The fourth season ofTom Clancy’s Jack Ryanis right around the corner and all of our favorite characters are slated to return. That includes the titular CIA analyst turned special ops field agent Dr. Jack Ryan (John Krasinski), his former handler who is now the Acting Director of the CIA Elizabeth Wright (Betty Gabriel), Ryan’s field boss James Greer (Wendell Pierce), and finally his partner in special ops, Mike November (Michael Kelly) who will be returning for a third time after making his debut in Season 2. In that season, November helps Ryan track down an assassin that strikes in Venezuela and guides him around the economically devastated Socialist country in pursuit of the sniper. November is a unique character in the show in that he is a composite of several characters that appear in Tom Clancy’s source material but doesn’t actually appear in the novels.
When Does Mike November First Appear in ‘Jack Ryan’?
Mike November doesn’t make his on-screen debut untilthe second season, which originally aired in 2019. We first see him at the two-minute mark of Episode 2 entitled, “Tertia Optio,” as he introduces himself to both Ryan and Greer. Greer appeared in Clancy’s novels, includingThe Hunt for Red October,Patriot Games,andClear and Present Dangeras an Admiral played byJames Earl Jones. In the show, he enters a room for a debriefing in Caracas dressed to the nines, sporting a sartorially splendid three-piece suit and a taut necktie. The meeting comes after a huge setback to the operation that saw Ryan’s car get bombed as he is being escorted through a small Caracas slum by U.S. Senator Jim Moreno (Benito Martinez). Everyone survives the bombing, but as they’re fleeing the scene looking for cover, Senator Moreno is picked off and killed by a Russian sniper. A distraught Ryan and Greer get information from November pertaining to the identity of the assassin who killed Moreno. November interrogates a Venezuelan man who is seeking asylum for his family in exchange for intel, and November translates for Ryan and Greer. As the informant starts to reveal the planned ambush of the traveling party, Ryan loses his cool and begins yelling at the man, but November remains calm and collected. It’s our first introduction to November’s steely demeanor that will serve both him and his CIA associates very well throughout the next three seasons.
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Does Mike November Appear in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Novels?
The character of Mike November, whose initials M.N. are two letters from the NATO phonetic alphabet, doesn’t appear in the works of spy author Tom Clancy. But he is considered an amalgam of other characters that appear in the original novels. In particular, he is derived from Clancy’s creation John Clark, a former Navy SEAL who becomes a CIA special operations agent, and appears in the novelsClear and Present Danger(portrayed byWillem Dafoein the movie),The Sum of All Fears(portrayed byLiev Schreiberon-screen), 1993’sWithout Remorse(later played byMichael B. Jordan), andDebt of Honora year later, which hasn’t yet been adapted for the screen. John Clark is a major player in all of these Clancy yarns and is integral to the success or failure of the myriad of ops that Dr. Jack Ryan has engaged in over the years. Clark’s skills as a SEAL lend themselves to covert CIA ops seamlessly. He first appeared in Clancy’s work in the 1988 novel calledThe Cardinal of the Kremlin. Prime’s Mike November is the only iteration based on John Clark to have appeared on television.
The Jack Ryan TV Universe Works Better With Original Characters
The most glaring reason that the Prime Video rendition ofJack Ryanhas new standalone storylines every season is because of the significant chronological gap between the last Clancy novel that he wrote alone,The Teeth of the Tiger,in 2003 and more recent material. In the decade that followed, Clancy would partner withco-writersGrant BlackwoodandMark Greaneyto produce six more novels, but because of Clancy’s advanced aged and deteriorating health, he allowed his co-authors to handle the majority of the prose and anyone who has read Clancy’s series knows that there is a very different feel and tone to the books that he didn’t write on his own.
Fast-forward 10 years, and we haven’t had any authentic Tom Clancy source material in nearly two decades. The world has changed quite a bit since Clancy was on top of his game, and while we certainly won’t call the master espionage writer a dinosaur in literary circles,so much has changed since his halcyon daysand the world has become so much smaller through multimedia conglomeration that new stories are undoubtedly the best way to engage a modern audience. And sadly, the prolific and revered novelist died in 2013 at the age of 66 due to congestive heart failure. Mike November is a reflection of carrying on the legacy of his creation while also relying on his expertise to craft engaging and compelling characters. ShowrunnersGraham RolandandCarlton Cusehave been careful to preserve the essence of Clancy’s work while incorporating new stories every season.
What Can We Expect From Mike November in Season 4 of ‘Jack Ryan’?
The veteran special operations agent with the salt and pepper five o’clock shadow and close-cropped hair will no doubt provide vital support for the intrepid, but sometimes reckless Jack Ryan as theyencounter a new threatfrom south of the border in the show’s fourth and final season. He will likely also provide an important sounding board for the titular hero who repeatedly seeks out Mike’s advice in situations when Ryan is out of his element and needs clarity from someone with tactical knowledge accumulated from many years on the job. In Episode 4 of the second season, November warns an angry and impetuous Ryan, “If you keep going at this alone, that’s how you’ll end up…alone.” Sage advice indeed. Along with James Greer, Elizabeth Wright, and an assortment of brand-new characters, Mike November will be prepped and ready to lend his expertise whenever the economics professor turned CIA operative calls upon him.He and Greer are the only people in the field that Ryan trusts implicitly, so the thought of Mike November becoming a mole or traitor in Season 4 is enough to make our stomachs turn. To be clear, there is nothing to suggest he will, but it would be hard to swallow if he did (really, he probably won’t).
