Round Two: The Bureau

The Bureau: Season 1, Episode 2 (B)

In its second episode, this show proved that it could handle a lot all at once, still moving at the same relatively slow pace that doesn’t feature all that many thrills. It’s a much more complex drama than a lot of spy shows are, demonstrating Malotru’s extraordinary skill at training a new agent while showing his inability to control his own disengagement from a mission. It’s not clear why he doesn’t realize how problematic it is that he’s using the name that served as his cover while he was in Syria and going out in public while living a double life with the identity that is in fact his own. He’s treating it as such a casual thing, and given how he’s being surveilled, there’s no way that he’s going to manage to keep this up without those spying on him reporting it to Duflot, who knows that something is going on and is trying to get him to open up about it. In contrast, Malotru swooped in to forcibly point Marina in the right direction when she failed to take the initiative to approach her mark on her first test mission. She has a long way to go, and the bureau seems extremely invested in helping to prepare her for that. Going through her life both electronically and physically by breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s home and burning pictures that had her in them was an intense, all-encompassing solution, and something tells me that Marina isn’t quite ready for the finality of what she’s doing.