The Copenhagen Test: Character Guide and World Overview
This is a character guide and show reference post for Peacock’s The Copenhagen Test, featuring information on the spy organizations, who’s who, and the lead and supporting characters.
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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World Overview
The Copenhagen Test lands us in a world of spies, with a special focus on US Government spies, part of “The Orphanage” who not only are doing work beyond what the NSA and CIA do, but also are keeping track of what other government agencies are doing, like overseers of the overseers.
This character guide is part of our ongoing The Copenhagen Test coverage, which includes recaps, reviews, and episode breakdowns.
Lead Characters
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Character Summary
Alexander is a first-generation Chinese American who is an Army veteran (Special Forces), with his focus being a sniper, and he currently works for The Orphanage, going from a data analyst to an investigator. It has been three years since the start of the series, since he has been in the field, and three months since he started to get terrible headaches that he learns come from him being biohacked.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1, Episode 1
- Last Name Change (S1E1): His family, upon arrival in the United States from China, changed their family name from Han to Hale.
- Cover (S1E1): He tells his parents and ex-fiancee that he is a public researcher at the Essex Library in DC.
- Time as Intelligence Analyst (S1E2): 2 years
- Languages Spoken or Understood (S1E2): Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka through his dad.
- S1E5: Also French, and he often speaks to Michelle in Morse Code
- Codename (S1E2): Osiris
- S1E5 Quote: “The only time that anyone actually told me the truth was when I had already found it myself.”
- Birth Year (S1E5): Approximately 1989 or 1990, based on when Helen was pregnant, after she and Preston immigrated due to Victor endangering their lives in China.
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Character Summary
Parker is a fairly new employee to The Orphange, only having been there for a year and a half, and she was initially introduced as a predictive analyst. However, with her predicting the biohack situation, Moira promotes her, and this leads her to, after being pulled from writing field agent backgrounds, writing Alexander’s future and Michelle’s character.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1, Episode 1
- Full Name (S1E2): Samantha Parker
- Previous Job (S1E2): She worked at Cobble Hill Group
- Previous Education (S1E2): She went to Yale Drama School in hopes of becoming a playwright
- Age (S1E2): Moira says it is 29, but teases the idea that Parker’s parents may have lied to her
- Promotion (S1E8): She becomes the Assistant Director of Operations
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Character Summary
Michelle’s life is partly cloaked in secrecy since she is an agent of the US Government. Which agency isn’t revealed when she is initially introduced, but we are given her cover, which may have some of the truth mixed in. When we meet her, she is a bartender who notes her dad was a cop who worked homicide. He was someone who closed the most cases and was always competing with his best, something Alexander related to. But, how much of this was about Alexander letting his guard down, or a true human connection, remains to be seen.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1 Episode 1
- Alias (S1E2): She lies to Alexander and says her real name is Natalie
- Previous Agencies She Worked With (S1E2): She worked for the CIA when Alexander was given the Copenhagen Test
- Code Name (S1E2): Shadow boxer
- Aspirations (S1E2): For her Michelle character, she says she is going to Divinity School
- Parker’s Character Bible (S1E3): Michelle is 34, born on July 15th, has no siblings, and both of her parents died in a car accident when she was 18. She is originally from El Paso, Texas, but settled in DC 8 years ago.
- Where Do You Center Yourself? (S1E3): Michelle notes to Alexander that she centers herself in cemeteries, and while she changes her answer to old churches, we see her last in episode 3 in a cemetery.
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Character Summary
Peter Moira is the Director of Operations at The Orphanage, second in command to St. George, and shares powers with the Director of Intelligence.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1, Episode 1
- Birth Order (S1E2): He is the youngest of his siblings
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Character Summary
Spoken about almost like a legendary ghostly figure, St. George, under George H.W. Bush, created The Orphanage and has been managing it in the shadows since its inception.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1 Episode 1
- Longer Than We Know? (S1E2): It is noted that St. George has been operating The Orphange for 45 years, which conflicts with George H.W. Bush authorizing the program during his presidency.
