While CIA is really doing a great job doing their universe, but also – I am a little meh about it right now. I do understand that we’re building this world, finding footing, and establishing the characters and cases. I do understand that it takes time. However there is a big of lack luster writing, timelines that are hard to follow, and well this episode felt all over the place.
That being said – season 1, episode 6, Pledge of Allegiance feels familiar but also a little old. The message is a powerful one, but it is the getting there that is the problem.
CIA opens with a father and son in Turkey on vacation. The son was kidnapped as a teenager and was not found. There was the assumption that he died, but he reappears as an adult in a rug shop. Colin had been alerted by one of his CI’s that there would be a meeting at the rug shop that night.
While Bill and Colin are waiting for things to go down, Bill translates the conversation and we find out that Colin’s CI is being told that he will need to be a suicide bomber for that night. While I am quite often confused by Colin, I have to admit that I loved seeing that he wanted to protect his CI. He told Bill to breach or he would.
And that’s where we find that Patrick is still alive. He’d been indoctrinated, and was brought to a safe house. His father had gone on to get remarried and become a congressman, marrying his campaign manager. Patricks father blamed himself, because he stopped searching after five years.
OK THATS INTERESTING
While Nikki is the one at the safe house trying to help Patrick, Bill and Colin are out on the street trying to solve the case and figure out what is going on. Patricks father pulls strings to get him released from CIA custody. While I get that any parent will do whatever it takes to save their kids from anything they are going through, they aren’t always the best answer. Patrick is a bomb maker and him being out in the world before anyone knows all that he went thought – doesn’t make sense.
The character of Patrick is interesting, because he manages to say words that will make you think and show different angles to what is happening. It’s interesting to me that we don’t spend time knowing what happened to him, we just see manipulation to him to get information. Yes, we needed information. However, the way we are rushed through this episode feels disingenuous.
Patrick does speak at one of his fathers events and there is an explosion. People are quick to blame Patrick because he was the one reading off the iPad that exploded. Patrick is adamant that he didn’t do it.
It’s Gina that is able to prove that he didn’t plant it, but his stepmother did it. Finding out that she was involved gave me the ICK.
COME ON NOW
One thing that I will say is that I really don’t like that Gina and Nikki are underused. I do understand that Colin and Bill are the ones that are in the field, but I would like to see more of Nikki and Gina out there. Or even more of them in the office. These two are an important part of the team and I think that we need to get to know them better. If we’re being asked to invest in this show, then give me a way to invest in all the characters that are leading the show.
CIA not leaning more into Nikki and Patricks conversations that made hm want to help. I think that had they leaned into conversations like that, as well as conversations about the different ideologies, things would have been better. There is mention of a camp that helps in the UK that helps in these situations, but somehow, in a matter of minutes Nikki is able to change him?
HERE WE ARE
Well, here we are and though I know we are expected to suspend belief when it comes to television, there is a difficulty of it here. In the end, the stepmother is arrested, Patrick goes off to the camp, and there is a crisis averted.
When it comes to this episode, what I believe is happening, is we’re being given another instance of proof that there is a mole in the CIA. Bill is even able to let Jubal know that he believes there is a mole and that it’s not Colin.
While I do believe – because the second season is coming – the writers will have time to find a path to course correct and put the show on a path that makes people invested. Right now, I think most of us are just gliding along, waiting for this show to get better.
Because right now, it’s just meh.
