This week’s Tyrant episode considerably stepped up its game from the previous week. That being said, there is still a lot of “stakes raising” left to be done. This is the first week that I’ve felt confident in the foundation that Tyrant has set forth, and if it follows through, it still has all the tools to be an excellent show.
This week, we saw a LOT of Jamal and Barry’s interactions. Barry seems to have some kind of hero complex, but from an American perspective, he’s doing the right thing. He sought out a peaceful solution to the extended protest in the capital. He also convinced his brother to go along with The Sheik’s demands and change Abuddin to a democratic voting system. Barry convinces his brother that he will win the election for doing this. Jamal, on the other hand, clearly has a desire to be loved, and believes that Barry holds the key to being loved by the people. There is conflict when the enemy suggests that Barry is the brains of the operation, but Jamal feels rejected by everyone else in his life, so he hangs on to what his brother has to say.
I can’t complain about the minimal use of Barry’s family in this episode….so I won’t!
Something else I’ve been wanting that I finally got is a scene between Barry and Leila (First Lady). Ever since the flashbacks in the early episodes touched on their history, I’ve been interested to see the tension between them. The tension clearly exists, and they could take it a lot of places.
Perhaps Tyrant did itself a favor this week by creating what seems to be a Jamal-centric episode. As I’ve stated for weeks in my reviews, Ashraf Barhom is by far the most talented actor on the series. Jamal, in turn, is the most compelling character. You can’t go a week without Jamal staying sane for 90% of an episode and then going completely postal on someone. He clearly has a lot of issues, but he’s the true centerpiece of the show. The bathroom encounter with The Sheik showed us Jamal’s animal side once more, but it’s balancing the two sides of himself that makes him interesting to watch.
I’m not sure where they’ll go from here. “Next week” previews constantly promise raising the stakes, and they do, but it always feels like just enough to get by. It seems like Jamal’s actions could cause major fallout in the episodes that follow, but it also seems like I say that every week, so we’ll just see what happens. What about you? Where do you think they’re taking next week’s dramatic focus? What fallout will occur from tonight’s episode? Sound off in the comments!
[Photo via FX]
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