Hope the always intelligent posters here will have some thoughts that might help me understand...meanwhile, I clearly need to view the finale again. ha
--Did anybody find it momentarily confusing to have Daniel reading the material from Hector's device containing his Shaw Manifesto that he left behind? After thinking we'd sussed most of the story, I found myself thinking..whoa...was Hector not Daniel Shaw after all? This is Daniel's voice speaking. Wondered if th is was the final twist? But then in the dialogue post-ep, Olen was still speaking of Hector as T.S. (I do understand that the concept of the collective being T.S. was stated and was inclusive, but it still confused me for a moment.)
--Was anyone else surprised to see Daniel in hospital in a situation in which it did not appear he was in custody? So, a clear assassination attempt is made on him by his own people for serious reasons, yet he's not in custody? It all just went away? At least now we know why the assassins in the first ep shooting scene were speaking American English.
--Sandra. She had a "cover identity" she could whip out on a moment's notice to use in the field? Really? Administrators in the office have cover identities? Guess so.
--Further, all our Berlin Station faves are all back at work at their desks gathering round watching the news? Did Clay's mission just simpy fail and nobody at B.S. is going to pay any price? How is that? Did the "other half" of the eyewash mission on the 7th floor simply become apprised of the mix-up and step in and fix everything to absolve staff at B.S. Or...what?
--Ergo, did Clay's mission ultimately fail because no evidence was found on Daniel? Therefore, everybody at B.S. was left unscathed?
--On a happy note, Hector is alive and well and oh please please hopefully going to be operating on some level next year. A B.S. show without Hector simply cannot be.
--And Hans. Well. Hans. What can we say? What a piece of work. Was it his own people who did the deed? There certainly were enough enemies at that point. Though was that not Esther in a car watching the deed be done? It's hard to find Hans's end very upsetting. When he casually discussed with his colleague simply throwing Frost into the prison area with the Russians because he wouldn't last long in there was one of the coldest most vile moments of the series.
And Hans was not just some opposite number from an ally's office that Frost knew from work. He had sat at Frost's dining room table as a family "friend" and posed as such for who knows how long. Wow doesn't cover it.
--Good point from Olen in the discussion after about how Daniel began his journey in the show as a total loner but ended it in a room surrounded by people with whom he was able to share a common mission.
Finally, liked the way they portrayed a story in which all of that carnage occured mostly because the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing.
It was a good comment on the situation of large organizations and what can so easily happen in them.
And the good news is that with the third series of "Weissensee" being released on MHZ presently (with 2 per week finishing up 12/27), there is a stunningly great Cold War/German story to be tucked into to fill the B.S. void. Whew.
Watching "Weissensee" in tandem with B.S. rather shows where German intelligence traveled from and to between 1980-89 and 2016. It's not difficult to put Hans back into the no holds barred Stasi world circa 1989 where the "Weissensee" saga ends.
Yes, at first it confused me that Daniel's voice was used to transmit Shaw's final message, not in the world of Berlin Station but directed only to us, the audience. I guess the director chose this to indicate Daniel's solidarity with Shaw--in that sometimes our own govts aren't best actors--and to signal Daniel's change of status. Daniel, I'm guessing, will not be arrested. Why arrest someone who can embarrass the CIA, German allies, and the US? Plus, Daniel was found with nothing on him--no proof of any wrongdoing. Perhaps he could countersue by charging that Clay Williams sent paid assassins to kill his and his cousin after promising he'd exfil them to safety.
These people don't want to arrest and try officers like Frost, Hector, Daniel, etc. because these people can expose the truth in trial. Instead, they arrange their deaths. Hans met up with karma. He should have known better than to walk his dog. I figured he was the one who hunted down Hector & Daniel together at the interrogation site--better kill them both and erase any proof that he was using Shaw to bring down BS. And I believe that Hans was doing some stuff that Fraulein Esther did not know about, which is why she turned against him ultimately.
Once the agents figured out the ruse that was the Iasova's and, through Shaw, could publicize that truth, then Clay Williams became the fall guy. However, since Hans is dead and because the Iasova's were doing some lightweight ISIL stuff, I doubt that Clay will be prosecuted, just fired. He can always claim that he was misled by a trusted ally, Hans, who is now dead. But his stupidity is responsible for a failed op and a dead agent.
Sandra was not a simple secretary. On at least a couple occasions, she spoke of her involvement in CIA operations.
