Covert Affairs: What Is and What Should Never Be

We open with the plot already in full swing: Annie lies sprawled on the concrete floor of a warehouse, injured and dazed. There’s a gun and the dead body of a young woman nearby. Annie picks up the gun and gets to her feet, looking confused as all hell. While she tries to make sense of the situation, a group of uniformed police officers swarm the warehouse, guns drawn, and order her to drop her weapon.

Annie is taken into the custody of the FBI. Back at Langley, Joan and Arthur (hi, Arthur! Good to see you -- you were missed last week. Stick around for the rest of the season, will you?) discuss the situation. Joan expresses concern for Annie’s safety. Arthur, being Arthur, is more concerned about still being able to use Annie to draw out Ben Mercer.

Special Agent Rossabi (Noam Jenkins), the Fed who arrested Annie in the pilot episode after she and Auggie were caught breaking into the morgue, interrogates her about the incident in the warehouse. Joan arrives, in the flimsy guise of Annie’s lawyer, and shoos him away so she can talk to Annie in private. Joan demands an explanation for Annie’s actions. Annie still seems genuinely befuddled, so Joan gently guides her through the events leading up to her arrest.

Flashback to two days ago: As part of her Smithsonian cover, Annie attends an art auction. Between pretending to work at the Smithsonian and genuinely working at the CIA, Annie probably keeps some very long and very weird hours. She finds a mysterious handwritten note scrawled on her lot schedule, advising her to keep an eye on an auction for a specific painting. The painting in question eventually sells for ten million dollars, which is far above its expected value. Her interest piqued, Annie tries to wheedle details about the buyer out of the auction coordinator, Sophie Jacklin (Sienna Guillory), but gets nowhere.

Meanwhile, Annie and Jai fulfill their mutual duty as the two most exquisite creatures in all of Langley by going on their first date -- specifically, a backyard barbecue with Danielle and her husband, where everyone eats kebabs and swills from conspicuously-placed bottles of Bud Light. Annie’s family is suitably charmed and impressed by Jai, who claims to have a desk job at the State Department. Yawn. This totally blows my theory that his semi-permanent cover is as either a male model or a high-class escort.

Danielle drags Annie aside to gush re: Jai, “He’s like the George Clooney of wherever he’s from!” (Annie dryly points out that he’s DC-born and bred) and goes on to proclaim, “That bone structure is ridiculous!” Well, finally! At long last, I’ve found some common ground with Danielle -- we’re entirely d’accord on the subject of Jai’s absurd beauty. It’s like she’s reading my mind. You see that little search field in the upper left corner of this site? Type in “Sendhil” and “bone structure,” and see how many results it spits back.

When Annie retires to her room, blissed out on beer and barbecue sauce and Jai-induced pheromones, Ben Mercer pops in through her window. I swear, Ben is the most random character on television. He babbles on about how abandoning her in Sri Lanka was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do, but he needed to protect her from danger. This fails to impress Annie. He also confesses that he’s a former CIA agent, though he’s been doing the whole glamorous lone-wolf thing lately. He left the note for her to watch the painting auction because he wants her help tracking an arms dealer, Seraf Murat, who uses the auction house as a cover for his illicit activities. The buyer of the painting in question, Ross Hilburn, actually purchased the schematics for a Russian missile guidance system. How much would it suck if you were a legitimate art collector who shelled out ten million for a painting and ended up saddled with a bunch of top-secret blueprints instead? Ben asks Annie to approach Sophie to get information about some other fishy past transactions.

Annie is more than a little miffed that Ben has wandered back into her life specifically to use her for his own shady purposes. To her credit, she seems pretty immune to his hackneyed “I just wanted to protect you” line of crap. To her discredit, she agrees to go along with his request without tipping off Joan and the DPD.

Ben tells her the CIA is just using her to get to him (true enough) and warns her not to trust Joan and Arthur. He says, “Maybe I don’t deserve this, but I’m asking you to trust me.” Maybe? Maybe? Oh, Ben, honey, of course you don’t deserve Annie’s trust. Should be obvious, really.

At the DPD, Annie searches for information on Ben in the CIA’s database, but her access is denied (an alarm buzzes every time she does an illicit search; Auggie gives her the sage advice to maybe turn down her speakers before using her work computer in a crowded office to commit a felony).

