Ali in the middle of the busy road when an explosion inside the building shakes him up. Ali escapes.
Episode 3
The explosion in Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, France, has wrought many casualties, both policemen and militants. Later, Sandrine gets her hands on Suleiman’s prison records, which reveal the one visitor he had in all 23 months of his prison time: his brother Ali bin Suleiman. Ryan sees Ali’s picture and realizes that it is the same guy he chased out of the Seine-Saint-Denis building. The address Ali used to indicate his visit is in a Muslim neighborhood called 93 Department. Ryan, Greer, and Sandrine decide to go to the place.
Ali is at his contact Omer’s house, in 93 Department. He contacts Suleiman, who is in Syria, using a video game. Suleiman tells him to get to a rendezvous point. But there can be no witnesses. For Ali, it means killing Omer, who saved his life and his three children. Sandrine’s team is looking for Ali in the area. Greer meets one of Omer’s kids at the local mosque. Upon showing the kid Ali’s picture, the kid tells him the address. They breach the building, but Ali has already escaped yet again. However, he hasn’t killed any of them, unlike what Suleiman wanted him to do. Ryan finds out from the children that Ali was playing a video game and accessed Ali’s chat with Suleiman. Sandrine questions Omer, but he knows nothing. Ali took Omer’s car and left. At the DGSI headquarters (Paris, France), Sandrine’s team is tracking Ali through the GPS in the car. She agrees to follow Ali, as he can lead them to all the others, and joins Greer and Ryan in the pursuit.
At Al Mnajeer, Syria, Abbas al-Fathi, Hanin’s uncle, gives her new Turkish passports for her and her children in secret. She hides the passports in a container in the kitchen. Suleiman finds the passports and burns them in front of Hanin. That night, Hanin decides to escape with her kids. While Sara and Rama are with her, Samir is not willing to leave his father. As the women escape in a car in the middle of the night, Samir goes and tells his father about it. Suleiman sends Fathi and another guy, Yazid, in search of them. Hanin’s car breaks down, and she and her two daughters reach a nearby market on foot. There, they are intercepted by Fatih and Yazid. The girls start running with Yazid’s car behind them. All this is being tracked by Victor Polizzi from the Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada, through his drone. Yazid catches up to the girls and kills Fatih after realizing that he has been aiding Hanin in her escape. He then puts Sara and Rama in the car, but before he can do the same to Hanin, she scratches his face with her nails and runs away, giving Victor enough space to shoot Yazid with a drone strike without hurting her. Yazid lies motionless. The girls escape.
Episode 4
Greer and Lt. Bruno Cluzet in one car, and Ryan and Sandrine in another are tracking Ali in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Seeing a gas station on the way, Sandrine decides to stop for fuel. Ahead of them, Greer and Lt. Bruno Cluzet find Ali’s car in the middle of the road. On the side of the road, they find tracks. Ali has switched vehicles. Ryan is outside the station, while Sandrine has gone inside the store. Ryan sees an ice-laden car parked. It is, however, warm. He checks inside and finds some wires ripped from under the steering wheel. Someone has tried to hotwire it. He checks the seats as well. Meanwhile, an injured Ali comes out from the other side of the station and sees Ryan. He pulls out a gun to shoot him, but Sandrine, who is coming out through the front entrance, sees it and yells at Ryan. Ryan ducks and dodges Ali’s bullet. Sandrine and Ali shoot in each other’s direction. A police guard at the gas station comes out and, seeing Sandrine with a gun, shoots her. Ali, in turn, shoots the guard and flees. Ryan doesn’t have a gun, so he somehow manages to hide from Ali. Once Ali has left the scene, Ryan attends to Sandrine, who gives him her gun and tells him to go after Ali. Ryan tells the shopkeeper to call an ambulance and rushes in Ali’s direction. He follows blood trails to a warehouse. Inside, Ali attacks him, but he hits back at Ali’s bullet wound (from the attack in the Seine-Saint-Denis building), bringing him down in pain. He finally manages to pull a gun on Ali and ask him where they are planning the attack. Ali says nothing and is about to pull out his gun as well when Ryan shoots him. Ali dies. Ryan returns to the gas station. The ambulance has arrived, but Sandrine is dead.
