Episode Two

 

Episode Two

Immediately beginning in this episode, within minutes we see signs of subtle manipulation, when Blunt is discussing Ian’s death and the mission of Point Blanc with Alex and he talks about wanting those accountable for Ian’s death brought to justice, before saying to Alex “As I believe are you?”, subtly shifting Alex to be more inclined to join the mission, as it has been made a matter of avenging his Uncle, so to speak, which is of course not what The Department primarily sees it to be, as to them agents are disposable, yet they do still matter somewhat in an emotional and human sense.

    The starting beats of the episode also do a great job of showing how Alex’s newfound association with The Department has already begun to affect his life, with him having to shy away from talking to Jack about why the home raid happened, because he knows he can’t tell her, and then having to lie to Tom about what he thinks happened, with him having to double back and say “maybe it was a crash”, but what is interesting is after turning away from Alex after telling him he’s brave for coming to school after his Uncle’s death, Tom whispers to himself “but it wasn’t a crash”, which is a brilliant way to show that it is not just Alex who desires to know more, and also not just him who can see deeper, even if Tom needed to see a cover-up happening to know there was a scheme at play.

    We also gain some more good insight into Mrs. Jones as it transitions to her and Crawley discussing Ian’s death. Both of their intelligence is on display as they get back ballistics that show the murder weapon to be a Korean military-issue pistol and conclude that it could have been retaliation for Ian handling a North Korean defector the year prior, but Jones’ knack for nuance goes even further as she realises that it seems like they drew that conclusion so quickly that it seemed someone wanted them to draw it, by saying “Or are we just hearing exactly what they want us to hear.” This shows us immediately she will not be a character who can be played, swayed, or manipulated, as she has been “doing this for too long,” as Crawley says.

    Shortly after we see the introduction of Geoffrey Daniels, who explains a darker side of Alan Blunt to Alex, adding even more unease and distrust to Alex’s already shifting world. He tells of Blunt’s use of The Department and the attempts people have made to shut it down for years, before telling Alex how use of a teenager as an agent is not just illegal, but dangerous, and tells him he can help shut him down. At first we see that Alex is wary, and intelligently he asks for ID from him, but further we see great writing in the form of Alex calling the Foreign Office and asking for Daniels, to prove he really works there, hanging up as soon as he hears the voice. This displays not just Alex’s fast-thinking mind, but how sceptical he has become and rightly so.

    We then see the first time Mrs. Jones displays some pushback towards Blunt and his methods, when he questions her professionalism surrounding the use of Alex, to which she rightfully goes at him, showing her as not just a moral person, but also not one to sit back and just watch it happen without making her stance known and without trying to protect Alex, a particularly strong line being when Blunt asks her to be Alex’s handler and she replies “Agents have handlers, not teenagers.”

    The show continues to make expectations obsolete by having Alex rammed off his bike and kidnapped, before being brought to a facility for interrogation. This is a very important scene in showing Alex’s development, as under no amount of pressure does Alex break; his life threatened, his family and best friend threatened, and even being tortured with sprinklers, before finally managing to escape through his own initiative only to be “caught” again when Daniels pulls up in front of him, offering to help Alex, who smartly distrusts it. Alex calls his bluff when a gun is pointed at his head, saying “shoot me then”, which was the final piece for Alex to deduce that this was all a test, a testament to his intelligence once more. Only then does Mrs. Jones arrive and shut it all down as she had no knowledge of this operation and was against it, as were even the people doing it to him.

    This is built upon when Wolf, a high-ranking Department official, talks to Jones afterward, questioning their goal with Alex, the methods they used on him, and why for a teenager he was so unbreakable under the face of intense interrogation, to which they had deduced he must have been trained in it by Ian.

    This is set against the scenes of Jack and Tom worrying for Alex, as he hasn’t been seen, and this leads Jack to discover The Department by getting into Alex’s computer and finding the video of the cover-up from the warehouse, which is a great parallel as Alex too at that time was discovering more about The Department, just the even more sinister, evil side.

    It then takes moment to fully explain that Martin, the double-crosser of Ian, is a mole inside The Department who is working for Yassen, the mysterious and highly skilled contract killer who killed Ian and has ties to Alex's past and the shadowy world of international espionage.

     Finally, the episode comes to a close with Alex being given his mission to infiltrate and investigate Point Blanc, following which we get a first view of the villain, Dr. Greif, and how he is most interested in the arrival of ‘Alex Friend’ at Point Blanc, setting up perfectly for the next episode with a great cliffhanger.

Standout Lines of the Episode:

“Agents have handlers, not teenagers.” A line that hits with both emotional and thematic weight, and shows Mrs. Jones might be methodical herself but not so far to the point humanity is lost on her.

“But it wasn’t a crash.” A line that shows development in Tom as he seems to be more sceptical and thinking about Ian’s cause of death more than the show let on until that point.