Annie grills Sophie about the other suspicious auctions. Sophie pulls a gun and threatens to kill her, but relents when Annie mentions she was sent by Ben. Sophie was one of Ben’s informants when he worked at the Agency, though she’s been double-dealing ever since the CIA (erroneously, obviously) informed her that Ben was killed.

Hilburn’s men burst into the auction house, guns drawn, and chase Annie and Sophie into the art warehouse, murdering a security guard along the way. Sophie kills one of the thugs, but the other one bashes Annie over the head and goes after Sophie. Sophie manages to shoot him, but gets shot and killed in the process.

And we’ve reached the opening scene, in which the FBI discovers a dazed and gun-toting Annie in the warehouse surrounded by four dead bodies.

Still in Federal custody, Annie lies to Joan, claiming Sophie contacted her about the suspicious auctions on her own initiative and leaving out any mention of Ben. Oh, Annie. Don’t lie to Joan. No good can possibly come of this.

Back at Langley, Jai and Auggie hover around like a pair of concerned bunny rabbits and try to piece together what Annie was involved in before her arrest. It’s nice seeing these two working together for once, united in their common concern for Annie, though Jai does lie to Auggie about not knowing anything about Ben Mercer. Jai breaks into Annie’s room (we get scads of loving, lingering beauty shots of Jai’s BMW -- a 535i, for those interested in such things -- while he lurks outside the house, waiting for Danielle to leave) and snoops around. He finds her scrapbook filled with Ben-related memorabilia. “Wrong guy, Annie,” he mutters.

Joan tells Annie the CIA won’t protect her from Federal prosecution unless she starts telling the truth, so Annie finally -- finally -- ‘fesses up about Ben. Joan pretty much bites Annie’s head off and spits it back at her headless corpse, which is not entirely unsatisfying. I like Annie, and for the most part I’m in her corner, but this business about lying to Joan and going off on her own dangerous and non-CIA-sanctioned investigation on Ben’s say-so was pretty stupid.

To smooth over inter-agency tensions caused by Annie’s arrest, Joan assigns Annie to help Agent Rossabi with his investigation into the shootout at the auction house. Annie and Rossabi discover the painting containing the weapons system schematics has been stolen from the warehouse.

With the investigation at a dead end, Joan orders Annie to go home and stay there. Annie finds a matchbook Ben left in her bedroom containing instructions to go down to the pier and find a boat named Casablanca II. Annie slips on board the boat, expecting to meet Ben… and finds herself surrounded by Ross Hilburn, the buyer of the weapon schematics, and his goons. The goons head off in hot pursuit of Annie, who leads them on a merry chase over and around and across the boats docked at the pier. One of the goons gets the drop on her… but Jai, who has been sneakily following Annie on Joan’s orders, arrives in the nick of time and arrests him.

Good episode. Still, it’s a little disheartening to think there’s only three episodes left in the season. Short seasons can work very well for television shows (Doctor Who springs immediately to mind), and it might not be a terrible format for Covert Affairs… provided the overall narrative thrust remains consistently strong and driving. Of the first eight episodes, Covert Affairs had at least two -- “South Bound Suarez” and “Houses of the Holy” -- which did very little to further the overarching story and provided no essential character development (and which, frankly, weren’t all that good). In short seasons, there’s no room for filler. It feels like there might be too much ground still left to cover before the end of the season to reach a fully satisfying resolution.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This totally blows my theory that his semi-permanent cover is as either a male model or a high-class escort.

What about the absurdly handsome geneticist with colorful scarves and strange theories about human evolution?

“That bone structure is ridiculous!” Well, finally! At long last, I’ve found some common ground with Danielle -- we’re entirely d’accord on the subject of Jai’s absurd beauty. It’s like she’s reading my mind.

LOL When Danielle gushed about Jai's bone structure, my first thought was "did Morgan sneak in and write this scene?"

I feel like that date between Annie and Jai was so random. I know this is a show about the CIA, but you'd think that when one main character asks another main character out on a date they'd show it!

At least the writers went with my idea to bring Annie's home life and work life together by getting people from Langley to drop by her house. I don't know how long that will keep working though. We can't always have Jai floating around every scene with Annie at home (although that would be pretty awesome). But with three episodes left at least we can rest assured that there probably won't be enough time for anymore stupid little home drama storylines.

