Outside In

## Inside Out

***Outside In*** is the second episode of Season 2 of the Starz Original Series *Counterpart*.

The episode is written by *Counterpart* co-producer Justin-Britt Gibson (*Into the Badlands*, *The Strain*).

*Outside In* is directed by filmmaker Kyle Patrick Alvarez (*13 Reasons Why*).

## Synopsis

Imprisoned in Dimension Two, D1 Howard's loyalties are tested. D2 Emily gets a promotion.

## Full Recap

**EDITOR’S NOTE: All action in this episode - with the exception of a single flashback - takes place in Dimension Two.**

Later on the night of the Office of Interchange raid on the Indigo school in Potsdam (See *Love the Lie*), Mira and Aldus arrive at a safehouse. Aldus is still reeling from the deaths of his pupils at the school. Mira gives him a glass of gin and tells him to drink it. Aldus believes their mission is over because the school is exposed. Mira says Indigo has much still to do. Aldus is still despondent. She tells him to be strong for their former students and for her. She then seduces him, giving him a hand job on a couch.

### Prisoner 014

D1 Howard, imprisoned in Dimension Two, remembers the night of Emily’s accident. She claimed she was going to the drycleaners. He wrapped her scarf around her neck and warned her it was cold out. She promised she wouldn’t be long and he said, I’ll be here.

Howard awakens in his cell at the D2 Office of Interchange. He is taken to an interrogation room and warned that the “charges of cross-world interaction don’t apply now that the doors are closed”. His interrogator Osman warns that if Howard is not labeled as “cooperative”, he’ll be sent to “black site”.

Howard has apparently been cooperating, explaining the story of how Baldwin wanted to kill his Emily and his other switched places with him. Apparently, D2 Management believes D1 Emily is part of the Indigo plot and that she and D2 Howard were working together.

Osman has the letters Emily exchanged with her husband’s counterpart (See: *The Lost Art of Diplomacy*). Osman characterizes the letters as conspiracy, Howard tries to correct him. Osman presses, saying he doesn’t really know his wife. He then informs Howard that his Emily is out of her coma. Howard questions why they’re watching his Emily.

Osman explains that D2 Howard rushed into her hospital room emotional at the site of his wife. He suggests that switching Howard out for his other was her plan all along.

### Im Westen nichts Neues

Emily prepares for her day, takes her anti-depressant and heads off to work at the OI. There is no added security in Dimension Two (See *Inside Out*), the guards at The Crossing are playing cards. D2 has not converted their customs area into prison cells like their counterparts. It sits empty as do the Interchange rooms where Howard used to work.

In one of the conference rooms, Emily is in a meeting with the head of diplomacy. D1’s Ambassador Sy (Ramon De Ocampo) details the horrible conditions Dimension Two has created at his embassy. Every room has been transformed into a prison cell. He says they’re filled with “stranded crossers” drinking too much. He wants to know when they’re going home. The head of diplomacy says their side didn’t close off The Crossing. His people are the ones who have cut off communication and stranded him there.

The ambassador says D2 is to blame for the attack on D1 OI, but the D2 diplomat denies this. She claims their investigation shows the attackers were homegrown in Dimension One.

Once Ambassador Sy leaves, Emily lays into the Head of Diplomacy about their strategy of lying to representatives of the other side. She says they should have asked for help instead of denying involvement. She says the doors might still be open and they could chase down Indigo with shared intelligence instead of “shared fucking incompetence”.

### A Glimpse of Management

In one of Berlin’s numerous allotment gardens or Dauerkleingarten, Juma (Louis Mahoney) comes back to his tiny, inexpensive home to find Mira waiting for him with an armed thug. She says it didn’t take long to find him. He is aware of Indigo. Mira defends her choices saying that compared to the acts D1 committed against their world (See The Flu), the attack on the OI (See *No Man's Land*) “was an act of mercy”.  She defends the school at Potsdam saying that the children were the soldiers “you and the rest of Management were unwilling to create.”

Mira says it’s time the “worlds” had new leadership.

Mira’s thug has not been able to find the case with the Management communications array inside the house (See ‘’Inside Out’’). The man claims it’s not there but Mira is under the impression that members of Management keep it close at all times. He says she’ll never find it and she’ll never find the others. She picks up a small scythe blade and holds it in her lap. He says it’s funny because he was “the only one of us who ever believed there was good in” Mira. This gives her pause.

### New Developments

Emily attempts to visit D1 Howard in the detainment center at OI. She is refused entry. She chooses to sit in the waiting area until visiting hours end.

As she’s leaving the OI, she walks past Ian Shaw but doesn’t speak. Ian walks past her as well but then stops and turns around to look at her walk away.

