Hello Treadstone lovers!
Ready for another Treadstone Trek?
“The McKenna Erasure” written by Tim Kring and Tyler Hisel, and directed by Salli Richardson-Whitfield, we get to take a ride on the transformational journeys of several heroes caught up in the mystery behind USA Network‘s Treadstone.
In this episode of the Jason Bourne saga/black ops thriller Treadstone, Doug McKenna (played by Brian J Smith) and Samantha (played by Tess Haubrich) take a ride to a new home…. And a new identity . Soyun of North Korea (played by Hyo-Joo Han), dazzles in a blue dress while she collects intel and takes on Russians and North Koreans.
Journalist Tara (Tracy Ifaechor) is hot on the trail to connect with the Stiletto Six broker Yuri Leniov (played by Merab Ninidze). Finally, a road trip ends with a bang for CIA agent Matt Edwards (played by Omar Metwaly) and Stephen Haynes (played by Patrick Fugit), when several SUVs chock full of Farm Boys catch up with our two favorite fugitives and force feed a bullet to Haynes.
The McKenna Erasure:
Doug Takes a Ride to the Other Side
The episode begins with Doug in the house that exploded on him, and on us, in the final cliffhanging scene of the last episode The Paradox Andropov.
But while the home owners were hurt and the kitchen is a mess, Doug survived the blast, and again we get to see the happily married operatives Doug and Sam get busy making killer moves on yet another assassin responsible for the blasted interior. He was there to take out homeowner Marcus Sachs .
(Note: Doug does not know this man, nor why this man is a target of the Cicada-managing agents. He only learned that this man was a target, just like him, when he eavesdropped on the operatives).
Doug was there to prevent the kill. Dr. Sachs and his wife did not make it out alive. That is sad. But, in a good way, neither does Doug.
In high action style, Doug takes on the house-blastin’ assassin “mano y mano” (with crucial help from the “womano” Samantha) in a tremendous fight scene that includes fists, knives, and guns!
Doug is able to successfully lay the assassin down for his eternal nap after a knock down drag out fight sequence that was extremely realist.
Doug then hits on a bold idea: use the present circumstances to throw off the Cicada program team who are still seeking to exterminate him. He has Samantha take his picture as “Dead Doug” with the assassin’s mobile phone.
Together Doug and Samantha send that image (along with the image of poor homeowners Marcus Sachs and wife) to the people who gave the kill order. They receive the “confirmed” kills, send back orders to destroy Doug’s body, and Doug and Samantha set about leaving with the body of the Assassin, who will now get to play the role of Dead Doug.
Doug and Samantha next travel to Assassin’s house with Doug assuming the role of the dead Cicada killer. This is replete with Kenn of WormholeRiders asking, and Brian Jacob Smith admitting that he actually shaved his head for the episode on Twitter to resemble the dead CIA agent!
Their ultimate goal?
For Samantha and Doug able to somehow be able to resume a normal life sometime in the future. Clever plan!
Soyun Hits the Town
Catching the eye of Russian Stiletto Six broker Yuri Leniov, who is in town to meet with the prospective North Korean buyers in the back room of a night club, it is easy for Soyun to do her stuff in her cute sparkly blue dress.
It gets Soyun close enough to flirt with him…and to bug him!
Now she can overhear the conversation Yuri has with her wicked Cicada handler Colonel Shin (played by Lee Jong-hyeok).
To better understand what the hell is going on with her and her husband Dae, Soyun has planted a listening device on her target and overhears him say “That family will never know just how useful they were,”
After Soyun overhears him say that, I guess he will never know how wrong he was to underestimate Soyun. Hell hath no fury as a Soyun scorned when we witness Soyun kicking arse in the night club in a fight scene worthy of Soyun being one of the Marvel Avengers in Endgame!
Daytripper Tara Goes Sight Seeing in Moscow
Tara leaves the devastation she experienced in Berlin, where her best friend was shot in the head in front of her, to pursue Stiletto Six, and she knows a guy in Moscow who is just the man to help her. Nolan Lavelle is his name (played by Set Sjöstrand). He is a broker in intelligence, so he is able to fill her in on the connection between Treadstone, Stiletto Six, Blackbriar (the black ops program that had failed with the help of Jason Bourne), and his knowledge about what it all means.
