'Tehran' Episode 2 Review: Escape, interrogation and promise of the family in distraught world make for tense watch
'Tehran' sure knows how to the viewers on their toes. After an anxiety-inducing premiere, the second episode was ridden with the same amount of tension and suspense. Like the protagonist Tamar (Niv Sultan), who is on the run in an unknown yet familiar city, you can't catch a moment's breather either. The smallest of fumbles can lead to a life or death situation. There is no peace to be had, and there is seemingly no solution in sight. So kudos to the writers, Moshe Zonder and Omri Shenhar, for establishing a distraught world, filled with deception at every turn. The show is not just an espionage drama, but a rediscovery of one's lost culture and identities and it also explores the fissions in the region that have been simmering for decades.
The last we saw of Tamar, she had accidentally killed a man, for good reason though, as he was trying to rape her. Tamar has switched identities with another woman named Zhila in order to take on a dangerous mission as Mossad agent. She was tasked with disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor so that the Israeli military could carry out an airstrike. Things have gone miserably awry, the mission has failed and now she has to be on the run. She can't even return to Zhila's home, as Counter-intelligence agent Faraz Kamali (Shaun Toub) is racing against time to track her down. Faraz has his own cross to bear as we got hints that his wife is unwell, and an operation is due soon. He is alone and wishes to see her. Unfortunately, he cannot. Yet, this corroding loneliness does not prevent him from trying to capture Tamar, who seems to outrun him at every chance she gets.
Tamar is lost in the city of Tehran where she was born. She has had to cut off connections with her Iranian handler as she feels that he is more of a liability than an asset to her. At the end of the episode, she finds that one familial connection that might change her life soon.
'Tehran' is an Apple TV+ show.