Showtime’s spy thriller The Agency is close to rounding up its season 1, and the stakes have been raised higher than ever before, with the protagonist, Martian, finally having to choose between his personal and professional endeavors. Although Sami had left England at the end of the previous episode, the thought of her still lingers on Martian’s mind, especially when he gets contacted by the Sudanese. While Daniela prepares for her mission to Tehran, the CIA agents at the London office come up with an intense plan to rescue Coyote before he is handed over to the Russians, with The Agency episode 9 preparing us for a grand finale next week.
Spoiler Alert
Why does Osman blackmail Martian?
The Agency episode 9 begins with Martian meeting with Grandma inside the CIA building, where the latter informs him that he and his group have searched through the rooms of Sami, Osman, and Dalaga after the Sudanese group had left, upon the orders of Martian. While nothing significant was found at the place, there was a note left in the washroom of Osman’s hotel room, and it is clearly addressed to Martian. As he opens the folded piece of paper, he is instructed to check his phone, meaning that Osman had left the note to establish direct communication with Martian but without wanting the CIA to be involved. Getting in touch in this manner is not an easy task for Martian, though, since he needs to get his hands on the phone which he used to have during his days as Paul Lewis, as he had already submitted it to the CIA authorities earlier in the season. He now has to go down to the tech department in the building and ask for the phone, on which he finds a very concerning video.
Shot by Osman himself, the video shows Sami in an extremely injured state inside a dirty shed, evidently after having been tortured by Sudanese intelligence agents. The video then also has Osman hold the camera up in front of his face and make a demand of Martian—he wants something from the CIA agent and will only release Sami and let her live if this demand is met. It is clear that Osman wants Martian to contact him directly, and to do this, he has to sneak out the SIM inside the phone, as carrying the entire phone out would require him to fill up official documents. Doing so is not an option at the moment, since Martian had correctly figured out that his professional superiors were still tracking every movement of his. The CIA had already decided to officially stay out of the Chinese-Sudanese deal and therefore was not concerned about Sami, meaning that Martian cannot ask for anyone’s help regarding the matter.
Sneaking the SIM back into his office, Martian establishes a connection over secured text messages with Osman and is asked to meet the man under the Southwark Bridge in London that very evening. When the meeting finally takes place, Osman makes it clear that he is not fooling around and is very serious about his demand and that he would not hesitate to kill Sami if his demand is not met. He tells Martian that he wants the full list of the names of contacts Martian had made during his time in Addis Ababa, which mostly included people who were trying to fight against the government in Sudan. As Osman is an intelligence agent in his country and is very directly an employee of the government, he sees all these people as traitors who are trying to betray their nation. Although it is not directly mentioned, Osman’s plan with the list seems to be quite clear, as he would pass it on to the government in Sudan and demand a high position in the administration or maybe even money in exchange for the crucial information. The Sudanese government would also be happy to oblige, as they would want to detain any and every individual who protested against their regime and called out their incompetence and oppressive nature. Therefore, Osman really tries to ensure his own professional betterment at the expense of Martian, and his beloved Dr. Sami Zahir.
Does Martian decide to save Sami?
Although Martian cannot do anything about the matter right away, Sami’s safety naturally looms large in his head. He takes a lot of time with the matter, though, as he even has to travel to Belarus in between for an important CIA operation, and then returns to his apartment in London. Martian keeps thinking of Sami, to the point that he even imagines seeing her in his apartment, but knows that it is really too risky to give out classified CIA information to Osman for his personal interests. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the agency have been keeping an eye on Sami’s movements as well, as Henry Ogletree is updated about the situation. While the official reports stated that Sami was touring East Asia on a culture and heritage program, in truth nobody knew where she was. The CIA had tracked an airplane, belonging to Dalaga, in which Sami must have been flown back to Sudan, from where she was seemingly taken to Kober prison in Khartoum. According to the CIA’s intel, the Kober prison is now run by militants, and prisoners are heavily tortured by one of the civil war factions.
Combined with the video sent by Osman, which nobody other than Martian has watched, the information collected by the CIA seems to be very accurate. However, Henry decides to not take any action or even inform Martian about Sami’s location, as he seemingly suspects that the protagonist will go rogue if he finds out where Sami is. So far in The Agency, the bond between Martian and Sami has been shown to be strong enough for him to go out of his way to help her out, but at the end of episode 9, the protagonist takes a really unexpected decision. Instead of going to rescue Sami from further trouble, or even death, Martian chooses to do nothing about it and simply destroys the SIM chip, so that Osman cannot contact him any further either. This truly suggests that Martian has decided to force himself to move on over his relationship with Sami, unless, of course, he tries some different heroics in next week’s season finale.
Is Daniela finally headed to Tehran?
