Dear Covert Affairs: Please Don't Screw This Up.

A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry about how Covert Affairs on USA (Tuesdays, 10pm) had surprisingly sucked me in by leaping from mediocre/decent in seasons 1 & 2 to pretty legitimately awesome in season 3.  Each season is 16 episodes long, and at the time of that blog entry, they had aired up through episode 3.10.  That entry included this caveat:

Now, here's the thing.  These plot developments all just came crashing down in episode 8, and we're only 10 eps in, so I'm still not sure of how this is all gonna play out.  There are still 6 more eps this season, which still gives the writers plenty of time to screw the pooch.

If this was just your average shitshow, the route the Covert writers would take with this is to spend ep 11 on the big dramatic escape from Russia, and then get Annie back to D.C. and say, "Whew, glad that's over!!  What's the next mission?"  And then she would be reset back to the status quo, and the rest of the season and beyond would be spent on new missions and wacky hijinks, and new hot guys to romance.  I seriously hope that is NOT the route they take, because if so then this show will have been a complete waste of my time.

That was then, and now it's been a few weeks.  As of the time of this blog entry, they have now aired up through episode 3.13.  So half of their back 6 have now aired, and we have 3 left.  Ep 11 ("Rock 'n Roll Suicide") was indeed spent escaping from Russia, as expected.  I thought it was a really good episode, with Annie's old buddy Eyal helping her to escape.  It had a very good mix of suspense, twists/turns, story developments, emotional payoff, great character interactions, etc.  The episode ends with Annie/Eyal beginning their long journey home, after escaping the Russian baddies who have spent the episode trying to re-capture and re-imprison Annie.  Thumbs-up from me on this episode.

Episode 3.12 "Wishful Beginnings" is really the start of the back part of the season, storywise.  It begins with Annie arriving home from Russia and starting back to work.  It's this episode and ep 3.13 "Man in the Middle" that have me feeling slightly nervous about how the writers will play out the rest of the season (or I guess I should say, have played out the rest of the season, since everything is already written and filmed at this point).  These are both very transitional episodes that are hard for me to judge before seeing where it's all headed, but there are a few bits that have got me going, "hhmmmm ... ?"  I'm not going to bother recapping these eps, because if you're reading this blog post, you should have already seen them by now.  Instead, I'll just point out the things I'm apprehensive about.

• At the beginning of ep 3.12, Annie is somehow allowed to completely skip the Bluebonnet program when she gets back from Russia, and is put right back on the job, just because of her Eyal connection.  Then in 3.13, when she's supposed to go back to Bluebonnet, she easily weasels out of that too.  None of this sounds realistic (though it absolutely sounds like a typical breach of logic that practically every spy show I've ever watched would be guilty of) and clearly it's not healthy to stick her right back on the job, given her shaky mental state.  But I get that it would be hard to build this story into the right "storm" they're looking for if they forced Annie to follow all the proper protocols and get therapy and stuff before coming back on the job.  I just hope the storm it builds to is an interesting one with a good payoff, rather than a lame and pointless one.
• Annie as a character is far from perfect, and rightly so, as that would be unrealistic.  But one of the biggest reasons why season 3 has been so great is the fact that, at least in my opinion, she has spent much of the season evolving into a better version of herself (now I have the Felicity theme song in my head).  She was an especially sympathetic character in eps 8 through 11 because of the hell she was going through, and the way she kinda turned into a total badass to pull herself through it and close the loop with Lena.  That was exactly what pulled me into watching this series to begin with.  And that is why I've been a bit thrown off by the following:
• As we move into ep 3.12, Annie's fragile mental state coupled with the Eyal factor seems to have triggered her to do kind of the opposite of what I had been expecting and hoping, which is to actually regress right back into her most questionable/sketchy old patterns, and to dig her heels back into that place more than ever before.
• Ep 3.13 continues this regression, to the point where Annie spends much of the episode being the absolute WORST version of herself: stubborn/bullheaded, self-righteous, reckless, and in her knock-down-drag-out with Joan at the end, even downright petulant.  Especially with her statement about Joan/the CIA leaving her to rot in the Russian prison, while conveniently forgetting all the help Joan gave her (putting her own job at risk by breaking the rules) to get her there, and how crystal clear Joan was from minute 1 about what would happen if Annie got caught.  Poor Joan has fought a LOT for Annie in the past 6 episodes or so, and Annie seems totally disinterested in even learning what Joan has been doing for her behind the scenes.
• As a side note: I DO totally get why Annie feels loyalty to Eyal, don't get me wrong. I absolutely would feel the same if I were her.  BUT, it doesn't change the fact that she's jumping the gun on the intel he gave her without fully thinking it through, and basically steamrolling over everyone else in the process.