In Al Mnajeer, Syria, Suleiman buys the kidnapped 12 aid workers who were in Syria to set up medical facilities for civil war victims from Al Radwan. He also buys Radwan’s soldiers by paying them. He then puts Radwan with the aid workers in his prison. In Washington, DC, Cathy gets Ryan’s message that he had sent her on Sandrine’s suggestion. Cathy’s friend Rebecca encourages her to go out with him. However, she also informs Cathy about an Ebola report from a Liberian patient that shows a relapse of the virus. Cathy decides to look into it. Ryan and Greer return to Washington, DC. Ryan returns home. He comes out of a bath and finds a text from Cathy. She said yes. Ryan and Cathy go on a date. Both end up sleeping together at Cathy’s place. Three men set off a chemical bomb at Father Morel’s funeral at a church in Paris, France. They leave beforehand and seal the doors of the church so that no one can escape.
Episode 5
A bomb squad breaks into a church in Paris, France. More than 300 are found dead. Suleiman claims responsibility for the attack. His message is clear. Paris is just the beginning. At his compound in Al Mnajeer, Syria, Suleiman calls for one of the inmates, Dr. Daniel Nadler, and tells him to make a list of the medicines and other things needed by the inmates. He then promises his saddened son, Samir, that he will find his mother and sisters very soon.
At CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Ryan finds out that his father’s death was a setup for the Paris bombing. Suleiman researched his target. Secretary of Defense Marcus Trent doesn’t find any direct threat to America, but Greer makes it clear that it should be taken as a potential threat. Ryan suggests using the video game to contact Suleiman. After all, he doesn’t know his brother Ali is dead. DO Shelby Farnsworth greenlights the plan. Later on, while on a dinner date with Cathy, Ryan receives a call from her friend Layla Navarro at the CIA. She informs him of a woman at the Turkey camp who claims to be Suleiman’s wife. The video game is set up inside the meeting room. With the whole board watching, Ryan contacts Suleiman. Unfortunately, Suleiman finds out that he isn’t talking to his brother Ali. Ryan reveals himself and tells Suleiman that his brother Ali is dead. What proves that his wife is indeed not with him is that when Ryan mentions to Suleiman that his wife has left him, he disconnects the call. This further means that Suleiman’s wife is at the Turkey camp. Ryan and Greer leave for Turkey.
Hanin, Sara, and Rama arrive at the Zeugma Accommodation Facility, Nizip, Turkey. Hanin sees the news of the Paris attack and her husband’s claim of responsibility. After being unable to get help from Lance Miller, who is at the American desk, despite telling him that she is the wife of Suleiman, who was responsible for the Paris attacks, Hanin finds another man, Mr. Sadik, and offers him her jewelry in exchange for safe passage to Europe. Later on, Yazid, who surprisingly didn’t die in the drone attack, meets Mr. Sadik and asks him about Hanin and the girls. Somewhere else, the women are put in a truck that then leaves for its destination on the coast.
Episode 6
Six months ago- Ali and Suleiman dug up the dead body of an Ebola patient in Liberia.
Hanin and her daughters are in a moving truck 20 kilometers south of Kusalani, Turkey. The vehicle stops at a refueling place for 15 minutes before heading to the coast, from where the boats will take them all to the different countries. Hanin and her girls go to the washroom. Hanin spots Yazid and hides. Yazid pays the driver of the vehicle some money in return for information on the woman he is looking for. He finds out that the girls are in the bathroom. He goes inside, pushing the women out of his way, and finds Sara and Rama, but the very next moment, Hanin hits him in the head with a stone and pushes him out of the makeshift washroom and into the sewage pit right outside. The girls then escape on foot as Yazid lies, screaming in pain. After walking for a long time, they arrive at the coast.
