Counterpart - S1E10 - No Man’s Land, Part 2

Previously on Counterpart, “No Man’s Land, Part 1”

The first season of Counterpart ended as though there won’t be a second one. Thankfully for us, that’s not the case. Major players died, the crossing has been closed, and one Howard Silk takes up Emily’s bedside vigil - an ending neatly tied, but the double dealings that got us there have so much potential for an explosive second season.

First, the matter of the massacre: With Emily Prime taking point on her side, and Management deferring to Peter Quayle’s advice since he’s (supposedly) the only one who saw it coming on the other side, it is decided that the Prime side will not acknowledge the dying shooter currently bleeding out in the crossing. This is against Emily’s suggestion that they offer full transparency and deny any knowledge of Project Indigo. As the doors are closed between the two worlds — leaving Angel Eyes’ dead body in between — Alpha side resolves to rooting out the remaining “Guests,” with no idea that the man in charge of the hunt is married to one.

Howard Prime’s plan to flee the country — he’s smart enough to know his chances of traveling home freely are slim to none — is halted when Aldrich threatens to remove Emily’s hospital security, leaving her vulnerable to Baldwin finishing the job she was hired to do. And the assassin attempts to do just that after her lover breaks things off due to Baldwin’s lies. Prime convinces Baldwin to walk away, and pays her even more than Pope/Clare had. On her way out of the hospital, Baldwin takes out several of Aldrich’s men before killing the main man himself, payback for him murdering her other.

Even before Clare was revealed to be Peter Quayle’s wife, we knew his marriage was in trouble. Oddly enough, by the end of “No Man’s Land, Part 2”, it appears the two may be closer than ever, allies whether they like it or not. Or is Clare still playing him? She sees their accident not as a suicide attempt (Peter was wearing his seatbelt), but as attempt to provide them a cover. His frightened looks every time she came close to his hospital bed suggest it wasn’t a suicide attempt for him, but quite possibly a murder attempt on her. Later, he finds Clare cleaning blood off the kitchen floor with Cyrus’ dead body nearby. Having been told she was the mole, Aldrich sent Cyrus to silence Clare. She silenced him instead. He holds her and she allows herself to rest in his arms, clutching at him with blood-covered kitchen gloves. After he asks what he can do to help he’s seen at a bar (being informed by Prime that they’ll be working together now that he’s stuck there; if Quayle protects “his” wife, Prime will keep quiet about Clare), and when he returns home the kitchen is pristine and Clare is preparing supper. Ozzy and Harriet they are not, so how this relationship plays out in season two should be interesting.

No one’s life has taken a complete turn like Howard Alpha’s. He has accepted the fact that the life on Prime’s side isn’t his and he’s accepted that he didn’t truly know his wife, but it doesn’t matter. He wants to go and turns to Pope, of all people, to help him. He promises to take Emily far away so she won’t be a threat to Project Indigo or anything else Pope may have planned. This is proof that he still doesn’t know his wife if he thinks that’s going to work, and he certainly doesn’t know Pope. Pope will help, but only if Howard agrees to work for him. He seemed to take pride in turning the meek, mild-mannered Howard Prime into the man he is now; why wouldn’t he want to try it again? When Howard refuses, Pope gets nasty, and then that side of Howard — that Prime side — emerges once more and Howard kills him with a fireplace poker. Ian is called in to clean up the mess, and, to him, Howard Alpha is just like his counterpart. As such, he has Howard taken to a black ops site where he will rot in a cell. That is, until season two when Emily Prime finds out.

Finally, Howard Prime settles into his counterpart’s life for the foreseeable future. After admitting that he does care for Emily Alpha, he takes up his other’s place at her hospital bedside, reading to her.

If you’re a Premium member, head over to Patreon to leave your thoughts on the episode and we’ll read them on tonight’s podcast.