‘Jack Ryan’: Who Is Senator Henshaw? What Happens to Him?

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Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan ended in style, only revealing the true enemies of peace at the very end of the show. The one person no one expected to be the enemy of America was Texas Senator Henshaw, who stayed on his high horse throughout as he grilled Jack Ryan and Elizabeth Wright. It was satisfying to watch Jack Ryan tear him apart in the last episode, and many fans are now wondering who Senator Henshaw is and what happened to him after Jack Ryan exposed his crimes.

Texas Senator Henshaw was also the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was tasked with confirming Elizabeth Wright as the director of the CIA. The committee also summoned Jack Ryan for a senate hearing after Zeyara Lemos nearly sneaked bombs into the US through the Mexico border. Jack Ryan instead exposed him as an accomplice to the terrorists, although it is not clear whether he gets arrested afterward.

Henshaw was hard on Elizabeth Wright and Jack Ryan during the committee hearings because he wanted to maintain his public image. He was relaxing the rules for Ade Osoji and Zeyara Lemos, allowing them to carry out a terrorist operation on US soil in exchange for campaign donations. Henshaw’s political career was clearly finished by the show’s end, but let’s look at the actor who portrays him and how Henshaw’s monstrous actions were exposed.

Who Plays Senator Henshaw in Jack Ryan?

Senator Henshaw is portrayed by Derek Cecil, a Texas-born American actor famous for playing Seth Grayson in House of Cards.

Despite being a Texan, he is not a politician in real life, so there is no connection between Derek Cecil and his character’s career in Jack Ryan.

Cecil has over two decades of experience in acting, having made his debut as Jeff Blogert in the 1995 TV movie The Unspoken Truth.

He has since played many roles in popular TV shows, including Chas in Treme, Dean Xavier in Banshee, and Andy Katcavage in The Outsider.

His performance in Jack Ryan Season 4 is one of the best among the antagonist crew in the show, as he gets the Senator to look so bad that fans love him.

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Cecil’s character pretends to be an ardent defendant of the American people’s rights when he really is their biggest enemy.

He actually taunts Jack Ryan at the Nigeria Gala, making it clear that he doesn’t like him despite Jack receiving the position of the acting Deputy Director of the CIA.

He even advises Elizabeth Wright to distance herself from Jack Ryan if she wants to pass her confirmation, but even after she does, he doesn’t vote for her.

He is the best description of a green snake in green grass in Jack Ryan Season 4, and Cecil’s strong voice and intense emotional display give life to the character in every scene.

Cecil brings out the obnoxious and proud politician who tramples on everyone else with a sharp stern look that scares people even before he speaks.

Henshaw’s reality as a selfish politician is not given away until the very end of the show when he struggles to save face after Jack Ryan exposes him.

Was Henshaw working with Zeyara Lemos?

Senator Henshaw pulled favors for Zeyara Lemos through Ade Osoji, who, in turn, channeled money into his campaign fund.

There is no evidence in the show that Henshaw worked directly with Lemos in her criminal empire, but Ryan confirmed that he worked with her associate Ade Osoji.

He still attended Zeyara’s fundraiser, where he taunted Jack Ryan, reminding him that he was only the acting Deputy Director.

When he told Ryan that he was interested in change, he meat he would do his best to get him removed as deputy director.

Henshaw was actually angry at Ryan because he had shut down Operation Pluto, through which his sponsors’ criminal operations were funded.

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He wanted Elizabeth Wright to do away with Jack Ryan because he didn’t like Ryan’s cowboy personality.

He believed that he could easily manipulate Wright with Osoji’s help since the latter had become Wright’s adviser.

When Greer caught and questioned their trigger man, Bill Tuttle, Wright later found out the truth about Osoji and Henshaw.

As the intelligence committee chairman, Henshaw signed a letter to approve unauthorized vehicles to pass the checkpoint at the Mexico border without being weighed as a favor for Osoji. The vehicles actually contained Zeyara’s bombs.

He probably didn’t know about the bombs, but he knew that whatever was on the vehicles was illegal and that they could smuggle dangerous items into the US once they escaped being weighed.

What happens to Henshaw in Jack Ryan?

Jack Ryan Season 4 doesn’t show whether Henshaw gets arrested for his crimes, but Elizabeth Wright later confirms that his career was finished as she sees his resignation letter.

However, in his last scene, he is shown demanding that Jack Ryan shut up as he exposes his complicity in Lemos’s terror network.

It is not clear whether he was also involved in the assassination of the Nigerian president, but Greer’s discovery links the companies that funded the assassination operation in Nigeria to the senator’s campaign money received from Osoji.

Being the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, it was probably hard for Wright to just arrest Henshaw, so Ryan chose to expose him publicly.

His connections to Osoji, including the money he received, were documented in the discovery made by Greer, so a criminal indictment could still be brought against him.

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