The FBI: choosing the worst time to arrest Oleg. Though I guess that means Oleg won't die. (Since thankfully, he doesn't have a cyanid pill.) Mind you, could also be "will not die yet, within the time space of the show", because even if Oleg does get released in a few years and returns to Russia, the forces behind the attempted coup will be in ascendence again, depressingly enough. The scene with Stan was great, both for the things said and unsaid; all the facial acting was superb. I was hoping Oleg would make a "save Gorbachev, save the world" appeal to Stan when push came to shove, though alas Stan doesn't seem to get it. (Though he will, in time, find out quite how much difference the person leading Russia does indeed make.) And I loved that Oleg does tell Stan this yet absolutely refuses to betray the Illegals, which I think would be true even if Philip weren't currently helping him. Patriotism: motivating all leading characters other than Paige (and Henry) right now.
(Against the odds, I still hope Stan will change his mind, because I want Arkady and friends to know both Elizabeth and Philip came through. More about this in a minute when I get to the Elizabeth-Claudia scene.)
Having known my share of monks, though not Russian Orthodox ones, I find it entirely realistic that inter-monk resentment contributes to uncovering our antiheroes. Plus, good lord, Andreji, how naive are you not to tell Philip this from the start?
On the other hand, Pastor Tim keeps mum when Stan questions him. I do wonder how much of this is confidentiality ethics, and how much awareness that if he shares what he knows about the Jennings family, he'll be accused of aiding and abetting and end up in prison as well? (Especially since he's been out of the country for years at this point and thus can't claim he and his family were threatened into keeping quiet.) It's a bit ironic that Tim, whom Philip and Elizabeth spent so much time worrying about ever since Paige started her Christianity phase, in the end never was a danger to their secrets, while Father Andrej, whom they got into contact with via Gabriel and who was okay'd by the KGB, might have sealed their fates?
The flashback to young Elizabeth: "You don't leave a comrade dying in the streets." Trying to follow the letter of her instructions, she missed the spirit, and now tries to apply that lesson to the current day, but there the question is: who is her comrade? Nesteryenko the negotiator (and by larger implication Gorbachev) or the KGB operative following the orders she refused to? She saves one and leaves the other dying in the streets. But if she'd chosen not to act, the reverse would have been true.
Elizabeth and Claudia: so much to unpack here. Elizabeth telling Claudia what she'd done probably has more than one reason. Among other things: if she hadn't, Claudia & Co. could have assumed an US operative (or someone else) killed their operative and would simply have tried again. Or: as far as Elizabeth knows/assumes, the message she gave Philip for Oleg got through. (P & E don't know how precarious Oleg's own situation is right now, or that he was arrested before he could even decode the message.) Meaning the pro-Gorbachev faction at home is warned. Soviet history isn't full of precedents for mercy if you try a coup and fail, so Elizabeth could, as she says, been intending to give Claudia a headstart to make her escape. Or: maybe Elizabeth doubts whether or not the message got through, but if she claims it did, she knows the anti-Gorbachev-faction will out themselves anyway. Or: Elizabeth needs to confess, as young Nadeshda had done. She's made the reverse choice young Nadeshda did, chose not to obey her instructions to the letter and instead go against them to save someone (by killing someone else), but a part of her is still torn whether or not she's chosen right this time. Or all of the above.
Now, as to Claudia's reaction. No, I'm not surprise she didn't try to attack Elizabeth physically in retaliation but remained stoic. Claudia isn't suicidal. (They're both trained killers, but Elizabeth is decades younger and fitter.) Also, what would be the point at that very moment? Otoh, do I think Claudia will leave it at her version of "I'm so disappointed in you"? Perhaps - as I do believe she saw in Elizabeth a sort of daughter-via-the-service -, but she's just as capable of telling someone else to take Elizabeth (and/or Philip) out before she leaves these shores (if she does), both as a way to cover her escape and as a demonstration of what happens if you betray her version of the cause. (Remember, the one time we've seen Claudia take revenge on someone, it happened after that person considered themselves safe and thought all the drama was over.)
"You lied to me" in this scene as well as Elizabeth's issues about lying being brought up in the earlier Philip & Andrej conversation is of course building up to the final scene between Elizabeth and Paige, when the shoe is on the other foot, and Elizabeth is faced with the fact she's been lying to Paige constantly, far beyond professional necessity or justification. Paige mirrors her own indignation back at her. It's by far the most efficient use of parallels between Elizabeth and Paige since season 2 or thereabouts. As in the confrontation with Claudia, there are several layers and motives here. Elizabeth has gone out of her way to deny there was such a thing as sex as a spying tool to Paige throughout the season. As she's shielded her from knowing about the people Elizabeth killed, but I don't think it was just to protect Paige from another unpleasant aspect of being a secret agent. It's also because there was no way Paige, the naive who wouldn't believe a young Claudia had sex for food, would see this as anything but degrading, when the whole being an agent gig had been sold to her as something empowering. And it's because talking about it, confessing to it, would force Elizabeth herself to face that aspect in a way she just doesn't want to.
