#especially with all this bullshit they're doing.. literally so flimsy

[nightzskii]

I wonder if he'll ever apologize to me?

[swampyswan]

Theory: Season 2 will show that Brett is a sleeper agent planted by JR

I’ve heard people theorize that Brett is a secret agent, but I personally think he’s a sleeper agent, aka, he’s an agent whose been brainwashed into being unaware that he’s a spy.

(Keep in mind: I don know for sure if this is true. These are mostly just interesting things I noticed when rewatching the show and seeing a lot of weird coincidences).

For one thing, the show makes it clear that Brett, for all intents and purposes, would make a good spy. Not in the same way as Rafe Masters, whose really more of a really showy operative than an actual spy (Reagan even points this out when he breaks through a glass ceiling very loudly and attracts a bunch of attention). Actual spies in real life are meant to be normal looking, boringly mundane, and good at staying out of trouble for fear of blowing their covers.

The show early on points out that Brett is always below suspicion, and the show even goes out of its way to do that to the audience as well. Still, there is a big amount of foreshadowing that Brett is some kind of agent. For example;

His face is “so generic that it can’t be traced by sattelites” and he can literally infiltrate the White House just by bullshitting the guards, which isn't an easy task even if you are a generic white dude in a suit. Alpha-Beta also proves this when he gets Brett’s name and identity wrong (despite being a super intelligent AI, and Brett coming from what seems to be an incredibly wealthy family, so his information seems to be completely wiped from whatever database AB was using).

Reagan, in episode one, is immediately suspicious of him and thinks he’s too good to be true, and everyone else brushes off her concerns because they think she’s being crazy. The audience might have even been suspicious of him, too, at least before he turned out to be genuinely sweet and her “evidence” was shown to be quite flimsy. There were even some viewers who were genuinely surprised Brett turned out to have nothing up his sleeve, mostly because, when this cliche happens in other shows, the "perfect" person turns out to be actually villainous, while in Inside Job, Reagan seemingly turns out to be in the wrong.

In episode nine, Reagan throws the accusation that Brett is a “sleeper agent planted by Abercrombie and Fitch” and the gang only backs off when he mentions his therapy appointments. It doesn't really matter too much, but it's VERY weird that Reagan makes the same accusation in both the beginning and end of a season to the same character, especially since they're best friends. So, I'm led to believe that, in season two, she's gonna accuse him again and it'll be much more dramatic.

JR also has Brett go undercover as a rich guy to trick Bezos into buying the yacht. And Brett somehow SUCCEEDS at it, even though he looks like an idiot doing it. JR also notably pulls Brett to speak in private A LOT, and perhaps only really does it to Reagan as well. It's possible that it's because Brett is new, but it's something that has happened quite a few times.

Brett mentions always wanting to be a spy, even as a child.

Also, as an aside, we know sleeper agents exist in this world, since Jimmy Fallon is one apparently, and references are made to others.

The reason why I think JR is the one who planted Brett as a sleeper agent is for a few reasons:

For one, JR is the one who apparently hired Brett. Even though he already had Reagan in line to get promoted to leader, and he knows she can do it, he still hires an unpaid, inexperienced intern who doesn’t even seem to know how anything in the company works? To LEAD the team on his first day, and not just start at the bottom and work his way up? I get that this is meant to be a joke about the fact that Brett, a cis white guy, gets the same job position as Reagan, a half Asian woman whose put in far more work and obviously deserves the promotion more. But, like, Brett didn’t even APPLY for a job, since he supposedly met JR at a barbecue. It’s pretty funny he got hired despite having 0 qualifications, but it’s also suspicious.

This almost seems like JR is just being shallow by hiring him; but we’ve also seen JR be genuinely intelligent, ruthless, and manipulative when it comes to running Cognito. He’s not really someone to hire some random shithead off the street, but he is the type to deliberately plant a sleeper agent among the gang for later use.

Compared to everyone else, Brett almost feels TOO normal for his job. I understand that that’s part of the joke, that he’s just a regular guy at an insane workplace, but it also seems a bit jarring because he’s just so normal. Almost too normal, as if it’s on purpose.

So why? What goal could there be for JR to put in a sleeper agent? Well, perhaps it’s just a fail safe for if he were to be knocked from his position. Maybe activating Brett’s sleeper agent status is a worse-case scenario; if JR managed to achieve his goal of getting a black robe, then he could leave the company in the care of Reagan and Brett, and no one would ever know Brett’s true nature. If someone happened to get in his way of getting his promotion (*cough* Rand *cough*) than he has another option open...

So, why do I think. Brett is a sleeper agent, and not just a regular spy? Well, the thing is, a sleeper agent is different from a spy in that they are completely unaware of the fact that they are undercover. While a normal spy is essentially putting on an act, a fake persona to make them seem friendly, boring and harmless, a sleeper agent is basically just a regular person with no malicious intent until they are “activated”. In other words, Brett would have no idea that he’s undercover, which would mean his sweet personality would be completely genuine, not just a trick to garner trust.

This would also explain why Myc wouldn’t know he’s a mole; if Brett were a spy, and his nice personality was just an act to trick people, Myc would have figured it out on day one when he read Brett's mind. This would fill in any plot holes about his mind getting read and explain why he wasn't outed sooner.