Episode 5--WOW!
This episode is the absolute best yet, fast paced and tense, with the characters finally beginning to reveal who they might be and what might be truly motivating them. It's not surprising that these turns and reveals occur at the exact mid point of a 10-episode season. While we are still in the dark about what is motivating some of these people and what agendas they are really pursuing, we can see that many of them are rogue players and it's not all about keeping Americans safe, that's for sure. These people are not entirely trustworthy.
What a great pre-title opening, with Voss singing nude in the bathroom while hitting on his coke pipe. Some people drink coffee, others need a stronger pick me up. I forget the title of the fantastic song--somebody refresh my memory. It should be noted that Voss's alter ego is stunningly revealed at the end of this episode. Did not see that coming.
Rhys Ifans as Hector DeJean has practically eclipsed all the other actors in this series--he plays Hector with all the charming malevolence of a powerful street corner drug dealer. When he is on screen, all eyes on him; his smooth sliminess portrayed to perfection. I think I can say with all certainty that he is Thomas Shaw, the whistleblower he and his agency are actively seeking. It remains unclear, however, why this is so. What is his beef? Is this a personal agenda, does he want to bring down Berlin Station, is his mindset in sync with those who believe the govt is corrupt and overreaching, or is he motivated by something uniquely personal? Or is he a construction of the warring elements within the intelligence agency itself?
Leland Orser as the number two at Berlin Station, Robert Kirsch, has some of his best scenes ever, the best his hysterical rant with his boss and buddy, Steven Frost over how to conduct an operation on some young girls who have pledged themselves as ISIL brides. Richard Jenkins, too, has never been better as the enigmatic Frost, head of Berlin Station, whose pedestrian face expertly conceals his true intentions and viewpoints. Michelle Edwards as Valerie Jenkins, the aggrieved female agent in Berlin Station, is also wonderful in this scene by virtue of her silence in the midst of this chest-thumping between Frost & Kirsch. Although quiet, Valerie is indeed ambitious and it's likely she might emerge on top when the corruption of & conflict between Frost & Kirsch bring them down.
Kirsch, though, no matter what crimes bind him to his buddy Frost, is finally fed up being discounted as just a number two whose thoughts don't matter. He thinks the operation against Iasova, an ISIL terrorist apparently, is being bungled and at the end of the episode throws in with the Israelis as their covert agent.
Daniel Meyer (Richard Armitrage), the star of this series, who's the agent with a double duty--to find Thomas Shaw as the undercover mission while playing a regular agent for Berlin Station--remains paranoid and distrustful of all around him (for good reason). Is Frost, who declares he's replacing Gemma Moore as Meyer's handler for the sub rosa Shaw mission, really to be trusted in that role? Meyer wonders when Frost stops him from pursuing the Voss-Shaw investigation (who helped Voss escape from that black site? obviously, Hector's name might emerge here) & orders him to focus on discrediting an upcoming Shaw leak about People's Liberation Army General Lin by returning their Lin, their asset, to China for inevitable capture and death before the leak broadcasts. Here we learn that the US partner, the Germans, know something about Daniel Meyer, about his mother, which is revealed by a German agent Meyer sleeps with after Lin is put on a plane. Meyer instantly backs off, but we are left to wonder who is really playing Meyer-his own people at Berlin Station or the German allies, or both?
In addition to great story development, the camera work was just stunning and added an edginess and tenseness to the story in the way scenes were framed and characters shot. So far, one of the best TV spy shows I've watched in a long time.