Question

What did kasims father do for a living? In detail

Answer 1

Kasim's fatherdo physical labor for living
Chapter name : Hunger

Answer 2

finally, some answers. While, for some of you, patience was understandably wearing thin, this hour clarified much of what we've seen over the past three weeks. If you've given up on the series and just checked in here anyway, stop reading now – go back and watch episode four, then come back and join the BTL fun. You won't regret it, I promise. Because The Honourable Womancame of age with The Ribbon Cutter. No more games, no more teasing. Instead the characters front up to the most awful abuse and degradation, the most extraordinary courage and the trickiest of political issues. I'd argue that, even if you don't agree with everything Hugo Blick does or how he does it, you have to admire his nerve and intelligence (ditto his actors, of course). I thought this held together. But where do we go next?

The Ribbon Cutter

Tonight was one long flashback – taking us through the lead-up to Nessa and Atika's abduction, the incident itself and the immediate aftermath. A party is held to mark the birth of Rachel and Ephra's daughter, Judith. Nessa heads to the West Bank to open a new computer faculty at the Stein Foundation's university (Shlomo's handling the telecoms, of course), where she meets Atika and discovers a financial anomaly: $1.5m sent to fund an extension to the languages block (stumped up, Monica tells Julia, without the Israelis' knowledge and by one Harold Parr, a US Republican) has been diverted to Fatah as a ransom for the release of an Israeli soldier.

Nessa's inquiries earn the wrath of her brother (who knew about the deal) and then, when she goes into Gaza (via one of those tunnels targeted in the real world) in search of answers, she and Atika are kidnapped. Julia's shuttle diplomacy apparently comes to naught, and Ephra is warned off arranging a rescue by the Israelis. Nessa is raped by her guard – the son of a leading figure in Fatah, albeit in the Hamas-run political no-go area of Gaza – then the pair are eventually released. At which point, we're back to the very shot that opened the series. Now exhale.

Family affairs

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So, one mystery is solved: Kasim's father (unless Nessa's baby isn't Kasim, but let's pretend that's one conspiracy theory too far) is Saleh Al-Zahid: Bloom's killer, the voice on the end of Nessa's phone and the son of an ailing leader of Fatah, Zahid Al-Zahid. It was all a plan to "infect" the bloodline of Eli Stein: "How great is his defeat?" This is truly a grudge of horrifying proportions. This horror was all the deeper after an opening of pure joy chez Stein. Actual, genuine happiness, with lovely scenes of sibling bonding tinged with remembrance. But the party for Rachel and Ephra's daughter also represents a tipping point. "Sometimes," says Ephra, "for all life's hardships, all you need is a little luck." At which point – as Shlomo warns, perhaps significantly – it runs out. Could it be the fault some of those friends lost when the business changed direction (as encouraged by Nessa)?

Spy games

Nice to get some background on everyone's favourite MI6 agents. Julia screws over her boss, Sir Christopher Grieff, with the help of Monica (who had recorded an incriminating conversation linking Grieff to the payment of the ransom to release the Israeli soldier), and the two collude to recruit the decent, harmless Hugh as the Middle East desk benchwarmer, until Monica is ready to leave Washington. Something tells me this could backfire: after the opening scene of tonight's episode, I think this series could track Hugh's re-engagement with the world and some sort of moral code.

And cold, calculating Ephra learns he can't cut it with the big boys. He's cut down to size by Julia in frankly hilarious scenes, then brought to his knees by the Israelis in rather bleaker ones. The Israelis now, to all intents and purposes, own him. But what else did he agree to when at his lowest ebb? Andrew Buchan, incidentally, sells his big moment like a pro. Superb stuff.

The honour roll

Nessa's evolution from wide-eyed innocent to discovering maggots in the apple is quite something: while Ephra sees a bit of corruption as a necessary part of doing business in the Middle East, Nessa wants to expose it. Is this how they were born, or did something happen to set each on their respective paths? And then, what sacrifices Nessa makes: saving Atika first from being raped and then, probably, from being killed after begging the Sharia Council for their lives. You can't get more honourable than that, surely. Although in so doing, "I give you both hearts": her child's life, in exchange for Atika's? I'm starting to wonder, especially given how instantly Nessa and Atika hit it off, whether those of you who speculated about a relationship might have a point.