Counterpart – Shaking the Tree

By: Arlene Allen

“Counterpart” continues to be one of the cleverest new shows of the winter season and episode four takes us deeper into the conspiracy on both sides of Earth. In this episodes, Howard Silk (J. K. Simmons) becomes more deeply involved with Emily Prime (Olivia Williams) and Prime’s daughter Anna (Sarah Bolger). Howard Prime uncovers Emily’s dark secret – that she was having an affair with Andre (Bernhard Forcher), the professor Howard plays Go with, and was planning on running away with him. Clare, Baldwin’s handler (Nazanin Boniadi), has to decide what to do with the assassin she brought over whose original mission was to kill specific people and have them replaced by their Earth 1 counterparts. Baldwin (Sera Serraiocco) knows she is now on the hit list herself and has gone rogue. The Earth 1 ambassador, Lambert (Guy Burnet), is up to his neck in this plot to extract revenge on the side believed to have brought the plague that killed billions on Earth 1. Aldrich (Ulrich Thomsen) finally starts to prove his worth, revealing to Quayle (Harry Lloyd) that he has long suspected a mole within the division and introduces Quayle to Alice (Lisa Hagmeister), a woman he brought over from Earth 1 to help weed out this mole. She also lives with her counterpart and her counterpart’s husband (that was a very strange sequence).

Emily Prime introduces Howard to the concept of “The School,” an agency that appears to train operatives to infiltrate the other side. Clare mentions that she was in the class ahead of the operatives she is setting up in a safehouse. It would also seem that Alexander Pope is connected to the school somehow. Emily Prime also fills Howard in on the details of the viral epidemic responsible for wiping out 7% of Earth 1’s population and tells him that Anna had this virus as a child but managed to live. The stress of raising a sickly child combined with a strained marriage and a demanding secretive job caused her to break and led to her addiction. Viewers can tell Emily Prime knows very well that Howard is not made out of the same stern stuff as Prime is and that he is getting in way too deep with her and the agency on Earth 1. Howard offers to do “anything” to help Emily Prime with her mission and you just know that’s not going to be good for anyone. Viewers get the distinct feeling that it’s going to be very difficult for both Howards and possibly both Emilys when (or if) they ever return to their “normal” lives.

This episode slowly started revealing the ins and outs of the conspiracy and its start. It seems that this virus is the root of everything.  Baldwin is now “watching the watcher” and it’s unclear what her next move will be now that she knows operatives want her dead for failing in her mission. She is still the badass, intimidating a bunch of thugs harassing her by blowing smoke through the gruesome stitches on the side of her face. Quayle (for once) is fairly silent as Aldrich reveals his knowledge of the mole, known as The Shadow. You can tell Quayle is a bit gob smacked, especially when he meets Alice (how did he not know this) and the look on his face when Alice calls Aldrich “mousey” is just priceless.

We are introduced to someone who may end up a major player, known as Ringleader (Lotte Verbeek), who plays one of the operatives that Lambert and Clare have brought over and set up in the safe house. She mentions to Clare that someone has been talking about her “all the time” and that she is very happily to finally meet her. The safehouse agents are just getting started and they, as well as Clare and Lambert, talk about activating a nest of sleeper agents who have been infiltrating our Earth for years. Yes, the plot is definitely thickening as more is revealed about Earth 1. There’s a great deal of suspense here and viewers know things will just get more twisted and more unexpected as things progress. There’s also the matter of “Project Indigo,” which we are introduced to when Aldrich introduces Quayle to Alice. It also makes you wonder what else Aldrich has been withholding from Quayle.

What new reveals will we see in Episode 6?  I’m anxiously waiting to find out who the mole “The Shadow” is within the agency. What exactly does “The School” intend to do and why is it officials seem unaware of all of this on both sides? Will Howard become as hardened as his Prime counterpart (it’s unlikely anything is going to soften Prime)? What will Baldwin do? I genuinely look forward to this show every Sunday night. It’s a challenge to the intellect and always seems to be full of surprise twists that change our perception of the situation and its players.