Yes, I, too cheered when Hector escaped and launched his final plot to rescue Faisal from the Saudis. Hector is, as was often said in The Wire, "natural police." He has skills that you can't simply train into agents. I have to believe that Hector might become a contract agent in a future season. EPIX would be a fool not to bring him back. He was the soul of the season.
All in all, this was an effin' good story. I truly enjoyed it.
First and foremost Hector. Yes, they definitely left it open for him to be a go-to guy for Daniel on a job that needs to be cough cough highly secret. He seems to be turning over a new leaf, but it's hard to imagine he can pull off Choir Boy for very long.
But let's hope Olen wants him and that Rhys wants to do it next year.
I did wonder also about Clay's future. Surely there is CCTV footage of him walking with his trusted assassin by his side as the gunman shoots Daniel.
However, he left in a taxi, and not in handcuffs so...
Just a thought, but when Golda called Clay on speed dial to tell him his guys were at the tower to tip him, she hung up the phone and said something about she always returns favors. I first thought she meant it ironically as revenge on Valerie and Kirsch for their stunt.
But then, wondered if Clay is one of her assets within Langley she boasted about to Kirsch earlier? That would make Clay even more morally dubious than he already is.
Wish Esther would send an anonymous copy of the shooting on CCTV tape to the 7th floor at Langley. Or, better yet, a newspaper. ha
After all, she's the Grand Poo-Bah now. (So who ordered the hit on Hans? Esther clearly knew it was going down since she was watching.)
As for Hans, his swift and fatal downfall was amazing. He went from what appeared to be a respected and respectable top intel official to simply coming utterly unraveled as he attempted an ever more desperate cover up of his sole mission that backfired. What's the old saying? It's not the crime, it's the cover up that will get ya?
He was a man with a grudge and was bent on revenge for a perceived unforgiveable transgression(s) on the part of Frost and B.S. After Esther sussed that he was acting completely alone all along, she wisely jumped ship.
That was a telling moment, when you realized Hans the great man was now just a crazed nutcase who had gone completely off the rails.
At least we finally could surmise where most of the mysterious bad stuff was coming from--as you said we know now Hans was probably behind the attempted shooting of Hector and Daniel. And he probably was behind most everything else we wondered about.
And I agree the Agency won't want to try any of them, even if they could. Dirty laundry and all that. But not sure Our Kirsch will get his SES! haha
Guess now that Shaw has "retired" and the eyewash disaster is over, they just want to carry on.
Though it was hard not to think about how Frost really DID belong in a jail cell and Kirsch bunged in there with him for committing huge fraud and theft of CIA funds running their fake agents. They're bloody crooks! haha
In a rush to finish shopping so I'll be brief (for once), but I believe it was at the faux interrogation that Hector said something along the lines of "it is way above your pay grade" when queried on a subject. So when he hopped in the biz jet and ended up in Riyad with composure and documentation backup, it told me that he can operate in a mysterious world above the rest of them, sort of a James Bond. I think Hector and Jimmy McNutty would be excellent drinking buddies.
The only thing which bothered me though was Han's motivation. Was it really just about vanity, about having the phones bugged and the embarrassment. I guess I wanted there to be more of a story of international intrigue. But it does make more sense about how he really wanted the Osava mall meeting to go sideways and set conditions to almost ensure that would happen.
My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2
Hans & Fraulein Krug--what possessed them. While Fraulein was clearly in it with Hans, the writers did make it clear that she was mostly following orders and that she sometimes questioned Hans' goals--turning Daniel, for example. And I believe that she was truly waiting for Daniel & Hector to turn up for the handoff, not knowing that Hans had sent an assassin to finish them off. No way Hans was going to interrogate Hector (since he already knew Hector was Thomas Shaw) and let Daniel sit in to observe.
Amazing, though, that Hans & Fraulein could find and identify Thomas Shaw and Julian deVoss so easily while the Americans could not. (Though Daniel was indeed getting there.)
Even Hector asked Hans why he was obsessing over bring down Berlin Station. "Anger over the Angela Merkel tap?" he asked.
Hans & Fraulein Krug (her father, as Daniel had discovered, was a lethal Stasi official) had their roots in that old system. The Americans install their CIA in the countries of their allies and promptly take over, push their agenda, run the show, and spy on their hosts. We're not good at being friends and gracious guests. I once had a friend (former) that I allowed to stay over in my home for a while when hers was be renovated. Almost immediately she began to act like it was her house, tried to re-arrange everything and even somewhat spied on me, sharing my conversations with others. A long friendship decimated in moments. In short, Hans had grudges and was warped by them.
