“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

After last week’s explosive premiere, Covert Affairs tones it down a little bit this week but nonetheless gives us plenty of new questions and intrigues to deal with.

In an attempt to assert her authority because her “fiefdom is under attack”, Joan decides to show Lena and Arthur who’s really the top dog in the Agency by reclaiming Annie and Auggie for an assignment for her division. She pronounces them Mr and Mrs Quinn from Canada (apparently Canadians are harmless) and sends them off to lovely Barcelona for a honeymoon. Instead of lying on the beach with a couple of cocktails in hand, however, the Quinn’s have to use their hands to obtain a computer virus, created by a hacker genius named Red Rover.

Sounds simple enough, right? Ah, but nothing is ever so simple when working for the CIA!

After successfully retrieving the package all goes hell in a hand-basket for the newlyweds and they end up in a physical fight with some Chinese thugs and in a verbal fight with each other. Thankfully, they do figure out that Red Rover is really a Spanish chick named Pilar and for the right amount of money she’s more than willing to give the CIA what they need. But not until she convinces herself that Mr Quinn is indeed blind by treating him to an up, close, and personal view of her breasts.

I think it might be time already for some couples therapy for the Quinn’s.

The episode was clearly a recall of the season 2 finale where Annie discovers she has some more-than-friendly feelings towards Auggie. Piper Perabo does a good job of conveying Annie’s emotions through subtle facial expressions, especially her shock when Auggie tells her he’s going to propose to Parker (who is currently on an assignment for the Peace Corps in Eritrea). I wonder if Annie would have had second thoughts about going to Munich to meet up with Simon if Auggie hadn’t told her about his plans to wed? I think that scene also underlines the small gap that has formed between the former besties; Annie can’t talk about the things she is doing for Lena and  Auggie hasn’t really shared anything about his relationship with Parker and he definitely can’t seem to read Annie as well as he used to. (I have to admit that I’m not terribly invested in a romantic relationship between Auggie and Annie. They work very well as best friends and confidants and I don’t really see a need to change that dynamic.)

Even though this show isn’t known to go too dark in plot and character portrayal, there still seems to be a slightly darker undertone in this season especially when it comes to Annie. She is already struggling a bit in terms of her relationship with the people surrounding her. She can’t confide in Auggie anymore, she can’t be completely open with her sister, and she doesn’t quite seem to know what to do about her former loyalty to Joan. Her decision to continue to use her feminine charms to get information from Simon looked like it had less to do with her professionalism than it did with being hurt by Auggie’s plans.

Aaaaaand now I feel like  I’m back in school, trying to analyse and conceptualise way too much! In any case, it sure as hell isn’t easy to be spy buddies!

Moving on from the honeymooners and their complicated issues, there were also a couple of intriguing things going on within the Agency worth mentioning!

We found out that Joan and Lena know each other from Nairobi, where they were both stationed when the embassy bombing happened in 1998 so there is obviously some backstory here. Those two don’t seem to like each other very much but I almost felt Lena was a little bit disappointed in Joan (and not just because Joan used Arthur as leverage in their little power struggle). Anyone else pick up on that? Maybe they used to be friends rather than rivals? I’m sure we’ll find out more about this in upcoming episodes.

Then there’s Arthur, the king of secrets. What is Arthur up to now? Apparently he had someone tail Jai weeks before the car bomb happened and let us not forget that when Jai met up with Annie in the diner he seemed to be afraid of someone within the Agency. I kind of refuse to believe Sandy Cohen Arthur Campbell could be evil…it would be an interesting twist though! But, again, this show doesn’t tend to go too dark and therefore it’s more likely that Arthur suspects someone of infiltrating the Agency and is investigating the matter. Maybe Lena turns out to be the big baddie? The world of spies holds an unlimited amount of secrets!

On a separate note, I’m happy the not-so-stealthy way of hiding the passports of those German tourists in plain sight was addressed in this episode. I would obviously make a good spy since Annie and I both agree on the silliness of leaving passports of murdered tourists on the living room table. I mean, duh! And, if Simon knows more than he lets on I kind of think his suspicions were validated when Annie just happens to show up in his hotel room in Munich. Who’s playing who here?

Next week it’s off to Eritrea where Auggie (naturally) gets himself into some trouble and Joan and Lena must put aside their differences to save his ass. Or something to that extent.