‘The Veil’ Episode 3 Recap & Ending Explained: What Is the Big Betrayal?

FX’s new thriller series The Veil streams its third episode this week. The premiere episode builds an interesting premise, and the threat of an ISIS terrorist attack looms larger over the world.

The show is focused on Imogen Salter, an agent for the British intelligence service MI6 who is currently recruited by the French DGSE authorities on a particular covert mission.

How does Episode 3 end?

The ending of The Veil Episode 3 sees Emir onboard a ship headed for the United States. Adilah’s ‘Monday’ plan involves bombing the US. We see her other associate bring the assembled bomb to the dock where Emir’s ship is stationed.

Is Imogen betraying Malik?

After their little talk at the cemetery, Imogen and Adilah head to a bar, where Imogen tries to make sure that Adilah believes she is completely unaware of her being the Djnn al Raqqah.

She even warns her to stay alert, as both the French and American intelligence would try to trap her and possibly torture her. However, she ensures that she will try her best to help her out of it.

While at the bar, Imogen does two things: she leaves for a cigarette and reveals that she has been working with the American intelligence service for an extended period.

It is not clear why she chose to betray Malik and the French Intelligence or keep them in the dark, but she is very frank, and I think she must have known she would need both information and muscle. 

Therefore, to offer Max firsthand information, she asks him to verify that the CIA killed Marcus Seabright (her father?).

Secondly, Adilah receives a message from ‘E’ (possibly Eric), asking Adilah to bring her along to end things. Now, ‘her’ may be Imogen or Adilah’s daughter. Since we are unaware of what the message refers to, I assume that Eric is Adilah’s lover.

At one point, Imogen notes to Max that despite being a commander with a sure-shot plan, Adilah is also a mother who wants to get away from all this. We can assume that she still wants Imogen’s help to keep her daughter safe.

What Is The Terrorist Plan In The Works?

The third episode of “The Veil” also sheds more light on the terrorist plot, with the conspirators preparing to carry it out very soon. Before leaving the refugee camp, Adilah hid her phone at a specific spot near her tent, and we saw a man retrieving the device.

When the camp director and his head of communications tried to question the man, they were shot dead in a style that strongly resembled the operations of the Russian FSB. 

Although the connection to Russia hasn’t been explored much yet, it’s quite likely that it will play a significant role in the terrorist plot, considering the attack is targeted against the USA. Right after the man at the camp, Hasad gets hold of Adilah’s phone and starts communicating, setting a plan into motion.

Two men, chosen as martyrs for their religion, receive instructions to carry out a mission at an abandoned hospital in Mosul, Iraq. Their task: retrieve toxic cores from old radiology machines in the hospital’s dilapidated wing and secure them in lead containers.

As the two men enter the wing and handle the highly radioactive cores, they succumb to the lethal effects of radiation. It becomes clear that this terrorist act is not what it seems – it is an act of biological warfare.

Throughout the episode, more information unfolds. A ship from Bulgaria is set to depart for the east coast of the USA in a few days as part of a goodwill agreement made during a recent NATO meeting.

Interestingly, the captain of this ship is named Emir, who had previously spoken with Adilah on the phone.

It’s no coincidence that the containers holding the radioactive cores are transferred onto the ship. The plan is to use these cores to launch an attack on the USA – their exposure could quickly blind and kill countless people.

Emir appears to oversee this part of the plan, which also involves retrieving Adilah’s phone from a refugee camp.

There are indications that Emir may serve as a connection between ISIS and Russia. As a Bulgarian national, he hails from a country that was once a staunch supporter and member of the communist USSR.

However, the details of how these two entities have joined forces against their mutual enemy – the United States – will only be unveiled in future episodes of this gripping spy thriller.

About The Veil

The Veil is an American thriller television limited series written by Steven Knight, produced by FX Productions, and starring Elisabeth Moss and Yumna Marwan. The series premiered on FX on Hulu on April 30, 2024.

A thriller series about a potentially deadly game of truth and lies as two women travel from Istanbul to Paris and London, with one of them possessing a secret that the other needs to expose.