- Title: Covert Affairs – Hello Stranger
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Despite both Joan (Kari Matchett) and Auggie’s (Christopher Gorham) reservations and several warnings from the State Department not to get involved, Annie (Piper Perabo) is given three hours to attempt the impossible by trying to turn the Chief of Staff (Omid Abtahi) of the Prime Minister of Yemen into an asset for the CIA while the Prime Minister undergoes surgery in an American hospital.
Annie’s first attempt is rebuffed, the leader (David Andrews) of the State Department on-scene is immediately alerted to her presence, and she is ordered by Arthur (Peter Gallagher) and Joan to return to Washington D.C. However, Annie comes up with an unconventional, if expensive, way to set up a second meeting and plead her case.
As Annie finds herself on the run from the State Department with a high-ranking official from a foreign country who still hasn’t bought her pitch Auggie convinces her new therapist (Daniella Alonso) for some unconventional therapy by teaching her how to cross traffic as a blind person. Annie’s perseverance appears to pay off but it may all be moot when the Prime Minister suffers a second heart attack and Annie is forced to take a desperate risk if she doesn’t want to see all her hard work go up in smoke.
“Hello Stranger” has some of the most tense moments of the season as Annie fights the clock, a man she believes in more than he does himself, and her own State Department. There’s a desperation in Annie’s actions following her failure with Lena (Sarah Clarke) and Eyal’s (Oded Fehr) admission that the CIA asked him to evaluate her on her recent trip to Israel that gives the last couple of episodes a different feel as the combination of her instincts and doubts are pushing her closer and closer to the edge. The final scene with Joan involving Annie’s unexpected decision about her future is a surprise (even if the phone call, making her reevaluate her decision, is not). We’ll have to see how it all shakes out, along with Auggie’s therapy, over the next few episodes.
