History Series / Treadstone

** Sam and Doug's marriage was originally supposed to be a cover, but somewhere along the way, she developed actual feelings for him.

* TheReveal:
** The penultimate episode ends with [[spoiler:Tara being revealed to be one of Treadstone's assets.]]
** [[spoiler:The final scenes has the elderly Petra meeting the elderly John Bentley in the United States, though we don't see his face.]]

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The two storylines consist of the present day when the CIA finds out that someone is activating dormant Treadstone assets years after Jason takes out the program. The other one is set in the 1970s where CIA agent John Bentley was almost subjected to a KGB-led brainwashing program and tries to investigate it. [[spoiler:He later realizes that the KGB did brainwash him and used him to take out his fellow agents operating in Eastern Europe.]]

* FakeMemories: The Cicadas are given a fake backstory. [[spoiler:Tara remembers her family dying in a car accident, but when her programming is reactivated remembers images of them being raped and tortured by soldiers.]]

** Tara walks away from her relationship with Sebastian in order to protect him from any potential fallout from her investigation into Stiletto Six [[spoiler:after seeing her sister murdered right before their eyes.]]

* BecomingTheMask: Sam and Doug's marriage was originally supposed to be a cover, but somewhere along the way, she developed actual feelings for him.

* ARoomfulOfCrazy: Bentley discovers the apartment where he was staying in Budapest, finds he's scrawled John Randolph Bentley over and over on the walls.

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves:
* ARoomfulOfCrazy: John Bentley discovers the apartment where he was staying in Budapest, finds he's scrawled his own name over and over on the walls.

* {{Fingore}}: In the pilot episode, Petra loses one of her pinkies in a fight with Bentley. This is used for the RevealShot that the elderly woman guarding Stiletto Six is the same person.

* TheReveal: The penultimate episode ends with [[spoiler:Tara being revealed to be one of Treadstone's assets.]]
* RoomfulOfCrazy: John Bentley discovers the apartment where he was staying in Budapest, finds he's scrawled his own name over and over on the walls.

** John Bentley has the "shoot the hooded man as a final test" as in ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', in this case three fellow CIA agents to check his conditioning as a Soviet ManchurianAgent in 1973. While carrying out the kill he hallucinates that they are Vietcong soldiers, but a later flashback scene shows he was aware of what was being done to him beforehand and is dragged off for the final test while begging his captors not to make him do it.

** An inadvertent one where Doug [McKenna=] has to worry about his wife--now working again for Treadstone--will be exposed and killed if he doesn't carry out the assassinations sent to Vincent, the asset he's impersonating.

* SuperWindowJump: [[spoiler:Tara jumps out of a second-story window at Yuri Leniov's mansion in order to land on top of his car.]]

* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Tara walks away from her relationship with Sebastian in order to protect him from any potential fallout from her investigation into Stiletto Six [[spoiler:after seeing her sister murdered right before their eyes.]]

* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: [[spoiler:Tara walks away from her relationship with Sebastian in order to protect him from any potential fallout from her investigation into Stiletto Six.]]

* RealityEnsues: The longer a ManchurianAgent is exposed to the outside world, the less effective will be their conditioning. This is implied to have happened with Doug [=McKenna=]--who is activated but fails to carry out his assignment fully, and Stephen Haynes--who killed his target in a simulated robbery, then just sat down and waited to be arrested.

* RealityEnsues: The longer a ManchurianAgent is exposed to the outside world, the less effective will be their conditioning.

** In the season finale, [[spoiler:Dan Levine sends Stephen Haynes to kill Matt Edwards, because Edwards knows too much about Treadstone and intends to expose the program.]]

* AdultFear: Soyun's plotline pretty much runs on adult fear, as she suddenly gains a whole raft of new abilities and is now being blackmailed into serving North Korea under threat of losing her husband and son.

* DatingCatwoman: Back in the day, CIA officer Bentley had a [[MoreThanMindControl very unhealthy relationship]] with KGB officer Petra.

** Vincent is sent to kill an indigenous chieften before he gives a RousingSpeech, but intervenes to stop him being beaten to death by mercenaries. He sends a photo of the man's bloody face to make Treadstone think he's been killed, but knows that will only last until the chieftain gives his speech.

* DatingCatwoman: Back in the day, CIA officer Bentley had a very unhealthy relationship with KGB officer Petra.

** After killing Vincent, Doug and Sam plot to have Doug pose as Vincent while sending a message to Treadstone that Doug has been killed.
* {{Fingore}}: In the pilot episode, Petra loses one of her pinkies in a fight with Bentley.

* HerHeartWillGoOn: Tara advises Jang-Mi that the only thing she can do after the death of her father and boyfriend is to continue on. Tara speaks from personal experience; she lost her entire family in a car accident when she was a kid.

As of May 2020, USA Network has announced that the show is cancelled after the last episode.