Warning: The following story contains spoilers from “The Old Man” Season 2, Episode 8.
The second season of FX’s “The Old Man” may have ended on a truly jaw-dropping power flip, but for series developer and executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg, it was “a long time coming.”
Season 2 revolved around saving Angela/Emily (Alia Shawkat), a goal that required Chase (Jeff Bridges) to team up with his former partner-turned-rival Harper (John Lithgow) to rescue the woman they both see as a daughter. That journey forced them to put their differences aside and travel to Afghanistan. But as Angela/Emily spent more time in the country, she learned that her real father was actually Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban). In the process, she embraced her new identity and discovered her heritage, becoming Parwana Hamzad.
The season ended in a complete upset. In order to ensure Parwana’s safe return to America, Harper partnered with his ex-wife, former British agent Marion (Janet McTeer). But in the process, he disappeared. In the final moments of “XV,” Parwana tells Chase in no uncertain terms that he will be helping her do whatever it takes to get Harper back. Much like how Season 1 ended with Chase begrudgingly teaming up with Harper, Season 2 ends with him begrudgingly partnering with Parwana.
“From the beginning of the story, there’s been a significant part of it that’s been about parenting an adult child and being an adult child and dealing with parents who are aging,” Steinberg told TheWrap. The showrunner noted that this power dynamic swap between Chase and Parwana is similar to “realizing your child has real authority and agency and is not compelled to listen you anymore.”
“This is, obviously, the most outsized version of that we can imagine,” he continued. “It felt like an interesting place to take a story and an interesting place to take that relationship between Jeff and Alia’s characters.”
The scene between Bridges, Shawkat and Amy Brenneman as Zoe McDonald was filmed over two days. “It took a long time because they did so many special shots. Even though it seems like such a simple scene, there’s lots of angles to give it this dramatic effect,” Shawkat told TheWrap.
Filming the scene across several days allowed the actors to experiment more with this pivotal scene. However, both Bridges and Shawkat emphasized that the emotional weight of the moment was baked into the script itself.
“I’m a photographer. When you’re taking a picture, sometimes you’ll bracket your exposures,” Bridges explained, referring to the process of taking the same photo multiple times. “I like to do that with my acting as well. The actors make their painting, and then the editor and the director cut those paintings up and make a collage out of it. It’s a communal art form here. So I want to give my compadres as much choice about what’s going to work once they start piecing it together.”
Bridges is a big proponent of trying takes in different ways. “It can give you some good surprises, to yourself and to everybody else,” he shared.
“It starts off with them reuniting in this beautiful scene — them seeing each other after he thought she was dead. Then, by the end, she’s really put him in a position where his hands are tied and he’s getting on a plane, no matter what,” Shawkat explained. “It’s a great scene that captures the whole show from the first season. In a way, it’s saying what you thought you knew was the truth isn’t, and now you’re going to have to pay for it.”
To play Parwana’s discovery of her own identity, Shawkat leaned into the atmosphere of the series as well as her own relationship with her racial identity.
“I’m mixed race. I sadly haven’t been to Baghdad where my father’s from, but anytime I’m in an environment with other people from there or any other Arabs, it’s this feeling where you’re like, ‘I am one of you, but I’m also not,’” she said, noting that there have been times when she hasn’t felt “ethnic enough” or “white enough.” “I don’t feel like I fit in fully.”
“I leaned into that in an extreme way. She wants to be a part of these people. She knows she’s like of them — they’re the same — but she’s had such a different life, so she doesn’t feel the same,” Shawkat added. “It’s that identity thing of wondering who she really is and feeling kind of lost.”
The actor kept the inner turmoil Parwana experienced front of mind when she approached this final episode. “She’s coming apart in this season, and then what’s left after that? I played that as much as I could,” Shawkat said. “By the time you get to the diner scene, I wanted it to be like she’s been through so much and she has nothing else to hide. She’s just looking at [Chase] like, ‘You’re going to get on this plane. There’s nothing else to do.’ She’s not putting on any more masks at that point.”
As for Chase’s claims that he has seen and done things that are “uglier than death,” Bridges told TheWrap he’s spoken to Steinberg about what that may mean. “I don’t know where exactly it’s going. I have an inkling, though,” he said.
Steinberg also noted that the team around “The Old Man” is now building Season 3’s story around “the answer to that.” “It isn’t as simple as killing bad guys anymore. It’s way more complicated,” Steinberg teased.
As for the future of FX’s thriller, it remains unclear. However, both Shawkat and Bridges are hopeful there will be another season. “I’ve signed on for three, and I love working with the people and I’m excited about where the story is going, so I just kind of play it by ear. I haven’t figured that far in the future yet,” Bridges revealed.
“As much ground as the story’s covered already, in a way, the relationship between Jeff and Alia’s characters has really just started. What I’d be excited for in Season 3 is to watch them have to occupy the same space in the story and deal with each other. They don’t get to use a phone as a buffer,” Steinberg said. “We all feel really good about the story we’re telling and the team that’s been built.”
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