The second episode of The Copenhagen Test pulls back the curtain on the conspiracy surrounding Alexander Hale. Titled Glass House, the episode reveals that his agency, The Orphanage, knew about the hack in his brain a full month before he did. Rather than fixing it, they decided to build an entire false world around him to trap the enemy. The episode, which debuted on Peacock on December 27, 2025, shifts the perspective to show that nearly every interaction Hale has is being watched, analyzed, and orchestrated.
How The Orphanage Discovered the Hack
The episode opens with crucial flashbacks that re-contextualize the events of the premiere. A month before analyst Alexander Hale realized he was compromised, a disturbing piece of evidence surfaced. Frances, an intelligence officer, presented Director John Moira with a screenshot passed from Chinese intelligence to North Korean authorities. The image showed Haleโs own computer screen, proving his eyes and ears had been hacked using technology called Cassandra RU-258.
Moira took this evidence to the agencyโs mysterious leader, St. George. Instead of closing the security breach, they made a calculated decision to leave it open. Their plan, dubbed Operation Claymore, was to use Hale as live bait. They would construct a controlled reality around him, feeding false information to whoever was watching through his senses, all to identify the hacker.
The Unconventional Analyst Brought Into the Fold
To execute this delicate operation, Moira needed a unique mind. He recruited Samantha Parker, a predictive analyst whose warnings about such a hack had been previously dismissed as too unconventional. Parker had a background in playwriting, which contributed to her skill in building narratives and predicting human behavior.
Her first task was to profile Hale completely. Moira gave her a simple directive:
โPredict him.โ
For a month, Parker studied Hale around the clock, watching surveillance feeds and reviewing his files. Her goal was to understand his psychology so thoroughly that The Orphanage could anticipate his every move and manipulate his environment without him knowing.
Infiltrating Hale’s Life with Agent Michelle
The next phase required inserting an agent into Haleโs personal life. The chosen operative was Michelle, played by Melissa Barrera. Moira warned her that the assignment would expose her face to the enemy, effectively ending her future career as an undercover agent. Michelle accepted the job.
Parker crafted Michelleโs cover, deciding she should be a bartender who would challenge Haleโs ego to gain his interest. A significant complication arose when the team discovered that Michelle and Hale had a past connection: she was the American agent on his failed Belarus mission three years prior. Parker rationalized the coincidence by stating simply that Michelle was โhis typeโ.
Hale’s Investigation and the Setup of the Trap
In the present timeline, Hale grew suspicious of his anti-anxiety medication. He traveled to a train station with no network signal, crushed a pill, and used a microscopic lens to discover it contained metallic nanite residue. He confessed this to Moira, admitting the pills came from his ex-fiancรฉe, Dr. Rachel Kasparian, though he lied about how often he was having panic attacks.
Parker, thinking like the enemy, predicted that whoever hacked Hale would send someone to verify the data stream was still secure. She proposed setting a trap. Her plan was to orchestrate a first date between Hale and Michelle at a specific bookstore. The location was critical because its rare books basement had no service, blocking all signals.
Parker communicated with Hale by posing as Michelle over text, even sharing a private joke about earrings to confirm his identity. She then briefed Michelle on the entire operation, including a backup plan Hale was meant to use if his life was in danger. Parker, however, was certain he would ignore it:
โHe will follow his conscience rather than follow an order, just as he did in Belarus.โ
The Deadly Sting Operation at the Bookstore
The date proceeded with awkward small talk, with Hale and Michelle both ironically selecting the same book, The Alchemist. As Parker and Moira watched from a remote feed, three operatives entered the store. One man used a scanning device on Hale to check the integrity of the hacked signal. Michelle tapped Morse code on Haleโs hand, instructing him not to move.
Just as the scan finished and the operatives prepared to leave, a burst of audio feedback caused a collision between one operative and Remy, an Orphanage agent on standby. A fight broke out. Michelle signaled Hale to run, but as Parker predicted, he did not flee. Instead, he headed for the signal-blocking basement, with one operative in pursuit.
A tense fight ensued in the basement, involving Hale, Michelle, and two of the enemy operatives. After subduing them, Hale suffered a panic attack. Michelle calmed him and shared a moment of apparent vulnerability, telling him her real name was Natalie. She confided that she was the agent he saved in Belarus, praising him for being the only one who chose to rescue a child over completing the mission.
The Aftermath and a Scripted Connection
The operation was a success. The enemy operatives were captured, and the cover story heldโRemyโs opponent was taken away as a โheart attackโ victim. The interrogation revealed the three were compromised CIA officers who had been turned by an unknown handler. The female officer, Clarissa, described her handler as a man with a flawless American accent who walked with a cane. She never saw his face.
In a revealing twist, the episode showed that the intimate basement conversation was not spontaneous. Parker had scripted the entire exchange, coaching Michelle on what to sayโincluding the revelation of the name โNatalieโโto build rapport and trust with Hale. Parkerโs understanding of Hale also evolved. She initially summed up his motivation in seven words: โTo earn a place where he belongs.โ By the episodeโs end, she began profiling Michelle with a similar phrase: โTo build a place where she belongsโ.
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A Cane, a Dinner, and a New Suspect
The final scene introduced a potential key to the mystery. Haleโs colleague, Cobb, met his uncle, Henry Schiff, for dinner at a restaurant owned by Haleโs mentor, Victor. Notably, Schiff walked with a cane. Cobb expressed concerns about a compromised agent within The Orphanage, unknowingly sharing intelligence with the very man matching the description of the enemy handler. Victor joined them, revealing he and Schiff were old friends.
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