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‘Rubicon’ recap: Where can Will turn?

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There was an explicit shout-out to the film that many people have compared ‘Rubicon’ to -- the 1975 thriller ‘Three Days of the Condor’ -- and an implicit one in Sunday night’s episode. Will Travers (James Badge Dale), the Robert Redford character, imposes himself on an attractive woman he doesn’t know for shelter, solace and, later, energetic sex. It’s not exactly the same dynamics of the Faye Dunaway-Redford relationship, but it’s close. Then, when Will is trying to explain what he does for a living, the woman says ‘Like Robert Redford?’

By the way, I’m not buying her as an unsuspecting bystander. We saw Faye get snatched randomly off of a Manhattan street. In a show this generous with its feints and red herrings, do we really believe the artist just happened to catch Will’s eye, across the airshaft, a few episodes ago?

But down to brass plot tacks: By destroying one of the bugs in his apartment last episode, Will has brought down the might of the four-leaf-clover guys. Truxton Spangler, who of course knows immediately that the apartment bug has been taken out of operation, meets Kale Ingram as Ingram is returning from an early morning jog. He asks whether Ingram expects to see Will at work that day. Ingram, with his usual sangfroid, says he does, and as Spangler is getting back into his car, asks: ‘Am I worried about Will?’

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I don’t know about Ingram, but I am. These guys don’t fool around. And I’m now convinced that Ingram is helping Will. But by now, Will has been spun in so many directions and found discrepancies in every partial explanation he has gotten that he doesn’t believe Ingram anymore. He doesn’t trust Spangler. He’s shut out Maggie, and none of the team members seem to know anything about this. Where can he go for help?

Katherine Rhumor meets with her late husband’s previous wife and shows her the photo of the boys taken on what we learn is Fisher’s Island. The woman IDs Gerald Bradley, so Katherine visits his widow again. Mrs. Bradley IDs one of the boys as Spangler. Katherine, perhaps through her extensive charity ball social network, recognizes the name, and Mrs. Bradley helpfully tells her Spangler heads API. So slowly, thank God, Katherine’s and Will’s paths seem to be dovetailing.

Ingram also disclosed to Will the coincidence of Tom Rhumor’s death and the crossword puzzle that started it all.

In developments with Will’s team, Tanya is in rehab, Miles is scared-thrilled that Julia, the Urdu-speaking API employee who helped him monitor a satellite transmission a few weeks ago, is going to work with them for a while. Grant’s wife visits him at work to tell him she’s been fired, and Grant is oddly dispassionate about it. Another reason to fear for Will: Spangler visits Grant late at night in his office and seems to be obliquely interviewing him for Will’s job. ‘Can I count on you?’ he asks Grant. Of course he can.

The episode ends with Katherine walking by API, at night, alone.

OK, this may be the height of paranoia, but what do you expect with this show? Does anyone think that Tanya’s API-sponsored trip to rehab gives the agency an out if the intel she proposed on George, Uri and Tanaz (who it is announced was killed, by the way) turns out badly?

And one more: woman artist/Will’s love interest -- friend or foe?

-- Kelly Scott

Above: James Badge Dale as Will Travers. Credit: Matthew Welch/AMC

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