Thomas Brandon’s The Copenhagen Test is the story of an agent who gets to know that his brain has been hacked by certain anonymous enemies. That meant that they could see what he could see, and so he became a threat to the USA and the Orphanage. I have to say that it’s not easy to create an engaging espionage thriller anymore, considering the genre is so cluttered. But The Copenhagen Test stands out and keeps you on the edge of your seat. So let’s find out what happened with our intelligence agent and if he was able to tackle the obstacles that came his way.
Spoiler Alert
What Was The Orphanage?
When the armed forces of a nation become too powerful, there is always a threat of a military coup. Similarly, when the intelligence services gain a lot of power within a regime, there could be even more grave consequences. According to the series, that’s what bothered President George H. W. Bush, who then decided to create a clandestine service that would act like a watchdog and make sure that agencies like the CIA and the FBI didn’t cross certain lines. That’s how the Orphanage was created, and since its inception, not even one agent working for the agency has been compromised. Maintaining secrecy was paramount for the agency, as the majority didn’t even know that such an organization existed. The Orphanage could be broadly divided into two departments: the Upstairs and the Downstairs. While the analyst, the researchers, and the data scientists were a part of the Downstairs wing, the Upstairs wing specialized in field operations. Basically, Downstairs was the brains of the organization, and Upstairs was where the real action happened. The most elite of the agents were sent Upstairs. If there was even an ounce of doubt about an agent’s allegiance, then he was sent Downstairs. That’s what irked our protagonist, Alexander Hales, who believed that no matter what he did, he could never win over the trust of his superiors just because of his Chinese descent. His parents had come to the United States of America before he was born, and all their lives they had to prove their loyalty. Legally Alexander was an American, yet he knew that he would have to face such discrimination in his life. He had no problems with it as long as he was judged on his merit, and his superiors gave him a chance to prove himself. Alexander wanted to build a place where he belonged. He was a man with a conscience, and his superiors, especially the head of the Orphanage, St. George (code name), knew about it.
How did Alexander find out about the tech in his brain?
Alexander was put under the magnifying glass when it came to be known that there was a mole in the organization and, somehow, crucial information about a mission in North Korea had been leaked. There was a formal inquiry, but then Alexander was given a clean chit. Surprisingly, his superiors, i.e., Peter, Moira, and Marlowe, decided that his application to move Upstairs would be approved and that he would be sent out into the field. Alexander couldn’t understand how he was given such a promotion despite being a suspect in an investigation. Alexander was a clever man, and it didn’t take long for him to realize that the investigation into him was never closed, and he was still being watched by Moira and the others. Alexander’s research led him to uncover a secret file named Casandra RU 258. He realized that the entire operation somehow had something to do with him. Alexander went to meet his uncle, Victor, who had been his parents’ friend for a very long time. In fact, Alexander’s parents helped Victor in his covert mission in China, after which they got exposed and were considered to be a threat to the Chinese government. Victor took them with him to the USA, and he promised them that he would look after their kid and make sure he was always safe. It was Victor who told Alexander that if the Orphanage considered him to be a threat, then they would definitely eliminate him. He told him to make arrangements and go into hiding, as he had no other options. Before Alexander could make a decision, he was called into a room that was referred to as the “Classroom” (as it had network jammers installed) to have a one-on-one meeting with Moira. Peter Moira revealed to him that an anonymous enemy of the state had planted some tech inside his brain, and through it, they could see whatever he saw and hear whatever he heard. Alexander also found out that the anti-anxiety pills that were given to him by his ex-fiance were adulterated, and it was by consuming them that his brain had been hacked. Alexander told Moira that he was unaware of all this, and he assured everybody that he was not working for the enemy. Though he didn’t talk to his ex-fiance, Rachel, at that time, deep down he knew that she wouldn’t betray his trust and that she was merely used to deliver the medicine to him (a fact that we will discuss later). Moira told Alexander that they had decided to take the risk of keeping the hack open. The Orphanage wanted to find out who was behind the hack, being well aware of the fact that if things didn’t go to plan, then they could be charged for treason. They were willingly allowing some alien force to snoop inside the organization, but they felt that if they could curate what the enemy saw, then probably they could expose them.
