WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS for Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Before joining the mysterious spy company in Amazon’s new series Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Jane and John lived completely separate lives under their real identities. Donald Glover’s latest series (Atlanta, Swarm) offers many of the similar aesthetics and tones found in his previous works, but never before has Glover ventured into the action genre quite like this. Mr. & Mrs. Smith is much less of a remake as it is a remix of the 2005 original starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Glover created the adaptation, which currently has a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score, with fellow Atlanta writer/producer Francesca Sloane.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith takes the basic premise of the original movie and expands on the concept by having an emphasized focus on grounded and relatable marital issues. Both John (Donald Glover) and Jane (Maya Erskine) sign on to leave their lives behind to live a luxurious life as a legally married couple as high-risk secret agents. The espionage company, operated by an anonymous chat operator known as Hihi, instructs John and Jane to carry out dangerous missions for large sums of money. What’s clear is that both John and Jane are highly skilled at weaponry and thinking on their feet to take out targets. What isn’t fully clear, until the final episode’s end credits, is who Jane and John were in their “past lives”.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith Show Cast & Character Guide
The star-studded cast of the new Amazon series Mr. & Mrs. Smith is jam-packed with A-list actors, adding to the hype of Donald Glover’s latest show.
John’s Real Name Is Michael & He Was Kicked Out Of The Marines
John reveals that he was discharged for having asthma
Donald Glover’s John Smith character’s real name is Michael in Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Maya Erskine’s Jane discovers this when she returns to their home in the season finale to find Michael’s mother in their kitchen, who is played by Glover’s real mom Beverly making her acting debut. Michael’s mom is oblivious to her son’s actual profession, but she knows of Jane as Michael’s wife even though the two have never met. It’s the worst possible time for Jane to meet her mother-in-law, as she and Michael are trying to kill one another, but in that moment Jane discovers a great deal about her arranged husband.
While “John” and Jane are under the influence of the truth serum in the season finale, Michael opens up about how he was discharged from the Marines. Michael reveals that he was kicked out not for doing anything egregious, but for having asthma. Even Jane, who moments before was trying to kill her husband, told Michael that he shouldn’t be so hard on himself, since that wasn’t anything that he could control. While Michael is very fit in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, there are hints that he had asthma before he admits it to Jane, particularly during their extended chase/fight scene in the final episode.
Jane’s Real Name Is Ilana & She Was Rejected From The CIA
Jane admits she was discarded due to sociopathic tendencies
Similarly to Michael, “Jane” Smith, whose real name is Ilana, was rejected from the CIA due to reasons out of her control. While on the truth serum in the final episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Ilana finally tells Michael her true identity and explains why she never got into the CIA permanently. During her initial Hihi intake screening in the first episode, Ilana had confessed that she didn’t make it to the CIA due to “antisocial” tendencies. In the finale, the influence of the truth serum forces her to be more accurate, saying that the CIA had detected sociopathic tendencies in her psych evaluation, which is why she was denied admission.
While Michael has a very close relationship with his mom, Ilana has no relationship with her dad, which is elaborated on during their truth serum scene. Ilana explains that she doesn’t need to feel safe to be loved like Michael does and reveals that her mother died tragically, resulting in a closed-casket funeral service. This might explain why Ilana and Michael have different feelings about big topics such as having kids and maintaining adult relationships with parents. Ilana had experienced more trauma in her childhood than Michael did, which may contribute to her unwillingness to depend on others or love with vulnerability.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith Review: Sparks Fly For Donald Glover & Maya Erskine In Updated, Exciting Spy Show
Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith has fun thanks to its winning leads, Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, though its pacing raises some eyebrows.
Why John & Jane’s Backstories Made Them Ideal For The Company’s Spy Program
Michael & Ilana prove that opposites attract and make for long-term partnerships
Michael and Ilana never would have been paired in the first place if the seemingly sophisticated Hihi system didn’t believe that they were highly compatible. This idea is thwarted by their first interactions as a legally married couple, in which Michael was expecting the traditional elements of marriage to start naturally while Ilana became reclusive and uninspired by the whole ordeal, unwilling to get lost in the “magic” of newlywed matrimony. Ostensibly, Michael and Ilana are opposites in terms of personality and even in how they go about missions, but that in turn proves to be their strongest asset for an endured partnership.
The final truth serum scene in Mr. & Mrs. Smith proves that underneath it all, Michael and Ilana are an ideal match. Both Michael and Ilana were rejected by elite institutions such as the Marines and the CIA because of parts of their character that were out of their control. Ilana’s antisocial tendencies are more observable, while Michael reveals that the reason he was kicked out of the Marines had more to do with anxiety than asthma, which brought him great shame. The similarities of who Michael and Ilana are at their cores – skilled but slighted, formidable yet damaged, rejected but worthy – are what make them a great pair in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a TV adaptation of the 2005 film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine take on the lead roles for the series as spies who are placed in an arranged marriage for an undercover mission only to develop real feelings for each another.
