Do Right, Vote White

Quite a bit of heartbreak this week!

Election day comes up quick and Mo is down in the polls by a huge margin. Any campaign director found is pretty much gone. Frank has hitched his pocketbook to Mo and barrels ahead while ignoring the mountain of evidence that keeps piling up that Mo is a pedophile. Frank has always been motivated mostly by greed so his actions aren’t too surprising.  Fiona has her business suit on and plans on stumping the neighborhood for the candidate who’s the most pro-business. This rubs Ford the wrong way who does his best to keep his mouth shut and let Fiona make up her own mind. Present day Fiona is a different woman from years ago and she now looks to get the advantages she needs to keep succeeding, even if it’s mostly a 180 from how she was brought up and where she’s from. Butting heads with Ford and the locals makes her second guess her motives and wonders if she’s a traitor. Then she comes head to head with Frank’s intimidation scheme at the voting station at the local elementary school. An all out riot breaks out and a beaten up Frank retreats back home to discover that Mo actually won. Once again back in politics, Mo swears to again, do nothing as a Senator. And get paid for it.

Liam’s school protection is going well. He lets his bodyguard cheat off of him and it’s basically free sailing to the end of the school year. He is so far advanced from his classmates that his test scores quickly grab the attention of the school administration. Next year, Liam is being moved up a few years to 6th grade. He’s not going to be in any classes with his bodyguard so that protection is going to be gone.

Deb is a mess. Ian’s assertation that Deb isn’t gay comes home to roost.  While Deb is having a heart to heart with Alex, she candidly talks in a way that points this truth out to Alex. So faced with falling in love with another straight girl, Alex knows there is no future with Deb and breaks up. This whole relationship rose and fell in about a week, so when Deb moves back in crying of a broken heart, her siblings give her no empathy as they didn’t know she had moved out or who Alex is.  Another relationship turned to dust it’s hard to see where Deb will go from here. Odds are she’ll swear off men and women until she stumbles into someone who gives her enough attention.

Ian is at a crossroads too. Disenfranchised from being Gay Jesus and running for his life from a group of homophobes, he has no direction. Does anything he do have any meaning or impact? If he stays with or drops the Gay Jesus movement, does it matter? Is there a point? His biggest problem is his upcoming court date. His lawyers says if he doesn’t cop to a plea deal, he runs the risk of doing 10-15 years. How much he is willing to fight is the question.

Carl gets called out on stealing the recommendation to West Point and gets challenged to a duel by a very irate preppy. Surprised by such a confrontation (the kid wants to fight to the death), Carl has some thinking to do. Ian questions Carl’s “killer instinct,” after all he’s harboring old dogs in the basement. If he can’t euthanize a dog, what’s he going to West Point for? His future isn’t going to be teaching marching drills but sending out kids who look just like him into war zones. So Ian throws more doubt into Carl’s head so he seeks out another source of advice: a well-known vet who served in Afganistan that lives, gun at the ready, in the neighborhood. Carl gets the inspiration he needs.

Xan’s mother comes back out of nowhere and Lip is pushed up against the wall. He cares for Xan like his own and knows that Xan will probably be ditched in a matter of weeks once more by her mother if he lets her go. He follows the mother around long enough to see that she’s hooking. Brad says he has no choice but to let go of Xan but Lip struggles with the facts. Yes, it’s her mother, yes he has no legal rights in the matter, but he’s afraid of the trauma he’d be sending her into. So Lip sells his project motorcycle for a heavy profit and offers the mother $10k to walk away and sign over her parental rights to him. This was shocked at the offer but from his perspective, it makes sense. The anger from the mom quickly fell to the side when she sees the envelope of cash. He had the official documents with him too. All of it seemed to be swaying her until Xan, who followed Lip out of the house when he suspiciously left at dinner, sees her mother. A tearful reunion, Lip knows he does have no choice. Xan wants nothing more than to be with her mother. I’m sure a lot of Lip’s old hopes with his mother came back to him at this moment. When Lip leaves the money for them and leaves, I like to think that Lip is considering that if she needs to in the future, Xan can find him. He’ll be her backup.

Kev and V’s hard work to de-grossify The Alibi pays off. They get revisited by the author of the newspaper report and the bar is taken off the list and women start coming into the bar. This leads to a knock on effect they never thought of: with their success, they’ve become an authority on how to turn things around. The owner of the bar who is now number 1 on the “rapeist” list asks them for help. A new business is born!

Weirdo Gallagher Vortex

Frank really likes being a campaign manager. The man knows how to hustle and he’s really good at it when the idea is his own inspiration and it means getting money from other people. He’s out and about town with Mo White and just the two of them are managing to get some traction with the locals. Mo is friendly enough and “South Side Pride” is an effective slogan. And then Frank finds out that Mo is wearing an ankle monitor because of a minor he had a relationship with (she was 15 when they met and she lied about her age, they were together for 5 years). He’s in the final 6 months of wearing the bracelet but this is a mountain of a problem for anyone looking for work, let alone someone trying to get into politics. Frank soldiers on but Mo lets it slip at The Alibi so now the secret isn’t so secret anymore. Campaign Manager Frank’s job just got more difficult.

