Covert Affairs - Episode 1.11 - When The Levees Break - Recap

Yeah this one's pretty late, sorry :) The finale came and went and left everybody clinging to the question whether one of Covert Affairs' beloved characters is going to survive for season 2. So here we go,

Annie and Auggie are at some middle-of-the-day ceremony, where Arthur is giving an old-timer a medal. The way Annie and Auggie are downing the drinks, you cant tell they're only there for the freebies. Annie gives Auggie a faux clink with her plastic cup. Cut to a professor at a blackboard and a student taking notes. Two men come in, with a look that says we're not here for tutoring, and they proceed to chase the professor up to the school's top floor, grabbing him as he tries to get out a window. With a steely look, one of the goons says Ben Mercer can't save you now.

Back at the ceremony Joan comes in and collects Annie, something's up. Cut to footsteps walking down an asphalt road. Whoever this person is, they're walking towards a barricade with a million cops with their guns drawn. Finally this unknown person stops and says my name is Ben Mercer; I am a former CIA operative. I want to come in from the cold.

In the warmth (not really) of the interrogation room we see Ben. Looking on behind the two way mirror is Joan and Annie. Joan, understanding, tells her she doesn't have to be there, but Annie says its okay. Ben gives his story about Sri Lanka taking us to the events before the Covert Affairs pilot. He was in Sri Lanka with his handler Jai Wilcox. To infiltrate an arms dealers, he brought Professor Anton (the professor from earlier), because they need a chemist. But he didn't go through with the deal because he met Annie. He admired her spirit and saw that there were better ways to do good in the world. He changed and went rogue. He hid the professor in Hong Kong and left Annie that lovely goodbye note.

Later, Annie sees Jai and pulls him aside and asks if he ever was going to tell her about Sri Lanka. Jai admits that he wanted to tell her about it, but he couldn't. It was classified. Annie says the problem with this job is that excuses like that are valid.

Arthur comes in the interrogation room and tells Ben he's been a naughty boy. Ben explains he's been only systematically taking out the bad guys the US can't take out because they're in bed with them. He tells Arthur that the Professor he stowed away has been abducted. Ben thinks that he's been taken to Sri Lanka to develop chemical weapons. With the professor's know-how, the bad guys can make undetectable I.E.Ds (improvised explosive device) and sell them to terrorist groups around the world. Arthur just lean backs and can't believe Ben expects the CIA to help him.

Later, Jai comes up to Arthur and says that a Professor Anton has been missing for 2 days. Arthur says they have to assume Ben is lying and telling the truth. So he's going to help Ben but to keep him honest, he's going to send Annie along despite the protests of Joan and Jai.

After Annie learns about her new mission, Auggie, waiting outside of Joan's office, asks her what's going on. She tells him and Auggie doesn't like the idea. He gives her a GPS sticker and says stick it somewhere inconspicuous so he can track her at all times. He also gives her a card with a number on it and says if something bad happens forget about protocol; call the number on the card. Its Auggie's number, he says its a get-out-of-jail card. Annie says she can't believe it took something like this to finally get his digits.

Arthur gets a surprise meeting. Seems that Liza Hearn is about to print a damaging article and the lawyers at the CIA want Arthur to get together all his documents so they can 'craft a strategy', which means let's see how far we can lie without getting caught.

Annie and Ben meet outside near a wall. Ben says he used to come out here whenever things got tough and try to remember why he joined the CIA. He tells Annie that he doesn't want her on the mission; its too dangerous. Annie doesn't care what he thinks; she's still coming.

We see Annie stick the GPS tracker on the bracelet she got from Ben in Sri Lanka. She really likes that bracelet.

Now in Sri Lanka, Ben leaves a chalk mark on a fountain for his contact, Lonestar. There's nothing for Annie and Ben to do but wait, so they mill about and suddenly we hear a gunshot. Ben grabs Annie and drops to the ground, protecting her. Ben looks up and sees...fireworks. There's a festival going on. They head for some food, where Ben asks the cook if he's seen Lonestar lately but he says he hasn't.

Arthur crafting a strategy of his own, asks Auggie if he could talk to Liza Hearn on his behalf. When Auggie says no, Arthur says that the article could put the lives of CIA operatives in danger, Auggie can't say no to that so he agrees to help. Meanwhile, one of the CIA suits tells Joan that Arthur is gonna be in trouble if this article gets out and that they may need to, well, have someone fill his position. In not so many words he offers the job to Joan.

Jai pays his dad a visit at their family home, a very big and palatial family home. The sleezy and sententious Daddy Wilcox gives his usual "They are two kinds of people at the CIA...." spiel. Jai demands to know if while in Sri Lanka was Ben taking orders from somebody else. It seems that Henry Wilcox did know Ben, but we don't know how exactly, hopefully we get some answers next season. Henry warns Jai that he'd better lookout for himself.