Joan pretty much bites Annie’s head off and spits it back at her headless corpse

I enjoyed seeing Joan actually disciplining someone instead of just sitting them aside and saying "don't do that again." She was very much the caring hardass in this episode and I liked that.
Rosey said…
Hmm...for some reason I don't think Jai was following Annie on Joan's orders. I think he just "agreed" with Annie in her thinking it was Joan's orders. I get the feeling Jai is only in the office to get Ben. That's his "real" job IMO. There has got to be a back story of Jai and Ben. I feel Jai just hates him.

Joan turned a corner for me at the end. I thought she was just a cold-hearted bitch but when she told her hubby she didn't want to use Annie as bait anymore I finally started to like her. :)
Anonymous said…
There's still a lot of randomness on this show that keeps it from flowing properly, but I'm enjoying it enough as a summer show to look the other way while silently hoping they pull it together better for season two.

Danielle finally gets something right -- Jai is on par with George Clooney and has exquisite bone structure. On that point alone this show manages that necessary bit of realism "Heroes" squandered when it comes to Sendhil. Whether you like the character he plays or not (on whichever show), the man is easy on the eyes. Full stop.

I also liked seeing Jai and Auggie working together and hope to see more of their interactions. As well, I need more backstory on Jai and Ben since I find their strained relationship more interesting than Annie and Ben's three week whirlwind romance.

On a superficial note I wouldn't mind seeing Agent Rossabi showing up every now and then.

Joan pretty much bites Annie’s head off and spits it back at her headless corpse, which is not entirely unsatisfying.

I've been liking Joan more and more wit each episode, but this was the moment I fell head over heels. I really do dig the character a whole lot and enjoy her interactions with all the characters -- from Arthur to Jai to Auggie to Annie...each interaction is distinct and reveals to me more about how she reads people. I'm curious about the ultimate blow out with Jai working for Arthur on her turf.

I was bummed Annie ultimately did the favour for Ben, but was happy to see her at least be pissy with him before. The whole thing just felt rushed...I get that we're supposed to buy they fell in love with each other...but I don't.

The end is in sight, eh?
Anonymous said…
On that point alone this show manages that necessary bit of realism "Heroes" squandered when it comes to Sendhil. Whether you like the character he plays or not (on whichever show), the man is easy on the eyes.

Yes, Covert Affairs is definitely heads and shoulders above Heroes in that area. Where Heroes took lengths to hide Sendhil's looks, CA is fully embracing his beauty. Good job CA. Brownie points.

I was bummed Annie ultimately did the favour for Ben, but was happy to see her at least be pissy with him before. The whole thing just felt rushed...I get that we're supposed to buy they fell in love with each other...but I don't.

Yeah, I was relieved that Annie didn't run into Ben's arms all weepy and surprised when he broke into her home. But their love story is easily the least interesting part of the show.
Anonymous said…
But their love story is easily the least interesting part of the show.

And that's problematic given that their "love story" is supposed to be a believable motivating factor for Annie. It's not just a one off. We're expected to be with her when she's pushed along in her work/personal life by the experience of those three weeks.

That isn't to say I want her and Jai hooking up. I actually prefer the innocent flirting (especially given the job he's secretly doing) to something serious between them. But at least it doesn't feel like lip service the way Annie/Ben does for me right now -- you can tell me they fell in love, but I don't have to believe it.
Morgan Richter said…
I love Joan. When I grow up, I want to be Joan. She was at the top of her game this episode, what with wanting Annie to cut the crap while at the same time being openly concerned for one of her agents. It's very, very rare to see that balance of brusque (sometimes bitchy) and competent and compassionate, and Kari Matchett is nailing it. Love her.

When Danielle gushed about Jai's bone structure, my first thought was "did Morgan sneak in and write this scene?"

I think Danielle lurks on this site.

Whether you like the character he plays or not (on whichever show), the man is easy on the eyes. Full stop.

Yup. Obviously, tastes will vary, and there's no across-the-board standard of attractiveness, but Sendhil Ramamurthy comes damn close to the classical beauty ideal. (Growing up, Ingrid and I had a family friend who would bring us Amar Chitra Katha comic books back from India, filled with drawings of the impossibly handsome Hindu deities, and damned if Sendhil doesn't look like he stepped directly from the pages of the Mahabharata).

Ordinarily I'm irked when scripts have characters explicitly point out how pretty/clever/special another character is, but after his crap treatment on Heroes, I think Sendhil earned that lavish tongue-bath from the writers.

