Ponies Recap Season 1 Episode 3 ‘Backstreets’: Anonymous Women

‘I’m an anonymous woman’, Twila told Ray when he asked her why she was interested in the murder of a prostitute. Twila did not go to Wellesley, she was not multi-lingual, she kept herself so guarded that Dane even commented that no one liked her, but three episodes in and she has evolved into the beating heart of the show. Haley Lu Richardson gives this seemingly effortless but thoroughly rousing performance, so that even on Twila’s quieter moments, she is magnetic. Her chemistry with Emilia Clarke continues to power the show, but now that we have started spending more time with the other cast members, at some point in this episode, I just found myself wondering, does everyone have chemistry with everyone else in this show? I am not yet shipping Bea with a character I watched murder someone last episode, but the way things are going, I might get there. 

The episode opened with George at the airport, trying to engage a man who was not at all interested in some pre-flight idle chitchat, when he saw Sveta’s photo in the newspaper. The man translated the news for him; the girl in the photo was a prostitute who was found dead in the park. He called Shep’s office and pretended that he left his passport in the hotel, but that was only so he could talk to Twila. He asked her to meet him at the airport.

George’s night with Sveta was him cheating on his wife, but his heart was in the right place when he asked for Twila’s help. He wanted to send an anonymous tip to the police though he did not really have any information; all he wanted was to let them know that Sveta was a real person. Twila gently explained to him that in Moscow, the police and the KGB were practically the same, and that they probably targeted him. But, she promised she would look into Sveta’s case nonetheless.

Twila’s resource in this case was Ray; she showed him the newspaper clipping with Sveta’s photograph, and told him that she was with her friend (whom she did not name yet) the night before she was killed. Twila tried to make Ray think that there was a possible connection between their intelligence work and Sveta’s death, and though Twila did not really have anything, her point about being an anonymous woman got to Ray, and he spent the night researching the case. He went to Twila’s flat and showed her what he found, a dozen women over the last two years, all murdered, all prostitutes according to the newspapers. They were never connected because the newspapers could not print anything that made Moscow look bad, and a serial killer would certainly fit the bill.

Twila took Ray to her next resource, the girl at the market, whose name was Ivanna. Ivanna took Ray’s mittens as payment for her information on a brothel where they could go, but she wanted one more thing – a drink with Twila. Twila agreed.

At the brothel, Ray and Twila talked to Ivanna’s friend Maria, who confirmed the girls in the photos worked there, or in places like it, except for two: Sveta (she would have worked in a more expensive establishment) and another yet to be identified girl. Much later, when Bea accidentally took home a photo frame from Sasha’s flat (we will get to this later), Twila recognised the girl in the photo with him as the same one Maria could not identify – his sister.

Bea was not involved in Twila and Ray’s investigation because she was focused on her assignment: Andrei. She practiced her cover story with Emile and the rest of their small team. Her accent would not pass as a Moscow native, so they decided she would say she was from Belarrusia, where her family was from. Her cover story would be as close to her real life as possible, so she would not have to lie much.

Ray told Bea that Andrei was a key asset to compromise, because he could be head of the KGB one day. He worked in what was known as the Special Office, which oversaw every foreign citizen living in Moscow. He was married with a child; we saw them near the end of the second episode. Bea logically asked that if Andrei watched all foreigners, then how could they be certain that he did not know what Chris’s wife looked like. Dane assured her that the KGB had never paid any attention to the wives. If Andrei had recognised Twila that night they went to dinner, he would have said something. Besides, the intelligence operatives operated under Moscow Rules – whatever one did to the other, the other would also do. If Andrei killed Bea, the CIA would kill his wife.

Twila gave Bea some tips on how to handle Andrei, to make him want her but not actually have to sleep with him. The first episode made it a point to tell us that the KGB could always be listening, but I can forgive these talks in Bea and Twilia’s flats. Besides, the first episode also showed Ray leading a sweeping team, along with low music always playing in the background, so they were exercising due care in making sure their conversations could not be overheard. Andrei called and asked Bea to meet him at the cinema. 

Mere minutes before Bea left for her date, Dane went to her apartment with a change of plan. Instead of avoiding being alone with him, she needed to get him to take her to his second home, which the CIA suspected he was using for off the books work. Dane brought with him a bag with a false bottom and gave Bea a quick tutorial on how to plant a bug.

Ponies excels in putting these small character moments in the midst of all the action, and they did here, when Dane asked a reluctant Bea why she was doing this job. Bea’s quick answer was that she wanted to find out what happened to Chris, but when Dane asked her if she would go home once she found out, Bea replied no. It was a revelation to him as it was to her, an understanding of her commitment to the cause. She was there because she wanted to be there. 

Dane did not tell Twila about Bea’s date, but Ray did, and Twila had to choose between the drink she promised Ivanna and having Bea’s back. In the end, she chose Bea, and it was a testament to how well executed this show is that we are three episodes in, Twila and Ivanna had only shared a few scenes, and it still broke my heart as a viewer to watch Twila watch Ivanna, with two drinks in front of her, from outside the pub before walking away.

Twila was a few seats behind Andrei and Bea at the movie theatre, and she followed them as Bea was forced to lead Andrei to the only Moscow flat she knew, Sasha’s. One of Andrei’s men interrupted their date because he was needed elsewhere. Mindful of Dane's instruction, Bea kissed Andrei and tried to get him to take her home. He said he could not because he was married, and I genuinely thought her not reacting to that would get him suspicious but no, it was her casual mention of Christmas that did it, temporarily. Bea told him she was married too, at least, until she lost her husband just before Christmas. He insisted that she take him to her place, which she could not because her place was at the US embassy, and why Dane did not prepare for this, I do not know. In any case, poor Sasha’s bath and reading of Jackie Collins’s The World is Full of Divorced Women was interrupted by Bea’s desperate knock on his door.

Sasha did not even have time to put on shoes; in the middle of winter, he rushed to the balcony and escaped through there as Andrei followed Bea into the flat. Twila was thankfully able to follow Bea, and she went to Sasha and offered him one of her socks. In the confusion of Andrei’s arrival, Sasha had picked up Bea’s purse (with the listening device) and Bea had placed Sasha’s framed photo with his sister in the pocket of her coat. With Bea trapped in the flat with Andrei, Twila and Sasha installed the listening device in the radio in Andrei’s car.

Trapped, because Bea was in the presence of a man she suspected was a murderer (he was), but Andrei was sweet and gentle with her. He seemed to genuinely like her. They did not spend the night together, because Andrei really needed to be elsewhere; there was a smile on his face as he walked back to his car. What he did, next, though, was chilling. Maria, the prostitute Ray and Twila met earlier, got into his car; he told her he had a job for her for a special customer that would pay a lot. Run, Maria!

Rating: A

Strays

🐎Cheryl, Twila’s nemesis in the secretarial pool, was Ray’s wife. 

🐎Won’t Andrei research ‘Nadiya’ and find out who actually lived in that flat? Or that the phone number he called was not at all associated with that address?

🐎Dane's story about his father to Twila and Bea did not match, which probably meant neither of them got the truth. 

🐎In July 1976, after Tom left his listening post, he walked by a dead body on the street, who appeared to be Sasha’s sister.

🐎Emile wrapped a bloody knife on paper and placed it in a brown bag. 

You can view Recap Lab’s coverage of Ponies via this link. 

Episode Title: Backstreets

Episode Writers: Susanna Fogel and David Iserson

Episode Director: Viet Nguyen

Original Release Date: January 15, 2026

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