I thought that was really good! Not the best episode of the season, but given how good the season has been... damn, that worked.
WHAT AN OPENER AAAHHHHHH.
I loved Elizabeth and Philip actually sharing details of their earlier lives. And given their later conversation about telling Paige the truth, I think the callback to the pilot is 100% deliberate: and it works in so many ways, to say how they've changed as a team and a couple, but also how they are the same.
I'm sorry, I laughed at the ye olde floppy disc. The fact those soft ones were actually literally floppy is just inherently hilarious to me. Heeee. And the reveal that Stan recorded it!!
(Although... I always felt like, if Stan were to be really close to giving the Soviets everything and then decide he couldn't do it, even to save Nina, that he would be making that decision BEFORE he went into the room... does that make sense? Like, by the time you're actually recording stuff you shouldn't be recording, on that level, that's already a crime. That is itself a big deal. Although I guess it's arguable that he thought he could go through with it to save Nina, but it was after that he realised he couldn't, and I do think that's what we were meant to get from the episode.)
Paige talking about sacrifice aaahhhhhh. I love how close Philip and Elizabeth are - BONDING AS PARENTS "I know, I wish I could tell her about the real heroes" works so well at the time and then later, bam, comes back big time.
How often is Philip at Martha's? Him having to leave is so sad. And displacing the big conversations onto Martha is not a good pattern... although I do like that it's not just about Philip's feelings, Martha also explicitly talks about what she wants, whether she wants this situation. I really hope she gets out okay. Martha's gun is revealed! a ladysmith. And given the big deal made of it - "do you even know how to use this", going to the firing range - I think we can officially say this is going to be a BIG THING next season. I predict Martha having to shoot someone.
When the phone rang I literally said, out loud, "oh shit elizabeth is calling"!
I totally get that they had no time to plan an escape, but surprise vacation is a TERRIBLE IDEA. Like, I am 100% on Paige's side here, this reads as ABSOLUTELY INSANE.
I also literally said out loud (because this show is one of the worst/best for making me talk to my screen) "oh my god we saw martha just putting files in her bag!!" and then "wait that was a dream?"
Larrick is seriously scary. Which does make his insistence that he's going to bring Philip and Elizabeth to justice rather than just shoot them seem pretty... hollow? Weird? I mean, I can sort of see him having all sorts of mental issues given what's happened, but the cold, calculating, utterly ruthless person we've seen so far didn't seem to have any of that apply.
I hate the giiiiiant Reagan picture, and also, dude, Gaad, you are LATE with your patriotic ridiculousness!
I am so, so sad for Nina. NINA, I WILL MISS YOU. YOU WERE GREAT. PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD. (Given that we're actually shown nothing of what's happened to her, am I being too optimistic to hope she might either make it in the USSR or not ACTUALLY be being shipped home at all? Like, she clearly has to leave the Rezidentura after Stan has not given up the goods, but could she maybe go somewhere else, incognito? Or something? Possibly I just want to keep seeing Annet Mahendru, because she's been such a great actor for two seasons now and I don't want that to end!
Henry is so good at rolling with the punches - I love that he seriously just gets on with it, whatever wacky shit his family pull. Random family holiday in the middle of the night? Mum and dad gone for hours? let's play parcheesi!
The whole thing with Larrick getting Philip and Elizabeth was super tense and really well done. The Jared reveal was...also intense, even though it's not my favourite solution to that plot, I think it does work. It makes me sad though. Grannie's right, it's a tragedy.
I think they're clearly going to end up telling Paige SOMETHING, and I think the show was right to bring in the "second generation illegals" thing there. Paige is SUPER SUSPICIOUS right now. Like, she has currently stopped snooping, but she is absolutely convinced something weird is happening, and at some point that IS an issue. Elizabeth is not wrong that that search within Paige - for truth, as well as for personal achievement/fulfillment - needs to be dealt with. But of course Philip's ALSO right that that Paige is going to be seriously upset by it if she finds out, even if she then ALSO decides that she wants to change the world that way.