Jack Ryan and Jim Greer arrive in Adana, Turkey, and are received by Lance Miller, the US guy who spoke to Hanin at the Turkey camp. Lance takes them to a guy named Tony Ahmet Demir, who runs a brothel. He knows the smugglers who run businesses out of the camp in Turkey. Greer offers Tony money to help find the woman, and a deal is made. They arrive at the refueling spot, and Tony finds out that Hanin was indeed there with her daughters. The guy who was looking for the girls is on his way to the coast as well. Ryan and Greer need to hurry before the guy finds Suleiman’s wife. The two get into a car along with Tony, and they arrive at a gate. There, Tony kills the two men guarding it because they need more money to let the car cross. As much as Ryan is against all of it, Greer makes him understand that they cannot do anything without Tony’s help. Tony takes the keys to the gate from one of the dead men’s pockets and opens the gate. They then resume their journey and reach the coast.
At the Washington Memorial Hospital, Washington DC, Cathy tells Rebecca about the Ebola virus samples that she has come across in the sets Rebecca sent her. The sample matches with a version of Ebola that was eradicated, i.e., EVD-27. The patient doesn’t match any of the contacts in the version’s cluster. She finds out from a friend at an Ebola Assessment Base in Liberia that six months ago, two Middle Eastern men dug up the body of a person affected by the EVD-27 version of Ebola. Cathy sends a message to the Bioweapons Preparedness Task Force at the CDC, saying that there might be a potential containment breach of the EVD-27 virus.
Yazid, who has already reached the coast, spots Hanin and her daughters being taken to a boat and calls Suleiman, who orders him to bring the girls back and kill Hanin. Yazid’s hired henchmen rush to the boat and pull the girls away. Ryan and Greer have just reached the coast as well. Ryan spots Hanin being manhandled by two men. He and Greer rush towards them. The crowd watches as the two sides pull guns on each other. On one side are Yazid and his men. On the other side are Greer, Ryan, and Tony. The showdown ends with Greer shooting Yazid in the head. Tony calms the smugglers down. Ryan pays Tony for his service. Geer and Ryan bring Hanin and her daughters to the Incirlik Air Force Base in Adana, Turkey. Ryan tells Hanin that even though he has their US visas, she will have to provide information on her husband, or else they won’t be allowed to stay. Ryan also assures Hanin that he is the best chance she has at getting her son Samir back. She then shows the location of her home on the map to Ryan.
Episode 7
Jack Ryan and James Greer return to CIA headquarters. Hanin and her daughters are safe in a house in Annandale. Matice’s team has been preparing for a ground assault on Suleiman’s house in Syria, but according to DNI Bobby Vig, President Andrew Pickett has ordered an air strike only. Ryan defends a ground assault, as an air strike will kill Suleiman, and they won’t be able to acquire any intelligence about his international network. Vig tells Secretary of Defense Marcus Trent that ground assault is a no-go. If Trent wants an air strike, he will have to confirm that Suleiman is in the building. The meeting is thus adjourned. Downstairs in the office, Tarek Kassar shows Ryana and Greer a picture of Ali and Suleiman at the Azerbaijan airport. They were coming from Liberia, and it was listed that they brought back the remains of a relative. That’s when Greer remembers that the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) is having a meeting to discuss an Ebola-infected dead body that went missing in Liberia. The brief is going to start in 20 minutes. Ryan and Greer leave for USAMRIID.
At his house in Al Mnajeer, Syria, Suleiman tells his son Samir that his sisters are coming back, but his mother is no more. She has been killed by foreigners, for which they will have revenge. Later on, Suleiman gives Dr. Nadler all the medicines he had asked for for the hostages. Two individuals from the USAMRIID arrive at the Washington Memorial Hospital to meet Cathy Mueller. She is brought to the institute to be questioned regarding the mail she sent earlier (Episode 6). The discussion has just begun between Cathy and the board when Ryan and Greer walk in. She is completely taken aback to see Ryan, whom she had known all along to be an analyst at the State Department, not the CIA. Ryan is also shocked to see her and is visibly ashamed. Greer shows Cathy the picture of Suleiman and Ali at the Azerbaijan airport. The place is known for its black biology. It is a place where bioweapons are manufactured and sold on the black market. Cathy reveals that even though the EVD-27 virus is difficult to transmit because oxygen kills the virus, it is possible to transmit and weaponize it. After the briefing, Ryan tries to make Cathy understand why he lied to her, but Cathy isn’t having any of it anymore. She bids Ryan goodbye and leaves.
