A Special Forces soldier makes a gut-wrenching choice during a hostage rescue. Three years later, that same man, now a desk-bound analyst, discovers his life is a carefully constructed lie and his own body is being used against him. This is the tense opening of The Copenhagen Test, a new sci-fi spy thriller now streaming on Peacock.
The first episode, titled “Copenhagen,” introduces Alexander Hale (Simu Liu), a man caught between a haunting past and a perilous present. The episode, which premiered on December 27, 2025, dives into a world of secret government agencies, biohacking, and impossible loyalty tests.
A No-Win Situation in Belarus
The episode begins with a flashback to a chaotic night in Belarus. Hale, a sniper on a U.S. Special Forces team, abandons his overwatch position to help rescue hostages from a militia compound. When the mission is compromised, he is separated and forced to escape on foot.
In his ear, a voice gives him a brutal new order: more hostages are hiding, but the extraction helicopter has only one seat left. He is told to prioritize saving an American citizen. Hale finds a young Belarusian boy and carries him toward safety. Then, an American woman emerges from the woods, begging him to take her instead. With time running out, Hale makes his choice. He saves the child and leaves the woman behind, telling her another rescue is coming. This decision, and the woman’s face, will haunt him for years.
Life Inside “The Orphanage”
The story jumps ahead three years to Washington, D.C.. Hale now works as an intelligence analyst for a ultra-secret agency called The Orphanage. This organization acts as an internal watchdog, monitoring all other U.S. intelligence agencies to prevent corruption and leaks. It is split into two tiers: “Downstairs,” where analysts like Hale work, and “Upstairs,” which is mission control.
Hale is a first-generation American, and he feels constant pressure to prove his loyalty and worth. He is ambitious, seeking a promotion to the Upstairs team to work on a high-profile mission called Poseidon. In his interview, he is questioned about a documented panic attack he suffered after returning from Belarus. He lies, claiming it was an isolated incident. In reality, he still battles anxiety and debilitating migraines, secretly getting anti-anxiety medication from his ex-fiancée, Rachel (Hannah Cruz).
His personal life is strained. At an awkward dinner, he watches his old friends socialize easily with Rachel, who later confronts him. She is hurt he won’t confide in her about his work and refuses to get his medication anymore. Seeking connection, Hale visits a local bar where he talks with Michelle (Melissa Barrera), a bartender who shares stories about her father, a driven police detective.
The Target Lands on His Back
Trouble erupts at The Orphanage. The agency has lost three assets in North Korea in four months, forcing the shutdown of the Tachyon surveillance program Hale worked on. An internal review begins to find a potential mole. A colleague points out a chilling fact: Hale is the only analyst who worked on all three dead assets’ cases.
A signals technician quietly warns Hale to assume he is already under investigation. The stress triggers another panic attack, flooding him with memories of Belarus. Frightened, he seeks advice from Victor (Saul Rubinek), a retired Orphanage operative. Victor’s message is stark: if the agency suspects you, your life is in danger. He tells Hale to run.
Hale prepares for the worst. He tells his parents he is going on a long work trip. He then creates a “go-bag,” hiding a gun, passport, and money inside a hollowed-out book placed on a shelf in The Orphanage’s cover location—a public library. The next day, he is shocked when his supervisor announces the leak has been found, blaming a turned asset. Almost immediately after, Hale is given a sudden promotion to the Upstairs team to lead a new mission called Claymore. The timing feels suspicious, like a trap.
Simu Liu stars as Alexander Hale, an analyst who discovers he’s been bio-hacked.
Connecting the Dots: From Test to Hack
That night at the bar, something Michelle says triggers a realization in Hale. He returns home and researches old military manuals, where he learns about a “Copenhagen Test.” This is a theoretical loyalty test that places a person in a no-win scenario to see what they will do. Hale pieces together that the entire Belarus hostage situation was not a real mission—it was a test orchestrated to evaluate him.
Back at the office, acting on his new Upstairs clearance, Hale secretly searches classified files. He discovers a dormant biohacking project named Cassandra RU-258. The details are a perfect match for his symptoms: nanotech that turns a person into a living surveillance device, streaming everything they see and hear to an outside party. The horrifying truth dawns on him: He is the mole. His own senses have been hacked, and he never knew.
Unaware they are being watched through Hale’s eyes, the Upstairs surveillance team panics when they see him access the Cassandra file. Director Peter Moira (Brian d’Arcy James) orders a sniper to stand ready to kill Hale if he tries to flee. Hale, however, stays calm. He destroys the files as protocol demands, retrieves his hidden book from the library, and then, unexpectedly, walks back into The Orphanage. His decision not to run calls off the hit.
The Interrogation and a Deadly Choice
Hale is taken to “The Cage,” a secure briefing room designed as a signal blackout zone. For the first time in a long while, his migraines stop. He is interrogated by Marlowe (Adina Porter), who lays out the evidence: the hidden gun and passport, his suspicious file searches. Then she reveals the core truth: “You have a wifi signal streaming from your head. The enemy has been using you as a mole”.
Hale defends himself, saying he acted normally to avoid tipping off the hackers. He makes one request: if he is killed, he wants his parents to be told he died serving his country in clandestine service.
Director Moira then takes over. He confirms the Copenhagen Test in Belarus was real but was ordered by someone in the Defense Department, not The Orphanage. He also reveals that Michelle was the American woman Hale left behind in the forest. Moira admits the agency’s plan was to use Hale as an unwitting double agent without telling him.
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He presents Hale with two options. First, they can attempt surgery to remove the hack, but it would end his intelligence career forever. Second, Hale can leave the hack open, allowing Moira’s team to control everything he sees and hears, turning him into a deliberate pawn to feed misinformation to the enemy. With only the standard 30-minute briefing time before the hackers grow suspicious, Hale must choose immediately.
Hale chooses to stay in the game. He agrees to keep the hack active and operate as a controlled double agent. Moira instructs him to never question what is real and to act completely normal.
Living the Lie
The episode ends with Hale visiting Victor’s restaurant. He lies to his mentor, saying everything has been resolved and there is no more danger. As he cooks, he puts on a convincing performance of a man at ease.
Meanwhile, the unseen enemy watches this entire interaction through Hale’s eyes in real-time. They observe Victor’s skeptical reaction to Hale’s promotion and begin to wonder: Is The Orphanage onto them? Hale is no longer just an analyst or a soldier. As the final shot holds, he has become a weapon, and his most dangerous mission has just begun with everyone watching.
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