'Joyless propaganda' and also quite a brain teaser
****Spoiler to follow*****
I can't believe I sat through the whole episode only to find out that the ex-CIA agent, who commits treason, betrays the man she loves and helps some Russian gangsters to blackmail the government by killing civilians with a deadly toxin, did it all for "my 10 per cent cut". She stares into the camera with her steely blue eyes, just to give us time to absorb this profundity. "It was all about the money". What a wry and moving comment on the times!
Then, noticing that her callous admission is distressing Atkins (now interrogating her but formerly her partner) she declares contemptuously "You're just the right person to be running this new Homeland Security operation - you're a zealot". Ha! For a moment, I thought there was actually something a bit sharp and political going on (but I guess that's not happening til the day the writing staff is abducted by aliens and brought back with new brains). All she means is that Atkins cares about stuff and that it "takes a zealot to fight a zealot". Yeah because of course terrorists are all mad keen idealists, none of them are really just scumbags trying to be rich and powerful or anything like that.
Where it gets even stupider is that earlier in the show other characters kept teasing Atkins about his old-fashioned notions of loyalty and fair play. Such things don't exist, they would smirk knowingly. At one stage Atkins explains to Lorraine Toussaint that he doesn't think a friend of his, although a former Russian spy, is the type of man to betray his own agents because he's honourable. She laughs out loud. "You're an anachronism!" She's laughing with genuine amusement I might add. No irony, no tinge of sadness - she just thinks it's precious! What kind of horrible stuff is this? What kind of people laugh at the notion of any kind of goodness while upholding the law at the highest levels? (Who to root for? The Russian mobsters are poisoning people sure, but then the good guys jab people in the neck and bundle them into big black vans at the drop of a hat.)
The writers probably think this kind of cynicism is hip but it's just really stupid. They're telling us that while everyone's laughing at Atkins, the guy with the values, it turns out that he's just the sort of person now needed to fight the 'war on terror' because he has a lot in common with the terrorists - like, um, a sense of justice and the dignity of humanity. Huh? What on earth are they talking about?! It's enough to hurt your brain.