I get the feeling Jai is only in the office to get Ben. That's his "real" job IMO.

Jai definitely answers to Arthur, and I think it's pretty clear he left his London assignment and transferred to the DPD at Arthur's request just to find Ben (hence Joan's open suspicion about his transfer), but he's probably loyal to Joan, too. They've alluded to the point before in episodes (and Sendhil has explicitly stated it in interviews) that, while Annie and Auggie will both follow their emotions even when they conflict with their assignments (Auggie with Natasha this week, Annie with Ben this week), Jai is strictly a loyal Company man. Whatever his history with Ben (and I'm hoping it's something complex and juicy), his main priority is carrying out his assignment.

That said, I think we're getting enough hints by now to indicate that Jai is probably a fundamentally decent person, albeit a sneaky and deceitful one (what with being a spy and all). He's a complex character -- I don't think it's as straightforward as him (or Joan, or Auggie, or Arthur, or Ben, or even Henry) being simply good or bad. The show's been very good at making it clear that working for the CIA automatically puts you in sketchy moral territory, and you have to sometimes cross your fingers and hope what you're doing really is for the greater good. So as much as Arthur wants to have his administration be more transparent than Henry's, as much as Joan wants to protect her agents, as much as Annie wants to be assured she's doing the right thing, they're all causing a lot of harm at the same time (Annie almost destroyed Ashley Briggs's life a couple episodes back, and her actions in this episode led to Sophie's death). No one has control of the moral high ground in the CIA, Annie included.
Morgan Richter said…
Pet peeve of mine, but my blood boiled a little when Ben launched into his "I just wanted to protect you" shtick when explaining to Annie why he abandoned her. I can't stand that sort of crap, and I was glad it didn't go over well with Annie. Because there is no example of badness in television that can't be drawn from Heroes, it reminded me of HRG having Sandra's brain repeatedly wiped by the Haitian in Season One -- to the point of causing brain damage -- because he wanted to protect the little woman from the truth about his day job. Not his decision to make, and it bothered me that Sandra forgave him and never mentioned it again.

Something that's probably worth bearing in mind: Joan and Jai each have strong but undisclosed reasons for wanting Ben to stay away from Annie, while Ben has strong but undisclosed reasons for not wanting Annie to trust Joan. Joan and Jai are permanent cast members and will presumably be back for the next season. Ben's just a guest star. Covert Affairs could break the traditional mold and pull a big shakeup at the end of the season (and as I said earlier, I doubt it's going to be as clear-cut as anyone turning out to be good or evil), but it seems likely that Joan's and Jai's reasons for distrusting Ben will ultimately prove more valid than the reverse.

Just as Joan and Arthur are using Annie to get to Ben, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out Ben was using Annie back in Sri Lanka for some shady and unrevealed purpose. In any case, something along those lines might help give their love story (agreed: weakest part of the show) a little bite.
Patrick said…
A very interesting episode. I had the feeling from the beginning that we were watching a mild rebooting of the series. The Ben Mercer story wasn't really working so the writers decided to shake things up. Instead of pining for him every episode Annie gets to finally meet him again. She also learns that the relationship was a key factor in why she was recruited to the CIA. So the story has moved on considerably. That is all good.

Incidentally - Ben seemed much less interesting when we finally got to see and hear him close up. Not sure if there's enough there to warrant such deep feelings.

Joan is turning into the real star of the show. I'd love to see an episode (and I'm sure we will before the season ends) with her in the field. We keep hearing what a great field agent she used to be, and I suspect we'll get an opportunity to see it first hand.

I don't mean to criticise perfect bone structure Jai but he did search Annie's bedroom and he completely missed the matchbook with the address of the villains. Pay attention double-oh seven!
Patrick said…
The matchbook seemed to be a really good clue. Where was it from, can it be traced? But no one - not Annie, not Joan, and not Arthur - though of following up on it.

Remember in the pilot we had someone leaking CIA secrets? Is that going to be resolved this season? I think Covert Affairs is finding its feet and will be a much stronger show next season. But I think there would be no harm in wrapping up some of the loose ends from this year and starting in some new directions next year.
Morgan Richter said…
I don't mean to criticise perfect bone structure Jai but he did search Annie's bedroom and he completely missed the matchbook with the address of the villains. Pay attention double-oh seven!

Heh. Yes, Jai is clearly the agent you send in when you need to charm the pants off of someone, not the agent you send in when you need to have a place thoroughly searched for clues.

