I feel like I don't remember the ep enough at one viewing to make too many comments...but I will anyway. These were the things that stuck out to me the first time, besides just generally loving it.
Like Jae, I was amazed at how quickly it went by.
There were some nice subtle touches about the new distrust between Paige and her parents. She was openly looking at Elizabeth with concern when she suddenly "remembered" something she had to do at work, and was I think concerned about the sudden trip to the movies as well. She seemed to especially pick up on the emotion in Elizabeth's voice when she said "You're home" to Philip. And then when Paige ran away out of guilt/discomfort (no more intimate love scenes between the two of you, please--I know I wanted you back together but TMI!) Philip and Elizabeth I thought both turned to watch her go like they'd noticed her emotional state too. It's not a prime concern yet, but they're noticing.
Nice to have Henry suggest he and Paige helping Mom and Dad at work if things are getting too hard. Never again, Henry!
Speaking of which, I like Philip calling the family "team."
I think Elizabeth's almost relieved to be dealing with the other agent where she's in control and knows just what to do, playing big sister to somebody else freaking out.
I feel like some of Philip's best qualities sometimes go without being noticed as much as Elizabeth's so I have to give a shout out here to his handling of the Fred situation. He barely regains consciousness before he's talking the guy down, getting a bead on everything happening in the scene (he's calling in a distress signal, etc.) and then using things he noticed in the apartment to figure out what makes the guy tick--the models and the money. Talk about Sherlock Holmes deductions. (Which was fitting since Fred apparently had both Sherlock Holmes and John LeCarre on his bookshelf.)
I also looked out for Philip using his trademark repetition during the scene and I seem to remember he did it at least 3x. "Listen to me. Listen to me" being the first I recall. Also "You know who I am. I told you who I am."
Also, I think it's the word "model" that's difficult for Matthew Rhys whether or not it has airplane after it.
I fact, that's a nice parallel to his other manipulation scene with Martha where he gets her to reconsider the new job by appealing to her sense of purpose and encouraging her to value her skills.
But nobody can manipulate everybody all the time, so she's probably getting that gun. A Chekhov .49 no doubt!
Philip also smoothly becomes "the guy" when he gets what Stan's buddy needs for a bachelor weekend. I sometimes get the feeling Elizabeth always first tries to sell everybody on the vacation she would like. ;-)
People have noted that Philip and Elizabeth are so separated lately-not by their choosing. I really like that they're setting up this sort of automatic bonding between spies. There was that reviewer from last week that feared that Philip would be more "bonded" with Martha because he was apart from Elizabeth, but the show actually seems to be setting up a very different type of conflict. Rather than it being a case of who you spend time with, it's all down to who you can be more honest and relaxed with.
There was a real sense, imo, of relief for all these people when they spoke to each other, even if the other person was a stranger (at least once whoever had the gun put it down). And it was all based on this common feeling they could know they shared. Lucia could tell Elizabeth what the guy she was with "thought" knowing who she really was. Fred could ask Philip Emmett's "real" name and get it. Philip could understand departed Emmett by knowing how unusual it was for him to talk about his kids--and Fred could immediately know that the boy with Philip was his son. (Not a big leap, but it was more than knowing it was his son, it was knowing that Philip was what he was and this was his son.)
I think Nina's convo with Oleg is going to have a lot of juicy deep meanings as we go on too. She really was right to be so dismissive of Oleg's claim that she was the first person who wasn't exactly what she seemed. That really said a lot about Oleg, the bored rich kid who thinks he's superior to all the drones in the world because he can't appreciate the complexity of human nature despite how many times he's been abroad.
That probably also fits with Oleg being in the technical side. He probably somewhat represents the kind of spycraft that deals in hard data. This reminds me a bit of one of the LeCarre novels--I think A Perfect Spy. The Cousins (i.e., the Americans) insist there's a mole before the Circus believes it because they're looking at statistics and data.
Henry yet again gets a rambling story to tell while no one else is listening to him. He didn't notice the tension at the table at breakfast last week and doesn't notice his parents unholy distraction on the street this week. No wonder later Henry only hears "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Paige questions why Mom suddenly wants to go to the movies. And of course, Henry also has that ironic "I care about real life more than a game" when he actually means watching TV. Which somewhat works both ways--the Collins murder was on TV earlier, and that's real life. But he probably means fiction.
