The Copenhagen Test Creators, James Wan Talk Why [SPOILER] Is the Real Hack

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the first season of Peacock's The Copenhagen Test.

The Copenhagen Test may not be the easiest show to explain to your friends, but that doesn't mean it isn't reveling in every square inch of its high concept right up until the end.

Stick with us here: By the end of the Peacock spy thriller's first season, Alexander Hale (Simu Liu) has uncovered the prying eyes behind the hack of his brain, defeated the big bad's henchmen in an explosive restaurant fight sequence, saved his parents from becoming collateral damage, rescued the Orphanage agency from ruin, and even managed to clue his parents in on some of his secret life as a government operative. 

But some stones can never be unturned, like the hack. The nanotechnology fed to Alexander in the anxiety medication from his ex-girlfriend (who was a plant!) is irreversible, meaning his brain and eyesight will forever be streaming a live feed. However, his boss, Cobb (Brian d'Arcy James), says it is up to him if that feed is ever reopened for use in missions, giving him a watch that can switch it on and off with the push of a button. But is the government really going to let a talented agent walk around with a live feed in his head without having their own metaphorical watch at the ready?

"That is the dramatic tension of the show," says creator and co-showrunner Thomas Brandon. "Just because someone says out loud that it's done, is it done? One of the things that Saul Rubinek's character, Victor, says to Alexander is that for people like them, it's never over. St. George is kind of a living example of how their choices echo through and they come back and there are always consequences for those choices."

In other words, co-showrunner Jennifer Kale adds, "Even though these people helped him in this one instance, it doesn't mean that they're not going to use him in the next one."

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Speaking of Victor, the final moments of the Season 1 finale reveal that Alexander's father figure not only ordered his original Copenhagen Test to prove his loyalty, but he is the real source behind the hack. As discovered earlier, Schiff (Adam Godley) merely hacked the already existing feed to get a peek inside The Orphanage as a means of bringing down his archenemy St. George (Kathleen Chalfant). The real source of the hack was lying low and now Alexander knows why. Victor takes Alexander down to his shadowy, tunnel-based operations to show off that he is merely one of the live feeds this group has tapped in the brains of unsuspecting moles.

Despite being the architect behind this unwilling and permanent recruitment program, Victor doesn't immediately code switch from protective guardian to maniacal world-domination-seeking big bad.

"I don't think he thinks he's a mustached-twirling villain," Kale says. "That was something that we talked a lot about with Saul and Simu as well. For Victor, he did this because he is proud of Alexander and who Alexander has become. He was the perfect candidate to protect the country. So there is a pride in it, almost a paternal pride. That's why he put him up to be that Manchurian Candidate."

However, Victor's operation still has plenty of questions to answer about its motives. Chief among them will be why one of their subjects, who Victor reveals is the only other one that knows he is hacked like Alexander does, is following Michelle (Melissa Barrera). Mere minutes earlier, she told Alexander she was getting out of the business and he should come find her when he does the same. But Victor says she's a loose end, so consider her retirement over. But who is following her? All audiences know about this new clued-in asset is their name, seen on the monitor as "M. Cyr."

"What we're seeing in Saul's character is someone who has a deep belief and a deep faith in the choices he has made," Brandon says. "We get a little hint of it, but somewhere we are planning to go is that, of course, the enemies of our nation would want to see what's happening inside the Orphanage. But we are also entering a weird geopolitical moment of isolation where countries are constantly just worrying about themselves. America first, England first, Germany first. So in that world of decreased cooperation, it's not just our enemies but also our allies who need to know what's happening inside of our government."

You know, low-stakes stuff for this fun spy thriller. "Just light entertainment," Brandon jokes.

Executive producer James Wan says he was thrilled to bring his production company Atomic Monster on board the series, and he planned to do his due diligence in providing feedback. But instead, he found himself completely enraptured by Alexander's story.

"When I watched the first couple of episodes, as an executive producer, I was gonna take my notes down and give them at the end of it," he says. "But I started watching the first episode, and then I put on Episode 2, and somewhere in Episode 4 or 5, I'd stopped taking notes. I stayed up late watching it as a show, bingeing it as a fan. It's testament to how well the show is put together and how well everything plays out."

But he does have his thoughts on the finale. Namely, who he wants to see Alexander reunite with after some time away. After being forced to reveal his special set of skills to save his parents, Alexander is able to be honest with them about his day job before telling them he has to go away for a while as they sort out the potentially deadly technology in his brain. He also decides not to meet his handler Parker (Sinclair Daniel) in person, even though they finally get to have a heart to heart. Then there's Michelle, who thought helping Alexander was her ticket out.

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"I want Alexander to get back together with Melissa's character because there is such a fascinating relationship between them," Wan says. "And really all the characters because they're such great characters. I just want to find an excuse to bring them all back together."

While Peacock has not officially greenlit Season 2, the story ahead would explore how Alexander's life changes with more disclosure of who he is really is — a distant echo of the present but impenetrable person he showed his friends at the beginning of Season 1.

"In the very beginning of the pilot, you see Alexander with some friends, they're all together and yet he could not be further from them because they have no idea who he is," Brandon says. "But at the end, even though he's having to send his parents away, they got to see a version of him that they've never seen before. They've never seen the guy who was a special forces asset who can kick ass and kill people. Similarly, he hasn't met Parker, but he now knows there's somebody out there who knows him better than anyone else, and he's starting to figure her out. There's a physical distance happening with everyone in his life, but weirdly, he is more connected than he's ever been to people who see him and understand him for everything he is."

The Copenhagen Test is now streaming on Peacock.