Deb has reached a crossroads. Fighting against the patriarchy, she’s become friends (and partners in crime) with Alex, a gay woman who’s a welder just like Deb. They have a lot in common, have a good time and they end up making out. This throws Deb’s sexual identity into question. She’s had some experience with women in the past but this is largely new territory for her as she’s now emotionally engaged in this budding relationship. She turns to Ian for advice. He doesn’t think she’s gay, or bi-sexual and he doesn’t offer her much help. When he tells her he’s as lost in life as she is, she  responds with “at least you know you’re gay.”

Ian’s at a loss with what he’s lost. “Shim” aka God, has stopped talking to him (or has Ian stopped listening?) since he got out of jail. He has no direction in life anymore and the first one he runs into about his problem is Frank. Always the sage, Frank tells him to stick to the classics: Buddism, Jewdism, and Christianity. Ian seeks out representation for each one and doesn’t get any answers.

Carl isn’t looking for answers, he’s looking for results. He pops into The Alibi and fills V in on the community service he’s doing to try and get into West Point. The big hurdle is that their congressman’s office blew him off for a recommendation. Then V hears his name and realized that the congressman was a client of hers in her dominatrix days. Carl guilts her into helping him and she busts out the leather gear and pays a visit to her old friend’s office. Carl gets the recommendation.

Lip has another crisis with Xan. While he is her guardian, legally he has no power. Xan breaks her arm at school and that puts Lip’s relationship with her under the microscope. He does his best not to totally lie, telling the staff that he’s not her parent or legal guardian…but her brother. They can only release her to a parent or guardian and there are insurance issues that need to be addressed. Lip can’t do anything about any of this. He’s just trying to take care of Xan until her mother comes back (more like, maybe, hopefully, shows up out of nowhere). He tries to get Brad to say he’s Xan’s father and he shoots that down immediately. He has no desire to get pulled into the weirdo Gallagher vortex. This one is a powerful vortex as it has to do with a minor. Brad keeps telling Lip to back away from this whole thing. Xan isn’t his responsibility and if she needs major help, like she does now, he can’t really help her. The staff sees Brad leave in a huff and asks Lip if he was Xan’s father. He says yes and that move raises too many red flags for them. They call DCF, which Lip has been trying to avoid this whole time, so he panics. After creating a diversion, he scoops Xan up and runs out of the hospital with her. This is probably going to make Lip a wanted man. I’m not sure what the consequences of this are legally, but Lip needs none of it.

Fiona is in a good mood, having invested in an empty lot of land that is going to be developed into a senior living facility. With 100k invested in the LLC with the guy that Ford doesn’t like (she’s looking at a 30% return pretty quickly) Fiona feels like she’s got a lot to look forward to. Ford doesn’t think so. He doesn’t like that guy so much he not so subtly throws shade every time they talk about it. Ford doesn’t trust him at all and that makes Fiona feel like Ford doesn’t trust her in both a romantic and professional sense. This has brought up a lot of insecurities in Ford and Fiona doesn’t know what to make of it. Ford’s essential problem is that he’s jealous. When the conversation of what their relationship is comes around, it throws Fiona off more. She’s happy with how their seeing each other and is more occupied with the career side of her life so she doesn’t know where this is coming from. She goes to V for advice who tells her, if you leave your relationship– your intentions–with Ford up in the air, it leaves too many questions open.  That causes problems. Communicate people! It’s important for healthy relationships.

Liam is in public school for the first time and the environment is less than ideal. Low standards would probably be the best word for it. He’s far and away the most advanced student in his class and now he’s got a bully breathing down his neck. Liam is quick to adapt though. There’s a monster of a boy in his class and after letting the kid cheat off his quiz once, Liam gets the idea that he’s found his protection. Looks like it’ll work.

Finally, Kevin stumbles across an article about the worst bars in the city and The Alibi is ranked as the most “rapey.” He takes offense to this and then looks around the bar and seemingly for the first time, notices the not so subtle objectification of women motif that’s plastered on every wall. Frank isn’t the only one with a mission now as Kevin works to clean up the bar, and their patrons, image. By far the funniest aspect of this week’s episode.

Mo White!

