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Covert Affairs - Grounded - Review

16 Aug 2014

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This was a great episode with so many highs, lows, and frustrating moments galore...which only shows how much we root for this group of wonderful characters.  Let's review and discuss the whole "Annie Exposed" ordeal, as well as the way almost every character was on their worst behavior this week, with some catastrophic results.

After seeing Auggie in a clinch with Tash last week, Hayley was quick to track down Calder and fill him in on Annie's heart condition.  When she arrived at work later, Annie was called in for a meeting with Calder and Joan. Calmly and tersely, they explained that Annie would now work a desk job.  Due to the combination of this news (which is Annie's worst nightmare) and the blasé delivery of it, Annie immediately slipped into her angry toddler mode, giving a speech about how she's given her life to the agency and they just throw her away when she ceases to be useful.  I love Annie a lot, and I understand that like James T. Kirk of Star Trek, she needs to be out there in the fight, as working in the field is her "first best destiny."  But she does tend to be a bit annoying and ungrateful when she throws a fit in moments like this, with Joan of all people, who has been nothing but endlessly supportive of her.  And Annie was endangering herself, others, and the missions by staying in the field with her condition.  Still blowing her top, Annie questioned how Joan and Calder could be so cool about this.  Well, Joan was pretty mad, but she wasn't about to feed into Annie's need to be unhelpfully melodramatic, since Joan is the best and wisest boss ever (in fact, she is usually too nice to Annie in situations like this).  
Of course, despite this decision from the higher-ups (wherein I really do sympathize with Annie being placed in an office barely bigger than a cubicle) and an impending meeting with the higher-higher-ups about her suspicious conduct and the recent mission involving Mueller, nothing was going to stop Annie from launching directly back into field work.  Even though she's sometimes groundlessly self-righteous and whiny, Annie's passionate dedication to finding the truth and bringing villains to justice is what makes her so awesome.    After learning that Roger needed a hundred thousand dollars to garner more information on the Chicago attack, Annie strolled right into Ryan's office and he gave the money to her like it was no big deal whatsoever.  Having already noticed McQuade's infatuation with Annie, Caitlyn became irritated by him giving his quasi gal pal such a large sum.  I'm still not sure what Caitlyn's deal is, but she seemed genuinely surprised and concerned, in her own shamelessly nosy way, about Ryan's clear attachment to Annie and how easily he will give her whatever she wants.  

Once Annie gave Roger the money, she had to coach him through a scary meltdown after he saw a bicyclist in his building who he insisted did not live there.  Of course, even though the implication was that this man was an innocent neighbor and Roger was just being paranoid due to his mental illness, it was hard not to suspect that the eccentric former agent might actually be right that he was being followed.  That line that McQuade later said in the helicopter, that if a spy thinks he is followed, he probably is, certainly seems more complexly accurate after the end-of-the-episode reveal regarding Ryan himself.  Annie decided to trust Roger and follow through on his leads despite his fluctuating grip on reality.  So when he called her for some help while he was in Brunswick with the intel in hand, Annie turned around and left the big important meeting about whether she's actually an honest agent, heading off with McQuade via helicopter.  As if bailing on that meeting wasn't bad enough, Annie ran into Hayley on her way out and got tattled on yet again by Auggie's ex as soon as she left the building.  So awkward and problematic!

Speaking of, after Annie and Ryan raced to save Roger from his supposed pursuers and get the all-important intel, they couldn't find him anywhere.  But then poor Roger was struck and killed by a car, his papers strewn everywhere.  After mournfully ascertaining the demise of her friend, Annie started looking through the papers, with McQuade's help...only to find that they contained some typical conspiracy theories that had no connection the the investigation.  This seemed a little convenient in someone's likely plot to continue setting Roger up to look like he had never really had the inside scoop on Chicago.  Everything was falling apart, from Annie's ongoing mission to her career (she was suspended)...everything except for her relationship with Ryan.  Well.  Wait for it...
Yup, I had a feeling that the growing bond between Annie and Ryan was heading for a rough patch as well.  There was maybe something a little too eager and enabling in the way McQuade kept agreeing with Annie's every complaint about the CIA's treatment of her.  And then there have been his slightly sketchy moments in past episodes.  His alone time with Borz.  The pause in time between when he left Annie at the Russian embassy, drugged and harassed by Kravec, and when he found them later and saved her from the baddie.  He gave explanations for these incidents, but could we 100% believe him?  And Ryan's line about how maybe Mueller didn't realize he'd gone over to the wrong side until it was too late, in last week's episode might have been telling, too.  Even though McQuade is a fantastic and highly likable character and a terrific love interest for Annie, there have been possible red flags all along.

Hence, after a gorgeous and adorable montage of Annie and Ryan having an all-night-long marathon of talking, eating, drinking, and flirting, the other shoe was about ready to drop.  At least we got a sweet first kiss between Annie and McQuade (because t.v. characters never have morning breath) before the next calamity occurred.  When someone showed up at Ryan's door (moment-destroyer!), Annie glimpsed through the window that it was none other than the mysterious bicyclist from Roger's building.  If McQuade was having a chat with this guy at his house, it seems horrifyingly apparent that he may have been involved with Roger's death and might be plotting evil deeds, either as the Postman or with the Postman.  Dammit!  I'm still holding out hope that there's more to the story - and Ryan - than just that he's a charming villain in disguise.  Not only do I like him and his relationship with Annie too much to want to think he could be evil, but I also find that plot "twist" a little too predictable.  We shall see!

