Season 4 of ‘Covert Affairs’ Ends as Annie Catches Up to Henry Wilcox

Season Four of “Covert Affairs” has ended with Annie Walker, the beauteous and talented super spy for the CIA, having evolved into as ruthless a dealer of nine millimeter justice as any secret agent in fiction, including James Bond.

Some spoilers follow.

Most of the season involved the rise to power of Henry Wilcox, the evil, larcenous and, as it turned out, traitorous and murderous former CIA official and his ultimate downfall at the hands of our heroes. Before that there was plenty of death and mayhem across five countries and four continents.

With the introduction of a new player, Calder Michaels, the show has been taken to a new level of tension and violence. Annie’s appeal had been on her cuteness as much as her skill in the first three seasons. In the fourth season, we see another side to the character, an operative of extreme lethality, capable of bringing hurt and even death to anyone who threatens her or stands between her and her objective.

For about half of the season, Annie had to go rogue, presumed and traitor and dead due to the machinations of Wilcox. But this only served to make her stronger and to widen her freedom of action. Wilcox though he had neutralized her. He lived to regret his miscalculation.

The climax of the season occurred in a dingy alley in Hong Kong where Annie had finally trapped Wilcox. Coldly, without hesitation, she shot her quarry in the heart. It was a miserable way for a man who once thought of himself as a super villain, who seemed to be evil for the love of it, to die. But it was also oddly appropriate. Evil loses its glamour when it bleeds out among the trash and filth of an alley.

And so Annie has escaped Hong Kong and will doubtless return to the accolades of her associates. Now one wonders, how will season five top this one? As TV Guide hinted, it is the beginning of a new phase.