It’s Oldest Sister and Youngest Brother Day on Shameless! Due to Frank’s sexual escapades with the PTA, the parents have turned on him. That means Liam is punished for Frank’s actions. He’s kicked out of the private school with a few weeks left of the school year and he doesn’t know what to do. Fiona has decided not to bail Ian out of jail so she has a $50k hole burning in her pocket. She wants to invest it and starts looking at commercial real estate. While she dabbled in that sector with the laundromat, she’s stepping into a much bigger pool. Ford tells her to watch out when dealing with a certain guy he’s worked with before but Fiona is all about getting her real estate hustle on. With Liam sitting around the house kicked out of school, Fiona takes him with her. Liam is a really bright kid and has picked up on a lot of rich people lingo while at school. With Liam and Fiona teaming up, they outplay the fancy real estate agent and it looks like Fiona has found herself on the first rung of a very long and lucrative ladder.

Frank, meanwhile, is on to his next hustle. He’s strapped for cash again and finds himself running around town picking up campaign signs around the neighborhood. $5 a sign from the opposition is quick and easy money. This puts Frank onto the political tracks and when he gets rebuffed for wanting to pick up more signs, he spins it into his own crusade. It looks like political representation is starting to look less like him now (diversity! ack!) and he wants to do something about it. At the Alibi, he whips the local clientele into fundraising their out of nowhere champion, Mo White. This is going to get interesting.

Debbie is also out and about beating her own political drum. With the reality of her being paid less than her co-workers simply because she’s a woman, she does more research and she’s all fired up about it.

Carl is now back home and for some no good reason, it looks like whatever happened to Kassidi is going to be ignored. Carl shows no sign that anything happened and she doesn’t appear in this episode at all (not the first time Shameless has done something and quickly don’t-think-about-it-and-move-on). Carl still has his sights on getting to West Point and needs high ranking recommendations for his application. He also needs community service to bump his character quality up. With no real job experience he gets placed with a guy who euthanizes dogs on the cheap. Wary of the whole ordeal, he goes along with it until it’s go time. One of the dogs is a service animal and Carl draws the line, he wants these old dogs to go out on their own terms, when they are ready to pass on their own.

While Lip has been watching over Xan for awhile, things have been going well. That is until this week when she’s baby sitting Kev and V’s twins. She steals a woman’s wallet at the park and ditches the twins. A real crisis, Lip has to make things right and meets a kid at AA who is not doing well. When the kid asks Lip to be his sponsor, Lip shys away from the request, which Brad thinks is dumb. With some words of encouragement from Brad, Lip becomes a sponsor.

Ian gets out of jail! Not because of Fiona, but his Gay Jesus following. They crowd funded the bail money as soon after getting out, Ian sees that his following has been active without him. Gay Jesus has grown without him and now that he’s “back” all of these events and appearances have been made for him. Ian is in not a good mental place. It’s hard to tell where he is and he certainly doesn’t know. Getting pushed back into the spotlight freaks him out and Ian runs for it. Of all the plot lines, this one is my least favorite and I have no idea where they can go with this. Is Ian going back to the street? Will the family have to rescue him again? Odds are, since he ran he won’t be found for awhile and he’ll miss all the obligations he has to do to keep himself out of jail.

Last but not least, Kev and V look for a pre-school for the girls. And gad zooks is it expensive! After being priced out of one place they find one that looks more like a dog kennel. They run out of there and find another location that’s run by nuns. It looks great, the price is right, and they go, hey, this is a Jesus Rules family! Then the bad news: there’s only one spot available. With no other choice, Kev and V begin coaching their kids how to appear as one person at school. That makes sense it it will absolutely work!

Are you there Shim? It’s Me, Ian.

The Gallaghers are back! Time to catch up with the fam.

Ian is in jail after the last stunt we watched him pull at the end of last season. He’s doing…well? He’s brought his crusade into the prison, standing up for the vulnerable against the predators. Ian has made himself the leader of those being abused and taken advantage of, causing a sex strike. Given the situation, Ian is making a positive difference and he seems to be enjoying the roll. So much so that he’s dismissive of  Fiona when she visits and tells him she’s close to getting the 50k for his bail. Ian is acting “off” leading to the obvious question of if he’s on his meds. He waves it away again and the rest of the family (and her boyfriend Ford) is wary of bailing Ian out. More than just bailing him out, they’re concern that Ian is going to flake on his obligations and leave Fiona out to dry. Fiona is pretty gung ho about it, with the mentallity that Gallaghers stick together. Ian is in trouble and he has no one else to rely on. It’s an interesting twist as the kids, who really aren’t kids anymore, aside from Liam, are throwing red flags up. They are all working for a living now and they are not behind what could very well be throwing 50k out the window on someone who currently can’t be relied upon. Fiona is in a bit of a moral quandry. Getting the hesitation from Ford  was one thing, getting it from all of her siblings makes her worry.

Frank has been busy using his manley capabilties on the female population of the PTA and his rather lengthy and unsafe sex practices come to roost in the community. Good on Frank for his ability to spin a situation in his favor. Mostly. Liam continues to buck what Frank tries to teach him and does his best to be honest.