Incidentally - Ben seemed much less interesting when we finally got to see and hear him close up.

Yeah. It makes Annie pining for him for the past two years following their brief, whirlwind relationship seem a little baffling. Glad we got some progress on the Ben/Annie storyline -- I'm not sure how much longer they can drag it out, so I'd be okay with it being totally wrapped up by the end of the season.
Anonymous said…
I had the feeling from the beginning that we were watching a mild rebooting of the series.

That's a good point. I did get the feel that there was some secret episode between this one and last week's that we missed something. Maybe that's just a result of the writers shaking things up in this episode.

Remember in the pilot we had someone leaking CIA secrets? Is that going to be resolved this season?

Now that it's been revealed that Ben's former CIA, I'm thinking it's him, especially since he seems to be one step ahead of everything the CIA is doing (ie, that whole thing with the arms dealer)
Morgan Richter said…
Now that it's been revealed that Ben's former CIA, I'm thinking it's him, especially since he seems to be one step ahead of everything the CIA is doing

I hadn't even thought of that, but it's an awfully good guess, and it makes more sense than having the source be any of our other regular characters. For an ex-operative, Ben does seem awfully tapped into the CIA's inner workings. I've been working on the assumption it was just one of those fantastic television coincidences that Ben was trying to track down the Sudanese arms dealer a few weeks back at the exact same time the CIA was trying to find him, but it would make more sense to have a definite cause-and-effect relationship there.
Anonymous said…
Incidentally - Ben seemed much less interesting when we finally got to see and hear him close up. Not sure if there's enough there to warrant such deep feelings.

I felt the same way. They're going to need to pay close attention to that becuase they're banking on the audience to care to a certain extent. I like Morgan's idea of Ben's hooking up with Annie being part of a mission. I think that would be a nice little shake up to the romanticized memory of what happened.

How the hell did Jai miss the matchbook? Sheesh. That's okay...part of me was annoyed that Annie walked right onto the boat without any real trepidation...or that she didn't seem to carry a gun with her at all, anywhere she went.

Ah, Ben as the CIA leak...very possible. And again it would make his character a bit more interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing him and Annie more at odds, professionally speaking. And if we get more of a complicated background on him I'd like (as Morgan also noted) to find out that Joan and Jai's opinions of him be rather valid.

Thinking of this episode as more of a reboot actually makes the shortcomings a bit more palatable for me.
Morgan Richter said…
I like Morgan's idea of Ben's hooking up with Annie being part of a mission. I think that would be a nice little shake up to the romanticized memory of what happened.

I rewatched the episode this afternoon. Second time through, some of Ben's actions struck me as markedly sketchy. For one, it's really, really bad for him to jilt Annie without explanation, then come back into her life two years later to tell her he was trying to protect her, then immediately ask her to do him an incredibly dangerous favor that almost gets her killed -- or arrested for murder, or charged with treason. Gee, kind of makes that whole business about wanting to protect her seem like bullshit. Also, it's clear he was in a romantic relationship with Sophie (that whole "Mona Lisa" business) while she was serving as his asset -- that could be perfectly innocuous, of course, but between Sophie and Annie, there's an emerging pattern of Ben using women he's involved with.

Add to that: Joan was pretty adamant about Annie needing to steer clear of Ben, and Jai's muttered "Wrong guy, Annie" when he discovered the scrapbook seemed significant. It could turn out that Joan and Jai are acting solely in their own (or the CIA's) best interests, but it's equally possible that Ben somehow presents a very real danger to Annie. That's by far the more interesting possibility.
Anonymous said…
Blah, Wordpress logged me out again and my reply was lost... :(


Joan and Jai are permanent cast members and will presumably be back for the next season. Ben's just a guest star.

Sendhil teased that the virus storyline could continue on past Season 1, didn't he? But now I am wondering if the Ben storyline will continue into Season 2. Technically, Arthur is not a series regular either, but he's in the promo group pictures, while Ben is strictly a guest star. Of course, Arthur also appears a lot more often, and I suspect he's only a guest star is because they couldn't afford him as a regular? XD

Anyway... I'm not sure if Ben could be the leak because I got the impression Liza is getting new, current information about CIA goings-on. Ben would only know stuff from before he went rogue. Unless he has a source within the CIA, in which case we'd still be looking for a leak. ;)
Anonymous said…
Oh yeah, the "Mona Lisa" raised immediate red flags -- at least the impression I got was that Ben was sleeping with the asset. I'm cool if the show continues to piece together a more complicated and questionable reality of who Ben is versus Annie's romanticized take on the guy. I actually think that opens up more possibilities for more of the characters in terms of their motivations.
Morgan Richter said…
Yeah, I'm assuming Arthur's guest-star status is at Peter Gallagher's request. He does enough outside projects that he probably doesn't want to be tied down to a series. Or, like you suggest, the show couldn't afford to make him permanent.

