The Nussbaum article is what prompted me to post this question here. I don't entirely agree with her that Philip was 100% just using his friendship to gaslight Stan. Her take on the scene is too Machievellian to me. I see it as more 70/30, friendship over spycraft. This was Philip's final opportunity to be honest with the only friend he'd ever had. It's true that he carefully edited his comments about how long he'd been in the US. I think he gave credit to Elizabeth for uncovering the Gorbachev plot to present her in as heroic terms as possible to soften Stan's view of her, but I really do think that Philip genuinely wanted Stan to let them go because of their friendship and not just because Stan was temporarily overwhelmed by all of this emotional manipulation.

Of course, as I said to Jae a comment above, I do think that Philip would have killed Stan at any moment if it looked like he wasn't getting through to him. Philip's priority was ensuring that he and his family could escape.

I also thought that Elizabeth was ready to shoot Stan at any moment, too.