Lip is keeping things going on his end. Still sober and with a new short hair cut, he’s watching over Xan while her mother is who knows where. Brad has put himself together and has asked Lip to be his best man at his wedding. There, Lip meets the maid of honor and it is now pretty obvious he has met his new hard to get obsession.

Deb is cracking along at work, welding everything she can get her hands on (with her new steel toe protectors firmly strapped to her boots) when she finds out that she’s getting paid $3 less than the men. Deb swings into action to make her point and lands herself equal pay.

Carl is flexing his stuff at bootcamp. He’s well into the positon of bossing his cadets around and one of them is…below par. A strike against Carl getting a major promotion. The other strike is his wife Kassidi, who has posted herself right outside the gate, professing her love for Carl to whomever walks near her. When the Disappointing Cadet hears Carl complain about Kassidi, he gets an idea. Just before the end of the episode the guy tells Carl “No one will find the body.” Cue panic.

Finally, Kev and V are on their own with Svet gone. Their twins are going buckwild and the bar is just managing to stay afloat. Struggling to wear out the kids and getting quality time for themselves it finally dawns on them: Pre-school!

It’s great to be back with the Gallaghers. Everyone is doing their own thing and the stages have been set for their own drama. Carl’s is the most serious and Lip’s is the most obvious of what will probably happen. I think the most interesting will be Fiona’s major decision about Ian as this signals a possible major change in the family ethos.

I’ve adored this show since it’s debut in 2011. After 13 seasons, one of my favorite shows is now finished.

I love the creativity, the artistry, and the professionalism that Face Off gave it’s viewers. Everyone they get for each season is so talented and my love for movie magic got to be treated every week. There’s no nasty garbage on this show too. Everyone is cool, there is no fighting and whenever they are able to, the contestents jump at the chance to help another fellow artist. This season was another stand out, bringing back artists who didn’t make it all the way through their season. A try at redemption on this pressure cooker of a contest, the final three artists were all very strong. I think the judges picked the right winner, so that feels like a satisfying way to go out too.

I hope Face Off is just on an extended hiatus (a lot of programming was made in 7 years) amd comes back in time. There’s nothing else like this on TV and I think aside from being entertaining, this show has been inspiring the next generation of practical special effects artists.

More, please!

START

Wow.

I’ve been thinking about the finale since last night. I wasn’t sure about it because it wasn’t what I expected. That’s pretty brilliant. It was much quieter and subtle than I ever imagined. With how things have come together, and being the end of a spy series, I think the natural (and cliched) route to take for the writers would be tons of action and carnage.

What happened was the most important threads coming to a close in a dramatic and suspenseful way. A body count wasn’t necessary to get the point across. In fact, with so much death this season, the finale being made like this makes it much stronger.

I’ve been debating on how much spoiler talk to write here and I’m just going to the basic reveals because it’s impossible not to. This has to be watched to be fully appreciated so please do before reading any further.

The entire episode is the escape. Philip and Elizabeth are basically caught, their entire network exposed. So the tough choices come first: the kids.

I knew Henry was going to be left behind. There is no way they could have escaped with him and he’d be devastated on finding out why they were headed for Canada. Plus, they’d never get there in time. The kid is still being abandoned so it’s not like either choice made for a better outcome.

They go pick up Paige and that talk pretty much happened the way I thought it would.

There are a few showstopper scenes and those need to be discussed for all their brilliance. I can’t do these scenes justice in words so again, they must be watched to get all the context, substance, and sublime acting.

Stan follows his hunches and we finally get the confrontation scene. Alone in that parking garage, a lot goes down. I had no idea how this scene was going to end until it went to commercial. So brilliant. The Jennings trying to lie their way out of it and Stan’s sheer anger at all of it. He pulls a gun on Philip and the way he calls him a “fucking piece of shit” was riveting. Every single beat of this conversation was meticulous and brilliant. Philip imploring that despite everything, they were real friends. Paige doing her best to protect her family (she was quick to defend Henry, that he did, in fact, know nothing). Through the honest answers that had to come out, they still lied to try and push the scales in their favor. Any mention of murder (Sofia and Gennadi in particular) denied in shock. Philip did a hell of a lot to rationalize what he did (I thought what I was doing was right and when it all turned on me I stopped…and I went on to ruin my business).

There have been a lot of brutal scenes in The Americans, most of them violent. In this episode, devoid of any violence, the last phone call with Henry will sit with fans forever. That was one of the worst things to watch. Elizabeth and Philip trying to get their love across to him in the most restrained and careful way. Paige getting so upset that she couldn’t do it. The whole time, Henry not knowing this is the last time he will talk to them and simply wanting to get back to his friends playing ping pong. Ping pong! All of this going down and his greatest concern is ping pong!

