“Silly girl, begin.” Those words seem to haunt Imogen Salter, whose real name may, in fact, be Violet Seabright, as we learn in the second episode of FX’s The Veil. Of interest is the fact that William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night seems to be her favorite book, and I can’t help but wonder if that was the inspiration for her own name. The lead character in that story is Viola, which is Latin for Violet. In the 1996 film adaptation, Viola was played by Imogen Stubbs. Some food for thought as we begin this next recap.
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Episode 2 – “Crossing the Bridge” – Written by Steven Knight
The U.S. military arrives at the refugee camp on the Syrian/Turkish border. Johnson (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) leads the search, learning from Guy (Dan Wyllie) and Sandrina (Joana Ribeiro) that the woman they came to retrieve, Adilah El Idrissi, is gone. Forensics seal up the tent where Adilah was isolated to look for DNA.
At a bakery in the Aulnay-Sous-Bois suburb of Paris, Nour (Nadia Larbiouene) and her ten-year-old niece Yasmina (Keyla and Neyla Bara) pick out a treat. While Nour completes the transaction, Yasmina steps outside and is abducted, thrown into the back of an SUV. Nour runs after the car, screaming for help. It turns a corner and loses her. She is overwhelmed with panic, but all is well when Yasmina runs back to her. Nour asks what they did to her. “They pulled out some of my hair,” Yasmina says.
Imogen Salter (Elisabeth Moss) sleeps in her car, which is parked in the Kutahya Mountain Province of Central Turkey. We see her dreams. “And now, my darling Violet, it’s time to say goodbye to the land of Illyria,” her father said, closing a copy of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. An explosion. Playing chess with Michael Althorp (James Purefoy). “Silly girl, begin,” he tells her. Imogen wakes up, seeing Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) asleep in the passenger seat. Her phone vibrates with a missed call. Villagers walk by their car herding goats. The sounds wake Adilah, too.
Malik Amar (Dali Benssalah) enters the DGSE Surveillance Room, which has Imogen’s blue dot on its screens. Another agent (Andrea Dolente) tells him the dot has avoided toll roads with security cameras. “She’s clearly abandoned the directive to take the target to Edip Köyü and is headed to Istanbul.
Imogen and Adilah have had a quarrel over the topic of belly dancing, both women being stubborn. At a bathroom stop on the side of the road, Adilah is left alone in the car with Imogen’s phone. She uses her breath to fog up the windshield, transcribing the number onto the glass. When Imogen returns, Adilah steps out and blocks it from her view in time for it to disappear. They make an agreement that Imogen is right about anything they discuss until they cross the French border. Adilah will drive the next leg of the trip.
During the drive, Imogen asks Adilah how she got to Syria. “It’s the older women that recruit the girls,” she explains. She was offered a pure life with God away from Western corruption. “For the first time, I felt like my life had meaning and a purpose.” Imogen teasingly refers to Adilah as a murderer. She says she’s not a murderer and asks Imogen to stop saying that. “I’m right about everything until the French border,” Imogen eggs her on. Back on the topic of belly dancing, Imogen talks about how it was invented to help women give birth and reveals that she took classes when she was pregnant. “You said you didn’t have children,” Adilah reminds her. “I don’t,” she simply responds. Imogen blames her attitude on being out of cigarettes. While trying to pass a slow truck, they narrowly avoid a collision and pull over. One of Adilah’s stitches came undone, and Imogen bandages her up by the hood of the car. The windshield has gotten foggy, and she can now see a phone number written on the glass. “That is the number of a friend of mine in Paris,” Imogen says, adding that he’s a doctor. “He calls just to make sure I’m OK. I think he might be in love with me, or at least I hope he is.” She says she’s allowed to ask for a pen and paper or even to use her phone. “Just ask.” Imogen seems sincere, but Adilah shows doubt on her face. When Adilah turns around, Imogen’s expression changes to one of suspicion.
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Arriving in Istanbul, Imogen’s phone buzzes with a call from that same number. She ignores it again. They arrive at a traffic stop on the bridge, with police officers moving down the line checking cars. “Call me now,” reads a text on Imogen’s phone. “I think they’re looking for someone in particular,” Imogen points out. “I’m sick of this car, shall we walk?” They get out and proceed on foot. As they move through the pedestrians on the sidewalk, they avoid the police. But it soon becomes clear that they’re being followed by two men. Imogen realizes she’s being tracked, dropping her phone in a water-filled bucket of fish.
Imogen and Adilah are followed through the busy market streets. Imogen tries to lose him in an alley, pulling a cart behind her to block the path. They rush up a spiral staircase above the shops, and Imogen tells Adilah to hide behind some storage boxes. She grabs a metal gas canister and runs up another flight of stairs to the roof. The man follows her. Imogen tries to surprise attack him with the can, but he manages to block it. They get into a fight, and he overpowers her. “Where is she?” Adilah disobeyed Imogen’s orders. “Here,” she says, causing the man to turn around. Imogen attacks from behind and knocks him out. “I told you to wait downstairs,” she says in frustration. “Is that your way of saying thank you or something?” Adilah asks.
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Malik leads Max Peterson (Josh Charles) to a sublevel of the DGSE. The American is distracted by an accent wall with a painting – “Portrait of Madame Reynouard” by Amedeo Modigliani. Malik explains that the Louvre lends them paintings, which the agents use for relaxation. Max sits in front of the painting and examines it, seemingly to irritate Malik and make them late for their meeting.
