Are you a PONI?

In the TV series PONIES now streaming on HBO Max (with season two reportedly being considered), two “PONIES” (“persons of no interest” in intelligence speak) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy in Moscow circa 1977. That is, until their husbands die under mysterious circumstances in the Soviet Union. Sent home to the United States, they realize they have no life waiting for them and convince the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to recruit them—balik Moscow!

Bea Grant (Emilia Clarke) is sharp, highly educated and fluent in Russian as a descendant of Russian immigrants. She is mourning the death of her husband Chris (Louis Boyer).

Twila Hasbeck (Haley Lu Richardson) is attractive, abrasive, bold and fearless—she could be your stereotypical woman of the streets. Her husband Tom (John Macmillan) was her ticket to adventure and salvation.

Thrown together by grief and fate, Bea and Twila resolve to get to the bottom of their husbands’ reported deaths in an alleged plane crash. After their husbands are honored, though anonymously, they offer their services to the CIA.

The CIA Moscow chief Dane Walter (Adrian Lester) is shown in the fictional series convincing then CIA chief George H. W. Bush (Patrick Fabian) to give these intrepid women a try at undercover work because they don’t stand out—each is a “person of no interest (PONI).” Using creative license, two of them equal “PONIES.”

Indeed, except for their obvious American accents, they could easily blend in anywhere. They are not specialists in anything. They will never fill up a lecture hall or be a resource person in a CNN news segment—unless they witness a disaster.

In other words, their anonymity makes them like ficus plants in a room. A decoration in the right place. They could also be part of the woodwork —but then walls have ears, right?

Twila, in particular, has a soft spot for “anonymous women”—women who, like watercolor paint, disperse in water and become part of the mix.

And yet—that was the very essence of the duo’s being effective in their jobs. They blended in like watercolor paint. They were easily underestimated because they didn’t have corner offices and PhDs.

(Which also brings to mind the wealth of information the “quiet ones in the room” absorb.) The ficus plants have ears, too.

That’s why intelligence relies a lot on these silent forces that may be tape recorders for all we know.

A PONI may seem not worthy of attention in a particular context. But a PONI can use that as an advantage.

Unlike the Marites in our midst, the PONIES, we assume, are not to be feared. We don’t take extra care in hiding information from them— whether tsismis or fact.

And that is the superpower of the PONI.

That is perhaps why I have met many who preferred to be low-profile and underestimated, who chose to stay in the background, who shunned the limelight. They were non-threatening to their rivals, even their superiors, and were trusted immensely. They gained access because they were like ficus plants, indeed. They were not obnoxious. They were silent, necessary and pleasant fixtures in a room—and boardroom. Information is their currency, whether they’re spies or senators.

I have seen figurative PONIES gallop to the top.

There’s a Filipino saying, “Ang punong hitik sa bunga ang siyang binabato.”

Persons of no interest throw no stones nor attract them. But in the end, they wield as much power, quiet power.

PONIES Bea and Twila, opposites in looks (though both are good-looking), character and upbringing, initially fumble because of inexperience but eventually boast of gains in the series, a cliffhanger. Many reviews also praised actors Clarke and Richardson’s chemistry as a tag team in the eight-episode production, which was reportedly shot in Budapest, Hungary.

My most distinct takeaway from PONIES came not from the plot or the cinematography, though both were compelling.

It is this: Not everyone becomes a celebrated “person of interest.” But history, institutions, and even families are often held together by people no one notices: assistants, spouses, clerks, quiet observers, people in the margins.

Are you a PONI? Perhaps the answer to that is that being overlooked is not always weakness. Sometimes it is camouflage. Sometimes it is a stepping stone.

You underestimate PONIES at your own peril. Or you can pretend to be one.