It’s a new day for Annie, Auggie and the gang. Within the first minutes of the episode, which starts out on the 4th of July, there was a shift and the whole show changed, plus, everybody was swearing a whole lot more than they have in previous episodes.
No longer is Annie Walker the newbie operative working under the cool directive of Joan Campbell, or being guided through the rigors of CIA service by the charming Auggie Anderson, with all three of them answering to the gruff, always-up-to-something Arthur Campbell.
… Here’s my one and only warning about spoilers, don’t read any further if you haven’t seen the season three premiere of Covert Affairs …
Now that Jai Wilcox, the son of the former CIA chief has been killed, just after trying to enlist Annie into some kind of mysterious mission that he indicated was “about Langley” and how the CIA’s “system” is BS, suspicion can legitimately fall everywhere (except with Annie of course), adding a welcome degree of intrigue to the show.
Jai had apparently turned completely against his father’s agency, we can assume based on what he said in the coffee shop, and he wanted Annie to help him do … something … and now he’d dead. (That’s what we’ve been told anyway.) So the enemies are within as well as outside CIA HQ.
Who are those enemies? Auggie’s about to find out as he’s been appointed by the slippery Arthur — who’s always sending guys like Ben Mercer to do clandestine, off-the-books missions — to investigative Jai’s murder on the DL, although I wouldn’t be shocked if he was somehow linked to Jai’s demise.
Then there’s Annie, with whom Jai wanted to team to look into something nefarious at Langley. She was summarily reassigned to a new, even cooler division of the CIA run by Lena Smith (Sarah Clarke, who played Counter-Terrorism Unit agent Nina Myers on 24). Saying that the CIA treats female agents in a patronizing, sexist fashion (she said male agents are encouraged to sleep with people on the job but female agents aren’t), Lena told Annie that by working with her infamously dangerous unit, Annie would advance her career, not that Annie appeared to have much of a choice in the matter. Cue an edgier Annie in the field.
So Annie’s no longer working with Auggie and Auggie’s no longer working with Joan, who’s steamed about losing the both of them. This game changer yields several questions:
What are they going to do with Joan to keep her character relevant if she’s no longer supervising Annie and Auggie? Are she and Arthur going to develop issues?
Now that Annie isn’t working with Auggie, does that mean the duo will finally act upon all that pent-up chemistry they’ve been building over two seasons? (Of course should those two ever get together, you just know that Ben Mercer will resurface as a buzz-kill to complicate matters.)
Who killed Jai and will Auggie’s investigation of his death put Auggie’s life in danger?
Is Lena’s character a fresh, good development for Covert Affairs or something more sinister that’s ultimately going to put Annie into danger?
What did you think of the surprising premiere which scattered the pieces across this chess board of a show?
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Jul 10, 2012 @ 23:00 EST5EDT
Well at least we know that both Annie and Augur are focusing on the same case thanks to the reveal at the end showing that symbol on the files and tattooed on the mark
This show is just getting worse and worse. Lucky for this show there is absolutely nothing else on in this time slot but the show is getting so old even that excuse is wearing thin. Let’s summarize the last two episodes for everyone.
First episode: Annie goes from having a professional career at the CIA to being a professional CIA sleep around for hire (her new bosses words not mine). Joan expected results; her new boss expects her to open her legs.
Second episode: Joan brings Annie back to do a (dare I say) professional assignment that does not involve sleeping with the contact. Annie’s new boss is ticked off and says she is trying to break Annie of some “bad habits” she learned from her previous boss. I guess this means keeping her pants on. Anyway, the assignment is successful (the previous assignment which she slept with the guy wasn’t; no surprise there) and the first thing her new boss asked her when Annie got back was if she slept with someone (?!!!!!) and does she have a steady boyfriend (2nd?!!!!!). Then her new boss says she needs to get more intimate (I guess this means start orgies) with her contact to get information since the first sleepover was a failure.
Anyone see a couple of problems here with this show? First, it is all Annie, all the time. Second, this has turned into a pure and simple shoot them up spy show. Piper Perabo is not that good an actress to carry a show all by herself and her character is extremely one dimensional (especially since the character has degraded to having sex with the contacts). Second, if you want to see how well shoot them up spy shows do on TV see the second season of Missing that featured Ashley Judd. Oh wait, there is no second season!
I don’t know who is making the decisions on the writing and the direction of this show but they are killing a good show (notice I never said a great show like In Plain Sight). Piper will never, ever be a Mary McCormick in the acting category. The last couple of seasons were ensemble casts and now it is just one character and that is a crying shame. You have lost my interest.
I’m not sure I could disagree more.
Covert Affairs has always been fluff for me, but good fluff. And I’ve also become a big fan of Piper via this show. I think she’s got better dramatic chops than you’re giving her credit for; and she’s got so much charisma that she could have chemistry with a bookshelf.
And her character’s decision/direction to include sex in her repertoire of work skills is a bad thing? At least in the construct of Covert Affairs’ CIA, men are encouraged to do so but women are not; I think this levels the playing field instead of “degrading” it.
And this show has always focused on Annie. Her sister is in the main cast; can we say that about any of the other characters’ family members?
I’ve had my share of problems with Covert Affairs over the years — which is the main reason I stopped reviewing the show early in its first season — but I’m not sure I agree with your criticisms.
Chemistry? “…pent-up chemistry they’ve been building over two seasons?”
Nope, don’t see it. I think people like Chris Gorham/Auggie and are trying to force these two together. They are so much better off as friends.
You want to see chemistry? Go and watch any episode Oded Fehr/Eyal Lavin has been in with Annie. Those two are on fire!!!