Many of you claim watching this series often makes you more confused as time passes.

Counterpart Season 2 Episode 7 shouldn't do anything to make that situation easier, as the more that gets revealed about Ian, the more difficult it is to understand. Just when it seemed he might not be that integral to the proceedings, he becomes a highlight.

Similarly, everything we thought we knew about Mira continues to unravel, as she didn't treat all of the students with the same disdain as she did Clare. What do we really know about these characters at all?

Does anybody have a good read on Wesley Pierce/Ian Shaw? 

His backstory has dropped in too many short bursts to keep it straight. It was on Counterpart Season 2 Episode 2 when we saw Ian and a team infiltrating a man's house only to find he was already dead. 

With the scattershot way his information has been disseminated, I'd need a lot of red string and some tacks to make sense of it. 

Was he always involved with Management on the other side even when working on this side as himself, Wesley Pierce? It's impossible to tell where his loyalties lie, but if Emily Prime trusted him before, it's not a mistake she's likely to make again.

There isn't much left to Echo and no indication anyone will head over there to take care of what remains of the other half of the Peter Quayle situation.

Given what happened with him in the Alpha world, you'd think they'd be all over him in Prime. It feels like time is moving slower on the Prime side than it is with Alpha. 

With a ruckus the likes of what went down at Echo, shouldn't the cavalry have arrived? There are dead bodies all over the place, and Peter Prime is acting as if nothing happened. 

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Emily Prime started putting the pieces of Management together very quickly once she had what Howard got from Yanek. What's odd is that nobody wonders why or how five to seven seemingly random people on both sides got to be so significant.

It was pretty shocking that Howard Alpha got shot in the gut. He was so out, only a severe wound and a reason to fight might be able to draw him back in. But into what? He was right that he should never have been involved in the first place.

If anyone is going to figure out everything, it will likely be Naya. She's a force.

Naya is using all of the resources at her disposal very well. Not only is she personally interrogating those closest to the Peter situation with his secretary, but she also brought in Emily A to identify the secretary as Shadow.

Whoever Shadow was she was definitely close to Quayle. There were documents that came directly from his department, his desk even.

Emily A

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The more exposure Emily P has to the events, the more she remembers.

That's also going to be a problem for her. If she was on someone's hit list for what she knew before, all she needs to do is recover her memory to be on the hit list again. That she's not actively getting pursued is due to her injury.

She is the key, but she is the key to what? And how did she become so essential without sharing her intel with anyone we've yet met? Did she report directly to management?

If Emily did report directly to management on our side, then it seems they would give Naya a clue about that. They're not so hands off that it makes sense they know how far Emily had progressed in her hunt for the mole.

Related: Counterpart Review - Twin Cities

Yet Emily P knows a lot about Shadow being Clare, and we haven't seen that Clare knows anything about it. Or does she, and that's why she visited Emily P when she first returned from the hospital? She was gauging how much Emily remembered pre-hit.

We've been watching Clare loosen her tether to the other side, and seeing her Indigo school friends didn't draw her any closer.

It's hard to tell if Spencer is suddenly interested in Clare because of their childhood connection or if he's doing it at the request of Mira.

I killed my other with my bare hands, used her like a game piece, and these others look at me like I'm some kind of a hero for that. We're not really the heroes.

Clare

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When Clare questioned all that had transpired and felt disillusioned that her former friends found her actions heroic, the shine wasn't gleaming on her role with them. She doesn't trust Mira, but Spencer probably puts her above all others.

I had forgotten the significance of the phone call on Clare's phone until she finally listened to the message.

Peter told her he saw his daughter's smile as death called to him. His love of his family isn't in question. When she heard the message and knew what was about to take place and what he decided to say during a scripted call, she was moved.

How could she not be moved when he was thinking of loving her as his life was getting torn apart and he expected to die?

It was a different side of Peter emerging in light of his latest trials. He's wanted to run before, but his decision to leave his position at OI and scram was coming from a different place. He doesn't want to save his own skin as much as he wants to save his family.

Related: Counterpart Review - Shadow Puppets

What an utterly bizarre love story for Clare and Peter to find each other under the most tumultuous of circumstances, but the more they survive together in spite of themselves, the more they realize they want to survive together.

Peter has always been important because of what he could offer to Mira in the quest to close down the crossing. Doesn't Mira have everything she needs to proceed? Or does Peter's importance on both sides go much higher than that?

Management has Mira's message, and they're contemplating the meet. The final computation comes down to who is pulling whose strings. Without a big board, string, and thumbtacks, I still can't figure out where Management on both sides and Mira fit into how each agent works.

The connection between Mira's operatives and how Management interacts with them without Management knowing about it is the most frustrating part. There is a piece of the puzzle that is missing that will ultimately tie it all together, and it will probably wash over like a wave.

When you watch Counterpart online, try to look for additional clues.

What do you think Clare and Peter will find at the Indigo school building on this side? Are their lives on the line? Will Howard Alpha be alright? How long until someone pulls the plug on Emily Alpha? Who is going to get expunged in another mass termination on the finale? That's a scary thought!

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.