This was a theme in A Most Wanted Man, too, the Le Carre book/film that took place in Berlin. Gunther, the Berlin agent who is forced to work with the Americans on an operation, distrusts the Americans who once burned him and his entire network of assets in Iraq (& of course history repeats itself). Americans may have the power, but they lack finesse and tradecraft. They always *beep* everything up.
So when he hopped in the biz jet and ended up in Riyad with composure and documentation backup, it told me that he can operate in a mysterious world above the rest of them, sort of a James Bond. I think Hector and Jimmy McNutty would be excellent drinking buddies.
I agree completely that we now may have a different view of Hector than one that was shown throughout series 1.
First, the paygrade quip. Then the scene in which he went immediately to his Geneva lock box and produced all manner of high tech goodies and money etc.
Then the moment when he linked up to someplace importrant and simply said (paraphrasing), "I need to fly the unfriendly skies." Next thing you know he's on a jet that either IS a jet at the behest of "the director" or a jet somebody high up somewhere can pull for Hector to do whatever he thinks he needs to do, no questions asked.
None of that signals a washed up drunken and cynical burnout. To me anyway.
Now, in spite of the monologue at the end in which Daniel says Thomas Shaw is important and the collective need to have hands on with change for the better, that whole Hector epilogue with the jet and his link up with somebody who provided a plane pronto left me with just the tiniest bit of suspicion that the whole Thomas Shaw thing might simply have been a mission assigned by somebody "above all your paygrades."
Ergo, I was left wondering...who the hell Hector might really work for? How high up? Is he a kind of go-to guy for somebody in the shadows? Or maybe he reports directly to the WH?
After all Berlin Station was filled with people who needed to lose their jobs--but firing and shaking up an entire station might be politically tricky, and if it's the WH then would mean jumping over people's heads at the agency.
But if they let Hector their to-go fixer loose, he could come up with a plan to destroy the staff at Berlin Station to get rid of them by shaking up B.S.
The way the director or WH might see it is Kirsch and Frost are crooks who need to go for running fake agents and stealing. Valerie had a critical terror investigation and she bungled it by leaving it unfinished for personal romantic reasons--and that resulted in Charlie Hebdo and deaths.
Shaw did target a couple of other stations, but that might have just been smoke screen to cover up their real target--the three lead staff at B.S.
Further, early on the deputy director hired Daniel as HER go-to guy to get over to B.S. and figure out what was going on. But we saw her removed pronto when she came to Berlin and they also targeted Daniel. If somebody had sent Hector in on his super secret mission to destablize B.S., then the Deputy Director parachuting Daniel in as her and his secret investigation was something they had to shut down to let Hector work.
Maybe I'm seeing something that isn't there. But the whole end bits with Hector left me with a tantalizing notion that the story I thought was unfolding was actually smoke and mirrors created by Hector for Wizard of Oz guy behind a curtain back in DC.
As for Hector and Jimmie McNulty? I can see them already guzzling a couple of cans at the end of shift and I bet Hector could get those cans up on that cop shop roof in one throw without missing a beat!
That is an interesting theory of having Hector use the persona of Shaw to destabilize BS at the behest of someone up higher.
It is something I'll keep on the backburner with a rewatch. It is certaunly within the rhealm of spycraft to get your enemy to do your work and as their idea. But it also gets complicated when you have too many players in the mix, such as Vos who proved to be a loose cannon.
Your theory on the hows and whys would make it similar to The Spy who Came in From the Cold where the intended target was the decoy, so hector as Shaw was there to bring out other possible bad elements in Berlin station, or at least get them enough on edge to expose any back-office games they had in play, such as Valerie's screw-up and Kirsch's desire to get out of Germany. Or maybe they needed to get Frost out with Frost believeing that he was lucky as opposed to Frost leaving with a grudge.
My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2
Interesting theory about Hector, but I recall Frost once complaining that Shaw initially targeted the CIA broadly, but lately (about the time of Hans entering the picture?) Shaw seemed to be focusing on Berlin Station.
I can't accept that Hector would do all this merely to rescue Faisal, given his heartache over both Clare and Julian. But, yes, it's a series sustaining theory for Hector if he indeed has a larger, more complicated agenda.
