With the addition of a new character, Kareem, in the last episode, the third episode of The Family Man closely follows his journey and motives which lead to progress in the investigation. This episode starts with a barbaric incident of cow-vigilantism wherein two Muslim men are killed.

Back at Kareem’s hostel room, he and his girlfriend listen to the news about the killings. Kareem is enraged and wants to take a fitting action in response. However, his girlfriend advises him against it.

Next, we see Kareem at a chai stall outside his hostel. We find out that the tea-seller is an undercover police officer who has been appointed to keep an eye on the drop box that the three gamers had mentioned in the previous episode. The chai stall also has a small teddy bear tied to it which has a hidden camera inside pointed at the direction of the drop box. However, we often see the officer asleep while on duty.

Meanwhile, Srikant is back in the hospital to interrogate Moosa. This time he questions Moosa about Mission Zulfiqar. Once again, Srikant is unable to gather anything substantial from him.

To find out who operates the drop box, Srikant orders a local police officer to track students in Victoria College who have any previous criminal record. The officer, on his own accord, arrests and locks up four Muslim students from the college. He thinks they are anti-national and states some absurd reasons for believing so. Srikant and JK realise the hollowness of the police officer’s claims and ask him to release the four students that had been arrested without a warrant.

Coming to Suchi’s story, Arvind asks her to meet her at a café while she is on her way home. Upon reaching there, she discovers that Arvind wants her to meet the CEO of the company that they’re starting. Unaware and unprepared, Suchi hesitates at first but manages to make a good impression on the CEO. She later tells Arvind that he ambushed her but he tells her that she was great. Now it seems that Suchi has made up her mind to join Arvind’s company but is worried about the logistical aspects of leaving her teaching job and joining a startup.

Meanwhile, Kareem meets with a person named Altaf Bhai who gives him a memory card saying “Ab haraamiyon ko jawaab dene ka samay aa gaya hai”. It seems like something is cooking but the audience isn’t told what it is.

In the next scene we see Srikant in the grocery store with his kids. There comes an awkward moment when Atharv picks up a packet of sanitary pad and starts playing with it. Srikant quickly tells him to keep the packet back in its place and Dhriti notices her father’s hesitation. She is quite vocal about menstruation and tells her father that Atharv should be educated about it too. Her ‘woke’ personality doesn’t resonate with Srikant. He asks his son if Dhriti has a boyfriend. Making use of his TASC interface and completely invading Dhriti’s privacy, Srikant digs out her chats with boys and seems concerned. Sure, Srikant is a sensible man but I’m starting to doubt his ethics.

At the chai stall, Shinde, the undercover officer is distracted. During this time, Kareem visits the drop box to take something out and leaves . It is only when Kareem forgets something and turns back to the drop box, that Shinde notices him and follows his movement with the teddy bear.

Back at the grocery store while the siblings quarrel, Srikant gets a call about a new development in the case.

Kareem and his friends watch a video of a politician inciting cow vigilante mobs through hate speech. This leaves Kareem furious and his instinct is to respond with violence. His girlfriend tells him to report the minister to the police. But he thinks that is futile and is adamant about taking matters into his own hands.

Things start to get tense at TASC as Srikant and his team watch the footage provided by Shinde. They learn more about Kareem. He hails from Srinagar and is doing his post graduation in Victoria college. Certain links are also found between him and people from extremist groups on his Facebook and email. Srikant orders the operations team to keep a close eye on Kareem.

JK, Zoya and their team go to Victoria college, undercover. Under the garb of sanitising the hostel’s upper wing to prevent it from potential diseases they manage to vacate the hostel. One of the team members, Milind enters into Kareem’s room while Zoya keeps an eye on the unaware Kareem outside the college. Milind fixes cameras and microphones in Kareem’s room and the corridor outside it so that they can easily track his actions. Moreover, they also gain access to all his social media accounts.

In the next scene, Kareem asks people outside his hostel about the new chai stall that had been there until yesterday. He gets to know that the tea-seller wasn’t interested in the work and used to be asleep half the time. Although he finds this fishy, he doesn’t say anything.

On one hand Zoya, Milind and their team keep an eye on Kareem through the cameras they planted, on the other hand, Srikant and JK are at Srikant’s home for his son’s birthday party. This is a fun, light scene where Srikant can be seen enjoying with his friends and family. Towards the end of the party, his brother talks about the genius prodigy that Srikant was in his childhood and how now he’s doing an average government job. This does not go down well with Srikant who in response bashes his brother’s IT job. The bashing and banter continue when Srikant and JK receive a text from Zoya about a red flag which makes them leave immediately. On his way out, Srikant notices Arvind’s texts on Suchi’s phone.

When Srikant and JK are on their way, Srikant vents in front of his friend and voices his concern about Suchi and Arvind’s relationship. JK, in response, says that Srikant is reading too much into it and that Suchi is an adult who knows the difference between right and wrong.

On reaching the location, Milind tells them that there has been an activity in Kareem’s room which suggests that he is planning something big. A man called Iqbal came to meet Kareem and they talked about some material which will reach tomorrow. They also talked about a guest list and a floor plan which someone called Nissar is coordinating. At this crucial moment, a power cut happens at the college. Milind goes to the college so that they don’t lose contact with Kareem and his partners. While Milind tries to search inside the college, Kareem and his men leave in a van. Unfortunately, Milind notices them only a second after they leave and loses sight of the van but spots Kareem in it. In the van, Kareem tells his partners that he suspects that they might be getting watched and thus, it is safe to shift their operations to some other place. After getting very close to uncovering Kareem’s plan, the TASC is once again left clueless.  

This episode oscillates between Srikant ’s family life and work life. We see more of the different roles that he plays as a father, husband and of course, a spy. Left with no information about Kareem’s future whereabouts, it will be exciting to see how TASC manages to prevent the attack that they know nothing about. 

Episode Rating: 3.5/5