Just a few episodes ago, it was Joan who accompanied Annie into the field in order to help a friend of Joan’s and we got the opportunity to see Agent Joan in action, no longer chained to her desk and condemned to wear nothing but sleeveless dresses.
In this week’s installment of Covert Affairs, it was Joan’s husband and boss Arthur who went into the field again, re-lived his Berlin Wall days and reconnected with a former love interest while working alongside Annie. Annie’s getting quite the education from these two.
While I was amused by the name of Arthur’s former lover/asset, Elsa (like Ilsa from Casablanca) and by the fact that Arthur thought Elsa had burned him decades ago (as Casablanca’s Rick was crushed and didn’t understand why Ilsa never showed up at that Paris train station), I enjoyed seeing Arthur get his spy groove on, insisting upon controlling the meet with Elsa, driving like he was in NASCAR and having Annie be the one to persuade him to save Elsa’s life after they learned they’d been compromised.
Even more fascinating was the fact that Joan ordered Annie to spy on Arthur’s actions, putting Annie in an impossible situation. Arthur is a complicated character who doesn’t get nearly the amount of screen time he deserves. To paraphrase a quote from Mad Men, nobody’s really lifted the Arthur rock to see what really lies beneath. My guess: Morally ambiguous stuff.
I’m curious about Arthur’s backstory, his first failed marriage, how he and Joan became a couple. (Are they role modeling an in-office example of how Annie and Auggie could eventually hook up and still work together?) I’m intrigued by his relationship with the mysterious Ben Mercer, who will always be around to complicate any potential Annie-Auggie romance. I want more information, but I’m willing to wait patiently for it to unfold. I’m willing to bet that Peter Gallagher’s Arthur has some serious skeletons lurking around.
It was also refreshing to see Auggie venture outside of his CIA cocoon and participate in a personal life, which included starting a relationship with his dead buddy’s younger sister which, like, with all of the relationships members of the CIA’s Clandestine Service Department, is doomed to fail. No one has yet demonstrated the ability to maintain a placid, enduring, loving relationship with anyone outside the Agency, including Annie and her sister Danielle, to whom Annie can’t even divulge her address.
As Annie has learned from Arthur and Joan, intramural CIA relationships are also precarious, particularly when you can order an underling to spy on your spouse. Even the love of Annie’s life has been drawn into several situations which have been manipulated and governed by the CIA. Nothing is simple, which makes Covert Affairs so much fun to watch.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Nov 09, 2011 @ 11:31 EST5EDT