Now, here's the thing - I actually don't see any of this as a real problem as long as Annie faces the proper consequences from it all ... because there is no way that this path could realistically lead her anywhere but to have it all blow up in her face.  But what concerns me is that I still feel 99% sure that Eyal will be proven to be innocent/loyal in the end (I mean he should be, right?  He's been a really good character so far).  And if that is the case, then how does this whole story arc end?  Will it just be, "D'OH!! Wah-wah-wah, Annie was right again!! We shoulda never doubted her, let's give her another medal!" And then she doesn't learn anything from it or grow as a character at all?  I don't even need her to progress in a positive direction right away either, she can totally spiral downward and self-destruct and that's probably actually more interesting to set up season 4, but SOMETHING needs to happen other than just, "Annie exhibits the same exact questionable behavior as always, and it works out just fine for her again!"  If that's how this plays out, then what was the whole point of season 3?  Like, why put your lead character through all this huge heavy stuff throughout the season if it's not going to result in any lasting effects or character progression?

Anyway I hope I'm totally wrong about this.  I hope I'm "pulling an Annie" and jumping the gun with assumptions about how things are gonna play out haha.  The writers are much more creative and skilled than I am at mapping a story out, given that it is their day job and not mine.  They must have something good up their sleeves, I hope.  Maybe the Eyal loyalty question is not as black and white as I'm seeing it right now, or something?  We shall see.  Anyway, I'll plan to post another update/review at the end of the season to recap how it all turned out.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Btw, here's a few extra random thoughts to end this post:

• In Annie's argument with Joan at the end of 3.13, she did have a point about why they reassigned her after Jai was killed.  It never made any sense to me why the big bosses would react to that situation by transferring her to a job that was even more dangerous and volatile.  The Annie/Joan brawl was actually a great scene too, regardless of Annie's bad behavior.  Both actresses did an awesome job.
• Speaking of which, Annie and Joan's relationship has been on a downward spiral this entire season; I really hope they can finally sit down and hash it all out soon and repair the relationship.
• Why did we not get to SEE Joan explaining to Arthur what was going on with her and the pills??  I wanna know the background of how the addiction came about to begin with!  There has to be an interesting backstory there, right??
• Chris Gorham did a great job in directing 3.13.  Usually when they let an actor direct an ep for the first time, it results in some funky/questionable decisions with the camera work, but Chris did a great job of putting in some nice touches to the ep without going crazy with it.  Well done.
• Annie and Auggie have been attempting to get that beer for what, like TEN episodes now, at least??  I actually kind of love that this show has not put a ton of focus on the "will-they-won't-they" aspect of this relationship; it's a nice change of pace from most other shows in similar genres.  I would like to see them get together eventually, but I'm torn as to when.  But, point being, I don't even care about the drinks in the romantic sense, I just want to them to sit down and TALK through all the stuff that has gone down this season that they have barely gotten to discuss at all!!  They could both use some freakin' alcohol right about now too, sheesh.
• Until someone tweeted it, I had no clue that the music playing at the end of 3.13 was an actual song by a group/band, rather than being part of the C.A. original score or whatever.  The episode included the music/instrumental bits only, sans voice/lyrics, but checking it out on YouTube made me realize how completely appropriate the lyrics actually are (try to disregard the naked people in the vid haha): 

The lyrics perfectly describe what Annie should be feeling by the end of ep 3.13 (i.e., "I just royally F*CKED myself over, along with everyone around me.")   BUT she spent all of 3.13 being so arrogant and blame-shifting, that I wonder if this really will have sunk into her seemingly thick skull and humbled her by the time 3.14 picks up.  ;-)  We shall see ...