- Experience (S1E8): St. Gerge notes she has eight decades of experience (which makes no sense)
Character(s) Introduced in Season 1/ Episode 1
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Character Summary
Victor is a retired agent of The Orphanage who now runs a restaurant as its head chef. He is also someone who knows Alexander’s parents and has been part of his life for a long time. Thus making him one of his few confidants when things begin to go wrong.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1 Episode 1
- Tenure (S1E3): His career in the intelligence sector spanned 50 years.
- 1989 Victor (S1E5): The 1989 version of Victor is played by Jonathan Malen
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Character Summary
Ellie is one of Alexander’s observers (the few who know Alexander is biohacked), who originally pushed to be his primary go-to person for support when he joined the Claymore group.
Character Details
- Introduced in Season 1, Episode 1
- (SE)
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Character Summary
Dr. Kasperian is Alexander’s ex-fiancée who may still have feelings for him. However, his inability to communicate about his job and life left them at a crux, which their mutual friends are still trying to navigate. But, with still being somewhat cordial, she is his main source of anxiety medication.
Character Details
- Drug Dealer (S1E2): For approximately 8 months, she may have been giving Alexander’s pills for his panic attacks, but it isn’t clear her source of pills
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Character Summary
Preston is Alexander’s dad.
Character Details
- 1989 Preston (S1E5): The 1989 version of Preston is played by Oscar Hsu
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Character Summary
Helen is Alexander’s mom, who might be the source of her family’s Americanization of their name.
Character Details
- 1989 Helen (S1E5): The 1989 version of Helen is played by Lauren Gaw
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Character Summary
Frances is a signal analyst and was one of Alexander’s few friends when he was working downstairs in The Orphanage. However, revealing a comment he told her in confidence may have altered their relationship.
Character Details
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Character Summary
Marlowe works in internal affairs within The Orphanage, which leads to her often investigating those who work upstairs or downstairs with her team.
Character Details
- (SE)
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Character Summary
Cobb is a five-year employee of The Orphanage, one of Alexander’s peers, who got hired to work for the Poseidon project, and is introduced to Victor as Henry’s nephew.
Character Details
- Background (S1E4): Edmund grew up poor, trailer park poor, but worked his way up to Princeton before eventually working in DC
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Character Summary
Remy is a field agent mainly sent out by Moira to observe and get violent if necessary
Character Details
- Codename (S1E5): Timekeeper
Character(s) Introduced in Season 1/ Episode 2
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Character Summary
Born in 1964 in Salzwedel, Germany, the man modernly known as Henry was born to a Ukrainian mother, who died in childbirth, and an American dad, who was a serviceman. His original name was Frederick Schiff, then he became Eric Khomyuck, and last, Henry Goldman.
For most of his life, he has worked for a government agency, whether it was a listening post in East Berlin, being a GRU Officer, a proxy to paramilitary groups, or a contractor with CIA and NSA clearance.
Character Details
- Background (S1E6): The majority of the information we learn about Henry comes from Season 1, Episode 6.
- Where Did Names Come From (S1E6): Khomyuck is his maternal grandmother’s maiden name and Goldman is his father’s last name
- Connection to Cobb (S1E6): Edmund Cobb is his nephew via his half-sister Ellen
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Character Summary
A compromised member of the CIA working for Henry, who becomes a tool for The Orphanage due to her access. She also appears to be a parent.
Character Details
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Character(s) Introduced in Season 1/ Episode 3
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Character Summary
Kate is St. George’s partner who has a neurodegenerative disease.
Character Details
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Character(s) Introduced in Season 1/ Episode 4
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Character Summary
Saul Clemente is made to be “Mosaic,” the source of intel for the Claymore operation, based on his holding data, which could reveal who the mole is in The Orphanage and who put the latest Cassandra device into said mole.
Character Details
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Character Summary
Oliver is/was an art dealer/gallery owner who became a target in one of Michelle’s past missions so that she could gain access to a list of his clientele. Who, once exposed, led to some of Oliver’s fortune diminishing.
Character Details
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