Yes, the company moves on BS are loose ends. Let's hope that there are seeds planted therein for Season 2.
As for targeting other CIA stations, I'd wondered if it was just a smokescreen to hide the fact that the true target for Hector (and his possible boss) was B.S. They could throw a few tidbits to "Shaw" to reveal from other stations--the old chestnut that you give up some info you don't care about losing to authenticate a spy.
Glad to see my totally crackpot theory about Hector is not perhaps seen to be as nutty as I'd thought when the epiphanies began to come after the conclusion of the season.
It seemed as though that whole epilogue with Hector could turn out to be Olen wagging his finger at us laughing and saying, "Oh so you thought you understood what just happened during the last 10 hours?? Haha on you!" :-))
It's a fanTAStic setup for season 2. To me anyway. It gets me doubting everything I saw for the past 10 hours, especially if this was some deep black ops move that accomplished a number of things for somebody's agenda. It launches Our Hector off in style for season 2, whether or not my theory holds any water.
The way Hector quickly shed that downtrodden rode-hard-and-put-up-wet persona to begin operating at another higher level to rescue Faisal seemed a visual and behavioral hint to me that now I wasn't sure I knew Hector at ALL.
What also makes me think that it's possible that Olen Steinhauer is pulling off this intense plot is that he's a sophisticated novelist. His novels are like this...what you see isn't always how it turns out, especially with the Yalta Boulevard series. He's VERY capable of writing this type of multi-layered and complex saga.
Oh well, if a cigar was just a cigar in this case and there isn't anything more to see here than a simple linear story, then that's okay, too. I'm still in! :-)
(Meanwhile, counting the hours for the last two episodes of "Weissensee" to be posted 12/27 on MHZ.org. ha. It's a (German) spy festival!
To Hector, being called back was a nuisance, but also a good cover.
He's an opportunist, but not in the traditional way, more in the vein of how the War on Terror had officiated, that was brewing since the early '90s: information is money.
He doesn't have an allegiance to any particular country, and has worked, or I assume, he had worked for the Russians, as hinted by the Gagarin painting, he might not even be an American at all. That and him calling Daniel brother in Russian.
Either the network catching on his activities, by which I mean something like Anonymous, not Wikilieaks, he has access to people who also grew tired of the actual petty games that intelligence agencies are playing, like interagency rivalries.
Faisal wanted freedom, and yes, he needed to be saved to counter the loss of Claire, but Hector wasn't entirely lying, Faisal did have connections to terrorism supporters.
If I were a betting man, I'd say, the biggest black market is actually big data, and how private companies are using them. Governments are the crocodiles to the lizards that are private, multinational companies producing bigger GDPs than some countries. Hector left behind what was concerning the public regarding governments, but has expected the consumers... excuse me, citizens will move on. Funny, I just watched a video on outdated technology we still use, and in regards to standard definition televisions, the reasons mentioned were costs and older shows produced in an era, that can't fit with new technology. The same technology, that blows up on us, its washing machines try to decapitate us, and its TVs spy on us, and that's just Samsung.
The commonality between the two is having top cats who rush results like a surgeon would need to operate with a cleaver, but private pays better, and does intend to reshape the world in a global fashion. Whereas intelligence agencies can pressure people into turning based on some vice that can be exploited, private intelligence actually recruits such people because they blend in, of course conditions on what blending in means depends on cultural perceptions.
Perhaps it was always his plan to bolt, and his PTSD might be real too, but the complexities of a person, unless they're insane, are connected to perceiving the complexities of the world, making the whistleblower an exhaust port to his trauma, but also a layer in his personality.
I live in the Gordius Apartment Complex, my interior designer was M.C. Esher.
Hector is some ways is modeled on Le Carre's "The Perfect Spy" wherein a weakness that makes them a great spy also makes them a great target to be flipped.
As I said in the beginning, a good spy show is multilayered, with short plays inside of increasingly longer plays, and as BS showed us in the final minutes, we may not even yet be privy to the longest play in the project.
Sadly, many TV spy shows are ruined by suits who feel the audience may not be able to comprehend and follow a really complex story, so they cut to chase and dumb it down for the masses (read Homeland).
My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2
I also applaud presenting Hector as a fallible human turning to a vice to cope with trauma, since anyone grasping the complexities of life and doesn't go insane, has at least one, and either lies about it or ignores key aspects to fit a subject narrative.