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Like Jae, I was amazed at how quickly it went by.
There were some nice subtle touches about the new distrust between Paige and her parents. She was openly looking at Elizabeth with concern when she suddenly "remembered" something she had to do at work, and was I think concerned about the sudden trip to the movies as well. She seemed to especially pick up on the emotion in Elizabeth's voice when she said "You're home" to Philip. And then when Paige ran away out of guilt/discomfort (no more intimate love scenes between the two of you, please--I know I wanted you back together but TMI!) Philip and Elizabeth I thought both turned to watch her go like they'd noticed her emotional state too. It's not a prime concern yet, but they're noticing.
Nice to have Henry suggest he and Paige helping Mom and Dad at work if things are getting too hard. Never again, Henry!
Speaking of which, I like Philip calling the family "team."
I think Elizabeth's almost relieved to be dealing with the other agent where she's in control and knows just what to do, playing big sister to somebody else freaking out.
I feel like some of Philip's best qualities sometimes go without being noticed as much as Elizabeth's so I have to give a shout out here to his handling of the Fred situation. He barely regains consciousness before he's talking the guy down, getting a bead on everything happening in the scene (he's calling in a distress signal, etc.) and then using things he noticed in the apartment to figure out what makes the guy tick--the models and the money. Talk about Sherlock Holmes deductions. (Which was fitting since Fred apparently had both Sherlock Holmes and John LeCarre on his bookshelf.)
I also looked out for Philip using his trademark repetition during the scene and I seem to remember he did it at least 3x. "Listen to me. Listen to me" being the first I recall. Also "You know who I am. I told you who I am."
Also, I think it's the word "model" that's difficult for Matthew Rhys whether or not it has airplane after it.
I fact, that's a nice parallel to his other manipulation scene with Martha where he gets her to reconsider the new job by appealing to her sense of purpose and encouraging her to value her skills.
But nobody can manipulate everybody all the time, so she's probably getting that gun. A Chekhov .49 no doubt!
Philip also smoothly becomes "the guy" when he gets what Stan's buddy needs for a bachelor weekend. I sometimes get the feeling Elizabeth always first tries to sell everybody on the vacation she would like. ;-)
People have noted that Philip and Elizabeth are so separated lately-not by their choosing. I really like that they're setting up this sort of automatic bonding between spies. There was that reviewer from last week that feared that Philip would be more "bonded" with Martha because he was apart from Elizabeth, but the show actually seems to be setting up a very different type of conflict. Rather than it being a case of who you spend time with, it's all down to who you can be more honest and relaxed with.
There was a real sense, imo, of relief for all these people when they spoke to each other, even if the other person was a stranger (at least once whoever had the gun put it down). And it was all based on this common feeling they could know they shared. Lucia could tell Elizabeth what the guy she was with "thought" knowing who she really was. Fred could ask Philip Emmett's "real" name and get it. Philip could understand departed Emmett by knowing how unusual it was for him to talk about his kids--and Fred could immediately know that the boy with Philip was his son. (Not a big leap, but it was more than knowing it was his son, it was knowing that Philip was what he was and this was his son.)
I think Nina's convo with Oleg is going to have a lot of juicy deep meanings as we go on too. She really was right to be so dismissive of Oleg's claim that she was the first person who wasn't exactly what she seemed. That really said a lot about Oleg, the bored rich kid who thinks he's superior to all the drones in the world because he can't appreciate the complexity of human nature despite how many times he's been abroad.
That probably also fits with Oleg being in the technical side. He probably somewhat represents the kind of spycraft that deals in hard data. This reminds me a bit of one of the LeCarre novels--I think A Perfect Spy. The Cousins (i.e., the Americans) insist there's a mole before the Circus believes it because they're looking at statistics and data.
Henry yet again gets a rambling story to tell while no one else is listening to him. He didn't notice the tension at the table at breakfast last week and doesn't notice his parents unholy distraction on the street this week. No wonder later Henry only hears "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Paige questions why Mom suddenly wants to go to the movies. And of course, Henry also has that ironic "I care about real life more than a game" when he actually means watching TV. Which somewhat works both ways--the Collins murder was on TV earlier, and that's real life. But he probably means fiction.