Counterpart 1.02

Birds of a Feather

Emily Prime tries to take Howard Prime into custody. She has an order for his capture. He kills her men and escapes. He meets with Alexander Pope who has obtained a 36-hour pass for him to the other side. Another contact gets him Baldwin's real name. Emily Prime gets reprimanded by her superiors.

Howard Prime crosses back over. He gets Aldrich to get Howard Silk. Prime refuses to do anything until Howard is involved. Nadia Fierro, Baldwin's counterpart, is a concert violinist. They watch her rehearse from a distance.

Howard Prime approaches Nadia in a bar without revealing who he is. Howard goes with Aldrich and some of Aldrich's men to dig through Nadia's apartment while she is in the bar. They find her childhood home address and head there in the hopes that they will find Baldwin there. 

Baldwin has been given orders to kill Nadia. She is reluctant. She goes to Nadia's apartment and gets there in time to see Howard and Aldrich leaving. She searches around. Nadia and Baldwin share flashbacks to their past. Their fathers were very strict with them. They saw their fathers die before their eyes and stood by when they could have done something to save them.

Baldwin causes a commotion and grabs Nadia. She heads into the concert hall. She has both the police and Aldrich and his men on her tail, although the two groups aren't working together. One of Aldrich's men kills Nadia. Aldrich gave the order and he shrugs off the loss. Howard slugs him.

Thoughts

One interesting piece of information that gets dropped in this episode is that there used to be just one universe but something happened 30 years ago that caused a split. That is presumably why there are so many similarities between the two worlds. Could Howard have something to do with that split? He came to work for the company 30 years ago. Interesting timing.

I don't think Prime is evil. I'm not so sure about Emily Prime. What is her deal. She seems to work for the same company as Howard, her ex-husband, but why are they then at odds? There could be a legitimate reason but what is it?

I don't know if I will ultimately find this show (or even this season) satisfying but I am still intrigued to see where it goes. I think it will mostly come down to how J.K. Simmons plays the roles of the two Howards.