The Jennings’ final meal in the United States: McDonald’s. Perfect. The shot with Philip leaving with the food and he sees the family of 4 eating together at a table. Perfect.

The riviting train sequence to get to Canada. They are all sitting seperately on the train and with each check of the fake passport the stomach clenches. The train starts to move, they’ve made it…and then they see Paige. She’s on the platform and the only thing they can do is watch their daughter glide by them. In the end, Paige choses to leave her parents. So shocked, Philip breaks protocol to sit with Elizabeth.

The very end. Arkady is there to pick them up. What life they have now is uncertain, but they make it back home. The stirring last words. Philip: It feels strange to be here. Elizabeth (in Russian): We’ll get used to it. All they have is each other now. Their bond is what kept them both alive and got them home, but I question if their marriage can survive this.

So much comes together in this finale it’s hard to articulate it all. Stan and the Jennings on opposite sides, there because of nationalism (patriotism is probably the better word) that closely match.  When it comes down it it, it’s Philip and Elizabeth’s love that gets them caught. Father Andrei was the only one to see them without disguises when he marries them which is how they get IDed.

Stan’s whole ordeal is fascinating. The betrayal he feels is so strong you can practically taste it. Philip and Paige’s pleas to take care of Henry and he ends up doing it. On the way out of the parking garage, Elizabeth doesn’t try to make a break for it. She could have totally run him over but she stops to let him choose let them go. Again, he puts his personal relationships above his professional duties. And he gets left with one more monster: Philip tells him that Renee might be like them, but he doesn’t know for sure. So is his wife an enemy? What does he do with that information? Philip can’t tell so how can he? That last shot of Renee is, you guessed it, perfect. For years we’ve been wondering about Renee and the show leaves us with the characters themselves wondering the same thing. She seemed to come in at a very convenient time, so suspicious that Philip picked up on it. But he never got any information that proved anything. He had to tell Stan to leave all his cards on the table, give Stan a chance not to be blindsided again.

The biggest success of The Americans is how they made anti-heroes. Philip and Elizabeth did horrible things. They are without a doubt criminals and deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison. And through it all, I became completely attached to these characters. I knew they shouldn’t get away with it but I wanted them to! Yes, they get out of the US alive but it cost them everything. The had to abandon one of their children. The other abandoned them. They lost their family and are back in a place they haven’t been to in decades. A place they really don’t know anymore. All the work they did, the pain they caused and went through, was for nothing. Elizabeth’s entire self worth was turned against her. She ended up not working for her country, but for a small rebel sect that perverted her work to get what they wanted. The shock that hit her and Philip when Stan told them Oleg’s message home didn’t go through. Any sense of purpose and redemption was relying on the message that Gorbachev was being set up. That could truly be the end of their home and any chance of peace.  The only success for rhe Jennings is getting to the Soviet Union to stop the Gorbachev plot.

I think The Americans will be remembered as one of the best TV shows. Strong from start to finish. Their story is over but they live on. Odds are they never see their kids again. I’m not sure what Paige is going to do. She’s definitely going to be questioned by the FBI but I don’t think she ended up doing enough to be implicated in anything. I imagine she’ll turn her back on everything Elizabeth taught her. Henry will be more or less adopted by Stan and I think he’d end up legally changing to Stan’s last name out of anger and relief from the tainted Jennings name.

I think Dennis will stick to his word and nothing major will happen to Father Andrei. Oleg is screwed. You can add his life to the pile of destruction. He stood up for his country and does not get rewarded for it in any way.

It’s been a hell of a ride and I’m happy it came to a close on top.  It’ll be great to revisit this show and experience it all again. If anyone asks me for a show to watch, The Americans will be the first one I recommend.

Jennings, Elizabeth

The walls are closing in.

I’d imagine that for a real spy, this episode was a living nightmare to watch. We’ve reached the point where the only choice for Elizabeth and Philip is to run. Without the kids.

Let’s condense this down to the nitty-gritty. The FBI is following all the right leads and Stan can’t let go of his Jennings hunch. Looking into the church brought Father Viktor in for questioning and he was quick to name drop Father Andrei so they go look for him…at the same time he requested to meet with Elizabeth but Philip went instead because Elizabeth had to go keep an eye on Nesterenko.

Stan brings his Jennings suspicions to Dennis who doesn’t believe him. While he thinks Stan has the wrong idea he doesn’t do anything to convince Stan otherwise. With the dirt they’ve been getting lately, I think Dennis is simply happy with all the progress they have been making so he sees no real reason to fall down the rabbit hole with Stan. Stan talks to the only possible rabbit he could know: Pastor Tim! In a rather cryptic conversation, Tim keeps his vow of confidence and gives Stan no information to follow up on.