Nolan explains that all these things are wrapped up in a new “human performance and enhancement, I am talking about the next wave of military operations.” To help Tara he sets his team to work on gathering intel on Yuri Leniov, and they discover quickly that Yuri indeed has a link to Stiletto Six that goes back a few decades… along with a program called Cicada.
Bingo!
“That’s what General Kwon (played by Tzi Ma) mentioned!”
Tara gasps, and this puts two more puzzle pieces together in her head. “He said they were waking the Cicadas!” Tara recalls.
Tara is still in the dark about what exactly a Cicada is, but it is worth observing that the Cicadas themselves are also in the dark about who they are.
But it is helpful intel for Tara that she now has a connection between Yuri and Kwon on two fronts:
The ICBM missile sale, and she now has more knowledge of the Cicada program in both North Korea and agents of the former Soviet Union.
This puts Tara hot on the trail…. wait fot it!
To meet with Old Petra in a stunning development at the end of the episode!
Two CIA Guys on the Lam
Home office is on the hunt for Farm Boy Matt Edwards and rogue Cicada Stephen Haynes. Together they have formed a trust-centered partnership, knowing that something sinister is behind the very existence of Cicada Haynes, and that the something sinister begins with the letters C.I.A.
Because of this, they both know Haynes’ destiny is spelled D-E-A-D, and the orders of Director Dan Levine (played by Michael Gaston) will be to shoot Haynes on sight, and that Edwards’ superior Ellen Becker (played by Michelle Forbes) will be pressed to comply.
The two are on the run, but they finally settle on a plan to give up in such a way to come in peacefully, and hopefully, alive. Once Edwards and Haynes have succeeded to surrender, and their wrists secured in zip ties, the camera zooms in on Edwards’ face, to see the painful reaction he feels as we hear the sound of a single gunshot.
We are left to assume that Haynes had seen this coming, that he was resigned to his impending death, that he had made his peace with a last look at his daughter. We are left to assume that the bullet found its way into Haynes’ brain pan, and he found his way to the hereafter.
We are left to assume it, anyway…
The Questions for the Week
This week’s questions are fairly well laid out in the dialogue, and Matt Edwards confronts Ellen Becker when he is brought in for questioning.
1. “Who woke up Haynes?”
2. “Why did he kill an ex whistle blower in that store?”
3. “Who is the the agency woman in that photo I sent you?” Carol Jane Devers (played by Kerry Godliman), the person Haynes identified as being his handler.
4. What’s her connection to all of this?
The fourth question gets a partial answer this week. Edwards does a little research on his own time and finds out Carol Jane Devers was involved in a organization called Fair Trade Fellows.
Guess who else is on the board of advisors?
Why, Yuri is, that’s who!
Guess who else? Senator Eamon Wray.
Small world, isn’t it?
But this little homework exercise has got Edwards under the microscope of his boss’ supervisor Dan Levine. Something tells me that Dan is no Dudley Do-Right.
Final Thoughts
Soyun successfully escapes from the night club alive, ending up safe in an American embassy by the end of this episode.
Tara is able to confirm to Edwards in a phone call that Yuri was behind the murder of her friend in Berlin, and that she is on her way to find the only remaining former agent of the KGB program called Cicada. Her name is Sonya Andropov, but we know her as Petra…
And we also know that Dan Levine is listening.
Team WHR suggests you tune into USA Network next Tuesday at 10 PM EST/PST for the next exciting episode of Treadstone!
Thank you for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency. And thanks to Kenn for embedding the videos and the additional images for my report. I will be back in the near future for the Treadstone season one finale and the ongoing adventures of the awakening Cicada sleepers!
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Best Regards,
Hi Katherine
What an intriguing episode with so may answers revealed about where Treadstone has been and where this outstanding series is headed as we move towards the season one finale. Thank you for a great analysis of The McKenna Erasure! You nailed it!
Best Regards,
Kenn of #TeamWHR