At home, Emily is surprised to find Anna in her kitchen cooking. She’s broken up with Marco because he was cheating on her. Anna’s also bleached her hair. Emily says Marco was a bore and everyone thought so. She says she didn’t point out his shortcomings because her mother used to give her unsolicited advice and it drove her bonkers.

Anna says she wanted to talk to Howard about it, but, from her perspective, he’s purposefully out of contact. Not knowing that her father has switched with his counterpart, Anna believes he’s simply returned to his distant, un-father-like behavior. She says she misses him.

In the bowels of the OI, the agents guarding The Crossing are still playing cards at 0100 when the alarm sounds and the door to the other side opens.

The Head of Diplomacy joins two armed guards stationed inside The Crossing. A lone figure crosses from Dimension One.

He carries a heavily-taped binder of documents. He says it’s for Management and drops it on the floor of the Crossing. Once he returns up to his side, the alarm sounds again and the doors close again.

### Emily Gets a Promotion

Upon arrival at work, Emily is met by two agents. She is taken inside to a special elevator at the end of a hallway guarded by heavily armed men. She’s told the elevator takes her to the Fourth Floor which is supposedly the offices of Management.

When she steps out of the lift, the floor is long abandoned and in disrepair. She finds one of the Management camera devices in a room with a single table and two chairs. She’s joined by Agent Yorke (Eme Ikwuakor) who explains that he is authorized to speak on behalf of Management. He says management hasn’t actually come to the OI in some time due to “sort of a security concern”.

He says they know she’s been trying to visit D1 Howard. He says Management is aware that she and Howard have been “associating” while he’s been there and warns that under the Konigsberg Act, Emily could be punished for the aiding and abetting of a crosser.

**EDITOR’S NOTE: Königsberg was a German city on the Baltic Sea. After it’s capture by the Soviets in World War II, the name was changed to Kaliningrad. It remains under Russian control.**
He says Management is going to make a conditional exception for Emily. He says she is now promoted to Deputy Director of Strategy replacing Bob Dwyer. He shows her pictures of Mira and says Management wasn’t telling the truth when they claimed ignorance of Indigo. He says Mira is the leader of Indigo and Management was aware of her activities for some time.

Apparently, Mira’s been active for a long time. He says in January of 1996, Mira was behind the bombing of the Dimension One Embassy. The attack killed two people. Management sanctioned Mira’s death after the bombing. They thought she was dead until the most recent attack.

He explains that the doors opened and an offer was made by “neighboring Management”. It said that if D2 were to turn over Mira, full diplomacy between worlds would be reinstated. Emily is tasked with finding Mira.

He gives her a lead, the Schmidts. Formerly clerks with the Office of Interchange Diplomacy Department, they are suspected of giving their son (Spencer) to Indigo for training and a subsequent undercover job in D1. Management believes the Schmidts could lead Emily to Mira. Management wants Emily to find Mira and “terminate her without doubt or delay”. He says Management trusts Emily because of her work linking Alexander Pope to Indigo showed them she’s on their team.

Emily pushes for Howard’s release. She says he is “just an Interface man” and there’s no reason to have him locked up. He balks, but she presses. They are at an impasse until the phone rings. It’s Management with a counteroffer. They say if Emily brings them Mira, Howard will be released. He then warns her not to speak to anyone about the conversation or anything else. He says she won’t be seeing him again.

### Dog Walker DOA

Ian Shaw sits alone in a café watching two women talk outside. One of the women, Nomi (Krissi Bohn) enters the café and sits across from him. She knows him but says he’s not been around for a while and wonders if he’s been in London. He blames work in Berlin, claiming he’s been “drowning”. She says her bosses have her back and forth between Berlin and Zurich.

Ian’s phone rings. The message screen says “FOUND POPE’S NEPHEW”.

Two agents are already outside an apartment when Ian arrives. Loud music is playing inside. One of the agents attaches a device to the door that burns through the lock. Inside, they find bloody paw prints and Pope’s dog walker (Justin Marks) is dead on the sofa. Pope’s dog is yipping. They’re disappointed after searching for him for 11 days. Ian says Indigo are leaving no loose ends.

Howard meets with his interrogator Osman again. The man offers to send Howard home when the crossing reopens on the condition that he spy on his Emily and report back to D2. Howard points out this is the same offer Pope made just before Howard killed him.  He refuses to spy for them.

The man plays a tape for Howard claiming it was recorded in Dimension One.

