Covert Affairs: Communication Breakdown

In what appears to be a deliberate prank, internet access is mysteriously disabled for several minutes all across DC. The CIA believes this is somehow linked to the Datatech conference, a huge annual convention noted for attracting mischievous hackers. The suspected culprit is Natasha Petrovna (Liane Balaban), an avowed anarchist and Russian national with an extensive criminal record for hacking. Natasha also has a colorful romantic history with Auggie. Hey, who doesn’t?

The CIA is desperate to own the source code Natasha used to cause the tech blackout, so Joan sends Auggie into the field to offer her two million dollars for it. Auggie objects at first -- Natasha doesn’t know he’s a Company man, and he’d like to keep it that way -- but Joan insists.

Auggie, with Annie in tow, approaches Natasha at the Datatech conference, where both the FBI and a gaggle of shady Europeans in expensive suits have been trying to sweet-talk and/or bully the source code out of her. Natasha wants nothing to do with any of them, Auggie included. When Auggie presents her with the CIA’s offer, she shoots it down, claiming she’s hacking for political reasons, not for money. In fact, in the true anarchistic spirit, she’s planning on releasing the code to the general public. The CIA, concerned that Natasha’s hack could make government servers vulnerable, is desperate to prevent this.

We get some backstory on Natasha and Auggie’s romance: He met her four years ago in a Laundromat, where they bonded over their mutual love of Snow Crash. They dated for a year, before the CIA kinda forced Auggie to break things off with her. Natasha was arrested for hacking, and Auggie was blinded in Iraq shortly thereafter.

Joan orders Auggie to make another attempt to win Natasha over to their side. When Annie stops by Auggie’s place to pick him up for their assignment, she discovers he’s been shacking up with Liza Hearn (Emmanuelle Vaugier), the journalist who’s been reporting on the information leaked by someone within the CIA. Auggie reassures Annie that he’s not the source of the leak -- in fact, he deliberately started seeing Liza as part of his own informal, non-CIA-sanctioned plot to smoke out the traitor in their midst. This doesn’t sound like his best plan ever. In fact, it seems like this might be an excellent way for him to get his ass fired by Joan, but let’s assume Auggie knows what he’s doing.

Annie gets snippy with Auggie about how he’s exploiting Liza’s affections under false pretenses. Not that her concerns aren’t valid, but it often seems like Annie joined the CIA without really considering what she was getting herself into -- I’m pretty sure “exploiting affections under false pretenses” was explicitly listed in her job description, right underneath “running around in great suits and stiletto heels” and “flirting broadly with smoking-hot Indian-American coworkers.” Annie spends much of the episode growing increasingly disillusioned by Auggie, who is revealing himself to be less cuddly and more devious than she’d originally thought. Well, good for Auggie. Nice to see the show giving him some layers.

In tedious Walker family domestic news, Danielle, who is trying to find another source of income now that her husband has lost his job, decides to start a catering company. Annie strikes a series of zany poses with food in photos for Danielle’s new website. This is maybe not her brightest moment, seeing how she’s an undercover operative who should be keeping a low public profile. Sure enough, when the CIA’s personnel department discovers the photos, they send Jai (hi, Jai!) to tell Annie to take them down. When Annie asks Danielle not to use the photographs, Danielle throws another of her patented hissyfits and accuses Annie of only caring about herself, then flounces out of the room.

Oh, Danielle. You’re so lovable.

Auggie meets with Natasha at an outdoor café to take one more shot at convincing her to sell him the source code, while Annie and Jai lurk across the street, providing half-assed backup support while looking all sexy and concerned. Annie and Jai are very, very good at looking sexy and concerned. An SUV careens wildly down the road and smashes into Auggie’s table. Auggie is unharmed, but in the resulting confusion, Natasha disappears.

Traffic camera photos of the SUV fleeing the scene reveal that the drivers are noted Russian mobsters. Back at DPD headquarters, Joan announces that the CIA is abandoning all attempts to find Natasha. Due to jurisdictional concerns, the whole matter is being passed over to the FBI. Enraged at this, Auggie flounces out of the briefing. This is a swell episode, but between Auggie and Danielle, it could stand to have less flouncing.

Auggie returns to his apartment and finds Natasha waiting for him. She still doesn’t trust the CIA, but she wants Auggie to protect her from the Russian mob -- she’s had hazy ties to them ever since she did some harmless tech work for them back in her student days, and now they want her to hand over the code for the hack. Auggie vows to protect her.

Auggie fails to show up for work the following morning. Whereas most workplaces would choose to deal with an unexplained absence by leaving passive-aggressive voicemails and a maybe stern reprimand in the errant employee’s file, the CIA takes a different approach: Annie and Jai break into Auggie’s apartment and snoop around his personal belongings. They find a receipt for the purchase of a prepaid credit card, which was recently used to buy a pair of Amtrak tickets to Montreal.

Jai and Annie zip up to Canada on a company jet to intercept the train. For a sad change of pace, they keep their customary flirtatious banter to a bare minimum and instead focus on some serious conversation about Auggie’s intentions. Annie believes Auggie is still trying to carry out his mission to get the code from Natasha, while Jai thinks he may have gone rogue.

On board the train, Natasha and Auggie swipe NEXUS cards (used by frequent travelers between the US and Canada to facilitate border crossings) from an unsuspecting Canadian couple. Auggie’s plan is to smuggle Natasha across the border to keep her safe from both the Russian mobsters and the FBI.

To pass the time, Auggie and Natasha whip off their clothes and get busy in their train cabin, which sure beats sitting quietly and reading magazines. Between this and the way he rolled around in the sheets with Liza earlier in the episode, Auggie’s heretofore unseen back tattoo is getting a great deal of exposure.

Their enthusiastic hanky-panky is interrupted by the Russian mobsters, who burst into their cabin and attack them. Auggie (shirtless) and Natasha (pantsless) successfully fight them off. Natasha gives Auggie the source code, then leaps from the train and disappears before FBI agents can board the train and apprehend her.

Jai and Annie, who have spent the entire episode being a handful of script pages behind everyone else, board the train too late to be any use to anyone at all. On the positive side, at least they both look fantastic.

Back at the DPD, Joan sternly tells Auggie never to pull a bunch of crap like that again, which seems like a very reasonable request, actually. And crisis is averted at the Walker household when Annie gets the brilliant idea of having Danielle’s daughters pose for photos for Danielle’s damn website.

Good episode. Could’ve used more Jai, and could’ve used more (any) Arthur, but we were overdue for some more development of Auggie’s character. This fit the bill nicely.