Elizabeth looked like a ghost of herself when she was at home talking to Philip. When she was talking to Claudia, she seemed to imply that she knows that she's doomed to die on this mission. She essentially handed Paige's future over to Claudia. Why on earth Elizabeth thinks that she can trust Claudia to provide Paige with a kinder, gentler espionage career is beyond me. I think it just fits in with Elizabeth's narrative about her own doomed future if she can convince herself that she'll die in order to ensure that Paige will have a 'nicer' future in the family business. She seems to have forgotten every single thing she ever knew about Claudia and now she's come to regard her as her trusted 'granny' just as much as Paige does. Say what you want about Claudia but it's undeniably true that she's figured out how to manipulate Elizabeth very well.
Elizabeth's willingness to embrace death as her fate is completely opposite to the artist who actually is dying. Elizabeth seems utterly blind to the fact that at any moment she could choose a different fate for herself. She's so devoted to her rigid view of herself as ideologically pure warrior that she'll willingly (and unnecessarily) die for the Cause. The artist seems to want to deny death right up until the last unbearable moment by creating new art, but at the same time the pain she's suffering is so overwhelming that death would be a welcome release. Elizabeth would like to ease her suffering and help her achieve an efficient, painless death, but she also needs to keep her alive (and suffering) until the summit is over. And Elizabeth still can't figure out why the dying artist insists on feverishly creating art (life) with every waking moment. Hopefully Elizabeth will see the point before the series ends, but maybe not. It's entirely possible that the series will end with Elizabeth choosing death-by-ideology over life.
On a lighter note, how hilarious was it to see Stan Beeman providing marriage counseling to Gennady and Sofia? Comedy gold. "Hey, uh, guys. Um. Relationships are hard. Please keep spying for us, kthanx!"
I was even more amused to see how easily Aderholt was able to lure Beeman back over to counter-intelligence ops. Forget how much fun it is to work on cases involving drug dealers, murderers, and corrupt politicians. "Hey Stan. Guess who's back in town. Your old pal Oleg Burov!" Stan: "Really? Damn. Guess I'm going to play an active role in the end of this series after all!" My current crack speculation is that Oleg is going to manipulate Stan into sending intel back to Arkady in Russia, because there's no other easy way for Oleg to get updates back home without drawing attention to himself from the hardliner wing of the KGB. We'll see.
Right now I'm not feeling too good about Elizabeth's fate, but of course the show wants us to feel that way so I still can't figure out what's going to happen to her. I know what I want to happen, but the great thing about the writing on this show is that it's unpredictable.
Random thoughts: - How hilarious was it when Paige asked Elizabeth about honeytrapping? Elizabeth: "Who told you about me?!? I mean, NO, that never happens! I mean, it probably does happen, but what do I know? Nobody ever tells me anything! I mean... hey look over there!" Tries to distract Paige.
- How hopeful for Paige that she revealed that she is doing her own side-research into espionage. Maybe there's still a chance that she'll figure out all on her own that spying isn't a harmless, feel-good frolic.
- Henry's brief phone call with Philip was quite endearing. That kid is the only one in the family who is actually succeeding to have a life of his own. Good for him. Being the overlooked, latch-key kid probably saved his life. At least for now.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2018-04-05 02:18 pm (UTC)Elizabeth's willingness to embrace death as her fate is completely opposite to the artist who actually is dying. Elizabeth seems utterly blind to the fact that at any moment she could choose a different fate for herself. She's so devoted to her rigid view of herself as ideologically pure warrior that she'll willingly (and unnecessarily) die for the Cause. The artist seems to want to deny death right up until the last unbearable moment by creating new art, but at the same time the pain she's suffering is so overwhelming that death would be a welcome release. Elizabeth would like to ease her suffering and help her achieve an efficient, painless death, but she also needs to keep her alive (and suffering) until the summit is over. And Elizabeth still can't figure out why the dying artist insists on feverishly creating art (life) with every waking moment. Hopefully Elizabeth will see the point before the series ends, but maybe not. It's entirely possible that the series will end with Elizabeth choosing death-by-ideology over life.
On a lighter note, how hilarious was it to see Stan Beeman providing marriage counseling to Gennady and Sofia? Comedy gold. "Hey, uh, guys. Um. Relationships are hard. Please keep spying for us, kthanx!"
I was even more amused to see how easily Aderholt was able to lure Beeman back over to counter-intelligence ops. Forget how much fun it is to work on cases involving drug dealers, murderers, and corrupt politicians. "Hey Stan. Guess who's back in town. Your old pal Oleg Burov!" Stan: "Really? Damn. Guess I'm going to play an active role in the end of this series after all!" My current crack speculation is that Oleg is going to manipulate Stan into sending intel back to Arkady in Russia, because there's no other easy way for Oleg to get updates back home without drawing attention to himself from the hardliner wing of the KGB. We'll see.
Right now I'm not feeling too good about Elizabeth's fate, but of course the show wants us to feel that way so I still can't figure out what's going to happen to her. I know what I want to happen, but the great thing about the writing on this show is that it's unpredictable.
Random thoughts:
- How hilarious was it when Paige asked Elizabeth about honeytrapping? Elizabeth: "Who told you about me?!? I mean, NO, that never happens! I mean, it probably does happen, but what do I know? Nobody ever tells me anything! I mean... hey look over there!" Tries to distract Paige.
- How hopeful for Paige that she revealed that she is doing her own side-research into espionage. Maybe there's still a chance that she'll figure out all on her own that spying isn't a harmless, feel-good frolic.
- Henry's brief phone call with Philip was quite endearing. That kid is the only one in the family who is actually succeeding to have a life of his own. Good for him. Being the overlooked, latch-key kid probably saved his life. At least for now.