Quick Take: Covert Affairs, "A Girl Like You"
Eyal goes on a suicide mission. Annie tags along.
Review: Covert Affairs, “A Girl Like You”
(S0213) At one point during “A Girl Like You,” Annie tells flirty Mossad agent Eyal that “tough girls tough it out” in the CIA. Tough girls tough it out through all kinds of things in the world of Annie Walker: shoot outs, car chases, twangy music, and the occasionally zen antics of their annually recurring romantic interest. No, not the one from the pilot. The other one. The other other one.
I like Eyal. I like that he ruffles Annie’s feathers. They are so rarely ruffled as delightfully as when Eyal ruffles them, and no that isn’t a metaphor for sex. Eyal is just a lot of fun whenever he shows up because he has that whole “Mossad is better than the CIA because you guys are a bunch of silly Americans” attitude that makes Annie put her hands on her hips and frown like a frazzled mom. He also likes Van Halen and booze and critiquing Annie’s execution of a “classic honey pot,” even when it gets him tied to the headboard with plasticuffs.
Whatever. It made me laugh. I’m easily entertained.
Actually, no, I’m not easily entertained and up until this episode turned into Eyal’s Angsty Comedy Hour, I was getting frustrated with just trying to figure out what was going on. Annie gets a phone call during a blind date (an activity that seems like a really bad idea for a career spy, in my opinion) from an FBI contact who is upset that a CIA agent is harassing one of his informants. Annie says she’ll take care of it, which means calling Auggie in to figure out who the agent is, only to learn that there is no agent. It’s Eyal playing dress up.
Eyal wants the informant to cough up information about a terrorist who goes by the code name “Cardinal.” Eyal has a bone to pick with Cardinal. His sister, Sarah, was killed in a bombing nine years earlier that Cardinal orchestrated. It’s what inspired him to drop out of medical school and join Mossad. Annie tells him that his plan to take Cardinal out is essentially a suicide mission and he gives her that smoldering look that says he is full of angst and angst is sexy, which in turn, leads to the almost-sex that ends with Eyal tied to the bed. However, his good humor about the whole thing feels awkward, even if this is Eyal we’re talking about.
The thing is, you’re supposed to bring the lulz and then lay the tragic backstory on me. Make me laugh, then make me cry (or at the very least think Deep Thoughts). If you do it backwards, it just throws me off and makes everything seem awkward
