The Checklist: Treadstone (S1 Ep2) “The Kwon Conspiracy”

USA Network has the hype machine on full blast for their new event series Treadstone and rightfully so. The series inspired by Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne novels, instantly grabbed my attention with its compelling characters, plenty of mystery and the cinematic look and feel of the show.

After catching the Treadstone sneak preview last month, I knew I’d be tuning in each and every week. But did the second episode, “The Kwon Conspiracy”, live up to the high expectations set by the premiere episode?

#1- Did the episode utilize flashbacks?

In the first episode, Treadstone told its story using two separate timelines, the early days of the Treadstone project in 1973 and present day with the awakening of the cicadas. This storytelling device was utilized once again in “The Kwon Conspiracy” and one could expect that it will be one of Treadstone’s signature elements.

“The Kwon Conspiracy” opens with a flashback as J. Randolf Bentley (Jeremy Irvine) finds himself back with his CIA pals in West Berlin after his daring escape from the East Berlin hospital that was turning him into a human weapon… but there is some concern that Bentley may have been turned into a double agent in the 9 months he was imprisoned in East Berlin, so Bentley’s boss decrees that Bentley undergo some intense psychiatric evaluations, Bentley snaps… starts taking his CIA co-workers out and for the second episode in a row, manages a daring escape.

Later in the episode we also get some flashbacks to young Petra and the KGB consequences she faced after she was unable to prevent Bentley from escaping. 1/1

#2- Do we get to see Tara in action?

The first episode in the series, “The Cicada Protocol”, did a wonderful job of introducing us to the three “cicadas” who find themselves being woken up in the present day… there was SoYun Pak, who not only was woke but completed her first mission (this North Korean piano teacher killed General Kwon!)… oil rig worker Doug McKenna, who proved he could handle himself in a barroom brawl… and last but not least cab driver Tara Coleman, who was actually approached by General Kwon before his assassination and asked to deliver a message to his daughter, Jang Mi, who was attending school in Paris.

Tara did not really get in on the action in the first episode, but she changed all that in “The Kwon Conspiracy” after she tracks down Jang Mi, who was on a field trip with some of her fellow students at the Palace of Versailles and the two end up in a high speed car chase through the streets of Paris as Tara desperately tries to get Jang Mi to the embassy before the people responsible for killing General Kwon do the same to his daughter. (Side Note: The chase scene was really well done and ends in spectacular fashion.) 2/2

#3- Were there any notable guest stars?

The short answer to this is no… but in the early stages of any series, we are still getting to know the main cast and while a notable guest star doesn’t hurt, they don’t play as crucial of a role as they do as a series goes on. 2/3

#4- Did the show push the basic cable envelope?

Treadstone continues the evolutionary trend that is making basic cable shows look and sound more like the shows you can see on some of the premium cable networks like HBO and Starz and the major streaming services like Prime Video and Netflix.

The look of Treadstone is cinematic and when you have characters dropping “F bombs” through out the episode, long time basic cable viewers will realize that things have certainly changed and in this case for the better… the rougher language, the blood, the violence… it makes everything more real and less homogenized. The only boundary Treadstone has yet to cross is the nudity one… but as a reminder we are only two episodes in. 3/4

#5- Were questions answered and were more questions asked?

The key to any great episodic series is to keep the people guessing and so far Treadstone has done a great job at that.

Some of the questions I asked myself after watching the premiere episode were answered in “The Kwon Conspiracy”… we found out who gave SoYun Pak’s son the Gameboy (the very Gameboy that awakened SoYun)… we found out that Bentley made it back to the CIA… we found out that there was at least one more cicada agent in the present day. But there are still so many questions left to be answered…

Who is waking the cicada agents up? Why are they being woken up? How and why were the cicada agents selected? Who were these people before they became cicada agents? 4/5

• Final Score = 4/5 (80%) It feels like the sky is the limit for Treadstone here in the developmental stages of the series. After watching “The Kwon Conspiracy” I am left wanting more and that is the true test of any series.