Friendship has been a big theme this season. We've had Patty/Young Hee, Philip/Stan, Stan/Henry, Henry/Matthew, Philip/William.
In this ep Young Hee/Elizabeth was obviously most important, and I think it's interesting the way we started out with this whole Stan/Henry thing that now seems to have evolved into the more appropriate Matthew/Henry. Matthew is a more appropriate role model for Henry at his age--a teenager who's responsible enough to not abuse the responsibility but also only a few steps ahead of Henry in development instead of Henry hanging out with a grown man asking about sex. Stan now has his own son to bond with (when he's not on stake-outs), as does Philip (expect to be seeing more Dad), so Stan and Philip are back to being friends on a more equal level.
What struck me in this ep thinking about it, though, is that for the first time we've got this contrast between Philip/Stan and Philip/William. Philip and Stan have known each other a while, but their relationship is of course more deceptive. Philip very often can't be open with Stan for obvious reasons--this one scene of the two of them highlighted that. The minute they stopped playing raquetball Philip was having to adjust his truth--too much soul-crushing spy work became difficult clients, less hurting people, insomnia and lack of appetite became no sleep, he's "hah-ing" at catching the Russians. (Also a funny little nod to capitalism if you stretch it with Philip saying some clients aren't worth that extra money when Stan suggests losing clients would always mean more stress because of money--note that Henry made that same connection immediately when Philip made the announcement.)
We've also seen this season that Philip tends to do a lot more propping up of Stan than vice versa. He apologized for the Sandra thing and Stan didn't, he bucked Stan up when he got his divorce papers, he listens to Stan's woes about Tori (Stan by contrast notes that Philip is now beating him at raquetball but didn't seem to note his earlier distress), his complaints about his new boss. And Philip encourages this--he doesn't elaborate on his difficult clients etc. His answers are very "nothing to see here."
Anyway, it just struck me that this ep has the contrast of Philip with Stan and then Philip with William. Their relationship is in no way easy or light-hearted of fun with raquetball, but the connection is kind of immediately huge the way they've gone straight to the heart of things with each other.
Some are sure William is testing Philip btw, and he could be doing that while also genuinely believing what he's saying. (Though Philip also ran not passing on this info past Elizabeth so she'd go down for it too.) They felt it was suspicious when he was asking about his personal life etc. But unless William is a total fake of a personality, he seems to be a genuine kindred spirit.
There's just something really funny about this since Philip seemed drawn to Stan in part because they're in the same business and was very interested when he learned Stan had been undercover. But William is an actual Illegal.
Friendships
In this ep Young Hee/Elizabeth was obviously most important, and I think it's interesting the way we started out with this whole Stan/Henry thing that now seems to have evolved into the more appropriate Matthew/Henry. Matthew is a more appropriate role model for Henry at his age--a teenager who's responsible enough to not abuse the responsibility but also only a few steps ahead of Henry in development instead of Henry hanging out with a grown man asking about sex. Stan now has his own son to bond with (when he's not on stake-outs), as does Philip (expect to be seeing more Dad), so Stan and Philip are back to being friends on a more equal level.
What struck me in this ep thinking about it, though, is that for the first time we've got this contrast between Philip/Stan and Philip/William. Philip and Stan have known each other a while, but their relationship is of course more deceptive. Philip very often can't be open with Stan for obvious reasons--this one scene of the two of them highlighted that. The minute they stopped playing raquetball Philip was having to adjust his truth--too much soul-crushing spy work became difficult clients, less hurting people, insomnia and lack of appetite became no sleep, he's "hah-ing" at catching the Russians. (Also a funny little nod to capitalism if you stretch it with Philip saying some clients aren't worth that extra money when Stan suggests losing clients would always mean more stress because of money--note that Henry made that same connection immediately when Philip made the announcement.)
We've also seen this season that Philip tends to do a lot more propping up of Stan than vice versa. He apologized for the Sandra thing and Stan didn't, he bucked Stan up when he got his divorce papers, he listens to Stan's woes about Tori (Stan by contrast notes that Philip is now beating him at raquetball but didn't seem to note his earlier distress), his complaints about his new boss. And Philip encourages this--he doesn't elaborate on his difficult clients etc. His answers are very "nothing to see here."
Anyway, it just struck me that this ep has the contrast of Philip with Stan and then Philip with William. Their relationship is in no way easy or light-hearted of fun with raquetball, but the connection is kind of immediately huge the way they've gone straight to the heart of things with each other.
Some are sure William is testing Philip btw, and he could be doing that while also genuinely believing what he's saying. (Though Philip also ran not passing on this info past Elizabeth so she'd go down for it too.) They felt it was suspicious when he was asking about his personal life etc. But unless William is a total fake of a personality, he seems to be a genuine kindred spirit.
There's just something really funny about this since Philip seemed drawn to Stan in part because they're in the same business and was very interested when he learned Stan had been undercover. But William is an actual Illegal.