State of Terror

Gil wakes up in the hospital, struck by flashbacks to the time he spent as a hostage. Ellen comforts him. He is caught by a sudden concern for Dr. Nasrin Bukhari. Gil remembers a documentary he made about a Pakistani nuclear physicist and suspected arms dealer named Bashir Shah. Gil believes that Shah committed acts of terrorism, though he may not directly be involved in the bus bombings. Shah recruited Nasrin, another nuclear physicist, and Gil had been following her to uncover more about Shah’s plot. Ellen knows about Shah, having helped produce the documentary about him; she thinks he is under house arrest in Pakistan. According to Gil, however, the previous American administration agreed to his release less than 12 months ago. As Gil recovers, Katherine and Anahita sit beside his bed.

Later, Ellen, Boynton, Betsy, and Anahita visit the site of the Frankfurt bombing. Betsy remembers Shah from her time helming the documentary produced by Ellen’s media company. Boynton knows nothing about Shah, but Anahita appears terrified. At the bomb site, Ellen is struck by the number of blankets covering bodies. Notably, the bomb site is not strategically significant—like the site in Paris.