Epi 6--WOW! Darned exciting & intense! spoilers

If you haven't watched eli 6, don't read this post. I'm not hiding anything behind black bars.

Last week I raved about epi 5, but I believe this episode tops it. Great set up to a nail-biting climax in the Berlin Boulevard Mall. Poor Clare.

For those who've only watched it once, some details might have escaped you. The episode opens with the Germans & Americans planning an operation in the German's safe area--the back room of a bookstore. The plan is to catch Iasova & his wife by baiting them with an ISIL bride candidate--their own Clare--who'll pretend to be Bora's niece wanting to go to Syria to fill the caliphate with ISIL babies. Bora's already approached Iasova about this and he's informed Bora that his next shipment is Wed, 36 hours. Valerie & the Nazi Bitch don't like the narrow time span to set up the op, but Frost and Kirsch are gung ho, mainly because they want Frost to be Deputy Director. Frost has been promised the job if he pulls this op off, and Kirsch, who is now working with the Israelis, plans to ride his coattails back to Langley if he succeeds. Golda, the Israeli operative, agrees to help him ascend in the CIA by bolstering the op and feeding Kirsch big intel that will make him promotable in the future. Essentially, Kirsch has brought a secret partner, the Israelis, into this big op.

Frost is just not trustworthy. He meets with Daniel and pressures him for information about Voss, still refusing to handover the black site file that would show who was at the black site that might have helped Voss escape. Daniel doesn't trust him either and even though he tells Voss that he's going to meet Ingrid, the reporter who breaks Shaw's leaks, he refuses to tell him where. Ingrid has figured out that the CIA undermined the Lin leak by monitoring her computer. She has messaged the CIA by writing an email with keywords, inviting whoever is monitoring to a meeting. That message pops up on Daniel's screen & He takes the meeting. She wants to show him how the CIA abuses and tortures people by introducing him to a hospitalized man the CIA drove crazy. Daniel shows the man a picture of Voss and the man recognizes him by name. They'd been in the same black site together. Daniel also shows Ingrid and tells her that Voss killed Claudia, her courier. Ingrid can't get past her disgust at the CIA and tells him to get off her computer.

Hector meets with Clare who tells him about the op and her role in it. He's deeply concerned and doesn't want her to do it. He, too, thinks the short set up time is ridiculous and that it's too dangerous for her. Unbeknownst to Clare, Hector toys with the idea of leaking this through his alter ego, Shaw, but he ultimately decides against it.

So, the stage is set at the Boulevard Berlin. Between the Germans & Americans, they have 100 agents at this mall; only the Germans are supposed to be armed. Frost & his German counterpart, Hans, are in the control booth monitoring video. Daniel, Valerie, & the Nazi Bitch are seated in the cafe part. Kirsch is outside in a car monitoring arrivals. In walks another unplanned partner--Hector--much to everyone's amazement. The Germans don't know that Hector is a spy and he's pretty much blown it. Hector sits with Daniel--it's clear he's going to protect Clare, even if it means blowing his cover. But he does come in handy. In walk Clare & a sweaty, nervous Bora. Clare is trying to calm him, but Bora panics and runs to the bathroom, leaving Clare alone. Hector immediately gets up and follows him in there, scaring the man into resuming his role, telling him that he loves Clare and he better man up. It works, and Bora returns just in time. Iaosova's wife, Ruth, and her 5 goons arrive for the meeting. Everyone is astonished that the wife alone is taking the meeting, not her husband. Ruth sits and questions Clare who gives this incredible performance pretending to be a vengeful wife whose husband was killed and her sons taken away by the Turks. Ruth smirks and Bora sweats, freezes up, unable to participate. Finally, Ruth reveals she's not fooled. She pulls out her cell phone on which there's a photo of Clare at the store providing lingerie advice to the two girls from last week. Clare's expression is priceless--a blank, apprehensive gaze. Ruth gets up to leave when her goon tells her something dreadful. Her husband had apparently been outside when some guys put a black bag over his head and put him in a van.

Kirsch immediately gets a phone call from Golda, the Israeli, who berates him for not telling her about the taking of Iasova. Kirsch is shocked and immediately tells everyone over comm to abort--the jig is up. Once Ruth learns that her husband has been snatched, she tells Bora & Clare that she is taking them, get up or she'll kill them. Her goons immediately flank & drag Bora & Clare, but they see this mobilization of agents surrounding and trailing them. Hector & Daniel, Valerie, intensely eye Clare & Bora as they are dragged through the mall, no one taking their eyes off them. Then a goon tells Ruth they are closing in and Ruth gives an order--do something. The first shot, and hell breaks loose in the mall. Out come the weapons. At one point, Hector and the Nazi Bitch shooting side by side. Bora is shot. In the panic, Ruth & Clare disappear into the crowd. Kirsch sees a blue van peel away and jumps in his car to chase it, thinking Clare is inside. When it crashes, he discovers they are not.

Frost is beside himself. He calls the Deputy Director to berate him for scheduling a rendition--Iasova--in the midst of an operation. Frost says he's going to focus on getting his agent back, then quit. But the CIA declares that it wasn't them who snatched Iasova. Who then? Who snatched him?

I have two ideas. Perhaps it was the Israelis--I don't trust Golda. Or perhaps Hector had something to do with it, though I can't imagine he would do anything to endanger Clare. He is hysterical over her loss. Or maybe Frost had some kind of side op going.

That Berlin Boulevard scene was simply unexpectedly intense.