Suleiman’s men, Ibrahim and Jabir, enter a shipping container at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, and unpack a wooden box containing large test tubes filled with some kind of powder. One of the test tubes is broken, so they decide to leave it inside the container. The remaining seven they put into another, smaller box to take with them. At the safe house in Annandale, Maryland, where Hanin and the girls are staying, Agent Marabel of the CIA brings some things from the market for Hanin and the girls. This includes a video game console for Sara that she wanted. With no one around, Sara reaches out to her brother Samir using the video game chat. Samir is overjoyed when he gets a text from his sister, who is safe in America with their mother and Rama. When he hears his father coming, he puts the game console aside and pretends to sleep. Suleiman enters the room and covers Samir with a blanket. He then notices the game and finds the messages.
It’s 3 a.m. Ryan is trying to sleep at his home in Georgetown when he gets a call from Greer. There is a board meeting with President Andrew Pickett in 45 minutes. Ryan arrives at the CIA headquarters. The board shows the president a picture of Suleiman at the Syrian location, as provided by his wife. However, a new update indicates that 12 hostages need to be rescued, including the president’s friend Dr. Daniel Nadler. The president orders a ground assault. Finding his opportunity, Ryan asks the president to let them rescue Hanin’s son, Samir. The president agrees. A total of 13 hostages will have to be rescued. With Ryan, Greer, and the CIA board watching, Matice and his team breach Suleiman’s compound in Al Mnajeer, Syria, but there is no one there. Suleiman and his men have left the building. Matice’s team secures the hostages. Al Radwan was shot dead. Ryan asks about Samir. Matice confirms that there is no sign of the boy. The 12 hostages have been safely extracted. Meanwhile, 11 kilometers south of the Turkish border in northern Syria, Suleiman and Samir switch from a camel to a car. The driver gives them new Canadian passports.
Ryan and Cathy are at a restaurant, where Ryan mentions how he owes her an explanation. Thankfully, Cathy finds Ryan’s explanation compelling and agrees to go ahead with what they share. As the TV at the restaurant shows the US President meeting his long-time friend Dr. Nadler, Ryan receives a call from Greer. A clipping of Nadler with the President has been recovered from Suleiman’s compound. Ryan realizes that Suleiman knew that the president would send help for his friend and the hostages. As he speaks to Greer, he stares at Nadler, who is shaking hands with the president. Nadler is sweating a bit and coughing as well. A chill runs down Ryan’s spine as the shocking truth dawns on him. Suleiman isn’t building any biological weapons. The hostages are his weapon.
Episode 8
It’s chaos in Washington, DC. The president is being moved to an undisclosed location. Cabinet officers have been placed in quarantine. Secretary of Defense Marcus Trent talks to American citizens on national television and assures them that the government is doing whatever it takes to find the mastermind behind the attack, Mousa Bin Suleiman. Suleiman and Samir arrive at the Leesburg airport in Virginia in new avatars and with new passports that show that they are from Canada. He has come for his son’s treatment. Later on, at an undisclosed location, Ibrahim shows Suleiman a machine that allows one to remotely detonate the powder, which will be spread using the wind in a ventilation duct. The duct will do the job of spreading the powder across the subject area. Further later, Ibrahim walks into an eatery in Georgetown, leaves his bag, and walks out. Once at a distance from the eatery, he dials a number. The very next moment, the eatery blows up.