Elizabeth’s hunch that Nesterenko is a marked target turns out to be right. She intercepts an assassination attempt (Tatiana!?) in public, in broad daylight. She power walks her way out of there but she’s clearly rattled and goes to Claudia to tell her. If stopping that murder wasn’t enough of a clue, Elizabeth comes right out and says it to Claudia: I’ve chosen my side and it isn’t yours anymore. Claudia manages not to outwardly freak out, it’s more of an inside, boiling kind of rage. I got the clear impression that she’s more disappointed in Elizabeth than anything else. She turns to shame Elizabeth pretty quickly: all of your work his has been for nothing and you’ve ruined it all and I thought I knew you after all of these years. Even when our relationship was at it’s worse, I knew I could depend on you to get the mission done. Elizabeth has a quick answer: If you knew me, you’d know never to lie to me. Claudia has no alternative but to run so this might be the last time we see her.

Speaking of lies, not long after getting chewed out by Claudia, Elizabeth gets round two from Paige. She’s been seeing the college kid she likes and Jackson showed up at a party. He’s all screwed up and the story Paige gets second-hand fits the honeypot scenario she read in one of the books earlier the season. You know, the one where Elizabeth lied to her about that stuff being made up to sell books. So the lies come flying back into her face, in her own kitchen no less. Paige straight up confronts her about her being the woman who seduced Jackson and Elizabeth does a really poor job of lying to Paige. I guess she’s so exhausted that her defenses are barely functioning now. So Paige doesn’t believe her and completely flips out. In the middle of the brutal dressing down, Elizabeth gets fed up and just gets steamrolled as she tries to defend her work. “I should have done what Harry did and gotten as far away as possible from here.” The battle between Elizabeth and Claudia is heavily mirrored here, but with Elizabeth switching roles. The Jennings household is in shambles. And it gets worse.

Oleg gets caught red-handed with a dead drop and then–

Philip meets with Father Andrei in a park and it goes okay until the reason why Andrei wanted to meet. He got word that Father Viktor is meeting with the FBI. Is that a problem? Philip gets really worried and starts glancing around for tails. So when is this guy meeting with the FBI? Now. Philip goes on code red alert! “I’ve been really careful.” Not careful enough dude! Philip hurridly tells him he’s got to book a flight out of the USA immediately and takes off. On his way out of the park, Philip notices he has multiple tails and he has to run for his life. He manages to lose them and he calls home to deliver a coded message to Elizabeth: Our cover is blown. She grabs the bug out bag with clothes, weapons, passports, and money.

We are down to the wire and I am dreading the end. There is no way for Elizabeth and Philip to stay in the US. I don’t know if either of them will get out alive and I have my doubts who could make it alone at this point. Henry is at school, they can’t get to him and what would they tell him? They could get to Paige or at least get word to her but I have no idea what she could or would do. If Renee is a sleeper I can see the end like this: she does nothing. She lets things happen and the final moments of the show we see her get in contact with her handlers. Their big illegal network might have just collapsed, but Renee could be the genesis of the next cell. After all, she does have her FBI interview coming up. She’s an older version of what Elizabeth wanted Paige to become.

Burned by her loyalty to her homeland, I don’t think Elizabeth is going to make it. If the scenario presents herself, she will sacrifice herself for her only other love: her husband.

The Summit

Elizabeth takes center stage in one of the most riveting episodes and we get a huge character pivot.

Right away, we get down to business. Philip admits to Elizabeth that he’s been informing on her (he doesn’t reveal that it’s Oleg). It goes about as well as you think it would. Elizabeth is furious that Philip has been lying to her. It was at this moment I realized the full scope of the emotional shift that happened when Philip left the spy game.

More than losing a co-worker (so to speak), they each lost someone they could talk to. A big theme of the show has been how brutal espionage is. It’s utterly lonely in that you can’t really trust anyone, you lie to everyone, and you have to sacrifice anything resembling a normal life. Your life, whether that be death or no freedom because you will never be let out of prison, is constantly at risk. Elizabeth and Philip always had each other since they’ve been in the US. More than just a husband and wife role, they literally could talk to each other about anything because they were a working team. The only other people they could talk to (and never be completely open to like they could be with each other) was their handlers and the occasional fellow operative on a mission. Without that link, there is no one they can be honest with. This change meant they were either withholding information from each other or outright lying. That’s poison.

And it got worse when Philip tried explaining himself. “I want you to think…like a human being.” “I’m not a human being?!” A brutal insult Philip didn’t intend but came out like a razor blade. Their facial reactions to each other tell it all. It’s one of the most brilliant acting scenes between these two and the way it’s shot, you barely see them on screen at the same time. It’s a harsh reminder of their ideological, emotional, and physical separation.

