The Old Man (TV Series)

VI (2022)

John Lithgow: Harold Harper

Photos 

Quotes 

• Harold Harper : You know, there's a pretty good chance that he's not terribly happy to see me. This is gonna be a lot less Three Musketeers than you're hoping for.

  Angela Adams : You are underestimating him.

  [pause] 

  Angela Adams : *Again*.

  Harold Harper : So whose idea was the reserve comms with the bank account?

  Angela Adams : His.

  Harold Harper : It's clever. Is that the only way you speak to each other?

  Angela Adams : No.

  Harold Harper : How else?

  [no response] 

  Harold Harper : This isn't an interrogation.

  Angela Adams : Yes, it is.

  Harold Harper : Okay. Maybe it is, but not that way. You tell me I only half know you. I'm trying.

  Angela Adams : [clears throat]  We speak on the phone.

  Harold Harper : Burner phones?

  Angela Adams : Yes.

  Harold Harper : Where?

  Angela Adams : Depends on the time of day, on my way to work. There's a garage on 10th and F. And at night, a playground in my neighborhood.

  Harold Harper : What about travel?

  Angela Adams : What about it?

  Harold Harper : When was the last time you saw him?

  Angela Adams : Fall, 2012.

  Harold Harper : [concernedly]  What about your mother's funeral?

  Angela Adams : I didn't go. We both felt it was too dangerous. I wrote down what I felt I needed to say and I asked him to put it in the casket with her.

  Harold Harper : So, all that time... all you've been to him are sounds on the phone. A voice without a body.

  Angela Adams : [contemptuously]  Don't do that.

  Harold Harper : Do what?

  Angela Adams : Diminish it. He's made sacrifices for me. I've made sacrifices for them. That's what it took to protect each other. Doesn't make him any less of a father.

  Harold Harper : What's left when all there is is sacrifice?

  Angela Adams : Clarity. Because I know there is nothing he wouldn't give up for me. Or me for him.

  [looks away as eyes well up] 

  Angela Adams : That's what love is.

• Harold Harper : [exits helicopter and walks down marina ramp toward Chase]  So, how do you want to do this?

  Dan Chase : Where's my daughter? I know she was with you, where is she now?

  Harold Harper : She's been taken.

  Dan Chase : Taken? Taken by who?

  Harold Harper : The old man. We're gonna go get her back.

• Morgan Bote : [Cheryl hands off phone]  Harold, I came as soon as I heard. Are you all right? Cheryl mentioned it was a rough flight between you and Angela.

  Harold Harper : Is my wife in the room with you?

  Morgan Bote : No, she's just gone to put Henry to bed.

  Harold Harper : Good. What the fuck do you think happened?

  Morgan Bote : I see.

  Harold Harper : You planted a mole in my office. You made me an accessory to I don't know how many crimes.

  Morgan Bote : I gave you a daughter.

  Harold Harper : That was the result. I want to know the intent.

  Morgan Bote : What difference does the intent make with that result?

  Harold Harper : It makes some difference to me.

  Morgan Bote : Because he asked. Despite all he'd done, I s... I still loved him. And he asked me to help him protect his only child, so I did as he asked. The same as I would have done for you. The same as I can do for you... now.

  Harold Harper : You're gonna help me now?

  Morgan Bote : Ask me to fix this, Harold, and I will.

  Harold Harper : How?

  Morgan Bote : I have always felt some connection to those surgeons on the battlefields of the Civil war. In the middle of all that suffering, armed only with a saw for the bone and dope for the pain, and asked to do the unthinkable... sever the parts to save the whole. I've always felt that is my profession too. To ignore the blood and the wailing and decide what allows for the greatest possible good. It's what I taught you to do, so I imagine you can see where this is going. If Angela Adams is never heard from again, this can all be laid at her feet. And you can be free of it.

  Harold Harper : No.

  Morgan Bote : That identity may have been born out of love, but it has become malignant. A danger to the things it's connected to. Even the girl herself might be saved, if she can separate from the name. Out in the wild, maybe she can find a way to recover.

  [door closes] 

  Morgan Bote : I hear Cheryl returning. Tell me where you are. Ask me for my help... and you will get it.

• Harold Harper : In that part of the world, with his resources, Faraz Hamzad is a ghost. He cannot be approached. He cannot be touched. He cannot be killed, no matter what your dad says.

  [Adams smiles knowingly] 

  Harold Harper : Okay, I'm underestimating him.

  Angela Adams : Again.

  [smiles and nods her head] 

  Angela Adams : I think we both know that this has to happen. Your story gets a happy ending. I'm still not even sure what mine is really about. I have to go figure that out. No matter where it takes me.

  [Harper offers his hand to shake] 

  Angela Adams : [Adams and Harper embrace as both tear-up, Harper turns and exits]