And Now: Annie does whatever the heck she wants, Auggie patronizes people.
I have to confess that this episode really bothered me, for a lot of reasons. As my readers know I am a fan of Breaking Bad, a show so full of metaphors it would fill any English teacher with glee. Covert Affairs isn't a particularly deep show so maybe it's wrong to take it in this context, nonetheless, in this episode I felt Annie's character was a pretty good metaphor for America. Now that Annie's back in the DPD, we all get to be privy, once again, to Joan's exposition. In this case, she informs us that the Prime Minister of Yemen has had a heart attack and is being flown to the Mayo Clinic for surgery, but he will only be in America for three hours. Basically there was absolutely no reason for her to give this bit of information except for Annie to say "I have an idea, we could turn his head honcho and get him to work for us! I read the papers he wrote in University and he would be great for us! Also, yay for oil" I find it hard to believe that Annie is sitting around reading College papers by random people, but, that's Annie for us, she's a go-getter. Joan tells her they will be doing no such thing, but eventually caves, giving Annie her blessing and a G-rated warning. The rest of the episode follows Annie as she tries to turn this Yemeni official to work for the CIA. Even though she is repeatedly told to stand down, she continues her brazen attempt at getting him to work for the good of the world, or as she should be saying "you will be working or the good of America, while we do nothing to help you". Now, to be clear, I am not saying that this is America's policy towards everything, although certainly many people feel that way, nor that all American's have this attitude but some of them do. The problem is that, those some shouldn't be heroes, even if it's only on television. Annie spends the whole episode being obnoxious, arrogant and manipulative and I don't think that's a character, at least on a show like this, that should be a protagonist. I have said it before and I will say it again, television and entertainment represent and enforce cultural beliefs and ideals. The idea of America as the moral compass of the world is one found in a lot of TV shows and one which needs to be put aside. My other pet peeve was the, excuse my language, lazy-ass writing. I mean, the way Joan brought up the topic seemed so unnatural and Annie's impassioned speech about how she has so much in common with the man she needs to get to work for her came out of nowhere and seemed completely forced. The whole episode seemed like everyone was on vacation and they slapped this together the day before everyone jetted off to Hawaii. In conclusion, I love this show because it's cheesy, Auggie, the blind CIA Agent, is ridiculous, the credits are ridiculous, Annie wears lots of clothes that are cute but I am sure no governmental official actually owns. I don't love this show for being thought provoking and I certainly don't love the patriotism and generally "yay for America!" attitude. Also, this episode didn't have a sidecar. Every episode should have one now that I know that the studio owns one!
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