...And then it ends on the MOST ARCHETYPICALLY AMERICAN SCENE EVER. Very appropriate, show. I see what you did there.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 09:50 pm (UTC)WHAT AN OPENER AAAHHHHHH.
I loved Elizabeth and Philip actually sharing details of their earlier lives. And given their later conversation about telling Paige the truth, I think the callback to the pilot is 100% deliberate: and it works in so many ways, to say how they've changed as a team and a couple, but also how they are the same.
I'm sorry, I laughed at the ye olde floppy disc. The fact those soft ones were actually literally floppy is just inherently hilarious to me. Heeee. And the reveal that Stan recorded it!!
(Although... I always felt like, if Stan were to be really close to giving the Soviets everything and then decide he couldn't do it, even to save Nina, that he would be making that decision BEFORE he went into the room... does that make sense? Like, by the time you're actually recording stuff you shouldn't be recording, on that level, that's already a crime. That is itself a big deal. Although I guess it's arguable that he thought he could go through with it to save Nina, but it was after that he realised he couldn't, and I do think that's what we were meant to get from the episode.)
Paige talking about sacrifice aaahhhhhh. I love how close Philip and Elizabeth are - BONDING AS PARENTS "I know, I wish I could tell her about the real heroes" works so well at the time and then later, bam, comes back big time.
How often is Philip at Martha's? Him having to leave is so sad. And displacing the big conversations onto Martha is not a good pattern... although I do like that it's not just about Philip's feelings, Martha also explicitly talks about what she wants, whether she wants this situation. I really hope she gets out okay. Martha's gun is revealed! a ladysmith. And given the big deal made of it - "do you even know how to use this", going to the firing range - I think we can officially say this is going to be a BIG THING next season. I predict Martha having to shoot someone.
When the phone rang I literally said, out loud, "oh shit elizabeth is calling"!
I totally get that they had no time to plan an escape, but surprise vacation is a TERRIBLE IDEA. Like, I am 100% on Paige's side here, this reads as ABSOLUTELY INSANE.
I also literally said out loud (because this show is one of the worst/best for making me talk to my screen) "oh my god we saw martha just putting files in her bag!!" and then "wait that was a dream?"
Larrick is seriously scary. Which does make his insistence that he's going to bring Philip and Elizabeth to justice rather than just shoot them seem pretty... hollow? Weird? I mean, I can sort of see him having all sorts of mental issues given what's happened, but the cold, calculating, utterly ruthless person we've seen so far didn't seem to have any of that apply.
I hate the giiiiiant Reagan picture, and also, dude, Gaad, you are LATE with your patriotic ridiculousness!
I am so, so sad for Nina. NINA, I WILL MISS YOU. YOU WERE GREAT. PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD. (Given that we're actually shown nothing of what's happened to her, am I being too optimistic to hope she might either make it in the USSR or not ACTUALLY be being shipped home at all? Like, she clearly has to leave the Rezidentura after Stan has not given up the goods, but could she maybe go somewhere else, incognito? Or something? Possibly I just want to keep seeing Annet Mahendru, because she's been such a great actor for two seasons now and I don't want that to end!
Henry is so good at rolling with the punches - I love that he seriously just gets on with it, whatever wacky shit his family pull. Random family holiday in the middle of the night? Mum and dad gone for hours? let's play parcheesi!
The whole thing with Larrick getting Philip and Elizabeth was super tense and really well done. The Jared reveal was...also intense, even though it's not my favourite solution to that plot, I think it does work. It makes me sad though. Grannie's right, it's a tragedy.
I think they're clearly going to end up telling Paige SOMETHING, and I think the show was right to bring in the "second generation illegals" thing there. Paige is SUPER SUSPICIOUS right now. Like, she has currently stopped snooping, but she is absolutely convinced something weird is happening, and at some point that IS an issue. Elizabeth is not wrong that that search within Paige - for truth, as well as for personal achievement/fulfillment - needs to be dealt with. But of course Philip's ALSO right that that Paige is going to be seriously upset by it if she finds out, even if she then ALSO decides that she wants to change the world that way.
...And then it ends on the MOST ARCHETYPICALLY AMERICAN SCENE EVER. Very appropriate, show. I see what you did there.