At the CIA headquarters, Dr. Roger Wade of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) is at the CTC office and informs us that a dock worker from Maryland was admitted via ER. Acute radiation poisoning by Cesium-137 (Chernobyl) was the cause. They traced it back to a shipping container at the Baltimore Port. Potential targets are being searched for, but things need to speed up as nuclear fallout, depending on the amount, can last for 30 years. In other words, the casualties will number in the millions. Ryan sees the picture of the container in which the cesium was found by NEST. They look smaller than what’s required for a large-scale attack. He deduces that the cadmium might just be the first step toward a larger attack. He arrives at the Annandale safe house and shows Hanin a picture of the Césium. She, however, isn’t willing to help as she doesn’t have her son with her, despite Ryan’s promising her so. Ryan then tells her that Suleiman knew that they were coming from him, indirectly asking her if she had warned Suleiman. Hanin clearly states that she doesn’t know anything about her husband other than what she has already told them. Ryan leaves and returns to his office, only to find out from Greer that an eatery blew up in Georgetown. Both leave for the spot. On the way, Ryan notices ambulances going to Washington Memorial Hospital and tells Greer to follow them instead. Ryan and Greer arrive at the hospital and tell Secret Service Agent Crawford about four to five Middle Eastern men who may have already entered the hospital, including Suleiman himself. The blast might have been a distraction for the men to sneak a bioweapon into the hospital where the president and vice president of the US are admitted. Remote detonation has been disabled in the area. Greer and Ryan help Crawford begin searching for the men alongside the rest of the cops.
Suleiman and three of his men are dressed as the medical staff. They arrive in an ambulance at the Washington Memorial Hospital as well and take in two dead bodies inside the hospital on stretchers, pretending to be bringing in the casualties of the blast. They find a room downstairs, cut open the bodies, bring out the Cesium test tubes, and set up the machine. The four guys then go further down to the air ducts and discreetly place the equipment. Once detonated, the powder will reach the US president in approximately 30 seconds. Ibrahim gives Suleiman the detonator phone, and they decide to leave. Outside the hospital, Samir is waiting inside a car with another of Suleiman’s men, Jabir. A police car parks in front of them. The cop inside radios for a description of the suspects.
‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Does Jack Stop Suleiman From Detonating The Bioweapon?
Cathy is keeping a check on Nadler and President Pickett at the Washington Memorial Hospital all the while. She checks the phone and finds a message from Jack regarding a security breach. With Crawford bent on evacuating the president first, Cathy sets off the fire alarm. Suleiman and the others separate to avoid getting caught. Greer shoots one of the men, Dudayev, who was with Cathy in an elevator. Ryan finds the room where Suleiman opened up the bodies. He decides to take the stairs and hears gunshots. He follows them downstairs and outside based on the people’s directions. Meanwhile, Suleiman and Amer head toward their car. Samir sees his father coming and yells out. The cop in the car in front of them recognizes Jabir and comes out, pulling a gun. Jabir is about to pull his gun when the cop shoots and kills him. Samir is put in cuffs. Suleiman waves at his son and quietly runs from the cops, escaping on foot with Amer. Ryan comes out of the building and sees Samir in cuffs, surrounded by cops. He is looking in a specific direction. Ryan follows in that direction and catches Suleiman and Amer fleeing. He shoots but misses. The two guys run into a crowded metro station, followed by Ryan. Suleiman and Amer then take the tracks and wait for Ryan to come closer. Ryan slows down. A gunfight follows, and Amer is shot and run over by a train. Ryan then follows Suleiman, who is on his way to the next station. Ryan decides to take the stairs. Both reach Waterfront station through different routes. Amid a crowd, Ryan yells out to Suleiman about his son. Suleiman turns only to reveal himself before resuming his run. Ryan fires in the air. The crowd lowers their heads, and Ryan gets a clear shot. He takes it. Suleiman takes the bullet and falls. Ryan closes in on him for confirmation. Suleiman is dead. Ryan checks Suleiman’s phone. The detonation message remains unsent.
Samir is reunited with his mother and his sisters at the Annandale safe house. Suleiman’s scientist, Ibrahim, has managed to escape only to be shot by Matice 4 months later in a hotel room in Essaouira, Morocco. Greer has been promoted to deputy chief of station in Moscow. Ryan is offered the position of TFAD chief by Deputy Director of Operations Nathan Singer. He then gives Ryan the book Greer left for him. Inside, Ryan finds a ticket to Moscow and smiles to himself. New jobs await both Jack Ryan and James Greer. It waits to be seen whether their latest exploits as CIA officers make them more prone to fieldwork or if they are able to settle into their respective thrones without much hustle. Be that as it may, both have indeed become good friends.