(Two seasons back Philip once asked her "do you ever think about the way we learned how to do this" after the audience saw the gruesome training montage of young Mischa learning to have sex with just about anyone on command, and Elizabeth, turning away, just said "no!")
When Elizabeth at the end of the argument with Paige insists that sex didn't mean anything, she is and isn't telling the truth. Having sex with strangers for decades wasn't the most traumatizing aspect of their jobs for either her or Philip. But it could turn disastrous, and it could turn very personal indeed, as when Martha told "Jennifer" about how great Clark was in the sack. And of course Gregory started out as an asset for the KGB and then became Elizabeth's first relationship that wasn't just sexual but romantic on her part. To say nothing of the most recent work/sex disaster, i.e. Elizabeth telling Philip to get Kimmy into the scheme du jour by all means possible and afterwards accusing him of specifically the sexual aspect of this. No, sex never was just a meaningless nothing.
(This being said, it's telling about Paige, all American girl, as well that this is what finally gets her to stop believing into the cosmetic version of spying and question what Elizabeth tells her, and that she responds with "you whore". Elizabeth telling her about a man whose brains she has all over her face just having spontaneously committed suicide? Totally believable, and already forgotten. But an "older woman" having had sex with an intern of Paige's generation? OMG this must have been her mother and how could she!)
Elizabeth going back to the house after her confrontation with Claudia and staying there until Philip calls: again, I think several reasons. There's the practical one: she's just ended things with Claudia's branch of the KGB. There's no further task for her from that end, and where would she hear from the pro-Gorbachev-faction? Philip is the one who's met a representative. There's the emotional one: Claudia's cutting' "what's left for you now? Your house, your American children, your husband"? Essentially, yes, except that she knows she's lost one child emotionally and is about to lose the other. And she's sent Philip to meet Andrej in her place, so it's not like he's at the agency. He's likely to go home afterwards. The house was their home for all these years, not just their pretend home but their real home, and it's the last safe (for now) space that's left. Where else would she wait? And that's what she's doing. Waiting for the rest of her life to crash down or for Philip? Both.
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timeasmymeasure
My review
Date: 2018-05-24 12:04 pm (UTC)The FBI: choosing the worst time to arrest Oleg. Though I guess that means Oleg won't die. (Since thankfully, he doesn't have a cyanid pill.) Mind you, could also be "will not die yet, within the time space of the show", because even if Oleg does get released in a few years and returns to Russia, the forces behind the attempted coup will be in ascendence again, depressingly enough. The scene with Stan was great, both for the things said and unsaid; all the facial acting was superb. I was hoping Oleg would make a "save Gorbachev, save the world" appeal to Stan when push came to shove, though alas Stan doesn't seem to get it. (Though he will, in time, find out quite how much difference the person leading Russia does indeed make.) And I loved that Oleg does tell Stan this yet absolutely refuses to betray the Illegals, which I think would be true even if Philip weren't currently helping him. Patriotism: motivating all leading characters other than Paige (and Henry) right now.
(Against the odds, I still hope Stan will change his mind, because I want Arkady and friends to know both Elizabeth and Philip came through. More about this in a minute when I get to the Elizabeth-Claudia scene.)
Having known my share of monks, though not Russian Orthodox ones, I find it entirely realistic that inter-monk resentment contributes to uncovering our antiheroes. Plus, good lord, Andreji, how naive are you not to tell Philip this from the start?
On the other hand, Pastor Tim keeps mum when Stan questions him. I do wonder how much of this is confidentiality ethics, and how much awareness that if he shares what he knows about the Jennings family, he'll be accused of aiding and abetting and end up in prison as well? (Especially since he's been out of the country for years at this point and thus can't claim he and his family were threatened into keeping quiet.) It's a bit ironic that Tim, whom Philip and Elizabeth spent so much time worrying about ever since Paige started her Christianity phase, in the end never was a danger to their secrets, while Father Andrej, whom they got into contact with via Gabriel and who was okay'd by the KGB, might have sealed their fates?
The flashback to young Elizabeth: "You don't leave a comrade dying in the streets." Trying to follow the letter of her instructions, she missed the spirit, and now tries to apply that lesson to the current day, but there the question is: who is her comrade? Nesteryenko the negotiator (and by larger implication Gorbachev) or the KGB operative following the orders she refused to? She saves one and leaves the other dying in the streets. But if she'd chosen not to act, the reverse would have been true.
