'Treadstone' Episode 5 promo shows Doug struggle just like John did in 1973 with memory loss, conflicts in identity and moral code
'Treadstone' Episode 4 saw SoYun (Han Hyo-joo) get a mission she was forced to complete to keep her son safe. She follows Colonel Shin's orders to deliver something and finds herself being accompanied to China to complete her mission.
Doug McKenna (Brian J Smith), on the other hand, witnessed his wife Samantha (Tess Haubrich) shoot a guy dead, tell her husband she used to be his handler at the CIA and the two come to terms with the fact that Operation Treadstone is something that neither of them can escape.
So Doug decides to complete his mission, even if he was conflicted about becoming a monster as a result. The upcoming episode titled 'The Bentley Lament' may draw parallels between the past and present using the Cicada Protocol and Operation Treadstone.
Also, as the title of the episode suggests, we might see John Bentley (Jeremy Irvine) unravel the truth about his time with the KGB and the Cicada Protocol. The promo released by the USA Network sees John in Budapest, where he finds his name written on a wall.
He doesn't remember doing it or being in Budapest in the first place. The fact that he was in Budapest was something he became aware of after CIA agent Kohler told him about it.
To meet people he has no memory of being in touch with before, to see things he did to a man in the name of interrogation but not remember them, are some of the things John has to face while he continues to track Petra (Emilia Schüle).
He meets a man in Budapest, who is possibly allied with the KGB as he seems to be the one to show John a video recording of an interrogation John did. In the video, John is seen torturing a man to get answers and that incenses John's frustration further because he has no recollection of doing any of this.
To add to this, the promo pictures also feature John and Petra together in the background of a bleeding man seated in a chair. This picture of John and Petra together hints at a relationship that was more intimate than that of a handler and an asset.
This is something John doesn't remember either. Just when he is raging about not remembering, the man who seems to be familiar with John, tell him the last time they had met at Budapest, John confessed he felt most like himself at that point in life. Considering he doesn't recall any of this, it is strange how the Cicada Protocol and Treadstone make the people a part of the project feel like themselves when they are activated.
This brings us to Doug and SoYun in the present. Doug seems to have completed the mission handed to him successfully because we see a few scenes where he is seen attacking men followed by which we see him sitting next to his wife Sam speaking about how he became someone he can't explain.
He wonders if he is a monster and looks to Sam to assure him he was a good man in the past. He struggles with the same things John did in the past; memory loss, conflicts with their identities and moral codes, the two have lived by for long.
SoYun is also on a mission, but she clearly knows who controls her. Colonel Shin has her under his thumb with SoYun's husband Dae working for him in North Korea's Pyongyang and her son constantly being watched by the Colonel's men.
In an attempt to keep them safe, SoYun decides to do everything she can and so, she is now on her way to China to deliver something for the Colonel. This must have something to do with the Soviet Union's nuclear missile that had gone out of commission called Stiletto Six.
The Colonel had General Kwon assassinated to make sure his plans of acquiring this nuke from the black market will not be interfered with. We see SoYun struggle with more men, fight them and maybe even kill them to keep her family safe.
She also has a run-in with another Treadstone asset Nira Patel (Shruti Haasan). However, the two don't seem to be working together as the promo features a scene of the two of them fighting over something.
How all of this will unravel is something we must watch out for in the next episode of 'Treadstone' which will air on the USA Network Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.