However, Clare now seems like the character with the most to worry about. She’s got Peter’s mistrust to manage and Lambert’s suspicions to navigate, plus visa bribes to pay and cells to activate. Then there’s the unexpected reappearance of Spencer, the boy she grew close to at the School before he mysteriously disappeared to be put on assignment, and although the consequences of that brief reunion are yet to be seen, it definitely adds another level of complexity to Clare’s story.

And it’s not just Peter who has to wonder about Temple’s deeper motivations for helping out. Emily Alpha might have a great amount of trust in her new acquaintance simply because she’s finally getting answers and assistance in figuring out her muddled memories, and Naya does seem genuinely sympathetic when breaking the news about Aldrich. But with the new information, however tenuous, that Shadow is a woman, both Emily and Naya have intriguing intelligence to sort out moving forward.

Counterpart Season 2 Episode 1 Review | Episode 2 Review

The juxtaposition of Emily Prime’s investigations into her other’s time spent in her world gave us two important discoveries (three if you count the coveted Management briefcase Ian found). The first is the perhaps unsurprising confirmation that the virus that decimated one reality did indeed come from the other. Whether it’s based on hearsay or not, Emily’s “accident” must have had something to do with stopping her looking into the outbreak and perhaps sharing her intel with its victims. The other eye-opener is the foreshadowing of secrets hidden in a church that’s important to both Emilys’ mothers. Could Counterpart be on the brink of a big reveal?

All of this intrigue would have made “Something Borrowed” excellent all on its own, but the addition of James Cromwell’s Yanek to the mix deepened the already rich thematic elements of the show. His conversation with Howard Alpha makes us question the altruism of the somewhat naive prisoner. When Yanek says, “Mankind has existed in a state of tension since the beginning of time between what is and what could be,” it brings a whole new perspective to what the existence of parallel worlds would do to the motivations of individuals and larger political forces. We’d always want what the other had because we’d know it was possible! Howard might not believe that one destroying the other is inevitable, but it does ring true to the audience.