Starz Counterpart
Season 1, Episode 6: “Act Like You’ve Been Here Before”
Directed by Jennifer Getzinger
Written by Justin Britt-Gibson

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Shaking the Tree” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “The Sincerest Form of Flattery” – click here
Angel Eyes (Nolan Gerard Funk) and his friends, Mr. Glasses (Junes Zahdi) and the Ringleader (Lotte Verbeek), are shacked up in a rough part of the city. But they’re keeping a very low profile. The Ringleader’s not happy to see Angel slips out for a walk around, either. She asks what he thought of seeing the city. He replies that it’s “filthy” and everybody there deserves death. Oh, man. Whatever it is they’re plotting, it’s absolutely going to be a large scale attack of some kind. No telling what, though; yet.
We get to see a bit more of Ian Shaw (Nicholas Pinnock). He’s had a problem with “Customs.” A new Prince album from the Prime World – because he’s still alive there – almost got across to the Other Side. Seems corruption even gets to those working to safeguard “the most important fucking secret in the history of mankind.” Shaw’s the kind of guy who’ll do anything/everything it takes to correct wrongs + any possibly future wrongs. Although soon he gets a call about Prime Emily (Olivia Williams) and the original Howard (J.K. Simmons) doing their own investigation. That’ll go over well.
At the United Nations, Peter Quayle (Harry Lloyd) has to deal with the complexities of having Mr. Silk out shifting between worlds, and Howard Prime doing whatever he wants, while he’s technically missing days at work. He checks in with Prime Howard, who’s busy figuring out that the original Emily was looking into “stolen internal documents” from within the UN. Their biggest worry now is the mole in their midst.
Howard gets a visit from Ian in a cafe. Quite a contentious conversation. Shaw’s trying to figure out what his girlfriend is doing palling around with Mr. Silk. It’s interesting to see Howard dropped into the middle of the Prime World. At home, Emily and Anna (Sarah Bolger) are also talking about Howard; the latter doesn’t realise what’s actually going on. The whole Counterpart issue is definitely beginning to cause problems.
From afar, Baldwin (Sara Serraiocco) watches the funeral for her own Other, Nadia Fierro. A small crowd’s gathered in a cemetery to say goodbye. One young woman gets up to tell everyone about Nadia; she the woman’s “first love.” This is an emotional moment for Baldwin, to hear about her Other in such beautiful terms. Brilliant scene. Later, Baldwin finds Clare (Nazanin Boniadi), surprising her from behind. A tense reunion. Clare tries apologising, but the assassin just wants her promised €100,000.

“I pity you. Nothing you are is true.”

Back at the UN, Shaw takes Howard over to do a little test. A man called Casper (Adeel Akhtar) gets some machinery going, then Ian starts in questioning Mr. Silk about what he and Emily have been up to together. After a few moments, Casper calls Ian out for a chat – looks like Howard’s the “best he‘s ever been.” That’s because, y’know, he actually doesn’t know to what the questions refer. Tricky, tricky.
Aldrich (Ulrich Thomsen) is tracking down information about former Deputy Director Walter Atwood’s death, and he’s getting more curious about whether it wasn’t exactly just dying of natural causes. Perhaps it was murder.
In the Prime World, Emily goes to see OI Director Bob Dwyer (Kenneth Choi) about her recent troubles. She inquires about time off to figure things out, so he grants her however much time is necessary. It’s mostly a way for her to work without hassle from those in her professional life. Before leaving the office, she discovers Ian has Howard upstairs. Speaking of, Howard’s getting a little bit pissed off with Shaw’s line of questioning. This is when we see our man get more comfortable in the skin of his Counterpart, leaning into the asshole routine pretty well. He also uncovers the fact that he and Ian, in opposite worlds, are more of the same man than he and his Other. All before Emily crashes the party to get Howard out of there.
Oh, and who’s that mole? Looks like Casper, the friendly ghost. He calls Alexander Pope (Stephen Rhea) on the sly via coded message to send a warning. There’s an elaborate system to get the message further. But I wonder, what exactly it’s setting into motion.
Baldwin is becoming closer with Greta (Liv Lisa Fries), her new friend from the cafe. It’s tough for her to try living a new life. Yet Greta provides an opportunity for her to do just that. Can’t be easy for a woman like Baldwin to go on normally living like others, even if she so desperately hopes to someday.
Howard Prime gets a call from the wife of his friend Heinrich (Bjorn Johnson) and rushes over to the butcher shop the two run together. There, he discovers Heinrich out back, dead and bloody; fingers and teeth gone. Howard finds a few things hidden, including cash for the wife.

“If you loved him, truly, you have to love the lie.”

Howard Prime is thinking Quayle’s inadvertently played a part in getting Heinrich killed because of the mole. He believes the mole’s siphoning information from Peter without his knowledge. And the stakes are getting higher, people are dying. Meanwhile, on the Other Side, Howard is playing the part while out with Ian and Emily in the woods. They’re infiltrating a big house out there, where men are burning things outside like a purge of documents or something similar.
Now, Aldrich is curious more than ever before. He starts to question if maybe Peter Quayle could be a possible mole due to his connections, being married to the daughter of the Director of Diplomacy. Or, is it a Counterpart situation? ‘Cause guess who his wife is? Clare. Whoa.
That was a reveal I didn’t expect. However, I’ve been wondering a long while now exactly how Clare fully played into things and who she was for real. We’re starting to understand it all. The big picture’s unfolding more.
“The Sincerest Form of Flattery” is next week.