Dark Counterparts

So, why this website? Why these characters? They hardly have any screentime in the episode and they both end up dead by the end of it.

I will frankly admit that I didn't give either of them a second glance upon first viewing The Odd Man Affair. Being not only enemy agents, but spies for an extremist organization, they are honestly not the type of characters I generally like. That changed, however, when I became enamored with actor Christopher Cary. When I looked up his credits and saw that he was in this episode, I had to get it again to watch. Although Christopher only has a small part as Mr. Ecks, I delighted to see him. And, as is usual for me, I started trying to think of a way to save his character's life after Illya stabs him in Hyde Park.

I wasn't expecting to also become fascinated with his partner Mr. Wye. That happened when I next watched the episode straight through instead of only watching Christopher's scenes. I immediately discovered something intriguing: although Mr. Wye appears stable in his earlier scenes, he seems unable to cope with finding his partner stabbed. After staring rather sadly at Ecks for a long moment, Wye turns and chases Napoleon, Illya, Albert Sully, and Bryn Watson out of Hyde Park and onto a bus. He draws his loaded gun, apparently intending to shoot them all in full-view of the passengers. He is so upset that he clearly isn't thinking about all the witnesses. I doubt he was planning to kill the whole busload.

Later he encounters Bryn on the stairs in his boss Mr. Zed's home. Completely deranged by this point, he threatens her, vowing to get back at her for knocking him off the bus and for ruining his show in the park. Now, it's possible he's just a complete nut who loves the spotlight so much that when he said that, he literally meant that having his day in the spotlight cut short was what upset him so much. On the other hand, what "ruined" his show was the disturbance Napoleon and Illya created with Ecks after Illya stabbed him. Bryn had nothing to do with it. And when Wye comes up to Ecks, at first he thinks Ecks is alright. He asks who those people were. When Ecks doesn't reply, Wye is immediately concerned. He asks if Ecks is feeling poorly and reaches to lay a hand on Ecks' shoulder, perhaps to gently push him back so Wye can see him better or perhaps even as a comforting gesture. There is no mention of his show being cut short and no anger towards Ecks about that at all. Wye appears to be puzzled at first, then honestly concerned when he realizes something is wrong.

So, back to Bryn on the stairs. It would seem, taking all things into consideration, that Wye is so upset about Ecks that he's going to go after anyone he can if they were even the slightest bit connected with things. In Bryn's case, she was with Napoleon and Illya (and of course, she committed the unpardonable sin of knocking Wye off the bus). Wye knows Napoleon and Illya are the ones responsible for what happened. (Or rather, Illya is.) He knows Bryn didn't stab Ecks. But she's there and Napoleon and Illya aren't. And he's just so far deranged by this point that he'll gladly go after her just to get at someone who was involved even in a minor way with what happened to his partner. He doesn't specifically say anything to her about Ecks, perhaps because he doesn't want to reveal to the enemy what his real reason is for the assault and that he cares about someone so deeply that their injury/death sent him off the trolley like this. But it seems fairly obvious to me that it did.

Characters being played by beloved actors and appearing to care very deeply about each other account for why I ended up liking these two. But then there is another reason why I just can't seem to stop writing about them in my U.N.C.L.E. stories: they are as close as we came to seeing counterparts to Napoleon and Illya throughout the series.

Illya and Ecks have physical similarities of hair and eye colors and general body structure. I know that's not easy to tell under that coat, but take it from someone who is such a complete Christopher Cary nut that she tries to see everything available he's been in. Ecks is slender, lithe, and nimble, like our favorite Russian. Illya and Ecks are also the quiet, deadly ones, the ones that stalk their prey with weaponry and then strike in the shadows.

At first glance, Napoleon and Wye don't have much in common on any level. One similarity would be that Wye is presumably the senior agent. Perhaps more importantly, they're both the smooth-talkers.

The main way the characters are counterparts, however, would be in their interaction and how they perform together. Ecks and Wye, though only seen briefly throughout the episode, are clearly partners and seem to be completely at ease with each other. They enjoy working together and have everything coordinated. They complement each other perfectly in their entrance scene with Zed. Later, Ecks stands by in the park while Wye is giving his coded speech, ready and waiting to handle any trouble that crops up. Although he appears to be reading something, he is highly alert and spots Albert Sully immediately.

Napoleon and Illya's friendship is pretty much legendary in the fandom and celebrated by the fans everywhere. It is explored in canon ventures such as The Summit Five Affair and The Concrete Overcoat Affair and also, of course, in the many hilarious bantering exchanges throughout all four seasons. We don't know what would happen if one of them was dead or appeared to be so (although the fans certainly like to explore that). I imagine the other would try diligently to carry on with their work. If the downed agent was downed because of a deliberate attack, however, there might be some level of desire for revenge. Certainly there would be the desire to bring the attacker to justice.

With Ecks and Wye, we do know what would happen if one of them is downed, and it isn't pretty. Hopefully neither Ecks, nor Napoleon nor Illya, would completely lose reason if his friend was harmed. Of course, even when people are close, they don't usually fall apart as badly as Wye does if something happens. Since that happens, however, it seems very clear that Wye cares about Ecks very much, most likely as more than a partner. And the caring is likely returned; Ecks seems to enjoy being with Wye. So we have the parallel, too, that they are friends as well as partners.

Taking all of this into consideration, it's not that hard to see why I not only find them fascinating, I love to see them interact with Napoleon and Illya. After all, half the fun of counterparts is meeting and interaction.