As The Terminal List: Dark Wolf opens with the group getting their story straight for the brass, it’s clear that Ben is no longer going to be a SEAL. He’s not the only one, either.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for The Terminal List: Dark Wolf episode 2.
Reece, Mo, Boozer, and Hastings all set up their story to help Ben after the events of The Terminal List: Dark Wolf series premiere, even though he doesn’t ask for it. While they know that they’re unlikely to help him keep his job, they can at least keep him out of prison, as what he did was well outside the rules of engagement.
However, the CIA doesn’t just want Ben fired. They need an officer to go down for it as well, and it’s between Reece and Hastings. In the end, Hastings is the one who says that he’s done with the SEALs and everything that they’ve fought for, and he’s ready for his career to end.
The two are stripped of their birds, with Cox doesn’t want to do knowing what it means, and they’re sent home. With a canceled flight to Chicago, the two end up in Frankfurt, where they end up with a job offer.
Jed Haverford has an offer Ben can’t miss in The Terminal List: Dark Wolf
While at the bar, Jed pays for Ben’s drinks and then makes it clear that he wants to speak to both him and Hastings. He has a job offer. It’s an undercover one, but it’s something that could help them get an honorable discharge instead of a dishonorable one.
This mission is a chance to go after Danawi, the man who created the bomb in Daran’s prosthetic. Ben is immediately in, needing revenge, but Hastings needs a little more convincing.
We get a little bit more of Hastings’ backstory. He was born in Rhodesia, and it’s clear that he and his family have a bad experience with the CIA. This man does not want to work with Jed, but Jed is rather convincing. After all, Jed isn’t a CIA puppet, or so it seems for now.
Hastings has one question for Ben, though. Will Ben go rogue again, or can he keep his emotions in check? Ben promises to keep it all under control, and so, the two join the secret op.
Ben and Hastings head off to Vienna
Now it’s off to Vienna in The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, where Ben and Hastings meets Tal, a member of Mossad. There’s a quick comment about accents, and I have to admit that Tom Hopper’s accent is a little confusing, as Tal points out. Sometimes, it does sound on-point, but then there are moments that a New Zealand and his natural British accent come through. This could be on purpose to highlight the travel that Hastings has done, but it could also be a dig at the accent itself.
Back to the mission, the two find out that the guns they will get while in the club where they’ll see Danawi are vet guns. They’re heavy and not quite what they’re used to, but they are quiet, and that’s why they’re needed.
Of course, the plan in the club doesn’t quite work out. Ben and Hastings know that they’ll meet one of Jed’s assets in there, but they don’t know how. It doesn’t take long for Eliza to introduce herself, dressed as a barmaid. They’re shocked to see that it’s her and not one of the men that they’ve spotted, giving us a look at their bias when it comes to this operation.
Eliza slips something into Danawi’s drink, but he refuses to drink it. In fact, he’s overly suspicious of her pushing the drink on him and tells her to drink it instead. Realizing that she has no choice to be able to keep the mission on track, she takes a drink and then walks away, with the drug taking over her system. Ben rushes to her to get her to the back and give her something to make her throw up the drug.
I have to be honest and say she recovers from the drug way too quickly after throwing up, but The Terminal List: Dark Wolf has to keep the storyline moving fast. The focus has to be on the act that Danawi realizes that he’s been made and that people are after him. It has to be on Ben and Hastings tracking down Danawi and his men while Eliza and Tal clean up the mess.
Hastings takes matters into his own hands in The Terminal List spinoff
As Ben tracks down one of Danawi’s guards, Hastings rushes after Danawi. We get to see how much the two can think on their feet, especially Ben, who is able to use light to create shadows and lure the guard out of a stairwell to kill him easily.
Ben manages to get to Hastings, who has Danawi cornered. Jed makes it clear that it’s not Danawi that they need but his cellphone, so they can kill him if they need to. And that’s exactly what Hastings does. It wasn’t Ben we needed to worry about in this moment; it was Hastings.
It’s okay, though, as this mission has no traditional rules of engagement. It’s all about getting the job done, and that’s exactly what Ben and Hastings did, passing their “audition” with Jed.
The Terminal List: Dark Wolf airs Wednesdays on Prime Video.