Oh please you two, we all know who’s the top bitch in this establishment!

Wow. Just wow! Anyone else left with that feeling after watching last night’s episode? Because I’m pretty sure that was the only word coming out of my mouth for a loooooong time after the credits rolled by on the screen! When Covert Affairs kicks into gear it does so BIG TIME! And this time around we certainly can’t complain about a filler episode! And yes, there’ll be an inordinate amount of exclamation marks in this post, my apologies!

Where to start though?

Auggie confides in Annie about Jai’s safe house and when they go there Annie finds files upon files with pictures of Simon in them. She does the right thing though (because Auggie is there?) and calls Arthur to come take a look. It takes her a wee bit longer to admit to the gang that she actually knows Simon pretty well and can bring him in to Langley for them.

I was surprised she admitted it but then again she really didn’t have a chance since Lena would probably have outed her to Arthur anyway. Oh Lena…we’ll come back to her in a bit!

The gang (Joan, Arthur, and Auggie) decides to go along with Annie’s plan to woo Simon to come into Langley by using their love connection, even though meeting at the mall isn’t very romantic. Not to mention how awkward it is to have a couple of ears listening in on your most heartfelt confessions at the same time. And my oh my, how cute is love spy talk?

Also, thank you Simon for the shoe remark. Annie can always use more shoes. 

Unfortunately, the leak in the agency seems to be pretty bad since someone orders a hit on Simon and there was a lot of shooting in the mall. Obviously this narrows the circle of suspects, because not that many people actually knew about Annie, Simon, and the mall meeting. And I really thought it could be Arthur for a little while there…especially after he met with Henry Wilcox, who claims Arthur is just concerned with trying to clean up his own mess.

BUT what about Wilcox looking up and then whispering to Arthur to tip the guards a few bucks on the way out? Did anyone else think that scene was about something more than Wilcox’s usual arrogance and seeming hatred of Arthur? The wily bastard most definitely knows more than he lets on.

Back to the mall.

Annie and Simon make it outside where Annie steps on her listening device, something which raises some serious suspicion with Auggie, and tells Simon she wants him to surrender himself so they can continue to be together. And he just walks off…to reappear later that day at Annie’s house, asking her to run away to the Maldives with him! And she almost does because, seriously, who wouldn’t entertain that thought for a little while? Hell, I was yelling at the screen, go Annie, GO! A sandy beach with Richard Coyle Simon Fischer? Done deal.

But, alas, this is where things go very, very wrong! And this is also where things become very, very interesting!

Throughout the episode we had Lena backing Annie up, accepting full responsibility for her involvement with Simon and even giving her glowing recommendations to Arthur and Joan.

I don’t know about you guys but that right there raised some serious red flags for me! Lena doesn’t do nice! She’s come off as a hardheaded person with a laissez-faire attitude in the past and now all of a sudden she turns into a cheerleader? No way that’s real!

On a side-note: I really enjoyed the Joan/Lena elevator scene and the cattiness of it all. Since I’m squarely in Joan’s corner I would have loved to see her take a swing at Lena! Take that you bitch! Bam! Yes, but I digress…

Lena, of course, does a full 180 later on. She has a heart-to-heart with Annie, complementing her on the awesome job she’s done and…heads straight to Arthur with some dubious looking files and, I assume, frames Annie as the leak. And then she really becomes a card-holding member of the villain squad when she SHOOTS Annie and Simon!!!

I think it’s safe to assume that Lena is indeed the bad guy we’ve suspected her to be for some time now.

But what does it all MEAN? Is Lena a double agent for the Russians? What did she want with Simon in the first place then? Was she his contact at the CIA? Where does Jai’s murder come into all this? Why did he have to die? If the Russians are behind the hit, like Arthur tells Henri Wilcox, then why? And what is the significance of the fact that Wilcox knew Jai’s murderer? Is this a vendetta of some sort against Wilcox? And is Wilcox really that hell-bent on seeing Arthur squirm or is he just scared for his own life?

Dear me, I have so many questions!

Soooooo, what can we take away from this episode then?

Well, we now know who killed Jai (the guy from the mall, Leo Brewer) but we still don’t know why or on whose orders (though Arthur suspects the Russians, presumably because Jai was researching Simon).

We can be certain that Lena is the leak but we still don’t know what her motive is.

The relationship between Annie and Auggie took a bit of a hit after she stomped on the listening device, but I suspect Auggie discovered as well that he has more than just friendly feelings towards Annie. At least he didn’t seem all too pleased about her possibly being in love with another guy AND willing to risk her job because of said guy.

Joan remains firmly in Annie’s corner (and she doesn’t go around stabbing people in the back and then shooting them, so go Joan!), something which continues to surprise Annie, though I’m certain she’s finally starting to realise it.

And Arthur really looks just as shady as ever. I’m sure he has something relevant to hide.

I liked how both Wilcox and Simon mentioned chess in the episode, giving the impression that they’re all just chess pieces, being moved around by someone, manipulated and controlled. I suppose it makes Jai just a pawn in a long-term strategy. Annie and Simon as well.

And Annie and Simon were SHOT. I repeat. SHOT. Obviously Annie isn’t going to die but I’m not so sure about Simon’s fate! Does this mean curtains down for Lena?

What are your feelings about this episode? Did you guys see all of this coming? I sure didn’t think Annie would get shot!

In any case, I’m terribly excited about next week’s episode! Aren’t you?