My favorite shows on television are crime shows, and when I saw the trailer for The Enemy Within while watching Law and Order: SVU, I knew that this was going to become one of my favorite shows. I really like the idea of someone who was convicted of a crime is now going out and helping the good guys. The first time that I saw this on television was on a show called White Collar, and I just couldn’t get enough of it.
From the trailer, The Enemy Within tells the story of Erica Shepard, who was a code breaker with the CIA for the longest time. Out of nowhere, she gets a call from someone that she doesn’t know saying that he is going to kill Erica’s daughter if she doesn’t give up the names of the four CIA agents that are following him. The unknown caller begins counting down from five and then when he gets to one, she spits out all four names. These four people who Erica named are all killed, and the CIA is now on the hunt for Erica. The CIA eventually finds Erica and charge her with espionage and conspiracy against America. Three years later, the CIA needs Erica’s help to track down a dangerous criminal who is hiding in the ranks of spies.
When I was finally able to watch the first episode, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen. The first scene started with Erica getting arrested while walking in the National Mall in Washington D.C. with no explanation as to why; viewers who haven’t seen any of the press releases or trailers would be extremely confused as to what is going on at this point. Erica is charged with espionage and conspiracy against America, and then is put into the back of a police car.
Three years later, the show cuts to the FBI agent that the show will be focusing on, Will Keaton. Will gets word that there have been attacks on Americans in Washington D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, which were all lead by a terrorist named Mikhail Vassily Tal. Will’s supervisor tells him that the only person that can help the FBI is Erica Shepard because she knows Tal very well. Will then travels to Colorado, where Erica is being held in a supermax. Fortunately, Will cuts a deal with Erica, and they both then make their way back to Washington D.C.
When the two get back to D.C., everyone in the FBI is shocked to see her, and most people are not happy about it. One news reporter calls Erica the “Benedict Arnold of the 21st century”. She then tells Will to “[l]ook for someone on the inside.” Erica is then left alone in her cell, only to craft a dramatic escape in order to go see her daughter. Upon arriving at her daughter’s school and waiting for the bell to ring, Erica is quickly arrested just as her daughter is getting out of school. This scene led me to believe that everything that Erica is doing is for the sake of her daughter, and to see her again, which is confirmed later in the episode. Soon, it is revealed that the whole reason that Erica is in this mess with the government in the first place was because she received a call from Tal asking for the names of the four agents that were looking into him, one of them being Kenton’s fiancée.
Erica continues to tell Will that she wants to capture Tal more than anyone so that her daughter will never be in harm’s way again. This scene raised the moral question: is Erica really the enemy? Or is the real enemy a CIA analyst that was supposedly dead in the New York City attack earlier in the episode that is actually an ally of Tal’s?
Overall, I really liked this premiere. I caught myself wondering who to root for. I kept thinking that if I rooted for Erica, was it because I have a justified reason for it, or was the show wanting me to root for her? I love shows that want their audience to thinking critically throughout episodes like The Enemy Within; these types of shows creates a sort of complexity in it’s characters. I can definitely say that this premiere was full of jaw dropping moments, and there are definitely more to come throughout the season.
HCXO,
Maria