Summary
Martian’s lies finally catch up with him in The Agency Episode 7, a clear turning-point episode where the truth will redefine the endgame.
It’s about time that Martian’s secrets and lies caught up to him, and Episode 7 of The Agency feels like the point of no return for him. This is where his professional life threatens to messily infiltrate his personal one, with Poppy in as much danger as Sami, and telling the truth is the only way he can even begin to keep either of them out of harm’s way.
This is all going on at the same time as the Coyote stuff. After the previous episode revealed he was a captive of the mercenary group Valhalla, he’s going to need rescuing quickly, so there are plenty of plates to spin. We also return to Danny’s subplot more in this episode, just for good measure.
I must confess that I actually felt for Martian here, as much I don’t – we’re not supposed to, I don’t think – like his character. Sami’s predicament is pretty terrifying. Martian’s working on it, but in the meantime, the only advice he has for her is to do as she’s told, which is easier said than done given some of the threats coming her way.
And Martian’s rightly scared for Poppy, too. I don’t blame him, since Poppy is one of those deeply aggravating TV teens who never does as she’s told despite the obvious severity of her circumstances, so Martian being forward-thinking enough to have her movements tailed spares her making the situation worse through her own recalcitrance.
It’s a wonder Martian can concentrate on anything, let alone strategizing Coyote’s rescue. But needs must. Valhalla is an organization already known for being ruthless and aggressive, and tensions between them and the Russian state mean that they’ll be even harder to infiltrate than expected. If I were Alexei, I certainly wouldn’t take the job, but it isn’t like Martian is giving him much choice. Is U.S. citizenship a good enough carrot? It doesn’t matter, since the threat of being returned to Belarus labeled an American conspirator is a big enough stick.
I mentioned above that I don’t care for Martian much. His handling of this situation is an example of why I don’t think we’re supposed to – these kinds of strongarm tactics are part of his job, after all – but his handling of the Sami situation is similarly off-putting, and that’s by choice. Despite making the decision to tell Henry about Sami’s role in the negotiations that the Chinese are brokering, he leaves out several key details – namely everything about the sincerity of their personal relationship – and pretends that his running into her in London was entirely by chance, a lie he even ropes Poppy into corroborating.
Jodie Turner-Smith in The Agency | Image via Paramount
But Bosko buys Martian’s suggestion to try and turn Sami into an asset. Dr. Blake and Naomi reckon they can use Sami’s affection for Martian to do so, but Blake also believes that Martian’s feelings for Sami are much deeper and more authentic than he’s letting on. Naomi denies this, but as we see how open he was about it during their debriefings – even going so far as to say he’d be with her officially after the completion of his mission – Blake’s definitely onto something when she suggests that Naomi’s feelings for Martian are causing her to overlook the obvious.
Blimey, this is all getting a bit complicated, isn’t it?
There’s some similar romantic line-blurring in Danny’s subplot. She’s still shacking up with Edward despite Naomi’s advice not to, since relationships are impossible in this line of work, but is also imminently heading to Iran after Edward forces Jerome, who was Reza’s selection, to drop out. I’m still a little unclear as to how all this will tie in with everything else, but at least it’s in-keeping thematically.
This is all we really see of Danny in The Agency Episode 7, though. It’s very much Martian and Sami who’re the focus, leading to a cliffhanger ending in which it becomes rather obvious that he has run out of road when it comes to stringing her along. The CIA decides to get at her by setting up a university appointment that threatens to revoke her visa if she can’t adequately explain why she hasn’t been attending the lectures. When the professor leaves, Martian enters, but when Sami refers to him as “Paul”, he responds, simply, “No.” It’s time.
This is what we’re left with, as well as the fact that things are not looking good for Alexei in the Valhalla compound. Tensions are definitely rising this late in the show’s run, and it’ll be very interesting to see how things go from here, especially with Sami having to deal with not only the fact that everything she thought she knew about Martian was a lie, but also the idea of becoming a U.S. agent. Is that a major improvement from the predicament she’s already in? Based on how U.S. agents have fared thus far in this show, I’m not so sure.
