What I’m Watching: Counterpart

Counterpart: Season 2, Episode 7 “No Strings Attached” (B+)

This episode was a strong follow-up to the two revelatory moments that came before this: Peter shooting the stand-in mole and the way that the two worlds were created. Roland showed up at Peter and Clare’s home furious at his son-in-law for daring to tarnish his reputation, which might have angered him more than betraying Clare as her husband. What was particularly poignant about that tense exchange was Clare standing her ground and telling her father that she could speak for herself, getting Peter nervous because she wasn’t acting like the Clare that he knew and raised. Naya wasn’t about to let a man whose behavior was as suspicious as Peter’s sit in on their meeting to discuss the next operational procedures, and she pushed hard enough not to get Roland to admit that he was giving him an unfair second chance but to push Peter to resign, putting himself and his family in jeopardy. Maybe it was Clare being able to see her former classmates whose assignments didn’t require isolation, but, after a brief protest, she was ready to run with Peter, bringing him to the haunting abandoned shell of the place she was trained on the other side. As if there weren’t enough spies on the wrong side, we now have confirmation that Ian was living under an assumed identity in a world not. his own, and traveling in the company of those with nefarious intentions who nearly took out him, Emily, and our Howard. Though his role in all this has faded, Howard was right to note just how little he seemed to matter, and I’m eager to see what he does next after his gunshot wound is treated, determined to make a difference in the world he used to call home.