In my experience, the 4 things that can achieve global dominance is commerce, religion, political ideology and progressive intelligence.
Beneath the tin foil hat, more inquisitive people have a shot at realizing, that a lot of life is like aforementioned short game in a long game in a longer game, meaning, that a plethora of conspiracies transform people into Don Quijote fighting the windmill, whereas in reality these sinister forces only wish they could be this sinister, and are prone to rookie mistakes. If I were to compare Krug and Hans to the actual BKA and the BND, I'd rather live in Shaw's world, since real life has horribly demonstrated, how a person with a prison record with false IDs could raze a Christmas market, and leave the country without being stopped, something I've found infuriating since I've crossed Passau in peace times and got into a routine check, so fictional spies prevent ISIL brides, but real ones couldn't apprehend a volatile threat with ample time, despite being in their cross hairs since January. Then again fictional cops also don't shoot suspects lethally either, so it's gotten to a point, where realistic fiction seems more unlikely, than reality itself.
I live in the Gordius Apartment Complex, my interior designer was M.C. Esher.
A truly interesting thread that I'm in the middle of, but need say two things. One, most won't like, but they're all sociopaths or psychopaths. It's isn't a put-down, but an explanation of how they can be so 'cold-hearted' and never truly bond with anyone, are able to flip like a salad to this side or that. Also, remember the 'letterhead' on which Hector wrote his note, only he could deliver by the way, on a plane most likely owned and operated by the same logo: The White House.
Like many things in life, does the job create a certain type of person, or are certain people better suited for particular types of jobs, ie, do musicians become alcoholics, are are alcoholics attracted to the musician lifestyle.
I worry that with all the anti-bullying campaigns in public schools that we will face a shortage of police officers in the future, as 95% of cops were either perpetrators or victims. Just sayin.
My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2
Right! I follow you. Most people who enter 'protecting' or 'catching' abusers were and made the choice not to become their abusers. Yet, even in this show, you see that fine line they walk every single day. Hector with Julian for example.
But it isn't just law enforcement that sociopaths and high-functioning psychopaths are found. They're church leaders, how ironic, but, also, they're in politics, the military, as this 'type' of personality can do what us neuro-normal individuals cannot: remain detached, disassociated, focused, calm under extreme pressure... and why I like watching "Criminal Minds" and spy stuff, because I know, I'd be lousy at it.
Also, those who aren't good at it, or maybe are too good, become blinded to being on ANY side. Perhaps like Hans? He turned out to be a piece of work. But, if you got the back-story on all the agents you'd find links to similar backgrounds... and/or parenting, or perhaps, the lack of it.
I know an actor. A famous one. The job has changed him. Dramatically. He may not have been "right [in the head completely]" when he went into 'the business' but, trust me, it has affected him completely. You see too much. The stimulation is overwhelming. No way can you return either. I guess he could "go religion" but, then, that would mean ridding himself of everyone and leaving a 'game' he likes playing. But, you can "sell your soul" for fame, money, pleasure. And that cost is, well, costly. The price too high to buy it back, the debts compile, become overbearing. It a tragedy. And I'm not even talking drugs. I'm talking the price of fame, fortune, success.
But, in truth, we often find a place to feed our addictions in our workplace, job, career choices.
It's a very interesting question to wonder chicken and egg with people who do specific jobs and are good at them.
After 40 years or so in the DC mix having known people I'm fairly certain were doing what not...I've wondered about that question for years.
One thing I have seen is that no matter how it works with regard to does the job make the person or does the person make the job, the compartmentalization they live with seems to take a very heavy toll eventually. Alcohol being a key go-to medication, especially since taking an aspirin practically has to be reported for the clearances.
It begs the question that if one of the two biggest things in your life--your work--has to be completely walled off from the rest of your life-family and friends--what eventually does that to do the way you function in your relationships?
Also, there is always "something" in these folks that you can detect when you suspect they are on the game. It's a vibe that I cannot put into words. The best way I can describe it is to pick up on the way in which they don't say things. Not the way they do. There is always a sense of very studied misdirection in conversations that seems practiced. It's subtle but you can pick up on it if you know to look for it.
That's why the idea that a sociopath is well placed to do that kind of job isn't far off. The only problem is they have to be able to look utterly random and normal to everybody they meet. And a dysfunction like sociopath would be a block to the intelligence and instinct it takes for them to intelligently separate out work that cannot be shared outside their circle, and the rest of their life. It's a balancing act that won't work if they are saddled with something as serious as a socipathic diagnosis.
