Oh no, the Men in Black are coming for us again!

For the record, I really liked last night’s episode BUT I am also super disappointed that there was not a single mention whatsoever of the whole Big Dipper Tattoo Mystery! We’re now half-way through the season and there hasn’t been any proper build-up to the great mystery of why Jai got blown up or how Simon, Lena, and Arthur fit into the whole scheme of things. I would like to have some indication of what to expect or just, you know, someone to suspect!

This is not to say I don’t have some theories up my sleeve…

Last night Annie and her high-heels went all kinds of rogue. In Minnesota of all places. The Yemeni Prime Minister suffers a heart attack and is brought to the States to receive medical treatment. Traveling with him is his Chief of Staff, Sayid Al-Muqri, a man Annie is certain can be turned into a CIA asset even though previous attempts at doing so have fallen flat. She convinces Joan to send her to Minnesota where she has a 3-hour window to convince Sayid that he’s better off working for the CIA. This, of course, goes all kinds of bad, especially when Annie is confronted by the Men in Black, also known as the State Department. 

Does the State Department really dress their agents so inconspicuously all the time? It was soooo hard to figure out who they were in their black suits, white shirts, standard issue ties, and driving black SUVs… It made it very difficult for Annie to spot potential danger, right?

In any case, Annie’s stair exercise with Simon in Paris finally came in handy as she was trying to avoid encounters with the Men in Black in the hospital. I was happy she finally changed into flats because it must be a bitch to climb all these stairs all the time in heels! Unfortunately the main honcho of the Men in Black was continually breathing down her neck. Too bad for him though that he didn’t possess one of those memory wiping thingies. That sure would have come in handy when trying to get Annie to back off, huh?

Turns out Annie’s ability to spot vices was also very useful and I have to say that the moment when she buys all the cigarettes in the little corner store in an attempt to buy some more face time with Sayid was pretty amusing! Who knew that a pack of cigarettes could act as a way of building bridges between two strangers?

Talking about building bridges. Seems to me that Annie is hell-bent on tearing hers down.

If we agree with Sayid on the CIA’s need to treat potential assets like they’re sitting on Oprah’s couch, we can get behind the double meaning of all the conversations between Annie and Sayid. We had the bird metaphor (the need to free yourself), the talk about fate and destiny (“Destiny is what we make in spite of our fate”), and the need to break the mentor/apprentice bond in order to realize your potential. Obviously most of this applies to Annie and her decision in the end to ask for a department transfer.

Annie is still pissed at Joan for (allegedly) asking Eyal to observe her well-being in the field so she has a bit of an attitude going on towards (poor) Joan. Now, as for the parentheses here, I’m not so sure Joan was the one to order that review. Yes, it would make sense that she’d want to see how Annie is doing and assess her abilities in the field after working for Lena BUT Joan seemed genuinely surprised when Annie told her she’d asked for a transfer to another department. While Annie’s attitude was all like “you know why I’m doing this Joan,” Joan seemed really hurt and, again, surprised, by the decision. That moment was especially poignant since Joan had actually truly gone to the bat for Annie during this mission.

The transfer thing actually pissed me off a little bit. Annie seems to be so much more arrogant after having worked for Lena. I think she didn’t realise just how much her bond with Joan had changed until at the very end of the episode, when it’s revealed that Joan wants Annie to take charge of Sayid as an asset. Not to mention the moment on the couch (an Oprah moment) when Annie expects Joan to be all huffy puffy about the Minnesota mission but in reality she’s more understanding than she has been in the past. This change is actually good but Annie doesn’t seem to see that until it’s too late. If we stick with the bird metaphor, Joan is now ready to let Annie fly by herself instead of continually reining her in. Annie fails to recognise this.

Essentially, Joan built a bridge and Annie blew it up.

In other news, Joan and Arthur seem to be heading to divorce city. At least I suspect someone is sleeping on the couch these days! I’m not sure what the point of this plot is though. Maybe none? Clearly, Joan and Arthur are at a bit of a crossroads in their relationship but I wonder if the show will actually allow any drastic actions on that front.

I guess this is keeping in line with the advertised “darker” Covert Affairs this season.

Then there was Auggie. I really, REALLY hope this therapy thing is going somewhere! ‘Cause right now it just seems hopelessly pointless. It’s entertaining to see Auggie drag his therapist out for a “walk like a blind person” day but I didn’t quite see what the point was. I wasn’t even remotely impressed with his “opening up” in the end, it didn’t add to anything I didn’t already know about Auggie.

Anyone else read the situation differently? Feel free to express yourself!

Next episode looks promising on the Big Dipper Tattoo Mystery front. We get some more Lena and Simon and, notably, some Henry Wilcox. This must mean something! Or maybe it’ll just be Annie and Simon frolicking on a Cuban beach somewhere?