#tom bond

For @akarensilla.

I do want to take a moment and appreciate just how good Tom is here. He walks in with a phone number (the one that he was supposed to call when he picked up the suitcase). He needs a name and address to find the guy. 

He spins a story that pulls on the sympathy card, but also makes it awkward enough that this poor guy (who looked like he was closing up shop for the night when Tom showed up) to get the guy to just want to get through the situation before it gets more awkward.

First he gets the last name under the account via the phone number, but uses the ‘you don’t have to call me Mr’ to get the first name of the guy he’s looking for. He starts in, making an awkward situation even more awkward so that this poor guy forgets that he asked him for Dennison’s last four of his social, and then, by the end of it, manages to get the address... all without having to provide anything more than a phone number.

I was weighing the decision back and forth on if I should take the time to gif this scene or not, but I decided that it’s importance outweighed any negative comments it might receive (though I’d still really appreciate it if people would keep any comments left on it respectful!).

There’s been a lot of talk from the fandom, from Ryan himself, etc etc… about Tom, his past, and if he can be a good father. If he can find that balance between the man that he is and the man that he wants to be. We’ve seen that he can be an excellent dad so far. He loves his little girl more than his own life and has been willing to move heaven and earth for her (burn the world, as Red would say), but I believe that this scene was here to show us that there’s still that instinct that nearly twenty years of being in this world of intelligence, danger, and spycraft has instilled deeply in him. There was a danger and he went after it.

You see that moment, though, when he realizes that yes he was chasing down who he thought was a danger to his family to protect Agnes and their home, but in the same time he just… ran out. He slams on his breaks, turns around, and goes flying back into the apartment, his expression terrified. She’s fine, they’re both fine, but he realizes in that moment that it’s not as easy as saying he’s done. Yes, he wants a normal life, but he’s spent his entire life in the muck and it’s not something you can just switch out of overnight. Not if you’re really doing it and not just putting on an act.

I think this was the moment he realized that he could toss the passports away, but they wouldn’t get taken out with the trash. It was a gesture, a hope, but in reality they’re still a part of who he is, and I think this will influence his choice to join Halcyon dramatically.