Elizabeth and Claudia: so much to unpack here. Elizabeth telling Claudia what she'd done probably has more than one reason. Among other things: if she hadn't, Claudia & Co. could have assumed an US operative (or someone else) killed their operative and would simply have tried again. Or: as far as Elizabeth knows/assumes, the message she gave Philip for Oleg got through. (P & E don't know how precarious Oleg's own situation is right now, or that he was arrested before he could even decode the message.) Meaning the pro-Gorbachev faction at home is warned. Soviet history isn't full of precedents for mercy if you try a coup and fail, so Elizabeth could, as she says, been intending to give Claudia a headstart to make her escape. Or: maybe Elizabeth doubts whether or not the message got through, but if she claims it did, she knows the anti-Gorbachev-faction will out themselves anyway. Or: Elizabeth needs to confess, as young Nadeshda had done. She's made the reverse choice young Nadeshda did, chose not to obey her instructions to the letter and instead go against them to save someone (by killing someone else), but a part of her is still torn whether or not she's chosen right this time. Or all of the above.
Now, as to Claudia's reaction. No, I'm not surprise she didn't try to attack Elizabeth physically in retaliation but remained stoic. Claudia isn't suicidal. (They're both trained killers, but Elizabeth is decades younger and fitter.) Also, what would be the point at that very moment? Otoh, do I think Claudia will leave it at her version of "I'm so disappointed in you"? Perhaps - as I do believe she saw in Elizabeth a sort of daughter-via-the-service -, but she's just as capable of telling someone else to take Elizabeth (and/or Philip) out before she leaves these shores (if she does), both as a way to cover her escape and as a demonstration of what happens if you betray her version of the cause. (Remember, the one time we've seen Claudia take revenge on someone, it happened after that person considered themselves safe and thought all the drama was over.)
"You lied to me" in this scene as well as Elizabeth's issues about lying being brought up in the earlier Philip & Andrej conversation is of course building up to the final scene between Elizabeth and Paige, when the shoe is on the other foot, and Elizabeth is faced with the fact she's been lying to Paige constantly, far beyond professional necessity or justification. Paige mirrors her own indignation back at her. It's by far the most efficient use of parallels between Elizabeth and Paige since season 2 or thereabouts. As in the confrontation with Claudia, there are several layers and motives here. Elizabeth has gone out of her way to deny there was such a thing as sex as a spying tool to Paige throughout the season. As she's shielded her from knowing about the people Elizabeth killed, but I don't think it was just to protect Paige from another unpleasant aspect of being a secret agent. It's also because there was no way Paige, the naive who wouldn't believe a young Claudia had sex for food, would see this as anything but degrading, when the whole being an agent gig had been sold to her as something empowering. And it's because talking about it, confessing to it, would force Elizabeth herself to face that aspect in a way she just doesn't want to.
(Two seasons back Philip once asked her "do you ever think about the way we learned how to do this" after the audience saw the gruesome training montage of young Mischa learning to have sex with just about anyone on command, and Elizabeth, turning away, just said "no!")
When Elizabeth at the end of the argument with Paige insists that sex didn't mean anything, she is and isn't telling the truth. Having sex with strangers for decades wasn't the most traumatizing aspect of their jobs for either her or Philip. But it could turn disastrous, and it could turn very personal indeed, as when Martha told "Jennifer" about how great Clark was in the sack. And of course Gregory started out as an asset for the KGB and then became Elizabeth's first relationship that wasn't just sexual but romantic on her part. To say nothing of the most recent work/sex disaster, i.e. Elizabeth telling Philip to get Kimmy into the scheme du jour by all means possible and afterwards accusing him of specifically the sexual aspect of this. No, sex never was just a meaningless nothing.
(This being said, it's telling about Paige, all American girl, as well that this is what finally gets her to stop believing into the cosmetic version of spying and question what Elizabeth tells her, and that she responds with "you whore". Elizabeth telling her about a man whose brains she has all over her face just having spontaneously committed suicide? Totally believable, and already forgotten. But an "older woman" having had sex with an intern of Paige's generation? OMG this must have been her mother and how could she!)
Elizabeth going back to the house after her confrontation with Claudia and staying there until Philip calls: again, I think several reasons. There's the practical one: she's just ended things with Claudia's branch of the KGB. There's no further task for her from that end, and where would she hear from the pro-Gorbachev-faction? Philip is the one who's met a representative. There's the emotional one: Claudia's cutting' "what's left for you now? Your house, your American children, your husband"? Essentially, yes, except that she knows she's lost one child emotionally and is about to lose the other. And she's sent Philip to meet Andrej in her place, so it's not like he's at the agency. He's likely to go home afterwards. The house was their home for all these years, not just their pretend home but their real home, and it's the last safe (for now) space that's left. Where else would she wait? And that's what she's doing. Waiting for the rest of her life to crash down or for Philip? Both.