Covert Affairs 2x01: Begin the Begin
Welcome to Season 2 of Covert Affairs. This time, the action starts in a beach, just like it happened last season. But geographically speaking, we are in Guam. Annie is walking by the shore and later swimming in the ocean, thinking about what happened in Sri Lanka with Ben (last season’s finale), and the question whether he lived or died after getting shot. Our answer comes shortly, when her beach time comes to an end and walks up to the man she had a wild romance with. What I didn’t expect was that he was in a wheelchair and that this part of a naval hospital.
Back in his room, Annie performs the polygraph test on Ben for debrief purposes, but honestly, it lacks seriousness because they laugh and make out. Ben admits that what he wanted all along was to protect Annie from harm. But their happiness is short-lived when they see the nurse that was outside the room is gone. Walker decides to go check, and immediately, she helps Ben out of bed because a couple of men instantly burst in and start shooting wildly…too bad they shot a dummy instead of Mercer, but I gotta admit him and Annie make a good team when taking them out of play. Just as they are reaching the exit of the place, a shot is heard and they fall to the floor. The military man in the entrance shot their chaser, and as they stand up again, Annie and Ben decide it’s time to head home. Credit sequence (the same as Season 1, with a few additions. I like this one better).
Now in a medical center in Maryland, Annie and Ben meets up with Jai, who is happy to see Walker (has it been that long?) and, regardless that they hate each other, Wilcox brought him Sudoku puzzles to pass the time. Annie spends a tender moment with him, she and Jai leave for Annie’ house.
The first thing she does is reunite with her sister, saying it was a business trip to Missouri for the Smithsonian. But she finds a police report, and Danielle explains that someone broke into the garage a couple nights ago, so Annie rushes to the guest house (her place) to check everything. For me, it all looked normal but anyways, she heads to Langley and Auggie instantly recognizes her and, knowing they have a lot of trust, she tells Anderson about the break-in, and he, in turn, puts her up to speed with what has happened. Liza Hearn (sp? The reporter that tried to blackmail Arthur last season) has published some very sensitive articles, and as they talk about that, Joan comes up and summons Annie to her office.
In there, Joan asks Annie how she’s feeling after all she’s been through, and Walker says she’s fine. Immediately, her boss brings up the file on an Estonian criminal and to get to him, they have been watching a tennis player named Nadia because, apparently, she has handed information to this man for a while now, but has missed recent drops.
Next thing we know, Annie is posing as a fan in the middle of Nadia’s practice and has brought her roses as part of the protocol Auggie explains. It all goes as planned, until Nadia changed one of the words of the scripts, which, for Annie, could be a signal that she’s in trouble, and had to find a way to let Annie know without the rest of the people noticing.
Back at Langley, Annie is convinced that something was quite off, but Auggie tells her assets are usually unprepared. So Walker decides to try out something quite risky: Follow her to prove that Nadia is, indeed, in danger. This takes her to something that looks like a spa or a gym, where Annie manages to fit in quite well.
In the distance, she sees Nadia with her coach and waits until she gets in the sauna to talk to her. Nadia seems happy to finally eat chocolate in peace, and tells Annie she’s sorry she blew the flower protocol, but that there were people watching, Walker notices she has an ugly bruise in her ankle and shoulder caused by this criminal, but Nadia tells Annie that the CIA should leave her alone because this doesn’t concern them.
With this, Walker is more convinced than ever that Nadia is in danger but doesn’t want to admit it out of fear. Joan says she can’t authorize a protection team without the asset’s request, that, so far, doesn’t exist. So for now she and Auggie will keep a distant surveillance job because exposing Nadia could be a lot worse.
Night has fallen, and both husband and wife share a drink (Joan and Arthur) in his office. He’s going through a hard time, but no matter what, she’s by his side. Back with Annie, her house is about to undergo a sweep for her safety, but they can’t do that with Danielle inside, because she’ll suspect about what her sis really does for a living. Plan works, but she has to leave because Nadia is on the move, so she and Auggie go to check that, but Annie is more stubborn than we believe and runs off.
Too bad it led her to a surprise birthday party prepared for the tennis player.
Walker feels bad about that, but still persists in her point. Joan has taken the decision to shut Nadia down as an asset because it could be for her best and because last night was way too risky, So for now Annie’s business will be paperwork. In another place, Arthur is in a meeting when Jai comes in to talk to him about Ben. Jai doesn’t look to happy with that, but Campbell says that Wilcox should keep distance from him because things are changing.
At Annie’s place, a ‘carpet cleaning’ team comes in, telling Danielle Annie hired them, and that it should be better that they’re out of the house, so it means they’re in without drama. Remember that last season Walker was stubborn as hell but that it almost always paid off? Well, she’s still following Nadia on her own, taking pictures of the people that are usually with her, especially men in suits. Joan notices she’s gone and looks pissed that her authority wasn’t respected. Annie later heads to the Agency gym to tell Auggie about her findings, and that she might be in trouble because of everything that has happened (not to mention she practically breached protocol, and that the sweep came out clean), and that it’s best that she takes the day off because there’s a thin line between intuition and paranoia. Walker decides to take the advice and heads to see Ben at the hospital (she’s so worried for him she even brought him the burger he craved for), but she notices Ben is gone from the hospital and nobody knows anything.
With that, Annie heads to Joan’s house to find out what happened to Ben. Joan says it’ll be better for her to separate her feelings for Ben from the fact that he’s an asset. Annie is certain she knows, but concretely got nothing. Out of the office, she and Auggie talk about it over beer and she suddenly has it all figured out about Nadia.
Now the setting is the tennis tournament, where Nadia is playing as Annie and Auggie are driving there because someone is in danger and isn’t her; it’s the Estonian criminal (sorry, couldn’t get the last name by ear) and the fact that his mistress (Nadia) has access to him so easily doesn’t raise suspicions. So Annie calls Jai so he can run photos for her. Auggie doesn’t understand where she’s getting at, but Annie says it was the perfect excuse to make business for the men in those photos.
Auggie manages to get the guy in danger out of the court by setting up a fight over a seat and writing the message in the ticket and Annie does so in turn, meeting Nadia outside and convincing her to come along because the CIA can protect her.
Her coach starts shooting at them like crazy, and Nadia realizes Annie was right all along and they speed off in a car, but so does her chaser. But we trust Walker is an experienced driver and has a plan: Make her crash in the middle of the woods.
That night, Joan gets another visit, but this time from a lawyer regarding Arthur and a defense. Auggie is interrogating two teenagers suspected of breaking into Annie’s place, to which they admit too. Annie goes to talk to Nadia and tells her that they can only offer her asylum in the U.S. and have a silent life from now on. She is thankful that Annie did this all for her, and that she can finally eat chocolate without recrimination. Walker wishes her good luck before leaving.
In the middle of the night, Ben meets up with Arthur to not only see the Capitol view, but to welcome him back to the CIA to do what he has to do with resources and anonymity his missions. But he wants to talk to Annie, although that’s impossible, so there’s no deal there. And that beer Annie couldn’t have before she’s enjoying it by herself…with Auggie, better said.
(Just wanted to say sorry about the delay. I'll catch up fast cuz I love this show)
Photo: Covert Affairs Net FB
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