PONIES, the new spy drama starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, might have you grabbing for the history books. What about this Cold War era story is true, and what is fiction? Let's unpack some of the basics as you dive into the new series.
The first season of PONIES is now streaming on Peacock in full. The show is about two women living in Moscow with their husbands in 1977. Officially, they all work at the United States Embassy. But, as both women know, their husbands are actually CIA operatives. The wives have taken administrative jobs at the United States Embassy to occupy their time and maintain the cover story. But they're both restless from the start. Beatrice "Bea" Grant, played by Clarke, speaks the language but has put off her career goals. Twila Hasbek, played by Richardson, thought running away from home would solve her lack of ambition. When both of their husbands are reported dead, they pivot to spy work in order to find out what the KGB, and honestly the CIA, is not telling them.
Is PONIES based on real widows-turned-spies?
The short answer is no. This series is not based on anything other than the general period of history. It is an original idea from the minds of Susanna Fogel (Booksmart, The Flight Attendant, The Spy Who Dumped Me) and David Iserson (Mad Men, New Girl, Run). According to Peacock’s press notes, they're both "big Cold War era movie and memoir buffs," but don't cite any specific influences. But a lot of the methods, and quirky technology, is ripped from the declassified files. It's so interesting to read up on lipstick cameras, cyanide pills, and various types of recording and transmitting devices that spies used during this time period.
Are any of the characters real people on PONIES?
Yes, but sparingly. You'll see someone playing George H. W. Bush in an early episode, and Elton John in a later episode. But the majority of the characters are works of fiction.
Were There Female Spies During The Cold War?
Twila and Bea pitch themselves as perfect spies because, as women, they’re unassuming. However, as they discover pretty quickly, the KGB is not opposed to using women in their operation. The Russians routinely employ, and brutally dispose of, male and female sex workers after they gather information and blackmail against potential assets and enemies. This was as true in history as it is on the show. Known as “sexpionage,” honey traps set by female and male assets were not an uncommon tactic IRL for the Soviet Union or the United States. In fact, Soviet Spy named Margarita Konenkova carried out a romantic relationship with Albert Einstein for years and to this day people don’t know if she really loved him or was just working a mark. The USSR employed ballerinas, singers, and all sorts of women for their purposes. That's where we get stories like the movie Red Sparrow, The Americans, and even Marvel's Natasha Romanov and Yelena Belova.
Sandy Grimes, who died just last year, worked for the CIA for years and famously uncovered a major mole in the United States government. It’s not surprising that she got recruited at a young age: her parents met working on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, and she majored in Russian language. She worked with another woman named Jeanne Vertefeuille, a typist turned CIA officer, who became her lifelong friend. They share some resemblance to our heroines on PONIES, but that’s likely a coincidence. If you want to learn more about them, there was an ABC miniseries in 2014 called The Assets based on a memoir they wrote that starred Jodie Whittaker and Harriet Walter, who incidentally plays Bea’s grandmother on PONIES, as Sandy and Jean.
There’s also Jonna Mendez, who served as the CIA’s Chief of Disguise who also specialized in photography and operations. The United States and its allies also famously employed women as codebreakers during World War II and the Cold War.
That said, I don’t really think that the premise of the show is unbelievable or unrealistic. Twila and Bea are not wrong to think that they have an advantage. As Embassy wives, they stand out in a way that actually helps them fit in. It also helps that they aren’t getting into this game to take down the entirety of the Soviet Union–despite what ambitions their new boss might have for them. They’re just trying to find out what happened to their husbands and gain a little sense of purpose in the process.
