Counterpart 1.10

No Man's Land, Part Two

Howard Prime escapes the building in the aftermath of the attack. Angel Eyes, the attacker who made it into the crossing is still alive. He makes his way to the wall but people from both sides leave him there.

Clare's father gives a statement to the press that there was just one attacker, a disgruntled employee. Peter and Clare, both survived the crash. She has bruises and cuts but nothing too serious. She heads home after she has been bandaged. He has his arm in a sling but he is able to leave the hospital later that day. She advises him to go straight into the office once he leaves the hospital, which he does. 

Groups meet on both sides to discuss what happened in the Alpha universe and what to do about it. Emily and Ian, in the Prime universe, report their finding about the school to the meeting. Peter is in the meeting on the Alpha side. Upper management, which participates in the meeting through an intermediary, turns to Peter for his opinion. He recommends doing nothing. Both sides decide to do the same thing, nothing.

Aldrich and Cyrus investigate the shooters. They find their dead counterparts in their apartments. Cyrus wants to go after Clare but Aldrich tells him to find Howard Silk. Cyrus doesn't follow the instructions Aldrich gave him. He goes to Clare's house, waits until her mother leaves, and then goes up to the house to confront her.

Greta confronts Baldwin. She shows her the obituary that she found of Nadia Fierro. She looks in Baldwin's bag and finds the gun. Baldwin won't answer her questions so Greta kicks her out. Baldwin leaves with tears in her eyes.

Howard Alpha turns to Alexander Pope for help getting back to his world. Pope wants a favor in return which Howard isn't willing to give him. Pope starts to pull out a gun but Howard gets him in the head with a metal rod killing him before Pope can kill him. 

The crossing is closed by the Alpha universe after Angel Eyes dies. 

Howard Prime gives Aldrich a call to tell him that he is leaving town. He asks Aldrich to keep an eye on Emily. Aldrich tells Howard that the border is closing and that he has known that he's from the other side. He also tells him that he is going to remove the detail keeping an eye on Emily and then hangs up.

Ian show up and takes Howard into custody. He has him sent to Echo, a secret detention facility.

Howard Prime goes to the hospital and makes a deal with Baldwin before she can kill Emily. He gives her a lot of cash. She accepts his offer and kills Aldrich and his four of his men on the way out of the hospital.

Peter comes home and finds Clare scrubbing the floor. Cyrus is dead.

Ian tells Emily about what happened to Pope and that he knows that the Howard they have been dealing with isn't her Howard.

Howard Prime catches up to Quayle in a bar. Quayle tells him that he has been put in charge of the hunt for the mole. Howard makes him a deal. He won't say anything about Clare if Peter won't bother Emily.

The next day Howard goes to the hospital and reads to Emily: You, you only, exist by Rainer Maria Rilke. 

Thoughts

This episode feels like two stories in one. The first part, which is roughly half of the episode, deals with the aftermath of the attack. The second part winds everything else down for the season.

There's a certain symmetry to killing off both Aldrich and Pope in this episode. They didn't seem to be exact copies of one another.

In some ways it feels as though Peter and Clare have become at least as important to this story as Howard and Howard.

What comes next? How long will the crossing stay closed. Are there other crossing points that have not been revealed yet? What happens to the embassy? Is there an embassy in the Prime universe?

I did not foresee all the twists and turns in this season closer. It wasn't quite as tight as I wanted it to be. It does seem to set things up for the next season. I'm glad that I enjoyed the ride because the end point was a bit lacking in my opinion. It felt like they spent the last 10-20 minutes setting things up for the next season. That isn't unusual in this day and age.