I'm cool if the show continues to piece together a more complicated and questionable reality of who Ben is versus Annie's romanticized take on the guy.

Yeah, I think it would be a mistake for the show to try to present Ben as Annie's ideal lover who was separated from her by circumstances entirely beyond his control. And after this episode, it seems unlikely that they'll try to take that path. Hopefully, Ben will exist in the same morally-hazy territory as Arthur, Joan, Jai and Auggie. More interesting that way.
Patrick said…
Some excellent ideas here about how they should develop Ben's character. My fear is that the writers will be afraid to take risks - and that Ben, Jai, Joan and Arthur will all be shown to be trying to do what is right to the best of their ability. That said, Jai's line 'Wrong guy, Annie' hinted at something very interesting.

Everything Ben has done so far has seemed to be for the right cause, leaving aside his treatment of Annie. But to make him dark would be very interesting.

To follow on from some of the ideas aboe. We've always thought that the CIA recruited Annie to get to Ben. But what if there is something about Annie that is significant, and that is why Ben got to know her and why the CIA are so interested in her. Who were Annie's parents and how did they die? Maybe there might be a bigger role for her sister in the future if the family history becomes important.
Morgan Richter said…
But what if there is something about Annie that is significant, and that is why Ben got to know her and why the CIA are so interested in her.

See, I think that would be much more interesting than just having Annie's importance to the CIA be entirely tied to her fleeting past relationship with Ben. If Annie's the important one, somehow, that adds a great new angle to the situation.

(We don't really know much about why the CIA had reason to suspect Annie could lead them to Ben, do we? I mean, they dated for a few weeks two years ago -- presumably Ben has had other relationships in that time, maybe more serious ones. So why is his relationship with Annie so important?)

We've seen that Ben is interested in hunting down arms dealers, specifically -- the Sudanese arms dealer he killed a few episodes ago, and the guy who bought the weapons plans at the auction this week. And, even more specifically, they've been arms dealers that the CIA has been monitoring, but has been either working with or deliberately keeping in place. So Ben's motives for taking them down seem fairly noble on the surface (i.e. he's cutting through the CIA's bureaucracy and doing the job they won't), but there might be more to it than what we know thus far. I'm not at all convinced Ben will turn out to be a bad guy... but neither am I sure his motives are good.
Patrick said…
What better place for Ben to have hidden something important than in the bracelet he gave (or made for) Annie. If this isthe case, no wonder he is so attached to his matching one.
Morgan Richter said…
Patrick, I'd love it if something turned out to be hidden in Annie's bracelet. Because as it stands, the business with the bracelet has seemed a little stale and trite. We've had too many scenes of Annie wistfully fingering that damn bracelet (usually immediately prior to a flashback to Sri Lanka), and it seems like it's a scene I've already seen in dozens of movies and television shows. It'd be nice to introduce some kind of twist on the formula.
Anonymous said…
I like the idea of Annie being "the mark" all along...that Ben sought her out (it wasn't by chance they met and "fell in love", though maybe that either unexpectedly happened or he was able to convince her of it), that she's the one who has something the CIA wants (beyond the Ben business). It would certainly go a long way in making her less of a passive character. I'd like her to have more self-possessed purpose, if that makes sense?
Morgan Richter said…
I'd like her to have more self-possessed purpose, if that makes sense?

Makes perfect sense, and I agree. It's a bit of a sticking point with Annie that her worth to the CIA thus far centers around her brief fling with some guy two years ago. I think she's made some great strides toward proving her value -- she's resourceful, quick-thinking, game for anything, etcetera -- but it'd be even better if there was something specific about Annie herself, above and beyond her romance with Ben, that made her important to the CIA... and important to Ben in the first place. We really don't know much about her adult life pre-CIA. I know she did a lot of world traveling, but she's 27 -- surely she's also held down a job or two since college?