As the second season of this USA summer series comes to a close, the big question hanging over Annie (Piper Perabo) is whether or not to tell her sister, Danielle (Anne Dudek), that she is a CIA operative. That decision, and the repercussions are a focal point of tonight’s episode.

Annie and Auggie shippers are given a treat to start the episode as Auggie gives her some training in hand to hand combat. Flirting ensues, naturally! But Annie then elbows Auggie in the nose (not flirting!) because she is distracted over the whole Danielle thing. She’s been putting it off, and afraid of what to do. Auggie gives Annie a bottle of Patron tequila to help the conversation between the sisters go a little easier. A solid plan, I think! They move on to a meeting where Joan explains that they are taking in a defecting Chinese scientists and nationalist, Shen Yue. He will be in DC for a conference and Annie is taking the lead because she wrote the file on the guy so he will be her asset. Jai isn’t happy and brings it up with Joan saying it is bad management. Annie gets the sad look on her face. Smooth, Jai. Way to be an ass.

At home, Annie starts to tell Danielle what is going on. But the scared look on Danielle’s face seems to shake her, so she just says she loves Danielle and loves living there with her. Auggie calls saying the op for Shen Yue has been moved up so she gets changed and heads to the conference where she meets Shen in the bar. She says she is his translator, but since their cards fit together like a puzzle, it is clear that is just the protocol for the meet. During the conference Shen is excited to see someone – Xi Peng. This exchange and when Annie and Shen leavs catches the attention of security. We follow the two through the lobby, back through the kitchen and down the stairwell where they are stopped but Jai punches the guy out, and they make it into a van where Shen asks to go see a baseball game. Cute. When Annie gets home, she finds a note from Danielle that Dr Scott called to confirm their date, but before Annie can get too happy about it, she gets a call – Shen is at Georgetown Hospital. He was poisoned from the soup. The same soup Annie had. Dun dun duunnn.

 

At the hospital, Shen is looking pretty bad. He says he didn’t tell anyone about his plan, but wants to speak to Xi Peng. The doc comes in saying the blood work is inconclusive for both of them but wants to run another test with a decimeter – they appear to have radiation poisoning and are put in isolation units. A doctor from the CIA comes in. She gives Annie a necklace – when it starts to beep, she needs to tell the doc, because the radiation is going up. (Or something like that. Point being, beeping = bad) They don’t know if Shen or Annie was the target, so now Danielle’s house needs to be cleared just in case. Looks like we are going to have to rush that talk. She calls Danielle and says don’t go home. She scares Danielle, but says she will tell her why later.

The head of the State Department, Steve, comes to Joan and says she needs to not investigate or the hammer will come down.  Joan is not happy. Annie and Shen talk about their siblings. Shen’s brother died in Tienanmen Square. He is the reason Shen loves baseball. Annie tells him about telling Danielle. He understands and sympathizes. The doctor comes in and tells Annie she wasn’t directly poisoned. But Shen ingested a large, possible fatal dose. Of course the only possible antidote only has a 20% success rate, and if you fall into that other 80%, it just rushes the process of killing you. Great odds. Shen wants it. so she gives him the huge nasty looking shot. He wishes Annie luck with Danielle. When Annie gets out Auggie is asleep in the waiting room. Big hugs! Annie is not happy to hear the news that the State Dept has said to back off. She still wants to analyze the bowl – the CIA lab techs can’t but Auggie has friends everywhere, including a lab at Johns Hopkins.

When Annie comes home Danielle is unimpressed with the events of the night before. She tells Danielle she is a CIA op, and about what happened last night. She asks Annie to prove it because she doesn’t believe her. Annie she shows her the safe. Danielle is understandably upset. (I have to say here, I hope you all saw this coming. A- it’s a television show, so all things aren’t going to work out immediately. And B- remember last week when Annie didn’t tell Danielle she knew the dead guy on TV. She was pissed! And that isn’t nearly as big of a secret as this. She has been lying to her face and to her kids for 2 years, possibly putting them in danger. I’m not saying it won’t work out, but I’m not surprised this is the way it’s playing out.) Danielle comes back. She wants to know about it. What was a lie, what was the truth. Annie tells her what she can. Danielle is mostly curious as to why she chose this life. The “I love it” answer doesn’t sit well.

Joan calls Jai in to her office and tells him she knows he is unhappy here at the DPD, so she is moving him to a new station in Phoenix. She makes it clear it is not a choice. Auggie brings the bowl to his friend at Johns Hopkins who agrees to establish a radiological signature. Or some such science-talk. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in chem class. Annie, meanwhile, goes to talk to Xi Peng who seems worried. But while she is in there, Annie’s radiation necklace starts to beep (uh oh!) and Xi Peng starts to go from worried friend to bad guy real quickly! Like picking up a sharp letter opener and pointing it at Annie in a threatening manner. Annie gets out of there and then accidentally stabs herself on the gate. Annie goes to Shen and tells him it was Xi. He tells her about how he told Xi what was going on. He is sad to be betrayed but she promises him he will get better and they will go to a ballgame. That Annie – she is good at her job.  Dr. Scott notices Annie and her scratch when she tries to leave. And while he is patching her up she break up with him. Awesome. Poor Scott. But guy had to see that coming!