Magritte Levasseur (Thibault de Montalembert) scolds Malik and Max as they enter the surveillance room, saying the footage of their airport fight has gone viral within the intelligence community. “You both need to realize we are on the same side,” he warns. Malik defends himself, saying Max put the life of a British agent on assignment for the DGSE in danger, causing her to have to ditch her only method of communication. Max brags about how the CIA knows more about this case than the DGSE, which doesn’t have any information on Adilah El Idrissi. “She may have gotten mixed up with ISIS, but she’s not at the level of Sabaine Al-Qubaisi, the most wanted female ISIS leader whom she is accused of being. “Our intelligence also revealed that she left behind a daughter here in Paris,” Max adds, pulling out a plastic bag of hair. If the DNA matches what was collected that morning at the camp, then Imogen has the real Adilah El Idrissi. If they don’t match, then Imogen is with Sabaine Al-Qubaisi, using Adilah’s name as a cover. Max steps out, leaving Malik and Magritte alone. “The Englishwoman’s unique abilities will now not be required,” Magritte tells Malik.
Imogen takes Adilah to the Turkish Cultural Center, which has a belly dancer performance on the ground level. A host tells them the seating is full, but Imogen says they’re there to see Mr. Demir, showing him that she has $2,000 in exchange for assistance getting to Paris. “Mr. Demir no longer takes out the trash,” the host says. Adilah pulls a bag out of her waistband that Imogen didn’t know about, which contains $10,000. He leads them upstairs as Imogen asks where she got that money. Instead, Adilah asks what they’re doing there. She tells her that Mr. Demir issues fake passports and she will have Adilah travel as a belly dancer.
Mr. Demir (Haluk Bilginer) asks Imogen how long she’s known Adilah. “I’ve known her for ages,” Imogen lies. He asks if she speaks English and Imogen says no, adding that she’s a dancer and a singer, part of a delegation of folk artists. “They closed the Galata Bridge today looking for someone,” he says, adding that he doesn’t want Adilah’s fingerprints anywhere in the cultural center. He repeats that he doesn’t do this anymore because terrorists made it too difficult. Adillah pulls out the cash and he asks where she got it. Imogen says her father is a wealthy man in Damascus who is paying her to deliver his daughter to Paris. Mr. Demir asks if they’re lovers, which prompts Adilah to speak to deny it. “She is my friend,” she says, revealing that she does speak English. They give him $2,000 now, promising the remaining $8,000 on delivery of the passports. They ask for two clean cellphones to be included, and Imogen gives Mr. Demir the details she wants on the passport. “I’ll let you know when it’s ready,” he tells them.
Waiting in Mr. Demir’s library, Imogen examines the shelves and finds a copy of Twelfth Night, picking it up. Thumbing through the pages, she has a flashback to her younger self (Erin Ainsworth) reading it with her father. “And now, my darling Violet, it’s time to say goodbye to the land of Illyria,” Marcus Seabright (Phill Langhorne) says as they wrap up their storytime. He taps her on the heart. Imogen then sees flames in her mind. As she is brought back to reality, she hears Michael Althorp’s voice saying “Silly girl” again. Imogen puts the book back on the shelf.
Adilah has found her favorite book, Kitab al-Bulhan (The Book of Surprises), which her grandfather read to her as a child. She shows Imogen some of the illustrations. “It’s about djins and devils and shapeshifters,” Adilah adds. Imogen is familiar with the lore of there being seven djin kings for each day of the week. Adilah shows her a picture of the Red King of Tuesday, the one she was most afraid of. “My grandfather said the djin were gone forever, but I still see him in my dreams,” she reveals.
When the cultural center is empty, Imogen and Adilah are led back down to meet with Mr. Demir. He thinks Imogen is doing the wrong thing traveling with Adilah, asking her to dance. She won’t, so he asks her to sing in case agents ask for proof of her talent. She does, with both Imogen and Mr. Demir seemingly moved.
Imogen and Adilah continue their journey by bus. At a rest stop, Imogen calls Malik on her new phone, asking who closed the bridge. “You promised me I’d be allowed to do my job,” she adds in frustration. “There is no longer any need for you to do your job,” he tells her that the Americans are involved and that the woman she’s with really is Adilah El Idrissi. “She’s a confused woman running from home, and she’s of no interest to us or the Americans.” Imogen doesn’t believe him. “The woman I am with is the ISIS commander we’re looking for,” she declares. “The woman I am with is the Djin al Raqqa, and I will prove it.” She hangs up just in time as Adilah walks towards her. Imogen tells Adilah she can call her daughter if she wants now that they know her passport works. “From now on, it’s just me and you,” Imogen adds.
We see Adilah walk away to make a call, looking over her shoulder. Imogen puts in earbuds, which are connected to Adilah’s phone. “I will be with you soon, I promise. It’s not long now. Everything can begin again.” Imogen then hears a girl tell her mom how much she misses her on the other end of the line.
A man, Hasad (Benjamin Hicquel), goes to the cultural center library. He searches the shelves for Kitab al-Bulhan. Scrolling through the pages, he finds a folded piece of paper in the pages by the Red King of Tuesday. It looks like a map. He puts it in his pocket and leaves.
The Veil returns next Tuesday, May 7th, with a new episode on Hulu.
Episode 3 – “The Asset” – Written by Steven Knight
Imogen (Elisabeth Moss) reunites Adilah (Yumna Marwan) with her daughter in Paris as truth and lies become further blurred.
Songs Featured in this Episode:
- “Speak Loud” by Trills