Covert Affairs ‘Uberlin’ Recap: It’s Like Anti-Casablanca

When Annie tries to get an asset who only wants to speak to Arthur, she is in for some drama, per usual. We are in for a Peter Gallagher-centric episode that brings this Sandy Cohen loving girl a lot of joy.

Tales from The Cold War
Annie is in Belgium to get, Elsa, the wife of a money launderer, to give up information on her bad bad hubby, but she is a former asset of Arthur’s who is on to Annie and her CIA ways. She sneaks up on Annie and says she will only meet with Arthur and gives her a location in Berlin. So Arthur grabs his passport, kisses his slightly nervous wife, Joan, goodbye and goes off to run this mission with Annie. Surprise quality time with the big boss man for our girl! Joan says that Annie is still in charge and wants her to give her information on everything and sound very “jealous wifey” about the whole thing.

Of course, when Annie meets with Arthur, he has a different plan – for Annie to take a back seat on this one.  At the meet, Elsa tells Arthur she’s worried about her husband working with murderers now. Arthur – looking badass in his leather jacket – decides the best way to infiltrate is to pretend to be a client. Elsa will get him in – her husband knows who Arthur is, but they are going to use Arthur’s recent legal troubles to their advantage.

Arthur meets with Elsa’s husband and he agrees to help Arthur. But the price to do business – 3 million, minimum. Annie suggests that she is the one who talks to Joan about it, pretending she is the one acting like the client. But she also asks to be read in on his relationship with Elsa. His answer – that when she was his asset, “the lines blurred.” Ahem.

While Arthur is away, Joan has been handling things in his office. It leads to an awkward encounter with new Head of Special Projects, Jai. And unfortunately, to get the money for the operation, Joan needs to ask Jai for it. Of course Annie didn’t tell Joan about the whole blurred lines with Elsa yet. But she’s a smart lady, so she calls Arthur and asks if he loved Elsa back in the day. He says there is nothing going on but their anniversary is in two days and he’s in no rush to go home so she’s still nervous.

Elsa shows up at Arthur’s hotel room acting like the operation’s been compromised, but Arthur doesn’t buy it. He calls Annie to meet her, but she gets grabbed…. by Arthur and his German spy friend.  He takes them to the airport basically telling them both to get on the plane and get out of Germany. Before getting on the plane, Annie asks what really happened with Elsa. Arthur tells her that back in the day, she was going to defect and when he went to their meet he was ambushed. She questions him, even if he is her boss’s boss (awkward), asking what he thinks is going on with Elsa. He still trusts Elsa on some level, so they don’t get on the plane. It’s like the Anti-Casablanca. I want a “this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship moment for these two.”

They head to the old meeting place for Arthur and Elsa. Arthur goes in alone and finds Elsa who is afraid her husband followed her.When they try to get away, they are chased by a cop. Annie disarms the cop, takes his motorcycle and follow the other two. But they are still being chased by her shady husband. Exciting car chase ensues and you can almost see the glee on Peter Gallagher’s face at being involved in an action sequence. Another Casablanca moment at an airport happens where Elsa tells Arthur she was arrested the night she was meant to defect and then gets on the plane. Arthur gets home in time for anniversary love with Joan. He got her a necklace. She got him Eli Manning in his fantasy football league. I smile at the adorableness.

Auggie’s Smooth Moves
Auggie, meanwhile, is dealing with a personal issue – a memorial for one of the guys that died in the explosion that blinded him, his friend, Billy. He doesn’t want to go, but  Annie tells him he should.  At the memorial he talks to Billy’s sister, Parker (Devin Kelly The Chicago Code… I still miss it). Parker signed up for the Peace Corps – awww. She’s a good person. She asks if Auggie has something for the capsule they are making in honor of Billy. She found sheet music to his favorite jazz song. To top it – Auggie goes to get the music signed up the musician.

This little mission leads to dancing in a jazz club. And we all know what that will lead to since Auggie is a ladies man. Parker shows up the next day at Auggie’s apartment. They both feel like them getting together is a bad idea. And then they promptly make out. As you do.

No Good Deed….
Annie has personal issues of her own. Things get rough with Danielle again. In a nice gesture, Annie had some of her niece’s art work framed. Problem is, the art is supposed to be shown in Chloe’s art show that night and the framed pieces are in Annie’s apartment AKA the safe house no one in the world is allowed to know the location of. Danielle is not happy.

When she gets back from Germany, Annie goes to Danielle’s to try to apologize. With chocolate chip pancakes. Annie looks tired and apologetic and we all know Danielle is a huge sucker when it comes to being maternal. So all is good once again.

This episode was fun if only because it so heavily featured Arthur. We forget that guy was a spy in the field all those years ago! Plus it’s nice to see Auggie being happy. Yes, yes, Annie/Auggie. I’m sure we’ll get there. Besides this chic is going into the Peace Corps.

Next week…. Oded Fehr!! My faaaavorite guest star on this show!

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter @serrae

COVERT AFFAIRS season 2 “Uberlin” Photos by: Steve Wilkie/USA Network and Christos Kalohoridis/USA Network