Well said! I'm in there with you till the last paragraph. The intellect is there. The keen eye, or instinct, as these folks learned since little how to read people, based mostly, sadly, on one or several of the 5 types of child abuse or trauma. For instance, we have Daniel and his mom. That loss. It did what? Shut him down? Turn him into a protector? A fighter, but not a psychopathic killer, per se, as we need to keep in mind sociopaths have the one ability psychopaths don't, the ability to empathize. Daniel can. Hector can as well. Most of the team can, but they're very intensely paranoid, and rightly so.
So, how can you form relationships, or friendships, when you never know if you're being worked? Best not to for more than one reason, forming those bonds can remove you from your job. To be successful at work you need to leave home at home and work at work. This is why Esther and Daniel won't work. She can't let her 'veil' down and neither can he. And, by the way, she did spot him at her purse. I guess that'll escalate in S3. And remember what Frost said, don't mistake anyone for a friend, you're same-missioned colleagues with like-minded skills all bent, hopefully, on the same mission. In this case, I'm not even certain I'm all onboard for it, how about you?
Amazing, though, that Hans & Fraulein could find and identify Thomas Shaw and Julian deVoss so easily while the Americans could not. (Though Daniel was indeed getting there.)
So with CobblerAwls theory in mind, Hector is tasked with removing some bad elements at Berlin Station. He shows up and does some miscellaneous exposes as Thomas Shaw. A higher up at the CIA or WhiteHouse knows that Hans is angry with the Americans over Merkel's taps, so they provide a pointer to Hector as Shaw and thus create an environment where Hans is now doing the bidding of the CIA but is actually thinking it is his operation.* This is best because if it all blows up, Hans takes the blame for running a rogue operation, and none of it points back to the CIA higher ups who are doing it. So basically, the director is running an op which the deputy director isn't aware of (Shaw), so the deputy director has to be removed lest they jeopardize the op. Yes, very convoluted.
* there was a guy who used to visit our neighborhood playground with a metal detector. About once a month I'd drop an Indian head penny or Buffalo nickel in the wood chips. If a kid found it, we might have a new coin collector. But I was always hoping the metal detector guy would find it, which would encourage him to come back to search that playground, and while looking for valuables he might also discover other dangerous metal objects that might hurt kids. Basically, I had a guy working for me for about 50 cents an hour, only he didn't know it.
My Chimp DNA seems to have lost its password temporarily. Sluggr-2
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Hearing Daniels voice (Richard Armitage has a beautiful voice by the way)as if he were Thomas Shaw reminded me of the beginning of Person of Interest season 4 when we hear Roots voice talking: When you hear this your're alone.... That is a cool intro and a mystery which is solved in the last episode.
One thing is for certain, thankfully Frost will never run another CIA operation. He and his wife are hopefully retiring and moving to France. Can't believe his wife, Hillary?, stuck with him after his affair. It was a total setup, I know, but the way Frost completely lost his composure and bungled the entire hostage negotiations showed that he had no business being there.
Kirsch is another piece of work. The whole line about him playing Golda was BS- he would have done anything to get back to the States. If it weren't for the mall and negotiation f-up, he'd be doing a stint in Tel Aviv (not sure how working for the Mossad would get him closer to his son, though).
Valerie had a massive chip on her shoulder through the entire season, but working under those buffoons, I guess I can't blame her, too much. I hope she runs Kirsch out and takes over in the next season.
But for me Sandra having a cover identity is not surprising. She is after all a CIA agent that has top secret clearance. She probably is in Germany as a "cultural liaison" which in itself would be a cover of the real reason she is there...to work in the CIA part of the embassy or wherever. I thought that part is great because you just wouldn't expect it from her, but it makes total sense.
lol at Hans and Frost's relationship. We all know it is a fake. They are spies, can you really trust ANYTHING they say or do? Every time they were having dinner, it was probably after they discovered something and wanted to get a read off of the other person. They couldn't even trust Clay who is on the same side, no way you would really expect them to trust Hans.
The spy-spy relationship was also hinted at with Esther and Daniel, they both got close to the other because they needed intel, or in Esther's case she also wanted to flip him.
I also found it fun that it was all just a huge screw up. But I didn't really understand the details of the eyewash and what was washed. Probably I was too exhausted when I was watching.