The file that Alexander had gotten his hands on, Cassandra RU 258, was actually the name of the tech. Another problem that the Orphanage technicians encountered was that the tech had been upgraded, and so they were having a hard time understanding what it could do and what its consequences on the host’s body could be. So Alexander started pretending as if nothing had happened, and his reality was carefully constructed by the Orphanage i.e they made sure that the enemy saw only what they wanted them to see.
What happened during Alexander’s Copenhagen test?
Back in the day, Alexander was sent on a mission, which we later came to know was a test designed to check the loyalty of an agent. That test was called the Copenhagen test. In the test, a candidate is put in a situation where his morals, his values, and his conscience are tested. Basically, a candidate was made to face psychological warfare, where the Orphanage got to know if the candidate would choose the nation above anything else. Alexander was asked to save civilians during the test, and he was told that he should give priority to American citizens. Alexander encountered a little boy, who was not an American national, whom he decided to save. But just when he was about to leave on a helicopter, a girl came asking for help. This girl was an American citizen, but Alexander could take only one person with him, since there was no room for more on the helicopter. Alexander chose to leave the girl behind, as he just was not able to abandon the kid, and he was haunted by his own actions since that day. Alexander, for the longest time, didn’t know that it was a loyalty test and not a real mission. When Alexander met St. George for the first time, she told him that he had a third choice, which deep down he also knew. She told Alexander that he could have chosen to send the girl and the boy on the helicopter while choosing to stay behind. St. George had concluded that, though Alexander had let his morals prevail over his superiors’ orders, there was still a part of him that adhered to the chain of command. St. George found this conflict between duty and conscience to be very interesting. She told Alexander that a time would come when he would have to make such a difficult choice once again. St. George hoped that in that situation, Alexander wouldn’t have to compromise on either his conscience or his duty. She knew that it was a risk she was taking with him and he might jeopardize the organization itself. The same woman, Michelle, whom Alexander hadn’t saved during the Copenhagen test, was chosen to be a part of the ongoing mission. Moira and the others didn’t realize either that she was the same person who had taken part in the Copenhagen test. Once they did, they still decided to go with her, since she seemed to be Alexander’s type and they needed a person to keep an eye on him. Now, this was a very weird equation; Alexander knew that Michelle was working for the Orphanage, and all that flirting was a part of the act. Alexander was even told by Moira that he too needed to put on an act to basically mislead the ones hacking his brain. So while Alexandra and Michelle were misleading the enemy, they were also trying to deceive one another.
What did Schiff want from St. George?
The best thing that St. George did was make Samantha Parker a part of the plan. Samantha was the same girl who had written a report on how enemies of the state could hack the brains of agents and use them to their advantage. At first, people thought that she was just randomly theorizing, but then Alexander’s case came to light. She was asked by Moira to keep an eye on Alexander at all times and tell her what he was up to, what was going on in his mind, if he was planning to go rogue, etc. Samantha was pretty good at analyzing behaviors, especially Alexander’s, and she specialized in being a step ahead of him by speculating what he would do next. Almost all her assumptions based on his personality and his sensibilities were absolutely right. It was Samantha who told Michelle to find a way to win Alexander’s trust. Now, this was a very tough task, as Alexander already knew that Michelle was there to keep an eye on him. But still Michelle was pretty good at fieldwork. Time and again she gave him certain intel that he didn’t know so that she could make him believe that she was on his side.
