'The Enemy Within' season 1 episode 2: Keaton needs to get his head back in the game

The chase for Mikhail Tal is only getting more breathless on 'The Enemy Within'. The infamous and feared terrorist seems to be in no mood to stop his CIA murder spree and in this week's episode, 'Black Bear' we are a bit closer to finding the truth. 

Tal strikes again for the second time in the series, killing a former CIA operative on a packed train in broad daylight. The victim and former op, Dean Merriman, gets shot after he refuses to hand over an encrypted laptop with his intelligence about Tal over to Tal's operative. While we still don't know what was on the computer, there's one thing that just seems to be glaring at us - when will Keaton (Morris Chestnut) understand that he must listen to Erica(Jennifer Carpenter)? 

To be honest, he appears blatantly stupid to not recognize what an asset she is. It's understandable why he's biased towards Erica, she did get her fiance killed, but it's about time that Keaton kept his feelings at home. Cruel as it may sound, there's a terrorist on the loose trying to breakdown the Intelligence structure of the country. 

This episode made it very clear that the numbers that Erica was talking about in the last episode weren't an exaggeration. It seems like everyone, literally, everyone is Tal's spy. From the train conductor to the building manager at Dean's storage locker, Tal has eyes and ears everywhere. Keaton, being the head of the investigation, technically should look at Anna Cruz (Coral Pena) - she has, after all, spent two whole days with Nemec, Tal's superintendent.  He also delays the interrogation with Victor Nemec (Pawel Szajda). While procedures are his shackles, he clearly could have pushed harder to get more information. the least he can do is let people who know more about Tal, aka Erica, participate more on the case.

Thanks to the delay in questioning, Anna manages to strangle Nemec so that lead is dead for Keaton. What is also suspicious is how conveniently Daniel Zain (Raza Jaffrey) questions Nemec - there is no sense of urgency in the room. He thinks he can break him or turn him in due time but clearly, they have none. A loss all around for the team and it was something they could have avoided at all costs. If Daniel was the golden boy of questioning, then why could he get nothing out of Nemec - it is quite suspicious, to be honest, that someone on the top rung talked to a terrorist and literally got zip while being super casual throughout. Could he be the other mole? 

Next week, as the bureau finally finds out that their best lead is gone and they scramble to get their act together, Keaton seems to finally realize that Erica may actually be a huge help, inviting her the interrogation. As for Anna, she's still waiting in the shadows, listening to everything and updating the network. Now the question is, who will be killed next? 

Catch 'The Enemy Within' episode 3 on March 11 at 10/9c on NBC.