Hunting Horn
In the fourth episode of The Terminal List, we follow Marcus Boykin as he updates his profile and heads out onto the open road. As he does, we cut to James Reece, who waits for him to leave, overlooking all of this through his sniper lens. ..
With a high vantage point, he shoots the guy in cold blood. The car tips over, Marcus is left a bloody mess upside down.
James Reece heads down and takes the guy’s phone, using the facial recognition software to hack in and take everything Marcus may be hiding. With that, he crosses Marcus’ name off the list and prepares to go for the head of the snake – Steve Horn.
The police begin to close in on James Reece and, in particular, the footage of him and the “unknown female” during the shootout in the streets. This is, of course, Katie.
As the officers begin to run tests to try and find who she is, our reporter continues to lay low. Secretary Hartley is also being kept in the loop too, and decides to televise the upcoming hearing on the matter, deciding to open it up for the senators to have on record that they prefer special interests to special operators.
Meanwhile, Steve Horn is having a big board meeting with the members of his group, but they’re losing faith in him. After what happened with Saul, he’s in the market for a new VP and that means faith in his merger and big business ventures are starting to waver.
Katie messages James that night, letting him know that she believes there are others in the platoon also suffering from tumors. However, in the morning she’s stopped by the police, who show up and begin asking her about James Reece.
Katie throws it back at the officers though, pointing out Saul’s connection to this. But then, with Josh Holder and Saul Agnon now both dead, the officers guilt-trip her into revealing what she knows. It’s not much, in truth, and she eventually tells the officers she’ll be in touch if she finds out where James Reece is.
Steve Horn has a deal with Richard, the agent working alongside Secretary Hartley. It’s hard to know exactly what the end-goal is here, but suffice to say, it seems that the two are in collusion, potentially working behind Hartley’s back. We’ll see.
James Reece learns that young sicarios are being trained in a warehouse by a man known simply as Navajas. This is the guy who killed Reece’s family. While the best plan here would be to snipe him out from afar, James is blinded by rage and revenge, wanting to dish out a much more personal attack for this guy so he knows exactly who’s coming for him. Ben agrees to follow him in but there’s a problem – James Reece passes out. ..
Reece wakes up to find that he’s talking to a doctor who encourages him to get his life back in 6-9 months after treatment for his tumour. The alternative could well be death. As a compromise, Reece decides to take drugs to stave off the symptoms temporarily, delaying treatment until he finishes the job he’s determined to see through to its conclusion.
As the team moves into the warehouse, they find several gunmen waiting for them. Ben fires a few rounds at them, killing one and wounding another. James then takes out the last gunman with a quick shot to the head. As they enter the warehouse, they find Navajas lying on the floor, dead from gunshot wounds.
Katie is called into a meeting with her boss, where she learns that Steve Horn has bought a controlling share of Nubellum Pharmaceutical company 6 years ago. This shift in ownership has resulted in the company’s nootropic products being shifted into military use, which has caused them to struggle financially.
Since Steve Horn has been shipping medication to all the different branches of the company, it has been rumoured that he is on the verge of buying everything outright for $70 billion. If this is true, it could cause massive shockwaves across the business world. Katie makes a decision based on this information, and decides to leave. ..
The Episode Review
That was a long episode, at least it felt that way anyway. This entire chapter could easily have been condensed down to around 20 minutes or so, which would have made the whole affair much more concise. ..
The episode feels like it’s going at a snail’s pace, and it makes it difficult to follow what’s happening. It also makes it difficult to care about the characters.
The bird slamming into the window is a reoccurring motif in this episode. ..
The story of Steve Horn and his connection to the pharmaceutical company that acquired a military medical supply company is still intriguing. This new information explains why Horn has a stake in the company. ..
