Treadstone Season 1 Episode 10 Review: The Cicada Covenant

Spoilers

Treadstone’s plots are all over the place. 

Treadstone Season 1 Episode 10 – the season finale — had a tall task ahead of it: It had to give resolution to the central plots. 

It failed miserably. 

Instead of getting resolution, we got set-up for Treadstone Season 2 by jumping from character to character after a meager few scenes with each of the characters we’ve traveled this journey with so far. 

Fakeout deaths generally don’t go down well with me, but Haynes returning only to be killed for good was downright cruel. 

Nothing is satisfying about a fan-favorite returning only to have them killed off them a few scenes later. It weakens a show’s ability to genuinely shock the audience. 

Haynes could have played a big part in Treadstone Season 2, but maybe his death was needed to allow Edwards and Tara to move on to the next phase of their plan. 

Going off the grid is their best bet at survival, but there’s also the whole Tara being a Cicada thing to think about. It won’t take much for the CIA to be able to control her all over again. 

Yuri Leniov had my best friend executed right in front of me. The son of a bitch has it coming.

Tara

But Edwards has proven on more than one occasion that he can talk a Cicada down from the brink of destruction. Of all the plots, Tara and Edwards going off the grid to come up with a revenge plan is the best one the show has going for it. 

Tara is supposed to be a trained assassin, but she couldn’t even take down Yuri. If you watch Treadstone online, you know viewers are supposed to be scared of them, but they’re now being purposefully weakened to serve the plot. 

There needs to be consistency in their strengths, or it shows the writers are not crafting convincing enough plots. 

Ellen managing to get through to Tara in the nick of time was all for shock value. This is a development that would have worked much better if we got to see that conversation or even Ellen sending the message. 

But, no. All we know is that Tara activated fast travel to hotfoot it from Russia to Amsterdam. 

With that said, Ellen has never been a villain. She’s strived to find ways to spin the whole Treadstone scenario into something positive. 

It was easy to assume Dan was at the wheel of all things Treadstone based on the way he was calling the shots and threatening to take Ellen down with him. 

On a positive note, Ellen being drafted in as Dan’s replacement surprised me. Her character arc was all about righting the wrongs, so having her save Edwards and giving her life up for it would have been satisfying in my book. 

I want everything you know on the Cicada program. Bentley told me you ran it.

Officer

Still, the most concerning thing is what these people in power plan to do now that more Cicadas are awakening. Will Ellen be given some semblance of power to make sure the Cicadas are only used when the government needs them?

It’s also possible Ellen’s family will be threatened if she steps out of line, but that’s something we’ll need to wait until Treadstone Season 2 to find out. 

For a season finale, there wasn’t nearly enough Petra and John. Even though they found themselves on opposing sides in 1973 again, there should have been more. 

The tease at the conclusion with Adult Petra meeting John was not enough to chew on until we learn if we’re getting more episodes. We started the series with these characters, so there should have been some payoff. 

There has to be a reason why Petra waited all these years to return to her lover. The only thing that seems plausible is that he faked his death, and only she knew his true whereabouts. 

Why wait all these years, though? Did she think Yuri being hunted would allow her to live the life she always wanted? If that is the case, then she’s going to get a nice dose of reality when Yuri pops up to screw with her happiness. 

Then there was SoYun. There was so much emphasis on her throughout Treadstone Season 1, and her entire arc was obliterated because of the need to spend time with less important characters. 

Dan: You are authorized to engage target.
Ellen: What are you doing?
Dan: Tying up loose ends.

SoYun has been fighting to keep her family together, but now she knows her son has been sent to the same facility she was shipped off to as a child, she’s going to amp up her rage to get the results she needs. 

SoYun attending a school for gifted indiviuals was no surprise, but it seems Dae is going to try stop her every step of the way. He’s been brainwashed by Shin to the point he thinks his wife is the one with the issue. 

It’s an interesting enough direction to take things, but this show’s biggest flaw is the way the storylines are spread out. In all honesty, focusing one plot per episode would probably give the series the strength it needs to stop being such a drag. 

We’re in a precarious situation here. The show obviously costs a lot, but the live ratings have not been good. Delayed viewing has been very good, and the Amazon Prime deal should help recoup some of the production costs. 

USA Network has yet to renew or cancel the series, and it could go either way at this stage. 

What did you think of all the revelations? Is Ellen being groomed to be a villain?

Hit the comments. 

Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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