SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for American Hostage Season 1, Episode 6.
The sixth episode of American Hostage is an explainer for how the MGM+ show got to this point. The majority of “Moon News and Markets” takes place in 1972, five years before the hostage situation. It provides interesting context for everything viewers have already seen. Yet with only two more episodes left after this, it’s also a gamble to go backward instead of forward, especially since the previous episode was also a departure in terms of tone.
But unlike Episode 5, “Moon News and Markets” is anything but quiet. It’s a relatively loud examination of how Fred Heckman, Tony Kiritsis and Dick Hall became who they are. Fred battles his shyster father Cookie (portrayed by Days of Our Lives alum John Kapelos), with the two of them nearly coming to blows in an Elks Lodge lobby early on. Tony has his first meeting with M.L. Hall that will set him on the path to taking M.L.’s son hostage. And Dick is on the cusp of being named interim president, while also revealing his biggest flaw.
The primary storyline surrounds Fred and his father. It’s a pretty familiar plot: the hero’s ne’er do well parent is there just to see what they can get out of them, and the hero is inevitably disappointed. The script opening with that near-fight means that the audience shares Fred’s distrust of his father from moment one, and the writing of Cookie is anything but subtle. He’s a clear con man, so the audience is merely waiting for the scene where he gets exposed. It’s Jon Hamm’s performance that keeps viewers interested up to and through that point. The most heartbreaking scene is when Fred has to tell Cookie’s worried fiancee that she’s been played; it’s unexpected that he’d have to be the one to break that news, and Hamm is able to make Fred’s resignation palpable. He doesn’t even try to make the situation easier, because he knew it was coming.
American Hostage does surprise viewers by having Tony run through the aforementioned fight scene. It turns out he was at the Elks Lodge at the same time, having tracked down M.L. Hall to pitch him his idea for the land and the steakhouse in person. But Ribisi doesn’t have much different to play, because Episode 6 focuses on how Tony’s mental health issues were already a serious problem. There’s one scene of all his siblings (including “two asshole brothers”) complaining about him to their priest. Jimmie also gets Tony to go to a psychologist, but Tony walks out of the session not long after the psychologist mentions his father. He’s still restless, wound up, on edge—the point of these flashbacks seems to be to show how he was a ticking time bomb.
The most revelatory plotline is the one with the smallest amount of screen time. Viewers get to see Dick as he gets his promotion, and they learn more about him than either Fred or Tony. They learn that Dick tried to warn his father not to approve Tony’s mortgage multiple times. They also learn that Dick was an alcoholic, who had 38 days of sobriety before the day he got promoted. He breaks that streak when his own asshole brothers order him a celebratory martini—and Dick ends up drunk, found by the police, and missing the dinner that Ibby prepared for him. It’s interesting to see Dick’s flaws more clearly than ever before, and to think about what could have happened if his father had listened to him.
“Moon News and Markets” is essentially a pause. It’s important context for all three main characters, with only one major scene taking place during the hostage crisis: the one in which Fred lies on-air and claims that Tony’s fake immunity agreement is “iron-clad.” Some viewers might be surprised by its timing, since it follows another episode that didn’t have a lot of forward plot momentum. After watching everyone hurry up and wait, now the audience is watching an extended series of flashbacks. But these flashbacks have more pop to them, or in Dick’s case just profound disappointment, so it’s at least a more dynamic episode.
American Hostage accomplishes its goal of making clear how Tony, Fred and Dick all got to the crossroads at which they’re standing. Yet the MGM+ show now only has two episodes in which to ratchet back up its pace and its tension. Now that all the gaps have been filled in, will the final chapters of this story be more impactful? Or will audiences wish they spent less time with Cookie and more back in the present-day? This is a decent enough hour of storytelling that has its pros and cons, and it’ll likely look different two weeks from now.
American Hostage airs Fridays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+. Photo Credit: Steven Ackerman/MGM+/Sony Pictures Television.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
