Elizabeth heads to Turkey to mend political relations after the Turkish government releases a video that could be damaging to the CIA. Also, Jason is threatened with expulsion after punching a bully at school.
Elizabeth finally faces the consequences of a prior action in "The Ninth Circle." So far, the show has always shown diplomacy in a neat and tidy way. A problem is introduced and resolved in the span of one episode. There was the investigation of former Secretary Marsh's death simmering in the background. But that wasn't informing the episodic plot beats. Elizabeth and Russell Jackson made an action in the last episode. They sent a special forces team into Turkey to extract an Iranian woman with connections to the plot involving Marsh's death. The mission went sideways, with some unknown party opening fire on the soldiers that left one American and two Turkey citizens dead. It's a complicated situation that doesn't just get shoved under the rug. Elizabeth has to deal with the fallout. The scope of this serialized story is getting bigger the deeper into the season we go. It's what was expected of it from the very beginning. And now, it's nice to see some things starting to pay off.Elizabeth has had no problem keeping her investigation into Marsh's death on a need to know basis only. The majority of people on her staff have no clue what she's doing. And yet, they are effected by it. The man was their former boss. But more importantly, they have to assist with her mission - although unknowingly. Matt had no idea what the convert message he planted with Russell meant a handful of episodes ago. Daisy knows that there is much more to this story than what Elizabeth is telling her and what she is informing the press. And yet, there's very little she can do but speculate. Now that her actions have had their own consequences, it is weighing harder on Elizabeth about the morality of this investigation. She hates lying to the mother of the slain special forces soldier. She knows that something is amiss with this situation too. Elizabeth has to do damage control but there's only so much she can do because other forces are at play as well.
She heads to Turkey covertly to make peace with its government officials. To the public, she's just working to bring the body of the deceased man back home to his family. To the leaders of the country, she's trying to obtain the information they desperately need to make sense of the scope of this plot against the country. It all comes down to a laptop that the target was caring with her. Both the United States and Iran want it which puts Turkey in a power position. The relationship between the US and Iran isn't that good but there are still those ongoing peace talks. It's aspirational to think that the Iranian Foreign Minister will give the information on the laptop to Elizabeth because both of their countries are being taken advantage of. And yet, it occurs just so the show can reveal another familiar face as working for the nefarious cause trying to make this world a radical different place.
Like week, it was Juliet who was working against Elizabeth. Her letter was just a cryptic reasoning of doing her patriotic duty. And now, it's revealed that CIA Director Andrew Munsey is working against Elizabeth, Russell and the President as well. Sure, it's a little strange that so far the characters unveiled as double agents have just been recurring players. The reveal simply doesn't have the same stakes it would if it had been a regular character. Juliet and Andrew aren't characters who've been given personalities. They are simply people who would realistically be in the room with Elizabeth, Russell and the President. We just know next to nothing about them in the context of the situation they are in now. When the President confronts Andrew, we suddenly get the backstory of their relationship. Andrew worked for the President for 20 years and he chose him to take over as director when he sought public office. That's nice information to have but almost too little too late. This betrayal doesn't make much of an impact because we have no understanding of who Andrew is. The episode is grasping for a motivation. He claims he did all of this to help bring about the President's vision for a nuclear-free Iran. His plan simply contradicted the one the public channels were working on which he believed would only last for a few months or years. He believed his cause was a permanent solution to this problem. It's just a more morally bad way of doing business which simply isn't a quality any of the show's regular characters would willfully embrace.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Ninth Circle" was written by Alexander Maggio and directed by Nicole Rubio.
- There's also a pretty laughable subplot about Jason feeling out of place in his new school and getting in trouble for punching a bully. It's a weird story to be paired with the main one. Elizabeth is able to negotiate with officials from Turkey and Iran successfully but can't formulate a strong argument against the head of a Quaker school?
- For how much longer is Elizabeth going to keep the rest of her staff in the dark about the full scope of what she's been up to? It's already starting to get into how effective they can do their respective jobs. Sure, Daisy may be slightly overreacting but it's still something that needs to be addressed eventually.
- Even though Elizabeth suspected her and she was held in the bowels of the CIA, Isabelle is still working for her - she just won't be ready to forgive her for awhile. She's largely just an exposition delivery system though.
- It's nice thinking back to when Turkey was Elizabeth's choice for her first abroad visit because it was a safe choice. And now, she has to visit in order to put out the fire she started.
