Covert Affairs Postmortem: Bosses on Shocking Ending and Auggie's Fate

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about Thursday's episode of Covert Affairs. Read at your own risk.]

Christopher Gorham wasn't exaggerating about Auggie being in a "really tough spot" at the end of Thursday's Covert Affairs: He was kidnapped!
After Auggie gets arrested for attacking the medical examiner over Tony's cause of death, he and Annie (Piper Perabo) make a startling connection: Belenko (Shawn Doyle) is targeting Auggie's military unit. Three of his friends have died recently: Charlie, Mueller and now Tony, whose vodka was laced with a drug made in Kale Chemicals in Germany that wouldn't show up in a toxicology screen. Off goes Annie to Deustchland, but not before introducing Auggie to McQuaid (Nic Bishop) and arranging a protection detail for Auggie without telling him.

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In Germany, Annie follows Britta Kaplan, the chemist who made the toxin that killed Tony, but she's not the only one tailing her. Olga Akarova (Lynn Collins), the FSB operative Annie and Eyal crossed paths with in Istanbul, is also tracking and bugging her, but Annie gets to Britta first and tells her that Belenko is bad news. Britta reveals that Belenko gave her a ring, just like the one he had given Caitlyn, and that she was working on something else for Belenko in the lab. But instead of telling Annie, Britta ingests the toxin and dies at her desk — under which were those damn empty duffel bags. Annie gets arrested, but Olga, under an Interpol guise, takes Annie and after a tussle, reveals that they're on the same side.Back in D.C., Calder (Hill Harper) asks Stephanie (Nazneen Contractor) to keep spying on Moshkov, while Joan (Kari Matchett) is ordered to take a polygraph about her super-secretive Balkans mission back in the '90s. After doing some digging around, Arthur (Peter Gallagher) informs her that she's up for a promotion and the polygraph was part of protocol. And Auggie? After throwing back a few with McQuaid, Auggie heads home and gets attacked, thrown into the back of a van and driven off.Where is Auggie being taken to? Is Belenko after him? What's Joan's secret? Co-creators and executive producers Matt Corman and Chris Ord answer our burning questions.Where are they taking Auggie? 
Matt Corman: Who's to say they took him anywhere? [Laughs]Chris Ord: You'll get your answer eventually in the next few episodes. His absence will not go unnoticed. There are really fun and exciting things coming up, even though a kidnapping doesn't sound fun. He's obviously in danger, but you definitely have not seen the last of Auggie.Is Belenko targeting Auggie specifically? Is Auggie the final piece of his plan or part of something larger?
Corman: It's very intricate and there is something larger at stake. These [remaining episodes] involve Auggie heavily, so you'll learn more about his backstory and how he fits into all this. He doesn't have skeletons in his closet per se, but there are some things about him that no one knows about.Auggie says he's never crossed paths with Belenko before, but has Joan? Does that have to do with her Balkans mission and secret? 
Ord: Not directly. There are secrets for her with what went on in the Balkans, but it's a bit of a mislead to say that's what's going on.Corman: We considered that, but that felt a little small. You'll see there are other connections that will be revealed that are personal. They'll throw Joan onto that pile.Was her polygraph really about a promotion then?
Ord: I wouldn't say that it wasn't. Whenever the CIA gives a polygraph, there's a reason. Some of them are seemingly routine, but there's always a reason and why they think they it's necessary to dig into someone's ethics, whether they're doubting them or they want to promote them or keep them on their toes, it's not something that's done without purpose. ... The nice thing is everything kind of synthesizes together. All of our characters are being pulled in the same direction even though they're all doing different things right now.

Covert Affairs postmortem: Belenko's scheme is "bigger and deeper than Annie could imagine"

With the same goal, like Calder and Stephanie.
Corman: Right. Everyone wants to get to the bottom of the attacks. It's just a matter of piecing it all together with Belenko. I feel like something ominous is going to happen to Stephanie the more she tails Moshkov. She's so green.
Ord: [Laughs] Right? I would say definitely watch. You might not be wrong.Corman: It is a spy game. She's very adept as you can see. She has inherent spy skills and she's good at what she does, but she's still an amateur.Olga tells Annie that she's on the same side. Is she telling the truth?
Corman: Yeah. We love Lynn Collins as an actress and she plays her so well that you're not sure. That's obviously a question for Annie, but you'll learn a little more about her in the next episode.Auggie chewed out Annie in Paris for choosing the mission over him and now he's upset she didn't keep him in the loop even though she's doing this for him and McQuaid. They're both right, but can't seem to find that common ground.
Corman: We hope people pick up on that. We wanted to have an argument between the two characters where they were both right. I think those are the most satisfyingly dramatic moments. This situation is just as inherently complicated. The relationship ties overlap and they get extremely difficult for Annie to navigate, but that's the most satisfying territory to us and the show. She tells him she's not a rookie operative anymore and that's something that Auggie still has to reconcile.

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She thought Auggie would be compromised in Paris because of his feelings for Tash. Is that going to be reflected here after she finds out he's been kidnapped?Ord: I think in general, that's the dilemma for her. No agent wants that to happen. It's one of those things where it sounds easy to do one thing, or not to do one thing, but when emotions are involved and things get personal, there's no way of knowing how you'll react, just like in real life. But Annie always follows her gut and you'll see her do everything she can to get Belenko.Not that I expected them to be petty, but I like how cool Auggie and McQuaid were with each other.
Corman: Yeah. They're adults. There's some awkwardness there, but they're on the same team and they're being professional about it. It will get interesting going forward as we learn more about Auggie.

What can you tease about the remaining episodes?
Ord: Things will start to make sense. [Laughs] That's incredibly vague. There is a big cliff-hanger in the season finale. No exaggeration there.
Covert Affairs airs Thursdays at 10/9c on USA.