It's weird, because in normal situations the Russians would just PNG them and send them back home, the US would issue a mild apology and lose face for at most 5 minutes on the world stage, and everyone would move on. Or they'd sit in prison for a few months until a spy exchange is done.
Hell, there was that SAD contractor who shot 2 Pakistanis, apparently in cold blood, and he got off basically scott free.
Actually, what was stopping the US from basically going "fuck it" and revealing that the PM of the Russian Federation almost got killed in a coup attempt, after they received their two agents back? That way Bobbi and Hunter are framed as heroes, even if their covert work days are over, and Russia suffers a loss in credibility.
They aren't going to spend their "a few months" in a prison because they are frammed with the task of killing russian elites.
The choice was :
-Escape and then the US play the dumb card, assume that they were in the facility and then they can't do any kind of covert op EVER for shield. And that would be the death of them as characters.
-Execution ( they have no value as hostages since the governement deny the fact that they are spy since shield doesn't exist )
As for the second question : the USA wanted to say "fuck it" , but the russian president said : " but 3 of my high officials are dead , you can't just say that nothing happenned"
Just saw Episode 13 and....uh...I don't get it.
OK, so for diplomatic reasons Coulson had to convince the Russians that Bobbi and Hunter were just tourists, and him and Ellis had to say that they weren't S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
But...so what? What's stopping Bobbi and Hunter from meeting up with the crew later, getting back on the team, getting new codenames and getting back to business? They're spies! Being in places where they're technically not allowed to be is part of the job!
What, they're supposed to be afraid of that guy in the bar who was watching them with such fury and intensity that he didn't notice six people toasting them at the same time? Ooh, I'm sure ditching him is a lot of work.
"Russia would be angry if they ever found out you guys were actually spies" is....huh, I just don't get it at all.
What am I missing? The wife asked me today why they couldn't rejoin the team, and for the life of me I couldn't think of a good enough answer, and I'm the king of making up bullshit reasons for papering over plot holes.
Because shield doesn't exist and both sides are playing poker.
All the sides of this conflict are lying to protect their interests. And the one telling the truth would have to explain the inhumans ( that is still the best/worst secret of the planet so far ) to the public.
It's a task nobody wants , especially when some are killing other people.
In the bar , they can just say " oh those are people i think i knew" and keep the poker face.
But on a mission where anything can happen is another story
Bear in mind , currently only a handfull of agencies around the world are trully aware that "it's an arms race"
