Covert Affairs - Embassy Row - Review

Annie and Auggie may not be arguing anymore (for now!) but they still had bumpy roads ahead of them in this week's episode, as each met with major hurdles in their respective adventures.  Auggie's really not cut out to be a player, as it was incredibly awkward to watch him try to juggle burgeoning relationships with Hayley and Tash, who each bring their own drama to the table.  As for Annie, a return trip to hobnob with the creepy Kravec proved far more dangerous than their first encounter.  And as Joan and Arthur continue to see the difficulties in their relationship that are caused by his recent career change, Calder's own "relationship" issues with *ahem* "Sydney" are still going strong.

Tash, who I am thisclose to renaming "Crazy-Pants McGee," was acting awfully possessive of Auggie for someone who basically invited herself to show up on his doorstep and leap into a serious relationship out of nowhere.  On the other hand, she's kind of a delightful bundle of wacky energy, and I like her nuttiness.  Meanwhile, Auggie's attempt to break up with Hayley due to his new status as Tash's "man" went haywire.  That's because Hayley is zeroing in on Annie as a suspect, and neither Auggie nor Joan is going to allow that to go too far.  In order to keep tabs on Hayley's investigation, Auggie is going to keep dating her, much to Tash's chagrin (seriously, Hayley...watch your back, I'm a little worried about you).  But what this all makes ironically clear is that even while dating two women who are completely into him, Auggie's biggest decisions are primarily driven by helping Annie, who still seems to be the most important person in his life.  Interesting!

I also love that all arguments between Annie and Auggie seem to be resolved over beers.

When Annie and Joan decided it would be a super duper fantastic idea for Annie to go traipsing back into Kravec's life and gain more intel on his involvement in the Chicago attack, Auggie was suspicious that Kravec might not be as trusting of "Martine" as he was the first time around.  This proved both sensible and prophetic, as after a date night at the Russian embassy (hey!  It was not easy to get Annie in there, either), Kravec revealed that he's not a total idiot and paid Annie back for her little drug-and-ditch from last week.  Luckily, Ryan happened to also be attending the same function at the embassy for the purpose of purchasing some helicopters for his clients (do we believe him?  I'm going to pull a Mulder and say I want to believe!).  Due to their paths fortuitously crossing, McQuade was able to help Annie escape from her assailant and haul Kravec in for questioning.

The looks on Annie and Ryan's faces as they crossed paths at the party were priceless.  It's moments like this, fueled by such an irrepressible burst of chemistry and flirtatiousness, that make me root for these two as a couple (this is despite my reluctant, dutiful suspicions of McQuade and holding out hope for the Eyal factor).  Piper Perabo and Nic Bishop were particularly delightful in their performances in this part of the episode.  It was definitely more than a little weird that after catching a flailing, woozy Annie after she stumbled out of Kravec's clutches at the embassy, Ryan decided to let the baddie take Annie from the premises.  But he did then show up right on time to get Annie out of a potentially deadly encounter, and gave a pretty decent excuse as to why he couldn't come up with a better plan. I'm not sure if we can really buy McQuade's story that his hour alone with Borz had to do with questioning the villain about a mole within Ryan's company.  But for what it's worth, if McQuade is the great guy he seems to be, then my #1 suspect for the mole in his company is his second-in-command Caitlin, who gives off a distinctly sketchy vibe.

I had to laugh at Arthur trying to hide the circumstances of his injury from Joan, as we all know there was just no way she was going to let that stay a secret.  After learning of the peril he was in during his trip to Iraq last week, Joan was newly disturbed by the communication problems in their marriage.  When Joan warned Arthur that similar circumstances have broken up plenty of marriages among their acquaintances, he reminded her that they are not just any couple.  That was an incredibly sweet scene, and Peter Gallagher was terrific in expressing Arthur's sincerity.  But Joan still felt uncomfortable, and managed to pull a CIA consult position for Arthur out of her magician's hat, allowing her to keep an eye on him.  Because she is amazing.

Unfortunately (or at least, it certainly seems like a bad idea), Calder just can't get Sydney out of his system.  This is true enough to cause him to break his date with the totally cute fellow agent that Joan set him up with last week, le sigh.  Once Calder found out that Sydney, whose real name is Stephanie, was named in a CIA investigation file, he was eager to find out whether she would spill the beans about their hook-ups when she is eventually questioned.  Stephanie insisted that she is discreet, but somehow managed to seem completely untrustworthy.  That made it appear a bit treacherous for Calder to keep hitting the sheets with her, but then, he apparently gets a thrill out of the whole situation.  I don't see this ending well for him!

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

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