Meanwhile, a plan was made to leak certain intel intentionally, using a few people, like an FBI agent named Sal, to track down the perpetrators. Moira felt that if they laid the trap, made the perpetrator believe that they didn’t know about Alexander’s brain hack, and let a few missions be compromised, then probably they might be able to expose the mastermind. But leaking information about real missions meant playing with the lives of innocent people. Moira’s plan worked, and the Orphanage was able to find out that a security consultant who worked with the National Intelligence Department, named Henry, aka Fredrick Schiff, was the one who was making use of all the information that he got through Alexander’s brain hack for his benefit. This man was selling the information that he got through Alexander to various intelligence agencies all over the world. Schiff’s sole purpose behind doing so was to find out who St. George was. Basically, he wanted to take revenge on her because he believed that she had betrayed his trust back in the day and left him to die in Berlin. Schiff was a German national, and he worked for St. George, who had promised him safe passage to the United States once his work was completed. There was a situation of chaos in Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and Schiff knew that if the government found out about his betrayal, he would be killed. But even after St. George left him, he managed to play his cards well and make his way to the United States of America. Schiff blackmailed Alexander and told him that he needed to introduce him to St. George if he wanted to see his parents alive. Schiff wanted revenge, as the wounds of what had happened with him had left a deep scar that he could never forget even if he wanted to.
How did Samantha get the better of Schiff?
Alexander would have given up and agreed to do whatever Schiff told him, but he remembered what St. George told him about his Copenhagen test. He knew that he needed to find a way to not compromise on either his ideals or his duty. Alexander left some clues to make it clear that though he was pretending to betray the Orphanage, he was not going to go against them. Now, at that juncture, Moira and others thought that Alexander had gone rogue. The Orphanage treated their assets like assets, and nothing stopped them from pulling the trigger if they even had the slightest of doubts that an agent had flipped. I believe that’s what differentiated Samantha Parker from the rest. She didn’t want to have regrets like St. George and others who bore the guilt of being responsible for the death of innocent people. She didn’t want to bury her conscience like her colleagues. She wanted to be proud of each and every mission she handled and every life she saved. It was Samantha who realized that Alexander was not going to betray them. She picked up the hints he left and convinced Moira and others to act upon that. Everybody came on board, and they set a trap for Schiff. At the end of The Copenhagen Test, not only did Schiff get caught, but Alexander, with the help of his uncle Victor and Michelle, was also able to save his parents. St. George finally met Schiff, and she apologized for what had happened back in the day. Though she knew that Schiff was using the information he got through Alexander for his own nefarious purposes, he was not the one who had installed the hack in his brain. Schiff was alive despite everything that he had done because he was the only one who could lead them to the real mastermind.
Who had hacked Alexander’s brain?
Cobb, Alexander’s colleague and also the nephew of Frederick Schiff, was never sure of his allegiances. In fact, Cobb went to great lengths to find out if Alexander was compromised. Cobb’s suspicions were not wrong, but the only thing he didn’t know was that the Orphanage knew about the hack, and they had decided to use it to their benefit. One day Cobb was following Victor, Alexander’s uncle, and he heard him say the word “carousel.” Cobb told Alexander about it in The Copenhagen Test episode eight, and that’s how Alexander figured out that it was his uncle who had hacked his brain. Earlier, Alexander had gotten to know that Rachel Kasperian, his ex-fiancée, had intentionally given him these anti-anxiety pills, which contained certain substances through which that sophisticated tech got inside his mind. It was a heartbreaking revelation for Alexander, as he never could have imagined that a person he loved so dearly was capable of doing something like that. Rachel had been working with Victor, and at the end of the series we got to know that Alexander was not the only one whose brain was hacked. There were four other people who were relaying information to Victor, and only one of them knew that a tech was there in his mind. Now this person, who was aware that his mind had been hacked, was following Michelle for some reason. Victor told Alexander that Michelle was a “loose end” and that he needed to keep an eye on her. Victor knew about how close Alexander had gotten to Michelle, and hence I believe he was not just tracking Michelle because she was at a loose end, but also to force Alexander to work for him.
We were never told what Victor’s real intentions were, but I do suppose that he was planning something big and probably building a team of dedicated soldiers like Rachel who were willing to go to any extent for him. Victor had worked closely with St. George at one point in time, and he had grown to hate the Orphanage, from what it seemed. The man didn’t trust the organization, and he often warned Alexander about it. It would be interesting to see what would happen next, how Alexander would eat up the information he got, and how St. George would play her cards. I have a feeling Michelle and Alexander will meet again sooner than they would have expected, and this time they will work together to eliminate the threat and fight against the enemies of the state.
