Another great episode for thinking, discerning audiences. Sure, the pace is slow and methodical, but as actor James Badge Dale told the AP in 2010, this is a show in which absolutely every moment is meaningful and important - there is zero fat and zero fluff in this production.
Episode 5 returns us to the conspiracy plotline, as Will wonders who he can trust and what those closest to him at API may be hiding. Special praise simply must be given to Roger Robinson as Ed Bancroft; I was not familiar with Mr. Robinson as an actor prior to watching this, but he gives an emotional performance as the sad, lonely, ex-API employee who helps Will sort through the conspiracy evidence. He knew Will's mentor David, and finding out how, why, and even if David was intentionally killed - however wild and labyrinthine the theories that lead to such answers may be - is all this poor man has left.
Elsewhere, widow Katherine Rhumor meets Will for the first time at Truxton Spangler's wife's charity event; everything in this show is so subtle, but I almost detected a bit of flirtation between the two in their brief scene together.
For those viewers who really want their workplace procedural fix, there are also scenes depicting the API team going about their intelligence analysis work; in particular, Tanya faces gaslighting and barely-veiled sexism as she gets ready to pitch one of her reports directly to Spangler, with Will sitting in.
Plus, Arliss Howard shines as Will's supervisor Kale Ingram in a cryptic restaurant scene where he meets an old colleague played by Michael Gaston. Apparently these guys knew each other back in Beirut. There's an odd energy between the two men... I almost want to use the word "erotic" to describe it but I'll have to keep watching to see if I'm way off in outer space with that inference.
Loved how this one ended, as Will continues to follow the trail Ed Bancroft paved.
