The Ghost of Beirut wasn’t a ghost anymore, as in the previous episode of Ghosts Of Beirut, we had seen that a single mistake had exposed him, and now the CIA and the Mossad had his picture. The reason why Imad Mughniyeh was able to hide from the intelligence agencies since the very first episode of the series and operate from the shadows was because he paid attention to the little details. He knew that he was alive because he had been extremely cautious about each and everything, but over the years, he had started feeling invincible and underestimated what people like Lena and Teddy were capable of doing. Imad had been quite a distraction of late, and his colleague and confidant, Qassem Suleimani, had warned him about the implications that his actions might have. But Imad was in love, and he just wanted to be with Wafa, even if he had to risk everything. He had told his wife that there was another woman in his life, but he was still not ready to give her a divorce. Saada didn’t want to be locked up in her golden cage, but Mughniyeh didn’t give her an option. Wafa had already started dreaming about the day Imad, and she would get married, but she had no clue what fate had in store for her lover.
For Lena, the mission was personal: as much as she was doing it to avenge the deaths of Ames and Buckley, she also wanted to make Mughniyeh pay for the adverse impact his actions had had on her family back in the day. Lena always said that it was because of extremists like Mughniyeh that her family had to leave Baalbaek and seek refuge in the United States of America. She was among the few lucky ones who had managed to make a name for themselves, but she knew that thousands of lives were destroyed because of the fanatical beliefs of such madmen who thought that they were fighting for a cause when in reality, they were making the situation even worse than it was. What Mughniyeh didn’t understand was that his hatred and anger had turned him into the person he once despised. So, let’s find out what happened in the final episode of Ghosts of Beirut and how the combined teams of the CIA and Mossad planned on taking him out.
Spoilers Alert
How Did Imad Mughniyeh Get Saved The First Time?
After capturing Imad for the first time on camera, Lena went directly to the CIA headquarters in the United States of America and told her bosses that they would not get a better opportunity to take out the terrorist in their lifetime. Her superiors, especially Michael Langley, were a little skeptical about the whole mission because they wanted to do it in a legitimate manner. They asked her to provide evidence that Mughniyeh was a direct threat to the safety and security of the United States of America, as otherwise, due to the strict protocols, they weren’t allowed to carry out an attack against him. Also, the American government had made it very clear that they didn’t want to start a war with Iran, so there were strict orders to make sure that there was no collateral damage that severed ties between both the nations.
Teddy and Lena installed cameras in places that Mughniyeh visited on a daily basis, and they were monitoring his movements and looking for that opportunity where they could catch him off guard. Lena and Teddy were making a car bomb, and they were very particular about the fact that it shouldn’t cause more damage than they intended it to have. They wanted to make sure that no civilian lives were lost in the process. Teddy didn’t want the blood of innocent people on his hands because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to bear that guilt. He knew that nobody deserved to die in that manner, even if it came at the cost of their mission failing. After many trials and errors, the car bomb was ready, and Lena and Teddy were hopeful that they would be successful in their mission.
Imad Mughniyeh was meeting Wafa almost on a regular basis during those times, though Suleimani had warned him time and again that his actions would compromise his security. They didn’t know that the CIA and the Mossad had already laid the trap. The day finally came when the agencies planned to assassinate Imad, but an untoward situation led them to abort the mission. Imad came out of the building, but Suleimani accompanied him, and Lena’s superiors at the CIA ordered her to immediately abort the mission. Meir Dagan, head of the Mossad team, wanted to still go ahead and kill both of them, but the USA knew that it would spoil the relationship they had with Iran, and they were not ready to pay that cost. The 30-day period that Lena had gotten from the US government to kill Imad had expired, and she was told that if she wanted to get the time period extended, she would have to present more evidence that proved that Imad Mughniyeh was a threat to the safety of the country.
Ghosts Of Beirut Ending Explained: How Did Mossad And The CIA Kill Mughniyeh?
Ali Reza Asgari had shifted to the United States of America, and Lena met him with the hope that he would give her some intel about the Ghost of Beirut that would serve as evidence and which would, in turn, extend the time period they had been given to execute their plan. Asgari told Lena that Imad Mughniyeh now wanted to level up his game and wanted to build a chemical weapon. That was a big revelation, and Lena knew that as soon as the CIA and the US government heard about his intentions of creating a weapon of mass destruction, they would give her a green signal and extend the time period. Lena’s effort did not go in vain, and she got 30 more days for the joint CIA and Mossad operation.
Teddy really wanted to kill Mughniyeh, even when he saw that he was with Suleimani, and Lena was not happy about it. She told him that the only way they could accomplish the mission was by trusting each other, and she didn’t like how he had reacted the last time. Teddy was apologetic for putting Lena in such a situation, and he knew that had it not been for her, the CIA would have never agreed to join forces with the Mossad. Teddy had sacrificed a lot for the mission. His wife and children were not talking to him because he had broken his promise and taken another life-threatening mission. He tried to explain to them that it was the last time he was doing it, but the damage had been done, and they were very disappointed in him.
On February 12, 2008, the longest manhunt in history ended with the Ghost of Beirut, a.k.a Imad Mughniyeh, getting killed by the joint operation carried out by Mossad and the CIA. For a long period of time, the United Nations upheld the stance that they had nothing to do with the operation, but everybody knew who was behind it. At the end of Ghosts Of Beirut, none of them cheered when Mughniyeh died because Teddy had told them they needed to show some respect for the life of a human being. It also ended the conflict that the two rival agencies, Mossad and CIA, had with each other and paved the way for a better relationship in the future. It was a cathartic moment for Lena, and she knew that she had saved hundreds of lives by killing the man.