Moving on, Elizabeth goes to the Haskard’s for her phony nurse duty. She’s still desperate to get information on what’s being said at the summit (which is now happening) so her main goal is to get a bug in Glenn’s briefcase. But as all things have gone for Elizabeth this season, disaster strikes. Glenn tried to let his ailing wife go, giving her a super dose of morphine he’s been saving for awhile. It doesn’t work and she’s suffering even more. Elizabeth’s body count is so high already, we’ve seen her do crazy stuff recently and her killing Erica is one of the most brain searingly intense scenes in the series. Glenn is done with work, there’s no point in bugging his briefcase. Elizabeth settles for taking pictures of some documents she has and Glenn tells her to take one of Erica’s paintings. She takes one of the larger canvases.

In the first major Elizabeth character battle, she debates what to do with the painting. She’s been totally dismissive of art (as talked about in the first few episodes of this season) and Erica did manage to open Elizabeth’s mind up. She takes the canvas off the frame and prepares to burn it. It’s evidence of where she’s been. She wrestles with herself (I can’t accurately describe how good of an actor Keri Russell is, so I won’t even try. You have to witness it) and decides to stash it away. As she walks away her soldier mind clicks back into place and takes over. She pulls the canvas back out lays it out and lights it up without a second thought. With that avenue of intel shut, she has to move on so she sets her sights on using intern Jackson.

In another reoccurring theme this season, Elizabeth remains reckless because she’s under the gun time-wise. (Sidenote: Philip is taking risks too. He rents a Russian movie and watches it in the living room. Considering the scene a while back with Elizabeth bringing him some food from the homeland, this is shocking.) She has to get a recorder into the room at the State Department where her mark, Nesterenko (the Soviet negotiator her people think may be a traitor) will be having a meeting. Elizabeth honeypots this kid into doing what she wants, putting a recorder into the meeting room using an okay excuse (my client needs this box of paperwork and I can’t get it there because all this stuff happened, would you do me a favor?) that’s really not a good plan. It’s risky. She has to roll the dice. Jackson does it and later on, when he comes back out with the box, he looks like he’s seen a ghost. He found the recording device hidden in the box because things didn’t line up with what she said. Elizabeth is caught off guard but recovers pretty fast, telling him this is how business is done in Washington. He doesn’t buy it. This throws us into character battle #2. Again to all of Keri Russell’s credit, we watch Elizabeth internally debate on how she’s going to kill this kid. It’s another event that has spiraled out her control and she has to do something. She lets him go. I thought for sure he was dead. I’m sure he thought he was dead when she grabbed his arm to keep him from getting out of the car. He’s petrified and she rolls the dice that he won’t tell anyone out of fear that he’ll get into serious trouble for doing so super shady stuff in the State Department for someone who he now knows isn’t legit. If she didn’t have to kill Erica, I wonder if he would have let him go. The weight keeps getting heavier on Elizabeth’s shoulders and it’s eating her alive.

Meanwhile, Philip is a walking bummer. He’s frowning so much now it looks like his face is melting. He tries to talk to Henry at school and he isn’t around to take his call. He goes to buy a new suit and he looks miserable. He can’t enjoy buying stuff anymore (especially since he has no money). On a pity parade he goes to Stavo’s apartment to apologize to him for firing him because the business is tanking. Stavo’s isn’t moved by what Philip says and instead lets Philip know he’s an even bigger failure than he ever thought. Stavo’s has worked for Philip for years and noticed all the shady secrecy he and Elizabeth have done in their office all that time. He’s loyal though and never told (never even considered it!) anyone. Philip is a fantastic spy but it turns out he’s been sloppy the whole time. His secret really isn’t that secret. That’s a rude awakening. As a side note, in the “previously on” section at the start of the episode, they showed Philip in the van with Harvest when he dies and Philip is looking at the cyanide neckless around Harvest’s neck. I think Philip took it. So now he and Elizabeth have one. Philip is really worried about what’s coming.

And the Jennings’ are still in the dark about another thing they should be worried about: Stan. He’s still suspicious and doing his groundwork to see what he can dig up. He goes to meet an old contact, and I didn’t recognize him so I had to look him up (Curtis, I think. From a few years ago). This guy met Elizabeth when she was working over another guy. There was fall out and Stan kept Curtis out of serious trouble. Stan shows him a picture of Elizabeth to see if he recognizes her and while he doesn’t confirm anything he says some things take keeps Stan from letting it go. While Renee gets a job interview at the FBI (thanks Dennis! And is she a Soviet operative? I honestly have no idea. They keep her so murky there’s no definitive answer aside from saying “yes” because why else does she keep popping up?) Stan is obsessed with the Jennings. Getting ready for bed, he’s staring out his window trying to catch a glimpse of anything (Elizabeth is coming home late again, hmmm.)