Back in Sri Lanka, Ben and Annie come back to the fountain and see Lonestar's mark. Then they're blindfolded and shoved into a car. Even in blindfolds, Annie can't take her eyes off of Ben. We finally meet Lonestar, whose hiding out in some kind of monastery. Ben offers him $50,000 for his information. He says that the arms dealer, Artigas has the professor and is making chemical weapons. Ben doesn't feel he's getting his money's worth, that information he pretty much knew already. Moments later Lonestar takes a sip of tea and keels over with foam coming out of his mouth. He's been poisoned. Ben and Annie look outside and see armed men approaching. They run out on a small roof and jump to the ground. They grab a bike and hot tail it out of there. The armed men are after them in a jeep firing bullets every chance they get. Heading for a cliff, Ben slides the bike out of the way at the last moment and the jeep following, falls off, killing the bad guys.

Ben, being the romantic that he is, picks the hut where they spent their time in Sri Lanka as a hideout spot.

Auggie meets with Liza Hearn and apologizes to Liza for all the double dealing and lying. Using his charm but being truthful, Auggie convinces her to hold off on the story. Back at the DPD they're a bit worried that Annie hasn't made contact for a scheduled check-in.

In the hut Annie asks Ben if he ever tried to tell her the truth. He says that being an agent made him feel important but the most important thing that ever happened to him was meeting Annie. He shows her his matching bracelet. They kiss and you know what happens after that. (yeah, I think Annie did sleep with him too quick) In the morning, after a night of loving, Ben isn't there. Annie looks around with a scared look, de ja vu is a bitch. But moments later Ben comes in with a scared look as well. He says pack up they have to run. We see armed men approaching the beach by boat. Running along the beach they're stopped, and its Jai....Annie asks how did he find them: Auggie. Annie looks down at her bracelet and remembers the GPS tracker.
Ben still wants to go on saying that he might have another contact, but Jai says its time to call the mission off. Ben agrees and says he's going to get their stuff and be back in a few minutes.

Auggie and Liza exchange all the stuff they left at each other's places; Auggie thanks her for being cool about holding off on the story. During their chit chat Auggie finds out that the article was all about Arthur and had nothing to do with any CIA operatives. Auggie says that he got played, but on the bright side; Arthur now owes him a favor. We follow Liza after talking with Auggie; she gets into a car and sitting next to her is Henry Wilcox. He's the leak.

At the DPD, Joan tells Arthur that if things go bad they want her to have his job. Surprisingly, Arthur says that's great news, but Joan doesn't want any part of it. She says that they're going to fight. And win. Arthur is amazed at his wife's, umm, chutzpah.

Back in Sri Lanka, Ben still hasn't come back with the gear or the truck. The thought dawns on them that he's not coming back. (I think we should start calling Ben Houdini) Auggie confirms it when he calls saying that the GPS tracker has Ben in a building nearby (Ben has Annie's bracelet with the GPS tracker on it, got mixed up after that passionate night in the love-hut).

They head after Ben and Arthur gives Jai the go-ahead to take Ben out if necessary. This is going to get ugly. They sneak inside the building (still under construction by the looks of it) and watch on as Ben cuts a deal to carry the professor to Indonesia for the arms dealer. Hearing that, Jai says that they have to kill Ben and wastes no time pulling his gun out. Ben grabs the professor and heads out. Annie confronts him as he walks down the stairs. Annie says that she trusted him and Ben gives her his philosophy by saying the truth is complicated. There's no time for the truth when the arms dealer and his henchmen come down the stairs.

Ben shoots one then heads off carrying the professor to safety. Jai stays behind firing shots trying to hold them off. Ben catches up to the arms dealer, but has to fight off a muscle bound thug who looks like his vocabulary consists of grunts. Annie is fighting for her life as she's dagged across the floor by her hair and almost thrown off the building. No such luck for Ben, as he and the arms dealer roll off the building...landing one story down onto an unfinished platform. Annie, who almost fell off herself, jumps down to help Ben. She hits the arms dealer off the platform and he plunges to his death. Apocalypse Now is over.

They head up to the roof of the building where a chopper is waiting to carry them home. As they make their way in, one of the goons comes out on the roof, like a zombie from a horror film that pops back up at the end--he fires two shots; Ben takes two in the back. Jai takes the goon out, but Ben looks bad. Annie grabs him and holds him as the chopper lifts off flying over Sri Lanka's shoreline out into the sea with Ben's life hanging in the balance. The End.