Ponies Recap Season 1 Episode 4 ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’: Vera

Bea and Twila ran their respective assets in the fourth episode of Ponies, and one story was handled earnestly, with a lot of heart, and a sweetness that should make Petro Ninovskyi an Internet favourite, whilst the other story was, well, not so much. Let’s start with young Sasha , whose every look toward Bea fairly eloquently said that he would not have a hard time believing the lie that they were in a relationship. Sasha may have started doing espionage work for his sister,  but when he was scared, when he wanted to stop, it was because of Bea that he stayed. 

Bea pretending with Andrei that Sasha’s flat was her own was always going to create problems, and I am glad that the show tackled this immediately. A slightly drunk looking Andrei stopped by, and when Sasha opened the door, he knew at once what this was about. Quick on his feet, he told Andrei that Bea (Nadiya) was in the country with her family. 

Andrei remembered him from the pub that burned down, that night that he first saw Bea. Neither of them identified the other as boyfriend/ girlfriend; Sasha explained that away by saying they had a fight over her infidelity. This was happening around March. Bea’s husband died before Christmas. Bea as Nadiya moved on very quickly to a boyfriend, then cheated on him. The timeline was pretty tight if Andrei thought this through, but it did not look like he could think things through clearly enough where Bea was concerned.

Like a high school bully, he sent one of his thugs to beat up Sasha after work and steal his wallet; Sasha immediately checking on the thing that he stole for the CIA and making sure it was safe was very good direction. He gave it to Bea and told her it was the last thing he would steal for them.

Sasha did not want to die, but his greatest fear was not death, it was torture, which he knew would happen to him were he caught. Just as Dane talked to Bea about her reason for doing what she was doing, Bea talked to Sasha about his own reason, his sister Galyna. Sasha said that a man came to him and told him there were some KGB agents murdering prostitutes and that Galyna was one of them. He did not know she had been a prostitute. I’m going to put a pin on this because of a couple of scenes the show gave us last episode – Tom walking past Galyna’s body on the street and Emile putting a bloody knife away. I have my suspicions, is all I will say at this time. 

Bea told Sasha that if he walked away, no one would fight for Galyna again. Perhaps Bea was sincere, perhaps this was a calculated manipulation of a new agent quickly learning the ropes, but it worked. Sasha’s one request was a suicide pill, so that if he were caught, he could kill himself first before he was tortured. Twila got the pill for Bea from Vera, and when Bea gave it to Sasha, along with new instructions from the CIA, there were definite sparks between them. I am really trying not to ship anyone with anyone, especially in an espionage show where anything could happen, but this is not easy.

Meanwhile, Twila finally got her own asset to run – Vera – who worked with Tom and Chris as well before their deaths. Vera was someone who supplied them with things they needed, like poison or, as Ray helpfully hinted, planes. Her method of communication as Ray explained it was quite clever; it was an illustration, with symbols, and Ray decoded it meant that Vera’s contact Pavel would set up a meeting with one code named Caterpillar who worked at the KGB kompromat facility. It was Ray who told Dane to pick Vera for the assignment, because he knew she cared about the women of Moscow that no one else cared about, like Vera.

Vera demanded 100 thousand dollars by the following night in exchange for the meet that could get them location of the facility, an impossible amount in such a short time according to Dane, along with a US passport. Since they could not get the money, Twila thought of providing Vera with something that could be sold for roughly the same amount or even more – the Malevich painting in Bea’s boss’s office. Twila noticed during the preparation for the St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the embassy that Bea was a good painter. She had Bea quickly paint a copy of the Malevich, which would not have passed inspection of any true art enthusiast, but since Alan collected mostly because he knew he was getting valuable paintings cheaply, they could very well get away with it. 

Pavel initially did not look inclined to accept that painting as payment, but Twila was a good negotiator who knew it was important to make it look like she was willing to walk away. Pavel eventually accepted and agreed to set up the meet with Caterpillar. When Twila asked for a suicide pill for Bea, Vera promised her she could get one, in exchange for the US passport.

Vera was an old woman; she declared that she just wanted to die free. Once she got the passport, she removed the suicide pill from her own mouth, now a former intelligence player on her way out of the game. Twila begged her to tell her what happened with Tom and Chris. Vera said they were looking for the kompromat facility. That fateful night, Caterpillar gave them new coordinates, so they landed about 10 kilometres away. Vera stayed in the plane and watched them get shot; there were soldiers there waiting for them. According to Vera, Tom was the mole; he fed the Soviets the information. When a devastated Twila tried to get more information from her, Vera accidentally fell off the rickety bridge and into the cold river, where she died.

Twila went straight to Bea, though she could not quite get herself to tell her what Vera said about Tom. She did tell Bea what Vera said about witnessing them die, and it was as though Bea was losing her husband all over again. Bea said that she thought there was a chance they were still alive. Emilia Clarke has been doing really well in portraying Bea’s grief over her husband.

The two of them went to Ray, and he was fine until he asked about the US passport, which of course was still with Vera’s body. Twila and Bea had to head back out to the river, with Bea standing by as lookout whilst Twila retrieved not just the passport but a gun and a knife. Twila looked like her heart was breaking at having to leave Vera there, again.

Dane was furious when he was finally informed of what happened. Pavel had set up the meet with Caterpillar, who was expecting to meet Vera. He only had two female operatives, neither of whom was the right age. Besides, Bea was busy with her own Andrei operation. Then, Bea said she did know of an elderly woman who spoke fluent Russian – her grandmother. No Bea! Don’t bring your family into this!    

Ponies only has eight episodes this season, I get that they needed to move quickly. I just thought it was a shame to lose a character like Vera like that. Part of me wondered if she fell in on purpose as part of her escape into a CIA and KGB free life, but since Twila retrieved the passport (which Ray burnt), then this was not likely. I suppose I tend to expect death to have more heft, and what the show decided to explore (very briefly) was the heartbreaking absurdity of it all, this woman who reached old age trading secrets, only to lose it accidentally just when she was about to embark on her final stretch toward freedom. This overall remained a strong episode and I look forward to seeing what would happen next. Bea’s grandmother survived Auschwitz and built a life in America that was successful enough for Bea to have only known a middle (or even upper middle) class life; she was clearly a strong woman. On to the next! 

Rating: B+

Strays

🐎Cheryl and Ray had a new, young, attractive nanny from Helsinki named Eevi, whom Cheryl tried to send back to the agency but whom Ray welcomed immediately and introduced to their son Trent. 

🐎Eevi watched Ray put the gun and knife in the lock box in his room, and burn Vera’s passport.

🐎Ray can sing! He performed at the office party and invited Eevi up the stage with him, much to Cheryl’s displeasure.

🐎Young Trent found a bug inside a fireplace in the embassy. 

🐎Sasha worked in video technology and had both watched and read Love Story. He is such a sweetheart, I am starting to dread what the show has planned for him. The good news is that his request to have his code name changed from CK Solar to Redford was approved. 

🐎Alan was having an affair with Lily, who happened to be Shep’s wife. He told Bea he would be sleeping in the office as he and his wife Gretchen were having problems.

🐎Andrei tried to blackmail Dane with a tape he claimed was damaging to him. Dane coolly told him that if that was a tape of him having sex with another man, Washington already knew, which was how he got Moscow, the worst assignment in the CIA. Dane also taunted him for being just mid-level KGB, and that he heard his facility was compromised. 

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

Episode Title: Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

Episode Writers: Susanna Fogel and David Iserson

Episode Director: Viet Nguyen

Original Release Date: January 15, 2026

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