At Johns Hopkins Auggie goes to ask his friend about the bowl. Unfortunately his friend “pulled a Lando Calrissian” on Auggie and called the State Dept who was there to arrest him. (At this point Auggie moved way up the list on my favorite TV guys for managing to make a Star Wars reference while remaining totally hot. It’s like he is Chuck! And who doesn’t love a good Star Wars reference??)  Auggie has a story about being on an antiquing trip when he found the bowl. It’s hysterical. Joan is not impressed with Annie though – Xi told the State Dept that Annie accused him of poisoning Shen. Annie said that the letter opener had an insignia on it of some group that proves he is a spy. (Sorry – there was a lot of Chinese thrown around here and I got lost). She tells Joan about the beeping necklace. Joan is just pissed because now she had to make a deal with the State Dept to get Auggie out because Annie wouldn’t leave it alone. To make it worse, Annie goes to see Shen and his bed is being cleared -he died. Then to make it even worse, Annie comes home to find out that Danielle has packed up her stuff. She doesn’t believe anything Annie says. And she doesn’t feel her kids are safe with Annie here. There is also a package from the hospital. Inside is a letter from Shen – with an IP address and password where she can find all of his intel. That guy was a good asset!

Annie rushes to apologize to Auggie, but of course he isn’t mad at her. They are BFFs after all. The info from Shen showed that the Chinese were digging for weapons grade uranium in mines- the same uranium that poisoned Shen. And the same mines that Xi owns a good portion of. Joan walks in the room, stops, looks at them and then walks out. Auggie says “that can’t be good.” Duh. Joan runs to Arthur who tells her to run her department however she wants, not what the head of the State Department says. She knows this – she just wants Arthur to threaten Steve, who didn’t want the fact that the Chinese were breaking a treaty by digging in these mines to come out. Too bad for Steve, Arthur is arresting Xi. Steve tries to throw a punch, but Arthur gets the upper hand and shoves him against the wall. Then after some smack talk, he walks out with a Sandy Cohen “I just kicked butt” grin.

The op to take down Xi is underway. Xi is in a convoy of limos and SUVs which is eventually stopped…. without Xi in the limo. Meanwhile, Annie sees Xi in the streets in Chinatown where the convoy origniated. She chases him through stores and alleyways but loses him in the crowd. He finds her though and puts a gun in her back. Hey – I bet that hand to hand combat that Auggie was teaching her comes in handy here. And it does – the moment Xi dares to say that Shen was never his friend. That just really makes her mad! Xi gets the upper hand and starts to choke Annie, but she has a moment and surprises him and knocks him out.

Back at headquarters, Jai makes a mysterious phone call saying he needs to talk. Huh. Annie comes home and Danielle is sitting waiting for her, asking if she wants something to eat. “I don’t know. Do I?” Annie answers. Ha! Danielle apologizes for getting mad. Then sees Annie’s face. She asks what happened and Annie says she can’t tell her. But Danielle helps her with a package of frozen veggies. Danielle seems nicer, but she still wants her to move out. Annie just says okay and then walks away crying. So sad. Auggie goes with Annie to the ball game. She is questioning if the job is worth it. Auggie tells her yes.

So there you have it. Sad the season is over? Well turn that frown upside down, my friends because we don’t have to wait til next summer for more new episodes this time around! According to the website, Covert Affairs will be back in just a few short months this fall!

What do you think will happen when we come back? The producers have assured us that Danielle will still be a part of the story (Anne Dudek rules!). Do you think she will be inviting Annie back in to the guest house? And what about that mysterious phone call Jai made. Who do you think it was to? His dad, Henry? The CIA leak-loving jouranalist, Liza? Arthur? Plus there is always the drama of Annie’s love life. We’ve established that Annie and Auggie will be a sloooow burn, and I think that is best. But in the meantime, she needs someone with more pizazz than sweet Dr. Scott. I hear Oded Fehr will be back as Agent Eyal – they always have spark. And Santiago Cabrera (Sendhil Ramamurthy’s co-star on Heroes) will be on as a possible romantic interest in the fall. Plus, there is always Ben. I bet we haven’t seen the last of him.  Let me hear it. What are you hoping to see?

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae

We will be back covering Covert Affairs in the fall! In the meantime, read Small Screen Scoop daily for all the info on your favorite TV shows!

 

Tagged: , ,