*Emily -  I’ve been very clear on this.*
*Man – Emily, if we were to read your husband in think about how much simpler it would make your marriage.*
*Emily – I don’t want “simple”. Are you even listening? Your job is to keep me covered. If you read Howard in, I’m blown. Don’t go fucking promoting him.*
*Man – He’s unhappy.*
*Emily – I’ll look after my husband at home. You do your job, I’ll do mine. He’s not to be in Strategy. You hear? Not now. Not in the future. Not ever.*
Howard doesn’t know what to believe and questions why they’re doing this to him. The interrogator claims he’s trying to get Howard to open his eyes saying he only sees Emily the way he wants to see her.

### Hard Truths

Emily visits the Schmidts. She offers to reunite them with their son if they will help her find Mira. They claim their son died from the flu and deny knowing Mira or Indigo.

Emily returns to the detainment center to see D1 Howard. This time she is admitted.

She explains that she has a new deal with Management. He says they think his Emily is part of the Indigo conspiracy. Emily wonders aloud it’s somehow possible she might be. Howard says he doesn’t know what she is.

He asks if this Emily knew that his Emily was the one stopping him from being promoted. He says he was crushed multiple times attempting to rise in the organization. He’s been trying to understand why she would block him. Emily says maybe there was another side to what she was trying to do. She admits she did the same thing to her Howard. This is confusing to D1 Howard. He believes that his counterpart’s life diverged before the trouble at work. Emily says it didn’t.

She says he was “an Interface man just like you”. Every time her Howard applied to Strategy, she blocked him. She claims she was protecting him and Anna. She believed, as time went on, that she was protecting their whole way of life. She believed the day he found out the truth would be the day he left her, and he did just that.

D1 Howard claims he would not have left. He says “I don’t just quit on people I love.” Emily says that may be the real difference between the two Howards.

Emily again suggests D1 Emily may know more than she’s telling about Indigo and urges Howard to “confront the truth about your wife” to help stop the terrorists. Howard is still wrapped up in his emotions about his Emily’s betrayal, he says the “truth” led to D2 Howard losing everything. He reminds her that she said earlier that “maybe love is seeing someone for who they’d rather be”.  Emily says Howard may lack the courage to see his Emily at all. He throws her out of his cell and tells her not to come back.

When Emily returns home, George Schmidt is waiting on her street. He agrees to help them track down Mira in exchange for her attempt to bring Spencer back home.

### Ian and Emily Reunite

Emily is in Ian’s apartment when he gets home. She says she forgot to return a set of his keys. He congratulates her on her promotion. The go through some “I told you so” about his warnings that Emily wouldn’t be able to deal with knowing her husband’s other. She says she thought she hated Howard enough to avoid feeling anything for his counterpart.

Emily says she needs Ian’s help with Mira. She convinces him saying their best work has always been together.

George Schmidt makes a call to “schedule a flu shot” but it’s actually Aldus on the other end of the call. After he hangs up with Aldus, George calls Emily to explain that he’s meeting with Aldus at 2:00.

Emily, Ian, and Eli are staking out the Dean and David restaurant at Monbijoupl. 5.  Aldus arrives and meets briefly with George who reports that an agent from strategy came around asking for Mira. Aldus tells him to take his wife out of Germany and hands over two passports.

The OI agents follow Aldus to the safe house. Aldus opens and then closes the blinds in the safe house. Ian and Eli go inside the building but are warned by Emily to wait for confirmation that Mira is inside before taking the apartment. Eli becomes impatient and storms the door. Ian joins him and they’re surprised by Aldus with a gun. Eli is shot in the arm. Emily rushes in and chases Aldus to the roof. She asks for his help. He says “of course it was you” and then jumps off.

Emily returns to the apartment and relieves Eli of his duty. Another agent, Ravi, is trying to access the computer but finds the files are being erased. Emily recognizes them as OI files from their office. She realizes that’s how Indigo agents get to people. Ian says it looks like there were years of operational data in the safe house. Emily finds a picture of the little house in the allotment garden where a member of Management lived.

Emily finds a file with her picture inside.

George returns home to find Mira with his wife who apparently turned her husband in as a traitor to Indigo. Mira says they’re so close to victory and then shoots him in the head. She then kills his wife as well.

### Prisoner 014 is Uncooperative

Saying that Howard is being “uncooperative”, the interrogator Osman recommends to Management that he be sent to their “black site” called Echo.

Later, the interrogator visits Mira who is still with the dead Schmidts in their apartment. It was apparently her request to send Howard to the black site because apparently there’s someone else at Echo. She says, “I don’t have the case. Juma hid it somewhere” referring to the member of Management she met with earlier.

Emily is looking at the file she found earlier, the one with her picture inside. She explains to Ian that Aldus knew her like they’d met before. She tells him that the pictures of her in D2 Berlin were taken while she was in a treatment center. This means it was D1 Emily visiting Dimension Two.