The Agency – Episode 9 “The Rubicon” Recap & Review

The Rubicon

Episode 9 of The Agency begins with Coyote being moved by the General. Unfortunately, when the CIA find out in Washington they are not happy. As time is against them, they need to “make it work”. Martian bluffs the CIA Director, spouting on about crystal balls and a high-tech op but in reality, he’s just playing for time.

Speaking of which, Martian happens to have a note reading “Paul, check your phone.” Is this a message from Sami? Martian checks out the phone first and finds a video of Samia behind bars back home. Osman puts her life in Martian’s hands, promising that she can either live or die based on his actions. It definitely rattles him, as everything around this guy starts to crumble and fall apart.

As for what Osman wants, he’s after a list of everyone Martian recruited in Addis Ababa. And he has 48 hours to deliver.

Back in the office. Martian reminds everyone that they have 4 hours to try and get Coyote back from the General. But how?

While this is going on, Danny is briefed by Naomi who reminds her that you never drop the cover, no matter what. She’s caught off-guard for a Spanish alias with local knowledge and is reminded to be on the ball 24/7.

Danny miraculously passes the test and manages to get herself a ticket across to Iran. Interestingly, Reza has his own cover coming in the form of Azar. She’s there to make sure there aren’t “any problems” and specifically sets out to test Danny to make sure she’s legit. It’s incredibly lucky to be honest, especially off the back of what Naomi told her, and she manages to get the go-ahead for her operation.

As the gang check through Volchok’s intel, they find a guy that could be a weak link here. This is Leo Kravitsky, former chauffeur and chef, who’s going nowhere under Volchok. He’s a little resentful regarding his lack of career opportunities so naturally the agency play on this, pretending that he’s going to lead a brand new team. However, it’s all going to stay between them with men they trust.

One of those men happens to be Martian himself, who shows up and hands over money in exchange for a bunch of names to Leo. He corners the guy and forces him to play ball. Well, it does the trick as Martian gets a dead-drop from Leo at his place that night, which includes the intel he’s after.

The intel includes a secret itinerary for the Deputy Defence Minister of Russia, including where he’s visiting on the front lines in Ukraine. Martian makes a play on his own to use this intel to bring in the Felix team to create a kill box for him. Despite Henry chewing him out, the operation is given a green-light.

The operation is wracked in tension and before everything is put into action, Martian brings in as many of the trusted agents as they can to try and find any weaknesses to this operation. The idea here is to put pressure on Leo so he directs Volchok to the Kill Zone.

The Ukrainians on the ground have now been redeployed to assist a rescue team who will be on standby to spring the trap, get Coyote back, and get the hell out of there. Everything is riding on this and they now need to do everything they can to get Coyote back before it’s too late. As we say over here in the UK, it’s squeaky bum time!

As the episode closes out, Danny prepares to head out to Iran while Martian is conflicted over how he’s going to handle the Samia situation. He ignores a call from Osman, who messages and tells him “You just killed her.”

The Episode Review

Seeing Martian’s downfall from this confident, established agent to a man struggling to hold it all together is absolutely fascinating and such an interesting way of delivering this storyline. The show has done a really good job with its characters, although still with this Danny subplot it doesn’t seem to be tied into the bigger picture, unless this is likely to play a larger part come the finale, or even in season 2.

This episode has a lot of tension as you can see Martian conflicted over whether to save Samia or betray his country. All of this is, of course, captured beautifully by Michael Fassbender, who puts out an incredible performance as this agent.

The flashes to him with the lie detector is definitely a big point of contention right now, it’s unclear exactly what this means and who may have captured Martian. Will the operation be a success? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out!