Question of the week #49

[treonb]

At the end of the season finale, Stan saw Nina taken away, to be returned to the USSR. What do you think will be his next step?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first two seasons in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[treonb]

There's what I think he'll do and what I wish he'd do. He's probably going to go home and be miserable. But I wish he'd try and rescue her.

[sistermagpie]

This is one of those questions where I have no idea what move he will make. I think he probably sees Nina herself as a lost cause, and himself as having already given up the moment he didn't hand over the Echo plans. He knew he was condemning her to being punished. He'd have little chance of getting info on what was going on with her once she got to the USSR. Though he'd certainly be interested--I wonder if he'd try to make contacts at the CIA in the hopes he'd here something. Or I wonder if he'd start studying life in the USSR more to figure out what might be happening.

In general, though, I would think his next move is going to focus on the Rezidentura. In his eyes Oleg must seem like a real villain here, since he thinks he was the one who knew about Nina and just used the info to try to make Stan betray his country. So we've got this interesting situation of both Nina's suitors left behind, each one considering himself the more true to her (I think Oleg wins that one)--But as usual Oleg knows far more than Stan.

So where Stan felt he had to get back at the Russians for Amador, now he might want to do something to make them pay for Nina. But he's also gotten a hit to his self esteem--he can't see himself as the hero since he didn't see her, he's ruined a lot of his reputation in Gaad's eyes. Maybe he'll next turn his eye to the thing he's really good at, which is being a cop. What's Martha doing with those files anyway?

[apolla_savre]

Well, were I writing the show, I'd have Stan target Oleg.

He's in kind of a pickle because he did a some of what Oleg asked for - enough that if exposed, Stan's credibility could be ruined and his position in the FBI either terminated or demoted. So, Stan's going to have to find a way to discredit Oleg and prove himself a trustworthy citizen before Oleg can out him. (I'm not saying that Oleg would, just that from Stan's POV, Oleg's stacking the deck and if he doesn't watch him closely, shit could get real.)

So maybe Stan will start trailing Oleg and putting pressure on him, at which point Oleg will return the favor and eventually they'll have to meet.

Then after a bit of trash talking, Stan will realize that Oleg's not the one in charge, that Nina and the Rezidentura were both playing him a bit.

Then he'll probably be mad and sulk.

Part of me thinks Oleg and Stan would bond/have a sort of frenemies situation. But I also think Oleg thinks Stan's a tool and Stan thinks Oleg's a power hungry twerp.

[cadma]

He'll be even more isolated than he was before with both Sandra and Nina gone. It's probably too late to mend the relationship with Sandra, so I wonder if he'll try and get closer to Philip? He couldn't tell him much about the Nina situation, but perhaps he could open up a bit about his backstory.
I agree that he'll want to go after Oleg and maybe also Arkady.