Clara Dessau as Sara/Tea in The Asset. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024
Summary
The Asset doesn’t pull any punches in Episode 1 and moves at a very rapid clip, introducing the key narrative components we’ll be watching interlink for the remainder of the season.
Who’s the best person to go undercover in a drug-smuggling syndicate? According to Episode 1 of Netflix’s The Asset, it’s a traumatized woman with no experience or skills who is a recovering drug addict. You probably don’t need me to tell you that this is probably a bad idea on multiple levels. But you also don’t need me to tell you that we wouldn’t have a show if anybody acknowledged that. And thus, here we are in “Building the Legend”, the second episode I’ve watched in the last 24 hours — the other being Episode 2 of Talamasca: The Secret Order — about an ill-suited agent being sent on a secret mission. Must be in vogue.
There’s a pretty serious stake-setting opening here. A man on a plane starts to feel slightly uncomfortable on account of the drugs he has in his stomach, which promptly kill him. But it turns out that this guy was an undercover agent, the drugs in his gut weren’t cocaine, as he suspected, and the bags had been poked with holes so he’d definitely die a painful death. His cover must have been blown, which means that the PET — Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service — needs a new asset to replace him.
Jensen, the guy in charge, sends his second-in-command, Folke, to find that asset within the police training academy. She has to be a young woman, for reasons that’ll become clear. Tea Lind, our protagonist, isn’t the perfect candidate — she’s younger and less physically capable than some of the others — but she has the right psychological profile. She’s a recovering drug addict, clean for six years; her mother was an alcoholic; she got into an abusive relationship with a drug dealer when she was a teenager. All the things that make her unsuitable for traditional policework make her ideal for risky, deniable undercover assignments. It’s a recipe for disaster, but what can you do?
Tea is dismissed from the academy so that Folke can recruit her. He gives her some simple tests, like befriending a couple of show-off rich women, and helps her flesh out the titular legend. She’ll be given the perfect cover as a jeweller with the same background who owns a swish, invite-only store. But she won’t be ingratiating herself among the rank and file of the illicit drug network she’s trying to take down. Instead, she’ll be taking the wives-and-girlfriends approach. Miran Shahrani, the head honcho of the gang, has a girlfriend named Ashley who may or may not be privy to the inner workings of his operation. Ashley once had aspirations of being a goldsmith. Tea will become her best friend.
The Asset Episode 1 lets the pieces fall into play fairly naturally. Tea has two big tests in this premiere. The first turns out to be a prepared one, but she passes it anyway — the first time she’s asked to use her cover identity, a man who claims to recognise her almost blows it. That man turns out to be Yasin, her direct handler, who was instructed by Folke to give her a hard time. The second instance is more natural. Tea has her first encounter with Ashley, bickers with her a little over a very rare bracelet, and then gives her a business card. It seems like her approach was too confrontational initially, but Ashley buys it. Tea’s in.
“Building the Legend” doesn’t just give us a run-down of Miran’s operations; it also introduces us to him, Ashley, and his younger brother Bambi in person. Bambi is a bit of a wayward idiot whose heart isn’t in the whole enterprise. It was he who had the undercover agent killed, which Miran is furious about since it has created too much unwanted attention around his operations, and he’s trying to get a big deal done with a client — his name is Erik, we learn later — who doesn’t like to be kept waiting. Miran demands that Bambi get rid of his associate, whom he seems to be very friendly with, and when he doesn’t follow that instruction, a man named Niko is sent to beat the guy half to death to put the point across.
Later, Bambi holds Niko at gunpoint, and Miran has to talk him down. So, it isn’t like things are going swimmingly on the illegal side of the aisle. For now, it’s unclear how much Ashley knows and whether Miran’s love for Bambi will prove to be his undoing, but these are definitely angles that Tea will be able to exploit. Assuming she doesn’t slip back into old habits, obviously.
