The lies and betrayals don’t stop when the mission ends in 'Classified'

The Canadian Secret Service has a mole, and two married spies are in charge of the hunt. But the trail soon leads very close to home…

A pensive looking want stands in an office. A man leans on a cabinet behind her. A stack of files and paper sits on the cabinet, between them.

Emile Darcy (Patrick Labbé) and Rachel Miller (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin). Credit: Duo Productions

Espionage and (bad) relationships have more in common than we’d like to think. Keeping secrets, putting on an act, living in a world where nothing is as it seems and betrayal is around every corner… you get the idea. You’d think all this practice this would give spies an edge in their personal lives; Classified shows that no matter how good a spy might be at their day job, it’s when they let their guard down that the real trouble begins.

There’s been a shooting outside the US Consulate in Montreal, and the Canadian Secret Service (or CSS) is on high alert. The target seems to have been Yasser Chadli, a pacifist political dissident from the Arab Emirate of Shammar who’s now living in Quebec as a refugee. Political violence is more than reason enough for the CSS to swing into action, but there’s another reason for all the activity. The shooting has revealed that someone at the agency’s top levels is a double agent working for the CIA.

A woman in a dark jacket with long dark hair looks intently off to one side.

Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin as Rachel Miller. Credit: Duo Productions

A mole is bad enough, but the prime suspect is top CSS agent Rachel Miller (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin). A legend in the field, she heads the counterterrorism unit based in Montreal. Usually she’d be the one they’d turn to for an investigation like this. Instead, the job falls to Emile Darcy (Patrick Labbé), head of recruitment and source management.

He’s ordered by the CSS chief Adrien McKenna (Andreas Apergis) to keep his investigation secret from everyone around him. Which is going to be a little tricky, because Emile and Rachel are married. It’s difficult enough to keep their two children safe from the threats of their day job; what’s going to happen now that the threat might be coming from inside the house?

A man in a brown leather jacket peers around the edge of a brick wall.

Patrick Labbé as Emile Darcy. Credit: Duo Productions / Yan Turcotte

Classified isn’t the kind of spy series that focuses too heavily on the domestic side of life. Emile and Rachel aren’t deep cover agents who have to keep up a constant façade; honestly, Rachel isn’t exactly a warm and loving partner at the best of times. But while this series is more of a high stakes action thriller (don’t worry, there’s still plenty of covert meetings and briefcase exchanges in between shootouts), the betrayal and mistrust between the two – and their efforts to overcome these feelings, and how those efforts can also put their lives at risk – adds a new dimension to the espionage.

Initially the more pressing threat comes from the Chadli case. The Shammar government may or may not be up to no good; getting close to Chadli is essential. Irene (Leïla Thibeault-Louchem) and Martin (Gabriel Lemire), two agents working for Emile and Rachel. are soon trying to cosy up to his family. But it seems just about everyone working for the CSS has their own private agenda, and every discovery only makes the situation more murky.

A woman stands in front of a wall mostly covered in images, and notes.

Leïla Thibeault-Louchem as Irene. Credit: Duo Productions

All the while Emile is under pressure to get results with his own investigation, which is made even more difficult as those higher up seem to have already decided Rachel is working for the Americans. Is it possible they’re seeing clearly while Emile is blinded by love for his wife, or is this a case where the most obvious answer is yet another trap?

Everyone knows that once a spy agency turns its attention inwards, things start to fall apart. Trust goes out the window; it’s everyone for themselves as they try to make sure they’re not the one singled out. It’s the kind of pressure that would fracture even a solid relationship – but when that pressure is focused on tearing a couple apart, that’s when the real drama starts.

And like the first season of Classified, the second keeps the focus firmly on the fault lines between family and spying, with extended family members now adding to the tension. Keeping secrets is still very much part of these lives.

Almost as much as betrayal.

Both seasons of Classified are streaming now at SBS On Demand.