The Veil Recap: Guess Who Imogen’s Really Working For?
“Everybody works for us, sooner or later,” Max says in The Veil’s trailer, and “sooner” turns out to mean “this week’s episode.”
Episode 3, aka “The Asset,” reveals that Imogen and Max know each other quite well and have worked out a mutually beneficial deal, one that could shed light on the murky details surrounding her father’s death.
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Which is good and all, but, guys? There’s a ship carrying a nuclear bomb, and it’s preparing to shove off as we speak. So, focus?
Read on for the highlights of “The Asset.”
THE GRUESOME PREPARATIONS BEGIN | At the top of the hour, the man who found Adilah’s note in the djinn book at the end of the previous episode arrives at the camp where she used to be held. He unearths a wrapped cell phone from under a big rock, kills the camp personnel who tell him to identify himself, then takes off in a car. He calls someone listed as “Monday” in his phone — remember how the djinns all had different days of the week? — and a man in an abandoned hospital in Mosul, Iraq, answers. That man then wakes up two others, saying, “I got the call. It’s time.”
Then the man who infiltrated the camp is abruptly killed by a sniper who drives off in the now-free car. And in Iraq, “Monday” tells the other two men to put on their death shrouds, because they’ll be so radioactive when they’re done with their next task that no one will be able to touch their corpses. They do as they’re told, then head down to the building’s X-ray unit, where they withdraw radioactive material, safely transfer it to a portable container, then die from exposure — all within a few minutes.
WELCOME HOME | During a stop at Bulgaria’s Sofia Airport, a seemingly random man approaches Adilah under the guise of giving her a tip about the chess game she’s playing while killing time with Imogen: “Your king is now where it should be. All will now fall into place.” GUYS, I THINK IT’S A SECRET MESSAGE. The ladies make it through the immigration checkpoint in Paris, and Imogen watches while Adilah reunites with her daughter and aunt.
A while later, Imogen meets Malik at a restaurant. He says the case has been reopened, thanks to the deaths at the refugee camp and the sniper’s victim. He warns Imogen that her apartment is being surveilled… which she figured. He’s frustrated. She lovingly warns him to back off. Then, to prove a point, she loudly pretends to be an American southerner who just got proposed to, making a scene in front of everyone at the eatery. “Adilah El Aldrisi is a shapeshifter,” she says in her normal voice, smirking at Malik, when she’s done, “and so am I.” Then they go back to his place and have sex.
Afterward, he tells her that she disappears too much into her alter egos, even for a spy. Then she leaves for a meet-up with Adilah — but not the one they arranged via a phone call, because every intelligence agency in the Western Hemisphere seems to be listening in on her calls — and promises to debrief Malik in the morning. “I’ll have you followed,” he warns. “Ooh, good luck with that!” she chirps back. Then she dumps her cell phone on the street and deftly removes a tracker that he stealthily (or so he thought) slipped into her shirt.
GRAVE DANGER | Meanwhile, Adilah calls the sniper, telling him that she still can’t discern how much Imogen knows about “our plan.” Then she meets Imogen at their prearranged rendezvous spot — Jim Morrison’s grave — because it’s near something else Adilah wants to show her: Adilah’s grandfather’s grave. Adilah pulls an old revolver out of the back of the headstone (!) and points it at Imogen, demanding the truth about why she’s helping her.
And that’s when we get Imogen’s back story. Her father, a British diplomat, was assassinated in Istanbul when she was 16. She’s fairly certain he was an intelligence agent of some kind, and that the CIA was really behind his killing. Imogen worked in embassies around the world before getting recruited for MI6. And then she adds a little bonus truth: The DNA test performed on Adilah’s daughter’s hair proves that she’s not the person they suspected she was. But “on the other hand, maybe you aren’t entirely innocent,” she adds.
Imogen continues that she’s obsessed with the idea of self-annihilation and those who seek it, which is why she’s still helping Adilah. “And I like you,” she adds. “I never really like anyone.” Adilah says she believes Imogen, and lowers the gun.
ANCHORS AWEIGH! | With that out of the way, the pair goes to a bar. Adilah knows the Americans will never let her walk away, “so will you help me and my daughter get to safety?” Instead of answering, Imogen goes out for a smoke. While she’s gone, a man approaches and offers to pay her tab. He slips her a 50 Euro bill with a note: “Meet me tomorrow 20:00 Le Rik. Bring her. This has to end. — E” She quickly hides the note in her shirt.
Meanwhile, Imogen meets up with Max (!) outside the bar. “She’s playing a double game,” she tells him, and as they talk, we learn that Imogen and Max have an understanding: She’ll keep French intelligence at bay if he’ll confirm that the CIA killed her dad — “and I want to know why.” When Adilah comes out to find her, Max is gone. Imogen says she’ll help her, but that Adilah has to stay with Imogen until they figure out a plan.
Meanwhile, the sniper turns out to be a naval officer who’s head of the ship that will carry — unbeknownst to most of its crew — the radioactive material harvested at the start of the episode. As he addresses his sailors, he announces that they’re about to make a goodwill trip to the East Coast of the United States. Gulp.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of Episode 3? Sound off in the comments!
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