‘Treadstone’ premiere sets premise as 2 sleeper agents created by hypnotism and subliminal messaging are woken up
'Treadstone' Episode 1 sees the origin of operation Treadstone and how it found its way to the CIA. By showing us the past, the show sheds light on the present where multiple agents have been used for this operation seemingly without their knowledge.
In the past, the research on combining hypnotism and subliminal messaging among other things were undertaken by the KGB and the subject used to test their research upon happened to be an undercover agent John Randolph Bentley (Jeremy Irvine). In the first episode, we see John in Russia, in 1973, being tortured and then he is under the scientist's influence for a while too.
None of this lasts and John somehow manages to get out of the facility where he is held captive. He does call someone to inform them he needs to be pulled out from the operation because he is done working now, and that is really the last that we see of him.
The episode leaves his fate open-ended and that leaves us with the question -- Did John manage to escape or was he caught before he could make it out? In the present, Treadstone is a long-buried operation that has agents across the world embedded into society with a cover story that even the agents believe to be their real lives.
These agents are made to forget their past through subliminal messaging, which leads them to believe their cover story personas are their real selves. That leads us to Doug McKenna (Brian J. Smith) in the Arctic Circle and So-Hyun (Han Hyo-joo) in Pyongyang, North Korea.
The two characters in the show are woken up by a third party and the only one who seems to know anything about this is General Kwon (Tzi Ma) of North Korea. So when So-Hyun, who is a piano teacher, mother of one and a sincere wife is woken up to the truth about her real self; the first thing she does is approach General Kwon.
This is something General Kwon expected and so he had a backup plan to bring the truth about Treadstone to light through a reporter - Tara Coleman (Tracy Ifeachor). Her reputation is in ruin after printing a story about another operation that was kept under wraps until Tara began investigating it.
By alerting her about the presence of Treadstone, General Kwon hopes to stop the person who wakes up the sleeper agents from their cover life. And since he has done his part, he doesn't seem too worried about having to face So-Hyun.
Through all of this action back and forth, what is clear is that the CIA had never intended to wake these agents, and they do not even seem aware that the operation is being resurrected by someone. The CIA is scrambling after hearing about Treadstone from General Kwon by bugging Tara.
Towards the end, we also get a look at one of the KGB agents who were part of the original research, Petra, who has grown old and living with her husband. She has a secret her husband unintentionally finds, which leads to his death, but it is unclear if this connects to the Treadstone operation in any way.
'Treadstone' Episode 2 will air on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on the USA Network.