Spy City Review: The Flower Market (Season 1 Episode 4)

Burying your gays is the name of the game on Spy City Season 1 Episode 4, “The Flower Market.”

Charming CIA agent Conrad Greer gets shot by a stray bullet at the end of the episode, after being revealed as gay at the top of the episode. It’s a shame, too: Greer was easily one of the most interesting and charismatic characters on the show. He was a believable spy.

But there’s something more problematic than just a good character getting killed off; Greer was, up till this point, the only gay character on the show.

He’s not out, but he still becomes fodder to advance Scott’s man pain. He only gets accidentally killed because he is part of a scheme to kill Scott.

The pacing is better this episode, though; a lot happens in a very short amount of time, including the shooting of Lubkov, which is further evidence that Scott really has no idea what he’s doing. Did he really think he could help Lubkov successfully defect? Or was he behind Lubkov’s killing? The show is big on questions, light on answers.

That is, as always, one of its biggest problems.

For a show that desires to be in the tradition of John le Carré, it feels more like a J. J. Abrams mystery box show, like Fringe or Lost. le Carré typically left lots of clues and hints along the way to solve the mystery, but Spy City’s just not invested in that sort of storytelling.

No, its storytelling relies on cheap twists and plenty of double agents and no real clear good guy. And while the last of those may have been true in 1960s Berlin, it doesn’t make for extremely compelling television.

Which leads back to Greer’s death; for all that Greer was charming and witty and a great ally to Scott, the show never takes the time to really get to know him.

His sexuality isn’t referred to until we see him waking up with a mysterious young man, and his true allegiances were easily betrayed by blackmail. Sure, he’s a closeted gay man in the 1960s, but his alliance with Scott is built on trust.

Scott seems to know about Greer’s sexuality, too; he even asks where the boyfriend is, who works at the restaurant where Greer gets killed. Why Greer doesn’t tell Scott about the blackmail in the first place is a little baffling, other than to set up the twist of his death and Scott’s near assassination.

Maybe the show will wrap things up neatly and do a good job in its ending, but if “The Flower Market,” is anything to go by, Scott will likely foul things up for everyone involved. The show likes its twists so much, and so maybe it’ll reveal Scott was a double agent all along.

That actually would make a lot of sense: his incompetence in handling Lubkov could be a ruse.

Maybe Greer never trusted him, despite their supposed friendship, and Severine is certainly keeping him at an arm’s length at this point. If that is the twist, it might have been built up to, but it’s certainly disappointing. Shows where the heroes are actually the villains usually are.

What did you think of this episode of Spy City? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Spy City airs Thursdays on AMC+.

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