Covert Affairs - Sensitive Euro Man - Review

There was so much in this episode that was fantastic and satisfying, with Annie and Ryan zeroing in on the perpetrators of the Chicago attack who had framed McQuaid for the crime.  Excitement, passion (ooh la la!) and fear filled this hour that seemed to go by in a flash.   As Annie and Ryan grew ever closer (swoon!), Caitlyn and Hayley showed themselves for who they were, and while Joan, Arthur and Calder tried to help investigate the ever-more labyrinthian case, Auggie expressed his impatience with Annie's increasingly secretive ways.

Further questions about the case were raised quickly as Caitlyn allowed the CIA full access to McQuaid's company, except for Ryan's laptop, which she hid away and took from the premises.  Meanwhile, Annie met up with Ryan, and after the most awkward small-talk ever, she agreed to help him exonerate himself and reveal the true culprit - yay!  This led to her staking out Ryan's meet with Caitlyn, their main suspect, who handed the laptop to him and promised to help.  Even though Ryan had emotionally revealed to Annie that Caitlyn got him through the aftermath of his wife's death, it became increasingly obvious that his second-in-command was up to no good the further we got into the episode.  The GPS chip in Ryan's laptop was certainly a tip-off of her nefarious ways.  After Annie and Ryan holed up in his luxurious "on the run" house, matters took a turn for the delightfully steamy after Annie assured him that they were in this together.  From the desire-laden gazes they exchanged across the hall, a seriously sexy encounter was imminent, and the scene did not disappoint.  

Once a group of assailants broke into Ryan's house and were promptly subdued by him and Annie in a badass sequence, Annie and Ryan unearthed evidence that a new bombing was planned that would be pinned on McQuaid.  The CIA swept the hotel and found no evidence of a bomb, but Caitlyn was on sight, scheming away with a Georgian diplomat named Belenko.  Elsewhere, Hayley was working hard to link Annie to McQuaid and take her down, much to Auggie's irritation.  Later, Auggie confronted Annie about her recent habit of hiding things from him and using him only for what she needs from him.  As much as I love Annie, it's hard to deny that she's been doing this all season and he had a right to say it.  Just as Joan accused Annie of not trusting her enough when she could have helped, Auggie has been kept in the dark too much for no good reason.  I also kind of had to laugh at Annie rapidly telling Auggie the origin of the hotel bombing intel as if he would totally understand that she had been with McQuaid that whole time, after lying to him and everyone else about that repeatedly.  The debate between Annie and Auggie was left unresolved, leaving them in an uncomfortable place in their relationship until the next batch of episodes.

Hayley popped up to arrest Annie, who was again lol-worthy in her complete lack of taking Auggie's ex the least bit seriously.  Plus, Annie had bigger fish to fry as she revealed to Hayley that the new bombing target was a motorcade full of diplomats.  Admirably, Hayley made no further attempts to delay Annie, but drove her to the scene of the developing crime, where Annie leaped onto a car and then stopped Arthur from being blown up in the nick of time.  Earlier, unfortunately, Ryan had tried to take matters into his own hands by talking to Caitlyn, who turned out to be even worse than I'd feared.  Unhesitatingly, she shot her boss right in the chest, which was utterly horrifying.  Having thwarted the attack, Annie got into a brawl with Caitlyn which was halted by Belenko shooting Caitlyn himself in another surprise twist.  As Belenko essentially waltzed away from the scene of the crime and whatever secrets of Caitlyn's he'd just silenced, Annie fumed to Arthur about the danger of allowing the diplomat to go free.  Arthur tried to get her to calm down, since going after Belenko too aggressively would only cause more problems, but even Arthur's cool was broken by a phone call telling him about Ryan being shot.  Poor Annie was having an extremely frustrating day.

At the hospital, to what I'm sure was many viewers' massive relief, Ryan was not dead, but merely in very bad shape.  Annie held his hand while she watched the news broadcast about the day's events.  Belenko is playing the hypocritical role of pretending grief for the attack, which will doubtless only further infuriate Annie and make her dead-set on catching him when we see her next.  One thing's for sure: after being part of so many atrocious acts and then being a key player in a game that led to Ryan's shooting, with Annie, Belenko is definitely messing with the wrong agent.

This episode had a number of impressive games afoot, but one of my favorites was the way it looped back to make Caitlyn the villain after making her seem so loyal and genuine last week.  And then having that promo photo of Hayley with a gun floating around certainly made my suspicions turn to her a bit.  The show pulled off a series of clever bait-and-switches that ramped up especially when Ryan seemed to be guilty.  Ultimately, I'm glad Hayley turned out to be a pushy goody-two-shoes rather than a villain, and it seems like she and Auggie can at least be friends again at this point.  

The attempt to give Calder his own subplot this season has, for the most part, fallen a bit flat for me.  In this episode, for example, he offered to Joan that he would use Sydney to get to a source that might provide important intel on the new turn in the case.  However, all we got for follow-through was his telling his sassy quasi-ex-girlfriend that he needed her help.  This part, and Calder's role in general, felt crammed into the episode.  I'm sure we'll see some further developments with his issues and relationship with Sydney come Fall, but I hope that his part of the story can be a little more interesting next time around.  So far, in this first part of Season 5, I've found Calder's role most satisfying when he showed his loyalty to his agents and stood up for himself.  

The little glimpse at the end of the episode we had of Arthur coming home to Joan and the baby was so sweet.  I'm still wondering what in the world her big secret from the past is and when it will come to light!

What did you think of this episode?  Did I miss something as to why Annie took Caitlyn's necklace?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

About the Author - Virginia Mae Fontana

Virginia is happy to be reviewing The Vampire Diaries, Beauty and the Beast, Witches of East End, and Covert Affairs 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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