Auggie gets a blast from the past while on vacation in Turkey.
I didn’t hate this edition of Covert Affairs… but for the first time in a while, I was bored. Not laundry-folding levels of bored, but definitely bored enough to keep glancing at my clock every ten minutes wondering, “Is this over yet?”
Sorry, Auggie. I know, this was supposed to be your moment to shine.
And Auggie does shine. He’s off to Istanbul, Turkey for a jazz music festival. While taping a concert (Auggie is a TAPER! A man after my own heart!) Auggie’s mics pick up on something suspicious. Well, suspicious if you’re a covert CIA operative who basically makes a living off of picking out suspicious conversations on street corners.
Auggie discovers that the man who is responsible for the deaths of his entire unit when he was stationed in Iraq, and his own blindness, is alive and well. And that’s simply not okay. Auggie decides to do something to rectify that situation. His mission for revenge is interspersed with flashbacks to 2007: Auggie is part of a unit tasked with tracking down and taking out Iraq’s most wanted warlords, terrorists, and various other evildoers. During one such mission, things go to hell faster than you can say “violation of protocol” and Auggie’s entire “band of brothers” is killed. Auggie is blinded for life. The bad guy gets away.
It should have been awesome.
Annie helps and frets on the other side of the world, knowing that something is terribly awry and not knowing what to do about it. Her loyalty to Auggie is touching and it’s nice to see her reciprocating the same way that he does so often for her. They have such a great relationship and I’m thrilled that Covert Affairs hasn’t gummed it up with an awkward romance.
Annie turns to Joan for assistance after an unsettling “goodbye” phone call from Auggie sends her panic into overdrive. Joan, of course, knows everything, drawing the flashbacks and the present day scenes together into one cohesive story. Joan and Annie come up with a plan to tip the FBI off to the whereabouts of Auggie’s target, rerouting his flight to Dulles airport in Washington. Annie pleads with Auggie to abort his personal black ops and we’re left hanging for the duration of one admittedly sweet fight scene about whether Auggie will or won’t stab this dude in the face.
The final scene, in which Auggie finally comes clean to Annie about his time in Iraq, set to the Gaslight Anthem’s haunting “We Did it When We Were Young,” was actually the highlight of the episode for me, not because the episode was finally over, but because it was the first time in the entire hour that we hear Auggie’s opinion. We saw his story, sure, via flashbacks. It was easy to understand his want for vengeance.
But revenge is a short-lived triumph. Auggie’s monologue, his memorial to his fallen comrades: a photograph taken the day of the mission, the aftermath of a friendly pick-up football game, a faded relic of his “brothers’” faces frozen in mischievous smiles. Auggie shyly shows the picture to Annie, stating that he carries it with him every day because he wants to “remember their faces.
It helps him remember, he claims, to know that it’s there, even if he can’t see it.
Drop the Doritos, kids, I think Covert Affairs has finally wretched a tear out of me. It’s actually not that hard. Supernatural managed to do it almost weekly back during the tail end of season 5, to the point that I sincerely considered walking away from the show for the sake of my tissue budget. Seriously, it shouldn’t have taken Covert Affairs a season and a half to make me sniffle. I’ve been known to get misty-eyed over roadkill.
So, despite its flaws, Auggie’s hour in the spotlight is not a total disappointment. It’s a story that needed to be told. I like a little soul with my action.
Some stats and info about How to Covert Affairs, “Half a World Away”
TV SHOW – Covert Affairs
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 7
AIRED ON – July 19th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – USA/Peacock
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas, Action Shows, Spy Shows
CREATED BY – Matt Corman, Chris Ord
CAST – Piper Perabo, Christpher Gorham, Kari Matchett, Pete Gallagher
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.