Covert Affairs – Unseen Power of the Picket Fence

• Title: Covert Affairs – Unseen Power of the Picket Fence
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When Annie (Piper Perabo) and Ryan McQuaid’s (Nic Bishop) attempt to get out of Venezuela falls through the pair are stuck hiding out in Caracas with their critically-injured prisoner who is their only link to the bombing of the C.I.A.’s Chicago offices. Keeping the man alive as long as possible, Annie is able to extract the codename of his contact in Washington which Auggie (Christopher Gorham) decides to let a paranoid former agent run down when official leads find nothing on “The Postman.”

Annie and McQuaid spend more time together in two less-than-perfectly-executed border crossings and the period in-between where they learn a little bit about what each is capable of. With the head of the company trapped in a foreign country, Arthur (Peter Gallagher) and Caitlyn Cook (Perrey Reeves) work together with Joan (Kari Matchett) to find a way to get both Annie and McQuaid home safely which also allows both Arthur and Joan to get an initial feel for Caitlyn and how McQuaid’s second-in-command likes to work.

With a plan pieced together by Cook, Annie and her new millionaire spy pal manage to make it safely out of the country, although from the present he leaves on her doorstep it’s obvious Annie hasn’t seen the last of him just yet. However, that relationship is likely to be put on hold at least temporarily as next week’s episode returns fan favorite Eyal Lavin (Oded Fehr). “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence” also returns Hayley Price (Amy Jo Johnson) for one more romantic go-round with Auggie and reveals just what Calder’s (Hill Harper) disreputable woman friend (Nazneen Contractor) does for a living and why he’s so careful to keep their relationship under wraps.

The obvious twist to the season would be McQuaid being The Postman, especially given how conveniently the authorities find the pair of spies just as Annie was beginning to get answers out of a terrorist who used to work for McQuaid’s private security firm, but I’m curious to see if the show has something else in mind for the character. The addition of Contractor and Johnson have brought out interesting sides of Auggie and Calder that might otherwise go untapped so I’m hoping the show keeps bringing them back and further develops Calder’s unhappiness with his current posting and what that might mean for the character’s arc this season.