It starts with Annie waking up in Eyal’s bed. Get your mind out of the gutter, she’s alone. After rummaging in the kitchen for a few moments, there’s a knock on the door and a package is delivered with intel from Eyal. Oded Fehr, by the way, is not in this episode.
A cut across town and we see Auggie putting on a shirt (hey, Chris said he’d be shirtless in this episode but I didn’t think it’d be this brief!). Then Parker is knocking on his door. Damn. Hoped he was done with her. The “Lord grant me the serenity” speech sounds like a comment on the scene until they switch to Joan in her support group and then talking to her sponsor; basically breaking up with him. Parker came back from Eritrea with a new appreciation of Mingus. Finally. Auggie asks her to leave and she tells him about her parent’s troubles with Billy’s (her dead brother and Auggie’s deceased friend/army buddy.). Auggie assumes she came to see him to see if he could do something about it and because he’s such a great guy, he agrees to look into it for her.
Annie being Annie can’t let things lie and calls Arthur going right over Joan’s head. Arthur’s first question is whether Joan knows Annie is in his office. “I talked to Joan.” That doesn’t answer the question Annie! But Arthur accepts it because the terrorist the meeting is supposed to be with is behind a major world event. He isn’t happy to learn the file is from Mossad. And then he goes to talk to Joan, who still isn’t happy about this in the least. Arthur tells her that she’s been removed from an important list and other "code-word distribution" lists because of sending Annie to Russia. Personally, I think it has more to do with the random drug problem they decided to saddle Joan with this season but Arthur isn’t quite ready to play that hand (if he holds it).
Annie gets a hold of the girlfriend of the not-terrorist, just the one meeting with him, Megan saying she’s the woman’s girlfriend. Always good to see the shows supporting human rights. Annie tells the woman she needs to contact the business man she’s dating. Megan is unsurprised and tells Annie how they met. Annie asks a few questions but she responds that they have a policy where they don’t talk about work. She tells Annie that when she was Annie’s age she used to judge women who didn’t live up to her standard too but as she grew older, her views widened. She then leaves Annie to ask for the check.
And with the first Annie/Auggie interaction of the episode, Auggie tells Annie he doesn’t approve of her using Mossad intel and that she should keep her guard up. Annie feels the need to tell Auggie she doesn’t have feelings for Eyal. Chris Gorham wasn’t kidding; for a man not in this episode, Eyal is all over this episode. Annie goes back to the café to show the woman some photos while she’s still at lunch. After the first photo, Annie shows Megan a man whom she thinks is following the woman. She asks the woman to help them for the man she loves to prove his innocence or free herself from a bad relationship. Annie asks her to keep him on the line for forty seconds after they have Khalid so they can do the trace. Khalid happens to call just then; miracle of television. He notes she doesn’t sound like herself but how can she when Annie is timing their interaction?
Arthur discusses the situation with Joan who cattily replies that she thought she didn’t have clearance for it. Arthur tells her he’s approving it. Down at the Department of Veterans, Auggie meets with a man he knew in basic training. He tells Auggie that because there’s a lack of signatures from the parents, it was buried. Auggie explains the situation and his friend offers to push it thru by the end of the week. He tells Auggie about Operation Proper Exit (will be a plot point. See Gorham’s twitter photo).
During the briefing to go over facts, Arthur notices the tension between Joan and her former sponsor and lover, Seth. A secretary interrupts the tense moment to tell Arthur he has a major phone call. Back in the DPD, Auggie apologies to Annie for not trusting her and then tells Annie, Arthur wants her in the room while the watch the strike in an area of the building even Auggie hasn’t been in. And he’s been everywhere.
As Annie is being briefed, a man walks up an tells them that the president has given approval to strike. Joan goes on record saying she’s against all this. Arthur notes and disregards that. They have approval to kill both men and Seth says the drone is the thinking man’s weapon. Arthur gives the strike order. Target is neutralized. But then Annie notices Khalid leaving the compound. Arthur instructs that they keep him locked in. With the delay in satellite up-link, it’s too difficult to shoot at a moving target. Seth thinks he can’t out run them. Annie tells him exactly how Khalid can. They discover the cell phone is still in the car and Annie either think Megan is in danger or behind this.
Danger it is then as Annie goes to her at the Opera. Parker has run over to Auggie’s apartment when he told her he has news. He tells her her parents will have the check by the end of the week and asks why she came to him. She makes a couple of reasonable points and then tells Auggie she misses him. She tells him she loves him. Auggie tells her he’s sorry “but this has to be the last time we see each other. "Goodbye Parker.” Yes!! Too soon or now soon enough? In her office Joan contemplates a prescription bottle from her drawers before calling for a refill. Don’t do it. She asks for Frank, who isn’t available, and then says she’ll call back.
Annie succeeds in pulling Megan out of the opera. Not finding a door to retreat into, Annie pulls Megan onto some scaffold. Guy chasing them produces a gun. Annie produces something to hit him over the head with. But alas since it was hollow, this causes a full fledged fight with Annie hanging over the edge. She pulls her attacker over the side and then hauls herself up to look at the damage from upon high.
Joan calls Annie into her office. DNA checks are being performed on the dead guy’s body and Khalid is in the wind. Joan tells Annie that there’s been a lot of blow back from her accepting of the intel and by trusting Eyal over Joan. Annie mentions that when Jai was killed, Joan allowed her to be reassigned and when she was thrown in a Russian prison, left her to rot. Eyal got her out and Annie points out that Joan wants her to exploit the relationship when it benefits her. Joan says she’s done with Annie. She suggests that they should revisit Annie’s request for department transfer. I’m on board but only if she can take Auggie too. Joan goes up to Arthur’s office to go home with him and he tells her he’s going to take a cab and gives her the card of the hotel he’s going to be staying in for a few days. He doesn’t want to deal with the Seth situation when he’s angry. Good call on his part. Joan decides to tell him about the drugs.
Next week: Has Eyal gone rouge? We’ll find out.
