This post contains spoilers from Ponies season 1 episode 2 from this point forward.
After the tragic but mysterious deaths of their husbands, Bea and Twila stepped in to become spies in Russia while also trying to piece together the truth. The end of Ponies season 1 episode 1 found Bea in a sticky situation during her first mission, nearly getting caught by Andrei. The second episode opens four weeks in the past as Chris whispers something in Sasha's ear. What did he say?
Back at Bea and Twila's mission, Twila's realization that the pub has a sticker with a "winged horse over the entire world," like the note that was written on Chris' card, sends her into panic. As we saw at the end of episode 1, she alerts Bea once spots the Soviet vehicle. Against her better judgment, Twila leaves her lookout post and enters the bar and starts a fire as a distraction, allowing Bea to sneak out.
Once away from the bar, Bea and Twila compare notes. Obviously, Twila recognized Andrei from her conversation with him while she was with Dane. She now knows that the bar is, or was, important. Andrei tracks down Sasha, who asks for his identification and sneaks a peek at the book Bea gave him. Clearly, he's onto everyone and will be a problem more than we thought.
Bea makes a rash decision about the spy life
Dane isn't pleased to hear that Bea and Twila burned the bar down, even though they did complete the mission. He realizes they need training and enlists Ray (Nicholas Podany) in getting that set up. Worse yet, Dane's frustrated that Bea burned her cover with Andrei. Meanwhile, Sasha soaks a page from the book to get his instructions, gets what he needs, and eats the page.
After work, Sasha stays behind to figure out the item Bea gave him, and when he gets caught, he pretends to be sick. When Bea gets her training assignment from Dane, Twila worries that she will be sent home, but he settles her worries and tells her she had a good instinct to set the fire. He gives her some pointers about having a softer side to connect with people in the field.
During Bea's training, she sneaks into a closet when Sasha unexpectedly returns to his apartment. She gasps and he overhears. His bathtub is overflowing, which gives her an opportunity to escape from his balcony. She jumps off of his balcony and into the dumpster full of trash below. It's a crash course into spy work that raised her adrenaline. Sasha seems to sense someone was there, though.
Twila goes out to dinner with Shep's (Andrew Richardson) friend George (Tom Stourton) and Cheryl (Vic Michaelis), her goal being making him like her. Back at home, Bea hears the phone ringing, but it's not the usual phone. It's the red phone in the hall closet. When she answers, it's Andrei calling for her cover name, Nadiya. Luckily, Twila appears to have charmed George.
Bea rushes to Dane's home to confront him about putting the red phone in her apartment. She's mostly mad that Andrei asked her out. Obviously, she doesn't want to pretend to date KGB, but Dane explains that getting closer to the enemy is part of the job. In the morning, she informs Twila that after breaking in their agent's apartment and being forced to date Andrei, she's decided to leave.
Andrei's shocking kill and date plan with Bea
Naturally, Twila pushes back against her decision and forces her to complete the dead drop. Then she can go home. Shep enlists Twila in taking out George again and showing him around Moscow. Bea receives her marching orders for the drop at the baths, where Sasha makes the drop in a towel bin. Twila meets her friend from the market and George at a nightclub, but Bea arrives to pull her for the drop. Before they leave, she introduces Bea to George, who knows about flight paths. Hmm...
Twila confidently struts into the men's locker room at the bathhouse (yes, there is a lot of full frontal nudity) to retrieve the drop from the towel bin. Unfortunately, the camera that was given to Sasha didn't work, meaning they have to give him a new one. Twila eats a Kit-Kat outside of a store as a signal to Sasha. Bea makes the drop with him, and he shares his real name.
She takes the opportunity to ask about Chris. He mentions another woman. He also mentions his concerns about someone being in his apartment. She tries to explain, but he rushes away. George has sex with a woman in his hotel as someone watches through the camera in his clock. Andrei meets with a woman, hands her a paper, kisses her, and then kills her.
When Bea asks Twila why she thinks there wasn't actually a plane crash, Twila doesn't want to tell her since she's leaving the CIA soon (supposedly). She reveals she found a tape in her apartment that was broadcasting a code that could have been flight plans. That could have been used to frame Tom. While having wine with Twila, Bea's red phone rings. It's Andrei setting up their date.