Contributor: John Keegan
It seems that the writers have a problem. They’ve created an arrogant, smarmy Mossad agent in Eyal, and they have positioned him as being a popular recurring character. He’s even played by a fairly popular actor. They write episodes for him, and push for as much chemistry between Eyal and Annie as possible. Yet for all that, the episodes featuring Eyal are some of the worst of the series, because they require Annie to be written as less competent than she really is.
The writers try to recast Eyal’s previous insufferable arrogant attitude to some kind of magical Israeli “wisdom”. It’s not that Eyal is an agent who thinks he is better than everyone else, but especially Americans; it’s that his cultural philosophy of living life to the fullest gives him perspective that Annie’s goal-focused society simply can’t appreciate or transcend. Not only does it put down the main character, but it serves as a bit of an insult to much of the audience.
It’s supposed to be a message for Annie to balance out her life a bit more, especially when taken in context with Auggie’s acceptance of fate when it comes to his latest love interest. It’s not right to try to use his resources to change her assignment within the Peace Corps; it’s best just to go with the flow and enjoy the time they have together. It’s a nice enough message, but it just doesn’t seem to be applicable to Annie at the moment. (It also ties into that “limited life span” theory I had after the previous episode, in which this relationship is a delaying tactic for the eventual Annie/Auggie pairing.)
Much of the problem is that Eyal has never treated Annie with the kind of respect that would engender a mutual sharing of philosophies. His own life is a contradiction: he preaches about living life and “not fighting the current”, yet he joined Mossad with the goal of taking down the man that killed his sister, while offhandedly admitting to fighting his war “every day”. Meanwhile, he still talks down to Annie, so her apparent appreciation of him doesn’t track.
When it all comes down to a “suicide mission”, yet I never felt a need to care much about those stakes, it’s a bad sign. Since I don’t see Eyal as charming, despite what the writers might try to do to make him so, I didn’t care if he survived. Annie’s character devolves every time Eyal appears on the scene, and I couldn’t wait for him to leave, so the show could snap back to building on its second season improvements. This episode only served to remind me that the show still has lingering problems to overcome.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 6/10
