TURN Washington’s Spies Review: A Turncoat, A “Blade on the Feather”

TURN: Washington’s Spies has really been cooking. It started off the season strong, and here in the penultimate installment, things have really escalated from there. Honestly, I thought they would wait until the finale to reveal to Washington that (200 year old spoilers ahead) Benedict Arnold is a traitor. Hopefully, that means that the most exciting hour of an overall exciting season will come next week in the finale.

This week on TURN: Washington’s Spies: Benedict Arnold’s negotiations with John Andre put him in a tough position. One by one, the Continental Army discover Arnold’s treachery. In Setauket, Abraham makes his move against Simcoe, with less than desirable results. Hewlett delivers Samuel Culper’s real name to Andre.

This was an extremely exciting episode. I liked Hewlett’s move, and LOVED the story between Abraham and Simcoe in Setauket. This show does intrigue and calm, calculated action very well. Jamie Bell and Samuel Roukin are some of the most interesting characters to watch, but their story together has been even better. If I had a criticism, I’m not sure why Judge Woodhull was even involved in this story. Unless they’re playing at an end game of the judge saving his son, because he too thinks Simcoe has gone too far. I guess I’ll have to wait and see. Either way, I absolutely LOVED that part of the story.

But of course, my favorite part of the story was the most prevalent. Again, we see Owain Yeoman’s fabulous General Benedict Arnold in much more light than the U.S. History books would ever teach or show us. I’m no history buff, and I don’t claim to be, but all I knew about General Arnold was about his betrayal and his fame for being a “turncoat”. But Yeoman’s (and TURN’s) portrayal of him has been much more nuanced and believable. As much as I can possibly sympathize with a British officer and/or traitor (if you know me at all…not much), I’ve sympathized with Arnold. That’s a tremendous testament to the show and the turnaround that Season 3 has displayed, too. I loved Arnold wrestling with his decisions, getting made before he was truly comfortable becoming a spy, and being offered a new command post by Washington MINUTES before his betrayal was discovered. Every bit of this episode was intriguing and exciting.

Mostly, I wonder what’s going to happen next week. The downfall of a story like this is that it can be proven who lives and who dies by doing research. Personally, I’ve never cared if they stuck to the history if it meant telling a compelling story, but I understand why you’d want to (mostly) stick to things that really happened. So if it were me, I would kill off Simcoe, or Abraham, or John Andre, but all of those men (based on my extremely limited research) seem to have survived the war. So I don’t know what’s going to happen on the show, except that I’m terribly excited to find out what it is. TURN has managed to stay atop its game all season long, and it’s really paying off in the final weeks.

What did you guys think? Are you excited for the finale? Let us know!

TURN: Washington’s Spies airs its Season 3 Finale on Monday, June 27th at 10/9c on AMC.