In the last two episodes of The Agency, Daniela had successfully gotten two of her fellow research students, first Jerome and then Rose, to back off the exchange program to be held in Tehran so that she could get hold of a visa to enter Iran legally. She had obviously had help from the CIA, specifically her handler, Naomi, and the latter now keeps training her to maintain her cover at all times. Daniela’s assumed identity states that she was born in Seville but brought up in the coastal town of Sanlucar, and Naomi feeds her with more information about this fake identity so that her status as an undercover agent never comes under question. This exercise soon comes in handy for Danny, when she is asked some crucial questions by a woman at a gala dinner at the Institute of Geophysics the next day. The woman introduces herself as the wife of Professor Reza Mortavezi, and she has a general conversation with Daniela about her life and career.
It is only after the dinner that Mortavezi asks Daniela to be a part of the exchange program in Tehran, meaning that she finally succeeds in her plan of acquiring a legitimate reason for a visa. But the professor then reveals that the woman who earlier spoke to Daniela was not actually his wife but a member of the Iranian intelligence, and the very point of her conversation was to check Daniela’s story and ensure that she was a genuine candidate with no secret agenda. Mortavezi making this statement is also perhaps indicative of the fact that he is still romantically interested in Daniela, and she might have to get close to him because of the program when the pair finally arrive in Tehran.
Who is Leo Kravitsky, and how does the CIA exploit his position?
The CIA’s previous attempt to surveil the head of Valhalla, General Volchok, had failed when the extra-careful man had found out about his secretary’s secret association with the American intelligence agency and had immediately killed her. Thus, the agency now has to find other ways to infiltrate his camp, and doing so seems like a very difficult task, as almost everyone who works for Volchok has been promoted to higher rungs of Russian intelligence. However, the name of a certain soldier in his private militia, Leo Kravitsky, is dug up, who actually happens to be a henchman of sorts for the general. Unlike the other people who had worked under Volchok, Kravitsky’s situation is quite different, as he has been serving Valhalla for many years now, but without any prospect of promotion. Although he remains a loyal worker for Volchok, Kravitsky also expresses his frustrations at not being rewarded or noticed enough by the general in private chats on WhatsApp and Telegram.
This is why the CIA decided to target him, and they first won over his trust by texting him on one of the messaging apps. Martian and Blair come together to pretend to be General Volchok himself, who is apparently wary of moles in his group and wants to appoint Kravitsky to be the leader of a new internal group among the Valhalla members so that they can safely carry on their work. Kravitsky takes the bait and agrees to meet a representative in Minsk the next day, and he does not suspect anything even when Martian shows up as this representative. The American hands over a briefcase full of cash to a very surprised Kravitsky, and before the latter can react, a photograph of the two is taken by a CIA field officer. This photo is enough to blackmail Kravitsky into working for the CIA, as Martian threatens that Volchok will surely kill him if he sees the photo of him making a deal with the CIA. In this way, Martian exploits the position of Leo Kravitsky and prepares for the next part of the deal through him.
What is the CIA’s exact plan to rescue Coyote?
In Minsk, Martian gets hold of secret information from Kravitsky about the transfer of Coyote between the private militia group, Valhalla, and the Russians, possibly the FSB. When he and Henry analyze the data gathered from the operation back in London, they realize that Coyote is to be handed over to a man named Colonel Oleg Dimushenko. Once an operative working for General Volchok, Oleg Dimushenko had risen up the ranks of Russian intelligence to the FSB and then became a member of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Minister of Defense of the country is currently on a tour of some parts of Russia, and Dimushenko is an important part of his security detail. Since Volchok has prior connections with Dimushenko, he has arranged to hand over Coyote, a CIA agent, to the Ministry of Defense through the colonel, as he wants to have a direct meeting with the minister, suggesting that Volchok wants to go into politics.
As the Americans go over the numerous stops that the minister will be making on his tour, Martian reveals that he has ordered Kravitsky to ensure that the handover takes place at a specific medical clinic. Henry is immediately infuriated by this piece of news, as the clinic happens to be the same one where his brother-in-law, Charlie, has been posted at for many months, as part of the CIA’s highly secretive Operation Felix. Despite the risk of the entire operation failing, Martian sticks with his decision to have the handover to be conducted at the clinic, as it would be easier for the Americans to intervene. The CIA’s exact plan is to not only rescue Coyote but also to assassinate General Volchok at this very clinic camp and the place Kravitsky at the head of Valhalla so that they can easily get information about the group’s movements from him. Despite having objections at first, Henry approves of the plan, and Bosko greenlights it as well, while Charlie and his team are informed of the operation that is about to take place at their camp. Thus, The Agency episode 9 sets up for a grand finale next week, in which the fates of all the characters will finally be sealed.
