After some proverbial will-they-or-won’t-they, the second and third episodes of The Company You Keep play on the emerging relationship between criminal Charlie Nicoletti (Milo Ventimiglia) and CIA Agent Emma Hill (Catherine Haena Kim) whose stories are also tied together by Daphne Finch (Felisha Terrell) who forces our thief’s family to do jobs for her to pay off their debt as Emma and the government continue to investigate her.
“A Sparkling Reputation” and “Against All Odds” offer jobs for Charlie’s family that continue to underscore that although they are criminals they are all-around decent human beings who only steal from bad people who can afford it. Awww. We get the theft of expensive jewelry (which turns out already be stolen) and the fleecing of rich woman buying a horse. In both instances Charlie and his family turn the con around, getting the diamond back to the proper owners and targeting the con man (Luke Kirby) rather than his good-hearted mark (Jes Macallan). In both instances the family chooses a smaller score, still enough to keep Daphne’s goons at bay, rather than the larger pay day so as not to hurt any “good” people.
Other threads worth noting in the two episodes involve Emma deciding to reveal to her brother (Tim Chiou) what she really does for a living in the middle of some campaign problems (which apparently is going to be its own subplot moving forward), Daphne making deals with local gangs without letting her brother in on his plans, both Charlie and Emma separately spying on Daphne (leading to a close call in her hotel room), and the struggle for Charlie and Emma to get beyond just the physical aspects of their relationship including Emma meeting his weary family (and a personality form Emma fills out at work that might give her more insight into Charlie’s checkered past). We also see another momentary issue for Leo (William Fichtner), whose condition continues to be conveniently script-friendly so far not to put a con in jeopardy.