Elsewhere in the episode, Auggie had a couple of confrontations with Hayley, and I really had to hand it to her in the last argument they had outside his apartment door.  It is true that Auggie used her and strung her along, lying to her and then accusing her of being underhanded.  And even though Hayley's not exactly innocent, since she might never have spilled the beans about Annie if Auggie hadn't cheated with Natasha, she does have a point about Auggie's own hypocritical attitude.  Poor Auggie's having a tough time of it lately with the ladies...he also didn't seem too thrilled that Annie was at McQuade's house first thing in the morning.
Joan had a serious conversation with Arthur, who was trying to comfort her under the assumption that she was stressing out over Annie's situation.  Actually, Joan was darkly mulling the fact that the CIA could turn on their own agents the moment some kind of questionable information about them came to light.  And apparently, Joan has a big secret of her own that she's frightened might ruin her career if it becomes known.  Hmm, what can this be?  I'm always intrigued to learn more of Joan's backstory, but her fears as she confided them to Arthur make this situation worrisome.  


What did you think of this episode?  Share your thoughts in the comments!



About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana
Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries, Nashville, Beauty and the Beast, Witches of East End, Covert Affairs, and Continuum for Spoiler TV. She enjoys obsessing over films and pop music - in addition to tv shows, of course! You can find her blog, SugarRushed, at http://virginiamaeblog.blogspot.com/ and her Twitter handle is @SugarRushedBlog
Recent Reviews (All Reviews)

23 comments:

  1. Thanks as always Virginia! Joan's backstory interests me as well.

    Thanks for doing these reviews!

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  2. Great review! Thank you as always. They really need to do something with Auggie. He´s on a bad character development path like they would try to write him out of character.

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  3. Virginia Fontana15 August 2014 at 19:58

    Thanks very much :) Yes, I'd be interested in seeing Auggie get up to something more interesting this season than haphazard romantic angst.

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  4. Love the show/worried about its ratings

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  5. Virginia Fontana15 August 2014 at 20:15

    Agreed. I hope that USA keeps the show going, as it surely has plenty of terrific seasons left in it.

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  6. revengezemsta.pl15 August 2014 at 21:56

    But for me this whole Ryan being postman thing is far-fetched and of course I was hoping for something more between Annie and Ryan because this whole thing with her falling for bad guys is kind of boring

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  7. I don't know about that. I think Season 5 or Season 6 should be the end of it. It's best to end a show when it's still good.

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  8. I agree with you. Ever since I noticed the low ratings, I've been thinking about the future of Covert Affairs. I think Season 6 should be its last, but USA might try to squeeze in Season 7 as well. I still love watching this show, but it seems to me that other fans might have lost interest and that's why the numbers have been low.

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  9. Virginia Fontana16 August 2014 at 14:52

    I feel the same way. Even as I saw the little clues mounting, I hoped they weren't going to go the predictable way and make Ryan a villain. I still hope there's some kind of other explanation for what we saw at the end of this episode.

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  10. Virginia Fontana16 August 2014 at 14:54

    I feel as though most shows that go beyond 7 seasons tend to fall off in quality, so 1-2 more seasons would be nice.

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  11. revengezemsta.pl16 August 2014 at 14:57

    I have this theory which might be crazy but I think that Caitlin Cook is up to something she shows up out of a blue etc.

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  12. Yeah definitely :)

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  13. Virginia Fontana16 August 2014 at 16:06

    Oh, I totally think she is up to no good. If there was any truth to Ryan's story about a mole in the company, I highly suspect she's the one.

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  14. revengezemsta.pl16 August 2014 at 16:10

    But don't You think it's kind of sad that Covert Affairs became so predictable?

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  15. Virginia Fontana16 August 2014 at 16:13

    Potentially, yes. I hope the writers can turn this plotline on its head and add some creative and unexpected twists. This season started out so well. I don't so much mind Caitlyn predictably perhaps being bad, but the reveal about Ryan possibly being evil really bothers me. I'm hoping for better developments in future episodes. Seasons 3-4 were awesome, and we need to get back to that level of quality. :)

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  16. revengezemsta.pl16 August 2014 at 16:15

    If they twist things up and Ryan will be evil I'm honestly considering watching next season...:(

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  17. Virginia Fontana16 August 2014 at 17:26

    The one good sign is that I think we have too much evidence of his good side for Ryan to just be plain evil...there must be more to it. We'll see, probably next week...

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  18. revengezemsta.pl16 August 2014 at 17:28

    I hope so! :)

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  19. Virginia Fontana16 August 2014 at 17:31

    Thanks to you, too :) Joan is one of my favorite characters and I like that they are giving her a substantial subplot with this, hopefully. Intrigued to see what her past secret may be!

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  20. Loved the episode and that Annie now has to deal with her condition. Very curious about what Joan is hiding????? She see herself much like Annie.............but I could not help but focus on the number of times "trust" was brought up in this episode. Joan pointed out to Annie........"You didn't trust me", Hailey noted this to Auggie, Auggie noted that to Joan, and so on.... Caitlyn is too obvious to be the bad guy or gal in this Mole theory. I think since "family" is the focus of the McQuaid security that is what we are seeing. How responsible was Annie to run out of an inquest to get to Roger. I think the Dog Walker was actually following Annie, as she is probably under investigation now by govt agencies outside of the CIA. We may find out next week that the guy showing up on McQuaid's doorstep was not planned nor did he have any connection to him, but maybe made to appear that way. Especially liked seeing Annie back to a carefree self..............as she was with McQuaid. I see more in your face moments with them.

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  21. revengezemsta.pl17 August 2014 at 08:25

    I kind of like this theory!

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  22. Virginia Fontana23 August 2014 at 00:44

    I also really love seeing Annie's "carefree self" shine through with Ryan. Awesome observations.

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