1x03 Episode 3

[8.1/10] This was more of a slack tide episode, but I appreciated that. The prior episodes were largely about establishing this world: who operates within it, how Pine got mixed up in it, and what the intelligence services want out of it. Now that all the table-setting is done, we can take an episode to breathe a little bit. We can get a glimpse into Richard Roper’s world, while things move along at more of a simmer than a boil. That’s a good thing.

What stands out here is the slow, stealthy squeezing out of Major Corkoran. Pine is smart enough to know that Corkoran is on to him and anything he can do to undermine the guy’s standing with Roper is a good thing. Likewise, he’s able to signal the same to Burr. Collman is stupendous again, showing how Burr does some social engineering with the Spanish lawyer whose daughter committed usicide at a party with Roper in attendance to turn the lawyer against Roper and use him to undermine Corkoran. With so many big ops taking place here, we get to see a little nuts and bolts spycraft, which is cool.

We also get more of the personal side of what’s going on at Mallorca. Much of that is just getting some strong scenes where Pine and Roper bounce off of one another. Hugh Laurie steals scenes like he always does, and Roper’s a fascinating character now that we get to know him up close and personal a little. His speech, which feels like a key staeemtnet about the character, tells Pine that the world of adults is not full of order. Rather, it’s rotten Celebrating that rottenness is what makes someone successful on Roper’s account. Something tells me that Pine will take that lesson to hear, even as he continues to work against Roper.

The smartest thing Pine does is mask hihs skullduggery by putting the suspicion on Corkoran instead. He finds some clever ways to signal to his handlers what’s up and send them key info. (That said, if there's one phone that Roper’s monitoring, I’d think it would be his son’s, so using the kid’s phone to communicate with Burr seems like a mistake. But what do I know?) It’s a familiar trope in undercover stories -- the new guard selling out the old guard to rise up the ranks -- but it works given the actors and characters involved.

We also get more of Jed’s plight. I’ll confess, I’m not entirely sure what her deal is here. She seems a little aghast when she finds out what Roper’s business really is. I think? It seems odd that she was in the dark up until that point, but who knows if I’m even on the money on that one. Roper admits he knows about her son, and there’s heartburn there, obviously. It’s hard to get a read on what the show’s doing with her. On the one hand, she feels like a standard femme fatale, with the show wasting no opportunity to show her scantily clad or nude for no good reason and teasing danger and romance with Pine. But on the other, it shows her crying over missing her son and commiserating with other WAGs in the inner circle. We’ll have to see where it’s going.

On the spycraft front, it’s particularly interesting how directly this episode implicates the potentates at the British and American spy agencies in aiding and abetting Roper’s illegal arms sales. We have one of the British deputies directly meeting with Roper and warning him of someone on his tail. We have Tobias Menzies’ character explicitly trying to bribe the Undersecretary in charge of Burr’s operation. We even have international pressure from a CIA agent to try to scuttle Burr’s ploy. There’s obviously more left to be unwrapped there, but it’s damning as a tale of high level corruption.

Otherwise, this is mainly a tale of Pine getting closer and closer to Roper. He plays the part well, seeing everything and saying nothing, as one poor jilted spouse describes him. His connection with Roper’s son and seeming role as an easy patsy with a checkered past for Roper to manipulate makes him a good double-agent. And there’s plenty of opportunities for him to risk life and limb to bring down the guy. That’s obviously complicated by his, shall we say, concordance with Jed, but the way Roper seems to be taking him on as a protege only adds to the intrigue.

Overall, this is a less dramatic episode than either of the prior two, but I appreciate that. It allows the show to play with the pieces already put on the board in a fascinating fashion rather than trying to raise the stakes.