Two Covert Affairs Moments of Goodness: Annie Tells the Truth, “Silence Kit” 

LOVED so much of this episode. LOVED it. For a lot of reasons, but the two main ones are that Annie came clean with her men. Annie is better, stronger, faster, and smarter when she’s on even footing and that’s enhanced when she can be truthful with the allies she trusts most–Auggie and Eyal. I have such a fondness for all the moments in the series where she’s had to be honest with them.

Last night, her hand was forced when she got t-boned and delivered to an ER where an EKG and blood test revealed that all is not well with Miss Walker. This puts a clock on her as she races to close a case that could very well be her last once Langley gets wind that she’s on nitrates for “something” and pulls her out of the field.

Auggie spends enough time with her (finally) to twig that she’s in hyper drive, even for Annie, and he finally calls her out for keeping secrets from him. She bravely fronts that he’s wrong, mistaken, but he keeps pushing until she finally falters and tells him. During her time away, an “event” dropped her on the beach, and she knew it was bad, and serious, and she thought she might die right there, but she couldn’t give it a name. She needed help, away from the CIA and before she can say it, Auggie says it for her–she went to Eyal. (And I seriously adore that he said this with no malice. Eyal is her other rock, and that’s OK).

Then we get the flashback of Annie landing on Eyal in Jerusalem. He does a preliminary exam and brings in a cardiologist friend who diagnoses her off the books–the myocarditis escalated from bullet wound scar tissue. She tells him no surgery because of the risk and he tells her it’s a gift–she’s got her way out, an exit from the Agency, and the start of a new life. She asks him where she would go, and he says anywhere she likes–the mountain top, the beach, she can take his boat or stay in his house. She tells him she doesn’t want it.  She questions him on when he left and how long he stayed out. He says he didn’t have a heart condition.

He quotes the Talmud (“the big guns”), to her, telling her “for the sake of peace, one may lie, but peace itself should never be a lie.” He tells her hiding it will eat at her. She wants to stay–being a spy is all that matters. Eyal calls her on it that she cares too deeply about too may people for that to be true (or for that to be all she is). Sidebar: Thumbs ups to the CA writers that nobody actually took the easy way out dialogue-wise and said “bullsh-t” to her onscreen.

When she says being in the field is who she is, he tells her that’s one of the saddest things he’s ever heard. Before they part, he softly warns her she’s a weaker spy now because she has a secret that can be leveraged against her. He tells her to be careful, and she thanks him, again, for helping her, acknowledging there’s still a debt between them and then she hugs him goodbye. (Yes! The one false note for me at the end of “Lady Stardust” was that they never touched each other.)

Back in the present, Auggie is sorry that she didn’t tell him. She reassures him it was for his own good because she couldn’t compromise him and she knew he would protect her at his own peril. He tells her they’re talking about her life, not just the job, echoing her conversation with Eyal. She confesses about the ER blood draw and says she wants to do her job until they take it away from her.

She questions him about how he’d do anything to go back into the field if he could, and he agrees to help her talk to Joan. After a few false starts, she closes the case–and has to shoot their suspect with the shiny new gun from McQuaid. And somewhere in there, while Auggie has Hayley asleep upstairs in his bed, he scrubs Annie’s record so that come morning, she’s in the clear and nobody else knows.  Annie goes to his apartment to thank him and finds Hayley there and they acknowledge this new relationship they have–a friendship “after.” And it’s enough for now.

So glad to have Eyal back for a really strong set of scenes–Oded Fehr and Piper Perabo are so good together. And same goes for Perabo and Chris Gorham. I miss them together when their characters are scattered. More of this, please.

Covert Affairs airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on USA. You can rewatch “Silence Kit” now on USA’s website.