The Old Man (TV Series)

III (2022)

John Lithgow: Harold Harper

Photos 

Quotes 

• Harold Harper : Nice of you to join us this morning.

  Raymond Waters : Well, no one called me about the early start.

  Harold Harper : [gibe]  Is that a fact? I heard you made a move on Agent Adams yesterday.

  Raymond Waters : [hypocritically]  Oh, me? No, no, never happened.

  Harold Harper : [skeptically]  Are you calling her a liar?

  Raymond Waters : I don't like to use that word. Maybe she was confused. Sometimes I just... I get curious. Can't help asking questions, that's all.

  Harold Harper : And what'd she have to say about your questions?

  Raymond Waters : Oh, she told me to go fuck myself.

  Harold Harper : Yeah.

  Raymond Waters : Probably should have known I wouldn't get any answers from her, though, huh?

  Harold Harper : Oh, I don't know. When I was in your shoes, sometimes I'd ask questions to get an answer. Sometimes I'd ask questions to see what kind of reaction it got. Sometimes I'd ask questions and watch the billiard balls bounce for a while on the off chance one of them led somewhere interesting.

  Raymond Waters : [bewildered]  That's funny. I'm trying to figure out which one of the three you're doing with me right now.

  Harold Harper : [sneering]  It's fun, isn't it?

• Julian Carson : [phone conversation]  You do understand what it is I do, yes?

  Harold Harper : ...went to great lengths to make sure I'd never be on one of them again. I was offered your number. I took it. I don't know why I took it. I guess I figured it was okay because there was no way I'd ever be able to use it.

  Julian Carson : Why wouldn't you be able to use it?

  Harold Harper : The guy I wanted you to visit... I figured there was a good chance he'd never be found again.

  Julian Carson : It's hard to disappear in this world. You're giving this guy a lot of credit.

  Harold Harper : Are you good at this?

  Julian Carson : Beg your pardon?

  Harold Harper : Are you good at this?

  Julian Carson : I don't think you would've been given my number if I weren't.

  Harold Harper : I don't think so either, but I'd like to hear you say it Yeah.

  Julian Carson : I know what I'm doing.

• Angela Adams : You don't seem too concerned about this.

  Harold Harper : Well, I can understand why you'd be. That's how I taught you to play the game. Like a cop.

  Angela Adams : Mm.

  Harold Harper : To a cop, a puzzle is a thing to be solved. But the other game, the one that Chase and I played when we were young... the one I'm starting to realize we're playing again... that game has no rules. Its puzzles have no solutions. They just lead to other puzzles. That's what makes this game so interesting. It's not for the faint of heart. But it's a hell of a drug.

• Raymond Waters : [to Adams]  Oh, no, no, no, no. No. You don't want to be here for this. Trust me.

  [Harper and Adams look to each other] 

  Raymond Waters : Okey doke. Do you want to start or should I?

  Harold Harper : I'm not sure what you mean.

  Raymond Waters : Yeah, that's what I thought.

  [sighs] 

  Raymond Waters : Faraz Hamzad is getting anything he wants from the U.S. government. And when he finds out that the U.S. government just lost his man again, heads are gonna roll. I do not know exactly what happened out there, but after watching you just so clearly intervene and help Chase escape the first time, I'm-a go out on a limb and guess that today wasn't an accident. I'm not gonna get left holding the bag here. I'm reporting this up the chain. Call your wife. Call your lawyer. You're in deep shit trouble.

  Harold Harper : "Faraz Hamzad is getting anything he wants."

  Raymond Waters : What?

  Harold Harper : You're the second person to tell me that this week.

  Raymond Waters : So?

  Harold Harper : Why would anyone from Langley choose you, an unqualified busybody with no friends, no network, to lead an operation this important? I could never make any sense of it till right now. No one at Langley chose you. Faraz Hamzad did. He asked for you himself. Or someone just like you, at least. Someone who would beat the bushes, ask questions, dig things out of the dirt. I figured this was a revenge story. Figured that Hamzad wanted Chase alive so he could kill him himself. But maybe Faraz Hamzad wanted Chase delivered alive, yeah, and wanted the nosiest motherfucker in the history of the CIA to do the delivering because Faraz Hamzad has questions that he wants answered. There's something he wants to know. Tell me I'm wrong.

  Raymond Waters : Listen, if...

  [interrupted] 

  Harold Harper : Don't bother. I'm not wrong. But what the hell kind of questions does he have? I know what started all this. It's ugly, it's dangerous, but there's no mystery to it.

  Raymond Waters : What do you know?

  Harold Harper : 30 years ago, Dan Chase stole Faraz Hamzad's wife, and I helped him do it. That's it. That's the story. That's why we're here. years ago, a woman living in the Hindu Kush met an American, started fucking him, saw a chance for a better life and easier access to a Walmart.

  [pans to Adams leaning inside against the conference room door] 

  Harold Harper : So she left her warlord husband and followed the American back home. And here we are. But what is Hamzad hoping for, that after all this time, he'll find her and, what, just spirit her away? She's been dead for years. Either he's got some serious smelling salts... or...

  [interrupted] 

  Angela Adams : Stop it.

  [Harper turns to look at Adams] 

  Angela Adams : [Adams inhales deeply]  This isn't getting us anywhere. We're heading in the wrong direction. Dan Chase profiles as a true believer. Somebody who fights for causes. A guy that absolutely, at no matter what cost, has to believe that he is on the right side of whatever fight he's in. A guy like that, the kind of woman that would follow him halfway across the world, their story is going to be a lot more complicated than that. And if you're right and Hamzad is chasing answers here, then we have to find out what the questions are. And the only way to do that is to ask him ourselves.

  Raymond Waters : Ask him... him who?

  Angela Adams : Hamzad.

  Angela Adams : [chuckles]  Come on.

  Angela Adams : I'm supposed to believe that you can't get a message to Hamzad?

  Raymond Waters : Not can I. Why would I?

  Angela Adams : And what's the alternative... you go back there and admit you failed? Or you don't fail and the three of us get Hamzad the answers that he's looking for. We put the genie back in the bottle and everyone wins.