'Treadstone' Episode 3 introduces new sleeper agents Nira Patel and Haynes as SoYun's cover may have been blown
Spoilers ahead for 'Treadstone' Episode 3 'The Berlin Proposal'
'Treadstone' Episode 3 serves as a connection between operation Stiletto Six and the Cicada Protocol. Both the projects were initiated by the KGB in the past, but both seem to have landed in the laps of the North Koreans at present.
For one, General Kwon (Tzi Ma), who was killed by sleeper agent SoYun (Han Hyo-joo), found out certain ruling members of North Korea were interested in acquiring the access codes to the Soviet Union's missile, Stiletto Six. He was killed because he managed to kill the deal between North Korea and Russia by interfering with the funds North Korea managed to put together.
Former investigative journalist Tara Coleman (Tracy Ifeachor), who had reported on Stiletto Six is brought back into the mix by General Kwon in the first episode before his death. He requests her to keep his daughter safe from people who are trying to kill him.
He asks her to take his daughter to Ecuador's embassy in Paris, in return for which she will be given a piece of evidence to rebuild her reputation which was in ruins for not having proof about Stiletto Six. In the third episode, she receives access to funds General Kwon had intercepted which could help her buy the access codes for Stiletto Six thereby proving its existence.
Now how does this connect to the Cicada Protocol aka Operation Treadstone? The North Koreans have somehow gained access to information about how to wake the agents who have been subconsciously programmed to live undercover.
SoYun, a piano teacher and a mother of one is woken up after her son brings home a game console considered illegal in Pyongyang, North Korea. She ends up taking General Kwon out as well.
In the process, however, she ends up implicating herself in the murder by leaving her fingerprints on the syringe she used on General Kwon to kill him. This gives Colonel Shin's opponents opportunity to blackmail SoYun into doing their dirty work.
They threaten to endanger her son Ji-soo's life if she doesn't do what they want. So, she is asked to go to a political gathering of some of the top Generals and Colonels in North Korea, where she had to replace Colonel Shin's sim card with the one she received from the opponents.
Once that is done, she is expected to return to the army base where her son is being taken care of to pick him up. SoYun does manage to swap the sims, but while doing so, she drops the original on the floor.
Before she could pick it up though, Colonel Shin asks her to play a Sonata. We don't see if SoYun managed to pick the original sim before she ran out of the party. Nearing midnight, SoYun is forced by Colonel Shin to play a Sonata piece but leaves in between it. This shocks everyone at the party including her husband.
No sane person would make a Colonel unhappy. SoYun should have especially been more careful considering her husband Dae is working under him. By taking such a risky step and leaving the party mid-way, she has now possibly blown her cover and the repercussions will be bloody.
We also meet other sleeper agents who were activated. Nira Patel (Shruti Haasan) receives a target -- Johan Lang, a 25-year-old heir to a large German pharmaceutical company -- who she takes out without much effort. She is next headed to China and we do not know what or who she will face there.
Then we also meet Haynes, one of the sleeper agents who awoke but was not under control. He went out to a grocery store where he killed a few individuals and was then arrested for the same.
It must also be noted that only one of the victims was supposed to be taken out but because not all sleeper agents react the same way to the subdermal manipulation, something is off with Haynes. CIA Agent Matt Edwards (Omar Metwally) and Dr. Martin Wells (Finbar Lynch) decide to investigate him but they do not get too far.
The next episode of 'Treadstone' will air Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on the USA Network.
