Who knew Elizabeth Moss could play an MI6 agent like she was born to do it? Stephen Knight is a gift that keeps on giving, and in his latest political thriller, The Veil, Moss plays Violet Seabright, an agent who specializes in disguises and negotiations. Violet goes to a UN refugee camp at the Syrian border as Imogen, trying to extract information from an alleged ISIS commander who’s suspected to be the mastermind of a large-scale terror attack on the West.Â
Spoilers Ahead
How does Imogen get Adilah out of the camp?
Imogen goes to the camp to see that the supervisor of the camp, Guy, is pretty incompetent at his job and blames it on the UN for not sending more people to help. She talks to Adilah and tries to earn her trust in order to get the information she needs, and even though Adilah’s story doesn’t match the description of the Djinn al Raqqah, Imogen senses that she’s hiding something. She saw Guy taking sexual favors from the refugee women of the camp, and when Guy asks her about her identity, she threatens to file a report to get him sacked. Imogen’s intimidating, and there aren’t many men who would dare to go against her. Guy, too, gives up and lets Imogen take Adilah and provides them with enough medical supplies for the road.
Who is the man in Imogen’s flashbacks?
Imogen gets flashbacks of memories she wants to keep buried inside her, but it doesn’t work. She was in a relationship with her father’s protege, Michael, who grew up to be one of the most efficient agents in England. After Imogen’s father died, Michael groomed her into the person she is and trained her to become an elite spy. But that wasn’t all there was to their relationship, as they were sexually attracted to each other too and had many intimate moments. Imogen was the submissive one in the relationship, and Michael called her his ‘silly girl.’ They also had a daughter together, who died soon after Imogen gave birth. Memories of Michael and their relationship haunt Imogen, who desperately wants to forget about it and move on. The romance with the French agent Malik isn’t quite fulfilling enough for Imogen to completely get over Michael, and even though she loves Malik, Michael’s voice keeps playing in her head.
Why does Imogen work with the Americans?
The moment Imogen took Adilah to Istanbul, she officially turned rogue, and the DGSE and CIA started working together to get hold of her. Max Peterson, the CIA agent, seems to disapprove of Imogen’s methods, or at least that’s how he pretends in front of Malik. But when Imogen secretly meets Max in Paris, it becomes clear that she’s working with the CIA on this. Imogen doesn’t care whose help she needs; she just wants the best intelligence and resources in order to solve the mystery surrounding the terror attack. Imogen has Malik wrapped around her fingers too, and working with Max gives her all the information she needs to get through Adilah.
Why does Imogen warn Adilah of the surveillance?
From the time they land in Paris, Imogen tells Adilah everything about the possible surveillance she might be under. One might wonder what kind of agent does this, but Imogen has good reasons behind every step she takes. By warning Adilah of the danger she’s in, Imogen only manages to get closer to her. The more Imogen develops the relationship between them, the greater the chances of Adilah telling her about the ship that’s going to destroy the United States.
How does Imogen conquer her fear of Michael?
When Imogen figures out that Michael has been keeping tabs on her mission all along, she gets suspicious of his intentions. She finds bits and pieces of Russian documents in the paper shredder, and she realizes that Michael might be helping the Russians launch the attack on the US. She’s still very intimidated by Michael, and going against the man who has traumatized her to this extent seems like a huge leap of faith, but she does it anyway. One thing we learn about Imogen is that she never fully trusts anyone, and I think that’s the very essence of the people involved in espionage. She seduces Michael just like in the olden days and gets him under her control so she can pull a knife on him to get information about the ship. Even though Michael is more experienced than her and immediately holds her at gunpoint, Imogen’s current lover, Malik, puts a bullet through his head. Imogen is now so over Michael that she doesn’t look back to see what happened to him and immediately leaves to get to Adilah.
How does Imogen find out about her father?
After the terror attack is intercepted, Imogen finds out about a person named Sebastian who lives in a cottage just next to Michael’s mansion. When she goes to the cottage, she finds evidence of her father being alive all this time. Marcus Seabright was not only a traitor to his country, but also to his daughter. Imogen quotes the line from The Tempest about how all the lost souls have left hell and arrived on Earth. This signifies her coming to terms with the fact that the man she missed all her life and tried to find out why he was killed was nothing but an evil person. She moves on from it and carries on with her life as an agent who has a conscience and fights for good, unlike her father and her mentor.Â
