'The Copenhagen Test' Season 2 Theories: Will Alexander Betray The Orphanage?

Season 1 of The Copenhagen Test was building up to the capture of Schiff, the supposed mastermind of the brain-hacking operation, codenamed Cassandra RU-258, that had been done on Alexander. Before getting arrested, Schiff put out a kill order on Alexander’s parents, thereby prompting Victor, Michelle, and Alexander himself to come together to kill the mercenaries Schiff had sent. With all that out of the way, Alexander’s ailment, which was being caused by the symbiosis of the nanites (used for the brain-hacking) with his brain stem, was temporarily fixed. No, Alexander’s brain hadn’t stopped broadcasting, but thanks to Frances, he had a watch that he could use to block it at will. Since Alexander had been through a lot, Peter didn’t want him out in the field yet; hence, he advised him to think about it before making any concrete decision. 

While returning home, Alexander crossed paths with Michelle—who’d been given a clean slate by Parker—who told Alexander to come find her once he was done with this life of espionage. At his apartment, Alexander sat down with Cobb to have some drinks, which was when he figured out that Schiff was not the only one who had access to his eyes and ears; Victor had too. St. George was aware of the fact that Schiff wasn’t the inventor of Cassandra RU-258, and hence she needed to keep him around to get to the bottom of this controversy. Parker and Peter had also arrived at the conclusion that Schiff wasn’t the real enemy and that they needed to continue their investigation into this brain-hacking conspiracy. Now, at the time of writing this article, there’s no official news of a Season 2 of The Copenhagen Test being in the making. But if the show does get greenlit for a second season, what can we expect to see? Allow me to theorize.

Spoiler Alert

Parker’s Future in the Orphanage

Parker rejecting St. George’s offer to become the Assistant Director of Operations turned out to be a smart move, because it allowed her to go back to the drawing board and realize that Schiff was a piece of the larger puzzle. When she told Peter about it, he had to admit that Parker was right, and that there was someone other than Schiff who was tapping into Alexander’s eyes and ears. Now, here’s the thing: St. George knew that Schiff wasn’t the actual mastermind of the Cassandra RU-258 operation. But it looks like she hasn’t shared that piece of information with anyone else. Maybe St. George tried to get Parker promoted so that she wouldn’t have her ear to the ground anymore and St. George would be able to investigate how much Schiff knows about his nanite business on her own? I mean, Schiff is a very manipulative person, and he might make some demands—which Parker won’t be able to digest—in exchange for some valuable info. 

However, now that Parker has figured out that Schiff isn’t the main villain, maybe she’ll ask St. George to let her interrogate him. Whether or not St. George will allow it is something that remains to be seen. Heck, Parker’s whole future depends on how far she’s willing to go to get the answers that she needs out of Schiff. There’s also a possibility that St. George will give Parker full control of the mission to unveil the real antagonist of this story. In that case, Parker will clash with Alexander, because he seems to have fallen into Victor’s trap, which is something that might force him to go against the Orphanage. In addition to all that, there’s the love triangle between Michelle, Parker, and Alexander that’s bound to spice things up. And yes, this is actually a love triangle, because I feel there’s chemistry between Alexander and Parker, Alexander and Michelle, and Michelle and Parker as well!

Schiff’s Dynamic With St. George

I am certain that Season 2 of The Copenhagen Test will delve into Schiff and St. George’s rise, with one being motivated by revenge and the other being compelled by the need to make her country safe. In Season 1, we got the tiniest bits of information on both of them through flashbacks. Maybe Season 2 will double down on that to show us what makes both of them tick. Hopefully, that’s how we’ll learn how both Schiff and the Orphanage learned about the Cassandra RU-258 program, and the methods that Schiff used to find a way to hack the system that could hack brains. I mean, that must have been a pretty tricky job, but Schiff managed to do it seemingly all on his own, while the Orphanage couldn’t despite having the best operatives at their disposal. And that brings us to Schiff’s role in the Orphanage. As mentioned before, there seems to be some withholding of information going on, because St. George wanted to have a conversation about Schiff’s role in the hacking of the Cassandra RU-258 program all by herself. 

