The Copenhagen Test Recap ‘Claymore’: Upstairs, Downstairs

The Copenhagen Test Season 1 Episode 1

The scene that opened The Copenhagen Test was a scene that the show would return to several times in this episode, as Alexander Hale (Simu Liu) slowly figured out something was very wrong with him. It happened in Belarus, when a group of Special Forces soldiers helicoptered in to rescue hostages. Alexander, a sniper, was on overwatch, but when the rescue team was compromised, he ran in to help. He stayed back to provide cover as his team transported the hostages out. When he was already on his way back to the helicopter, something changed with the comms. A female voice came in and told him there were more hostages, but there was only one seat left in the chopper. He needed to choose one hostage – one – and he needed to prioritise any American.  

Alexander found a Belarusian kid in the woods and carried him, intending to take him to the chopper. But, an American woman came out of nowhere and begged him to take her with him. The opening scene cut off here, but we later found out that Alexander chose the kid, and told the American woman there was another helo coming to rescue her. 

I watched the first episode of The Copenhagen Test as I usually do with other TV shows, without first reading anything about it. When I was watching that opening scene, I thought something felt off. The dialogue felt stilted, like you could hear the effort in sounding military rather than be immersed in the authenticity. The way the rescue was staged, and especially when it started to go wrong, everything a viewer would expect from a scene like that was there. The action, the runs, the shooting, the sharp turns, they were executed well. Yet there was something off about it. If that was done intentionally, well, that was a bit risky because a less patient viewer might have switched off, but also, it mostly paid off when it was revealed that someone from the Department of Defense ordered a Copenhagen test on Alexander. How much of what we saw in that initial thing was real? As of the first episode, it was not clear yet. The American woman who begged to be rescued, however, showed up as a bartender named Michelle (Melissa Barrera) at a restaurant that Alexander frequented with his friends.

Three years after that event in Belarus, Alexander now worked for a secret government organisation called The Orphanage. The Orphanage was the intelligence community watcher. It was divided into two, upstairs and downstairs. Alexander worked downstairs, as an intelligence analyst assigned to the North Korean surveillance program. Upstairs was where he wanted to work, mission control, which oversaw all American clandestine agencies.

Alexander was a first generation American, the son of immigrants who were very proud of his military service. He knew he needed to work harder than most to be a trusted member of the team. It was probably why he kept the panic attacks he has been suffering since Belarus a secret. He has been getting anti-anxiety pills from his ex-girlfriend. He could not keep secret, however, the frequent migraines he has been suffering from even at work. The only times that the migraines ceased were when a train he was on had to do an unscheduled stop, and the signal was temporarily blocked, and during an intel briefing at The Cage, a room inside The Orphanage where there was complete signal blackout. 

Soon after a colleague got the promotion upstairs he wanted, a review was triggered amongst select personnel, including Alexander. In the past four months, they have lost three assets in North Korea. The Tachyon program, which Alexander worked on, was being shut down. Either communications was hacked in a new undetectable way, or there was a mole from within their group.

Alexander expressed his fears about being a suspect to a signals analyst, who clandestinely advised him to assume The Orphanage had already started looking into him. He also went to his mentor Victor, now retired and working as a chef. Victor impressed on him the seriousness of even merely being a suspect. Alexander’s life was in real danger from Upstairs, and Victor suggested that he run.

Alexander considered it. He told his parents that he would be travelling for work, and that it would take a while before he saw them again. He created a go box disguised as a book – with money, documents, and a gun – and hid it in the library that was the cover for his work. But, once he was in the office, he was told the leak had been found. It was Choi, the third asset, who got cold feet and gave up the two other assets, only to end up himself getting killed. 

Alexander did not buy it. Choi reported on everyone in the lab. If he knew the two others were assets, he would not have reported on them. But before he could pursue this further, he needed to report Upstairs, where he was given the job of running Operations for a project called Claymore. 

Why was he promoted, sent Upstairs where he would have access to more sensitive intelligence, if he was suspected of being a mole? Following another conversation with the woman he knew as Michelle the bartender, he went through his military books and connected the dots, from the directive to choose one hostage in Belarus to a loyalty test called Copenhagen.

He texted Victor, wanting to talk, and told him a loyalty test was ordered on him three years ago. Victor refused to meet him, however, and told him to either focus on clearing himself, or take that trip. 

Back at the office, where Alexander got in without using a fingerprint scan (which overly helpful office lady Ellie immediately noticed), he ran a search on surveillance pilot programs. It was there that he found Cassandra RU-258, a bio-hacking program that mirrored the symptoms he has been experiencing, like the sudden onset of migraines. In another room, the girl running surveillance on Alexander was appalled when she realised he had accessed a file she thought had been redacted. 

Alexander kept checking all the surveillance pilot programs on his list, giving no indication that he had figured out which one was running in his own head. Director Peter Moira had an operative ready to shoot Alexander should he run, but he didn’t. Instead, he went to his signals analyst friend and casually handed her a note: ‘I’m compromised. Cassandra RU-258.’

Ellie brought Alexander to The Cage for a briefing, the one place in the building where he could exist freely. There, he was questioned by a woman, who also confirmed what he expected – someone has been watching and listening through him. He was the mole, though he did not know until he read the report on Cassandra RU-258. He continued reading the other reports because if he changed his behaviour in any way, whoever was watching through him would know. If they thought the hack remained undiscovered, they could use that.

Alexander said exactly what the interrogator wanted to hear. The next person who spoke to him was Moira himself, who admitted that their plan was to use him and not tell him. Michelle was one of theirs. The Copenhagen test did happen, but it was not The Orphanage who ordered it, someone at the Department of Defense did.

Moira told Alexander he had two options – either they tried to remove what was in his brain, which would mean he was done with intelligence work forever, or they could keep the hack open. He would see and hear only what they wanted him to. Only key personnel would know about him; everyone else would think Claymore was a real operation. They would work to figure out what happened, when he was hacked, how much intel was compromised. If he did not succeed, he would be dead. And, he needed to make the decision immediately, because a standard briefing only lasted 30 minutes, and if he stayed longer inside The Cage, whoever was watching him would get suspicious.

Like a good soldier, he accepted. He even lied to his mentor Jack, and told him the situation had resolved itself. But, whoever was watching noted that Jack looked suspicious, and wondered if The Orphanage was already aware of the hack.

Before Moira offered to run Alexander essentially as a double agent, Alexander was painfully aware that he might not leave the office alive. His only request was to tell his parents that he worked in clandestine services, and that he was killed in the line of duty, a story that he knew would mean a lot to them, make them proud, perhaps even make it easier to accept the death of their child. Alexander’s struggles as a first generation American was the show’s strongest aspect, and something I hope they will flesh out more in succeeding episodes (as of this writing, I have only seen the first episode). 

The Copenhagen Test looks promising, though at times it feels like it is trying to be several things at once. A large golden key to access the Upstairs? Would we later find out this was a thousand year old secret organisation rather than a government agency? As always, I encourage patience and giving shows a chance to find their footing. This is not Slow Horses, but if the next episodes improve, it doesn’t have to be.

Rating: B

Episode Title: Claymore

Episode Writer: Thomas Brandon

Episode Director: Jet Wilkinson

Original Release Date: December 27, 2025