The first season of Covert Affairs ends with Ben Mercer, the thorn in the CIA's side and Annie's Sri Lanka hook-up, coming in the open to save a professor whom he saved years earlier which prompted his quick departure from Annie. "When the Levee Breaks" was entertaining, and had a really cool fight at the top of a building, but it seemed like the episode was more devoted to setting up for the second season than providing a solid plot and character development.
Annie and Ben return to the location of their first encounter in Sri Lanka, and rekindle their relationship before their lead doesn't pan out. Before Annie leaves, however, see realizes that Ben actually knows where the professor is, and she sees him taking a wad of cash and the professor. There's a big fight and before Ben boards the helicopter, he's shot several times. My first thought is that he's dead, but we'll see.
The most frustrating part about Ben is that he never tells anyone anything, using generic statements about the greater good or that it's complicated to explain everything, even when in a dangerous situation. Why doesn't he come clean and spill the entire story? How about just telling Annie? And the fact that we know next to nothing about him, other than that he occasionally works contrary to the CIA, lifts the burden from the writers to explain Ben's behavior. They don't have to explain anything to cover up the plot holes, because we know nothing in the first place.
We also learn that Liza Hearn's source is Henry Wilcox, and that she has a devastating article which was destroy Arthur. Already Joan is a frontunner for Arthur's position, so what may come out into the open must be pretty bad. But I have a hard time imagining what would be harmful to Arthur. The CIA has done plenty of crazy things in the past without so much as a blink of an eye.
Score: 8.6/10
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
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