It’s possible that the scene was framed in such a way that it looked like Parker, Ellie, Frances, Peter, and Marlowe weren’t listening to their conversation, so as to give us the impression that St. George will make a secret pact with Schiff, which’ll allow her to get to Victor without alerting the rest of the team. And the main reason behind that would be Schiff’s unreasonable demands. Schiff will try to win back his freedom or get some protection from the gang of mercenaries that was helping him all this while, and St. George might think that that’s something that she owes him. Since the rest of her team doesn’t have that kind of a history with Schiff, they might try to stop St. George from making any decision that’ll allow Schiff to go back into the wild. However, I don’t think St. George will be able to keep her arrangement with Schiff a secret for too long because her team, especially Parker, is too good at sniffing out anything that’s problematic.

Cobb’s Side Quest

Cobb went on a very weird journey, and I think things are going to get weirder for him in Season 2. He started off as an agent of the Orphanage. When the operations he was heading were handed over to Alexander, he essentially betrayed the Orphanage and sided with the CIA. But since he brought back Alexander from the jaws of death, he entered the good books of Marlowe. So, currently, he’s a part of the Orphanage, but to the world, he has been fired from that institution. Why? Well, since the Orphanage is an organization that monitors every intelligence agency, they are pretty reviled among that particular community. Hence, all of those agencies want an insider of theirs who could leak any important info to them. Since the Orphanage runs a tight ship, something like that hadn’t ever happened. Cobb was a minor mishap, but Marlowe seemingly thinks that they can use that to their advantage and snoop on the CIA very directly, while the CIA will be busy thinking that Cobb is their man. 

From the brief conversation between Peter and the CIA Director, it seemed like the latter was conducting some kind of a counterintelligence operation that may or may not have something to do with the Cassandra RU-258 operation. Cobb can confirm that theory. In addition to all that, Cobb will probably have a pretty tense confrontation with Schiff. I mean, imagine knowing somebody your whole life, probably getting inspired by him to join this world of espionage, and then almost getting shot to death by him in the streets; that must have been incredibly traumatic for Cobb. He’ll understand why the Orphanage has decided to keep them in custody and is using him to learn about the brain-hacking program. But if Cobb sees the Orphanage entertaining all his whims and demands, he might actually switch sides and start working for the CIA. If Marlowe is the one who’ll take over as Cobb’s handler, she’ll need to handle this whole situation sensitively, or she might end up creating a massive leak in the Orphanage.

Victor’s Task for Alexander

Alexander spent the entirety of Season 1 of The Copenhagen Test playing this 4D chess game where he was working for the Orphanage while making it seem like he was dancing to Schiff’s tunes. He got so convincing at lying about his allegiance that at one point even the Orphanage thought that he had betrayed them. In Season 2, things are going to get even worse because he’ll actually be working for the enemy, which is Victor, while making it seem like he’s doing the Orphanage’s bidding. Parker knows Alexander very well. So, she might be able to catch any hints that Alexander will be leaving for her in order to let her know that he’s being manipulated by Victor. However, Victor made Alexander the spy he is today. Don’t you think he’ll be able to notice Alexander’s shifty, pro-Orphanage agenda instantly? Which means that Alexander will need to be extra careful while subtly communicating with Parker. I hope Season 2 shines some light on the real purpose behind Victor making Cassandra RU-258. He did say that he had apprehensions about the creation of the Orphanage and the concept of a watcher watching the watchers. Then he created a watcher to watch the watcher who watches the watchers? But if it can be hacked by someone like Schiff, why did he greenlight such a project? 

That also makes me question if Victor is really the actual mastermind of this brain-hacking operation. No, I don’t think he’s another backdoor entrant like Schiff. I think he’s working for someone else, though. Of course, that won’t be released any time soon, as the focus will remain on what tasks Victor will compel Alexander to do by threatening Michelle’s life. Does Victor have some personal grudge against St. George? Is his mission related to his sense of nationalism or anti-nationalism? Or does he just want to make hoards of money by selling confidential information to various international agencies? We’ll see. Speaking of Michelle, what’s going on with her? Is she on an actual mission in Triana or has she settled down with a single father? She looks directly at Cyr, Victor’s brain-hacked operative, which might mean she is being used as bait by Parker or Cyr has become a part of her life by befriending her. Either way, it looks like she’s in quite a pickle, and she’ll need to covertly collaborate with Alexander to get out of this sticky situation. By the way, I talked about the love triangle involving Alexander, Michelle, and Parker. If Rachel, who is still working for Victor, enters the picture, it might become a love quadrangle, and I for one am up for it. What are your expectations from the show if it gets the green light for a second season, though? Let me know in the comments section below.

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