Ponies Recap Season 1 Episode 7 ‘Livin’ Thing’: Hello American

I’m not necessarily against eight-episode seasons, or even shorter. Back when the most popular US shows were 22-episode seasons, there were British shows with much fewer episodes that I loved. For me, it’s not about a standard number of episodes per season. What I would like in an ideal tv world is for creatives to have the number of episodes they need to tell the story they would like to tell. Sadly, in this current era of streaming, most shows have short seasons, and the gap between seasons tends to be longer as well. Clearly this is an entirely separate discussion altogether, but I brought that up because Ponies’s penultimate episode felt rushed. It had me wondering — what if this show came out in the early to mid 2000s? We would have had filler episodes that allowed us to get to know the characters more. We might have had a bottle episode or two featuring any combination of this show’s charismatic, chemistry-filled cast. It is not about drawing out a story, it is about making sure that it can breathe. As it was, we got massive plot movement and some character moments — and they worked — but they were cobbled together in an episode that felt what it looked to be, a rush to the finale. Ponies is a good show and it deserves more love; I hope when season two is announced (see how optimistic I am?) the powers that be will give the creatives the number of episodes they need. If it’s eight, then so be it. If it’s more, I hope they get it. 

Moving on to the story – There was the kompromat facility that Tom and Chris were trying to locate before they died, and there was Andrei’s own operation that he used to climb the ranks quickly into the KGB. In both cases, the goal was the same – to record someone’s weak spot and use it for whatever purpose some time in the future. The KGB operation was massive, and the targets included not just foreign government officials but wealthy businessmen like Shep’s friend George. Andrei’s operation was targeted toward the elite in Russia, the very people he needed to step on to get to the top.

A large part of this episode included Bea and Twila’s assignment to find the location of the kompromat facility, an assignment that necessitated the two of them separating when they saw Andrei hand his wife Tatiana something they suspected was part of his blackmail operation. Tatiana knew what Bea looked like, so Twila had to take that assignment, whilst Bea took the car with that little gadget they used to locate the tracker in the tape Ray switched up. 

The tracker was in an ambulance, and it headed out of Moscow so that Bea was stopped by police and asked to produce her papers. Bea did, but they were out of date, and this was yet another example of Dane not taking due care over his operatives. Bea was the one agent he had who has been able to get close to a rising KGB operative. Why did he not make sure that her papers were always in order? Ray was part of this operation, too, so some blame must rest on him, but ultimately, Dane was the boss, the buck stopped with him. If the writers purposely wrote Dane this way, then that’s fine, and I hope we find out more about his personality and the limitations of his Moscow operation in later episodes/ seasons. But if Dane coming off as a boss who sends out his female agents without the most basic of spy things to ensure their survival happened from lack of due care in the crafting of his character or the story, well, I hope the writers fix this. 

The policeman wouldn’t let Bea through, so she dropped Andrei’s name and named herself his girlfriend, which worked. What was nice about that little scene was that it was a small illustration of how known Andrei already was amongst law enforcement. He was not some secret KGB man who operated in the shadows; his profile within the country was high. 

The kompromat facility was massive and mostly underground; this is one of those instances when we just have to accept that the main character could park not too far away from the facility in a blue car, walk to the building, enter it, survey it, and leave, all without being seen. Bea was still inside, looking down what appeared to be the main hall with dozens of computers and agents working on them, when Andrei showed up. His boss Yuri told him that Oleg Zubkov insisted that he approve his promotion. Yuri knew Andrei and understood how he got this promotion. ‘You have tapes, I have tapes’, Yuri declared and showed Andrei one which involved him sitting on a bench with a woman, then later killing her. 

Bea was of course shaken by what she saw; this was a man who, if Twila’s insinuations were correct, gave her an orgasm less than 24 hours ago. What was not clear, however, was why Andrei being a murderer on tape was necessarily something that Yuri could hold above his head. Would his ruthlessness not make him a more desirable officer of the KGB? Was Yuri threatening to hold him criminally accountable, to release the tape so that their higher ups would have no choice but to make sure Andrei was prosecuted? Perhaps, but again, if his ruthlessness impressed the right member of the elite, they could make a criminal case go away if they wanted to. 

Bea’s next stop was Sasha’s flat, where they enacted a break up scene after Bea wrote down ‘they’re listening’ to let Sasha know the flat was bugged; she had earlier followed Andrei here, and watched as he took out the bug off a lamp and replaced it. Outside on the balcony, Sasha and Bea talked freely. Bea said that she found something important, that she would not have been able to find without his help. She said that if he wanted to walk away, he could. Sasha was skeptical about her bosses letting him go, but Bea told him they did not have anyone else who could talk to him outside of her. Sasha then asked if Bea would let him go, and he was all sweet college boyfriend again, looking all cute with tousled hair and innocence. Bea said she wanted him to live his life, and asked him what he wanted. Her, seemed to be the answer, because he leaned down and kissed her. This, after he told her he met someone at the park, someone easier. He told Bea he did not want easier. We are all worried about Sasha, right? Bea needed to leave, but she dangled coming back.

