Alger Hiss

Alger Hiss functions within the series as a loaded, off-stage historical touchstone: a mid‑20th‑century State Department figure whose real-world espionage and perjury controversies compress into a single shorthand for public disgrace, betrayal, and reputational ruin. Characters invoke his name to puncture or amplify political stakes; in the processed episode Sam Seaborn flings the reference as a jokey metaphor—'my secret pumpkin' exposed—reinforcing Hiss’s role as rhetorical shorthand rather than an active, diegetic participant.