S01.E10: The Cicada Covenant

[mxc90]

Quote

First Aired: December 17, 2019

Bentley makes a choice; Tara takes action, and Edwards runs into complications.

[theschnauzers]

Seems to me this is a season finale set up for a second season around these same characters.

[mxc90]

Was this a season finale? Did they answer anything?

I'll be surprised if this makes a second season!! They should have wrapped up/gotten rid of a lot of story lines.  

Why is Dan only killed and not Ellen?

Those two with Sam couldn't see through her BS. Why is she alive?

Was Tara under the "Cicada" spell to kill Yuri or was she going after him for just good ole revenge?

"Terminator" Tara leaps out the window and doesn't break any bones and then get hit by a car/gets up with a very slight limp. 

Yuri leaves the keys to his cars already in the ignition.

Real smart to send Haynes, so Matt can recognize him and get a head start to run away.

Soyun just casually strolls back to North Korea and goes home. Was she ever detained and questioned? Oh! Her mother (we haven't seen all season) just happens pop in so we can know she was given up to the "special" program when she was young.

Soyun's husband is worried about her so he decides to send his son away??

The old priest takes a vicious beaten from two soldiers, yet he has recovered enough in time to stitch up Doug's little cut. That man must have some serious spiritual healing! 

All those men got beat by Petra who has 9 fingers.

So we started the season with Bentley as the prisoner to young Petra then we end with young Petra being the prisoner to Bentley. Who has/had control over Bentley (the CIA or KGB)?

The only Cicada that got the job done tonight was the Spanish girl. Treadstone doesn't have a high success rate (may need to rethink this program's training)!!!!!! 

Edited December 18, 2019 by mxc90

[blackwing]

I was so hoping that Doug and his wife would die.  
 

So the last scene confirms that Bentley did not marry Petra.  So who was her husband?  Just a random who had no clue about her background for 45 years?

[WatchrTina]

On 12/18/2019 at 12:10 AM, mxc90 said:

Was this a season finale?

I've been binge-watching this show all day but if this ep is the season finale I'm OUT.  I've been waiting all season to find out what became of the guy who was being tortured/programmed in the 1970's flashbacks.  Instead they just end with that tease?  Infuriating.  And insulting to the fans.

I love Robert Ludlum and read all the Bourne books with great satisfaction.  Color me disappointed in this series.

[Loandbehold]

3 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

I've been binge-watching this show all day but if this ep is the season finale I'm OUT.  I've been waiting all season to find out what became of the guy who was being tortured/programmed in the 1970's flashbacks.  Instead they just end with that tease?  Infuriating.  And insulting to the fans.

It was the season finale.

I think there's a good story here, but they decided to give peeks at a number of different stories w/o tying any of them together. Like, is there one Treadstone program? If so, did it begin in East Berlin? Did the US successfully steal it? Or were there two programs developed concurrently that just happened to have remarkable similarities? And how and where were the present people trained? We had cicadas from the US, Britain, a country in I want to say South America but don't recall where, and North Korea. Were they trained in the same one or two places, or did the US and USSR / Russia give away the training method to their allies / vassal states?

For the first season, I would have preferred seeing more of how the program was developed and the cicadas trained, then following them on their first missions. In future seasons, we can then learn and watch the cicadas in their cover lives when they become activated. There would then be mystery but I wouldn't have been completely lost.

3 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

I love Robert Ludlum and read all the Bourne books with great satisfaction.  Color me disappointed in this series.

Ditto. 

[nuraman00]

So the car that Tara took, already had the keys in the ignition?

 

How did Petra go from being a prisoner, to living out on the farm guarding the missile?

 

I thought the US promised that SoYun would have her family (at least the husband and son) safe.  Why didn't that happen?  I figured she'd be able to live in the U.S.

 

Why would she stay in North Korea, knowing that her family would continue to be used as a target to get SoYun to cooperate in Treadstone activities?

 

I forgot, did Yuri Leniov make it to the end of the episode alive?

 

This episode only provided a resolution on the Doug/Sam story.  Most of the other characters are left dangling.

 

Sure, if they want to set up a 2nd season, leave the modern day Bentley and Petra as the tease for the 2nd season, and wrap up all of the other ones.

[Ottis]

I enjoyed the season. The Treadstone program was bigger than anyone knew in the movies, bayonets were happening outside the US and now some secret group has activated it again for its own purposes and the program, which was admittedly already dubious, has been “corrupted.” So w shave a few people who know this and the beginnings of a side to root for. 

i liked the complexity and multiple story lines. We needed to see more about the abilities the program helps create, to explain some of what we saw. I hope there is a second season. 

[paigow]

Still not sure why cicadas were needed, Treadstone operatives blended in to society, no waking required.

[paigow]

Tara was in Cyprus trying to kill Yuri, failed, then made it to Amsterdam in time to save Edwards....We used to get angry about Jack Bauer making unrealistic car trips within L.A......

[John Potts]

Poor Petra. Of all the curtailed storylines, I’m kinda curious as to how (Past) Petra led to the (Present) Petra of the first episode. Though it would somewhat explain why she was left to rot in Siberia for all those decades if they thought she might have blabbed to the CIA.

Does this leave Ellen in charge of the CIA (or at least, that section dealing with Treadstone)? And who sent the assassin to kill Ellen’s boss*? Though he probably deserved death for making the classic bad guy mistake of hearing a gunshot and just assuming the “right” person had been shot.

On 12/18/2019 at 6:10 AM, mxc90 said:

The only Cicada that got the job done tonight was the Spanish girl. Treadstone doesn't have a high success rate (may need to rethink this program's training)

Though it would be in keeping with many government programmes to go "Well, this isn't working, but if we keep trying, maybe we can get it right!"

On 12/18/2019 at 6:10 AM, mxc90 said:

Those two with Sam couldn't see through her BS. Why is she alive?

Not just alive but promoted (I think?).

On 12/18/2019 at 4:45 PM, blackwing said:

I was so hoping that Doug and his wife would die.

And I was hoping she turned out to be totally on board with the programme! She’s consistently prompted Doug to carry out missions to “keep them safe”. It would fit with the overall cynical tone of the Bourne series to have her report back by saying, "I've kept him on track so far, but I doubt he'll keep buying it."

* I realise these are all rhetorical, since the Series has been cancelled (and I have no intention of seeking any declarations by TPTB saying what might have happened)

[PJL]

What was the note in Bentley's hand from Petra (episode 10) And its purpose