Whilst all this was happening, Twila figured the best way to get inside Tatiana’s flat was to kidnap her baby, whom she handed over to an old woman who seemed to be the building nanny. Twila brought the baby to Tatiana and pretended that she was just driving when she saw the baby crawling on the road. Tatiana was not exactly friendly; it was not until Twila dangled some new baby clothes from Paris for her daughter that she invited her in for tea. 

The package that Andrei handed Tatiana was in a small shopping bag in the kitchen. Tatiana was careful not to leave Twila alone, and when Twila suggested meeting up the next day so she could give the clothes, Tatiana mentioned bringing her husband, which felt like a warning, which it probably was. Twila had to cut herself to get Tatiana to leave for a few seconds so she could grab the bag and get out of there. Once she was safe, she opened the package, and it was a Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo bottle. 

The embassy had given free tickets to the Elton John concert to its employees. Cheryl initially refused to go, but when she found out that Ray gave her ticket to Eevi, she suddenly demanded that she should go. At the parking lot, however, Cheryl picked a fight with Ray and left. 

Twila, for her part, gave her extra ticket to Ivanna. Ivanna initially alluded to selling the ticket, but she showed up, and they had a nice time waiting for the concert to start. Twila had to leave her when she spotted Bea, whom she has not seen since they went their separate ways earlier that day. The both of them were accosted by Alan, who insisted that they join the rest of the embassy workers backstage. 

It was a greeting line for the Russian delegation, and it was not clear whether Twila and Bea even knew what it was, because they were both engrossed in Bea’s retelling of what happened to her that day. Why were they talking about this out in the open? There was no time to ponder on that, because as Bea turned to grasp the hand of the next dignitary, it was Andrei himself who drawled ‘Hello American’.

The way we got to the reveal of Andrei finding out Bea was American, I'm not too happy about, so let’s end this recap on a positive note, and by positive, I mean a well executed story, albeit a shattering, sorrowful one. The person Dane called in the past episode appeared to be a therapist in West Germany, who assumed Dane was a spy because his friend who referred him was a spy. There were only two people relatively close to Dane who died recently, Tom and Chris, and it was not immediately clear who this friend was. My assumption was, it was Chris, but I suppose we will find out for certain in future episodes.

They discussed a treatment, which Dane seemed to have gotten a few times in the past. He told the therapist that he got the treatment because if he did not, he thought about killing himself. The treatment appeared to be some kind of electroshock therapy. Dane saw Tom and Ray in a vision, and he asked Tom if he was the mole. 

Dane did not immediately leave Germany after his treatment; he met a man at a bar and they ended up in bed. Emile met up with his therapist, who recorded the session, and who gave Emile the recording. This very much looked like a setup in case the therapist betrayed Dane, which he did; Emile killed him with a syringe. Back at his hotel, Emile told Dane that it was done, but that there remained some loose ends. A friend in a village had requested a visit. So far, we have only gotten glimpses of Dane’s inner world, and I hope we will get to explore his character more in the future. 

So, there, the seventh episode is a mixed bag. What Ponies does consistently is infuse its episodes with a lot of heart, and this is no exemption. On that metric alone, this episode remains a win. 

Rating: B

Strays

🐎The two separate blackmail operations could explain why some of the prostitutes were killed, and some were not. We need more details on this for clarity.

🐎Aw Twila protested when Dane told Bea to maintain contact with Andrei, whom they all knew was a murderer. 

🐎Bea and Twila apologised to each other in the car, clearing the air before they went their separate ways. Twila also told Bea she had sex with Ivanna.

🐎Andrei blackmailed Oleg Zubkov in a bath house. Oleg warned him that he was rising too quickly, and that it had not gone unnoticed.

🐎Sasha’s mother visited him with a box of Galyna’s things, including a sweater she stole from him. His mother encouraged him to go out and see his friends, which he did at the park where they played chess. It was there that he met Katya, who was lovely and who directed plays. After his conversation with Bea, he took out the box and put on the sweater as his mother had suggested, and broke down in tears. This poor kid.

🐎Sasha’s flat must have a terrible lock, because Bea was able to wiggle it open when she rushed to get in before Andrei. It was then that she saw him take out the bug and replace it. 

🐎We also got another thread on the espionage front when Ray’s nanny Eevi broke into his locked box and took out Vera's gun. She was holding that device that Bea and Twila used to follow the tracker when Cheryl unexpectedly came home. Cheryl declared that she was right about being suspicious of Eevi; Cheryl grabbed the gun and shot her. 

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

Episode Title: Livin’ Thing

Episode Writers: Carolyn Cicalese and Jordan J. Riggs

Episode Director: Ally Pankiw

Original Release Date: January 15, 2026

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