Back to the Plot A of the show, while Jackson turned out to be a short-lived asset, she did get a recording out it. She hears Nesterenko discussing what the Soviet Union (Gorbachev) wants and it’s clear he isn’t a traitor. When Elizabeth hands off the tape to Claudia, she’s told to “take care of” Nesterenko. This strikes Elizabeth as strange (me too) as Claudia, and no one they work with have heard the recorded discussion. Elizabeth bails on the assassination attempt (holy animal, was that dangerous) she goes to confront Claudia about things not adding up.

And here comes the pivot! Elizabeth hasn’t been working for the state in some time. Claudia has co-opted Elizabeth to basically work on behalf of a small, rouge sect back home. No matter what Elizabeth found out, they were going to burn Nesterenko, ruin Gorbachev, and alter Elizabeth’s reports if need be to make the rationale to get away with a coup d’etat. Elizabeth hates lies and this is like the ultimate. Perverting her work and beliefs! Being used like this makes her furious. She’s done horrible things since meeting that military guy in Mexico and it was all pointless.

Elizabeth goes home and tells Philip she wants to talk to the contact he’s been passing her info to. He’s shocked and she tells him about Claudia’s deceit. While this may put Elizabeth and Philip on the same side, I don’t know if she’ll ever forgive him for being a snitch. Meeting Oleg will be difficult, he’ll be able to get the info into his hands by the early morning. While Elizabeth deals with this, she tells him he should handle the communication from Father Andrei (he’s the one that married them. He has the most info on them outside of probably Claudia). That seems like an easy meet up but they don’t know that the FBI has been sniffing around Russian Orthodox priests for a few weeks.

The Jennings’ are dangerously close to being caught. Only 2 episodes remaining.

Harvest

ESPIONAGE!

I love the sneaky stuff on this show and this week we got to see the “Harvest” extraction mission go down. Philip has to bail on Henry to go help Elizabeth, so Stan gets guardianship. Philip taking off so soon (it’s like the day after Thanksgiving) makes Stan worry and with how Philip looks, he knows something is up. Philip tells the half-truth that he’s been so out of it lately is because the business is falling apart. Philip leaves and Stan ends up talking to Henry, fishing for info. He knows the vacation agency is in bad shape and then he goes into the past a little bit. Lamenting about how his mom has never been around, their parents put the business first to provide for the family. He’s never really stayed with family when they were younger and their parents took off…except for that one time when his mother’s relative got sick and Paige went with her. For all of these years, Stan has thought the hours his neighbors worked were odd for a vacation agency.

Off in Chicago, Elizabeth and Philip go for broke to get Harvest out. Distractions! Multiple vehicle changes! Everything goes to plan until the feds discover the switcheroo and they’re able to pull their surveillance net in tight, catching the escape van. Two federal agents, the getaway van driver, and Harvest are killed. Another disastrous mission. Harvest is able to deliver three messages for Philip, one for each of his parents (some of my favorite writing of the episode), and one about the mission he’s on (Elizabeth is also working on that mission).

The horror show doesn’t end with two fellow Soviets dying in front of them. In the final switch-off point in a parking garage to ditch the van, Elizabeth and Philip dismember the woman driver so she can’t be identified.

Stan is at work when Dennis tells him about the move on Harvest. It’s a devastating loss. The basic description of the perps who were seen by the patsies (the Jennings hired some day workers to block the road and such) and Stan can’t shake the coincidence of Philip and Elizabeth taking off in the middle of the night and a white man and woman causing this havoc. The scene I’ve been waiting for finally happens: Stan searches his neighbor’s house. He doesn’t find anything, which was a bit of luck as he got really close in the garage.

Philip is distraught. Not only pulled into the world he hates but the whole thing turned into a horrific ordeal. The night before, when Philip arrived at Elizabeth’s hotel room, she’s surprised he actually came. They catch up a bit and when they go to bed, it’s Elizabeth who reaches out. She places her hand on his. It’s the first physical contact they’ve had in awhile. I don’t see how Philip does anything after this except spiral farther down the void he’s been looking down.

Back home, Elizabeth goes to see Paige. On a walk, Elizabeth tells Paige about the failed mission and Paige is surprised. “You said these things usually work.” They do, but the can and do go wrong. During this discussion was the first time I think I’ve seen Elizabeth take the kid gloves off with Paige and see where she stands with the mission. She stresses the importance and the danger of the world Paige is in. You are either in or out, there is no middle ground. The big statement: if you are in, you are in for life. There is no quitting. As much of a swipe it is against Philip, it’s the truth.

Paige says she’s in and Elizabeth is happy to hear it. It’s also quite revealing with what Paige says when her mother says you have to be prepared to sacrificing everything. Relationships, both romantic and friendship. Give everything you have to he cause and that can mean your life. Paige says she has no real friends and the students she is around don’t know what the world is like despite talking like they do. Paige knows how the government has the system rigged to keep them down and in their place. Elizabeth’s teachings have worked. With that commitment, Elizabeth thinks it’s time to escalate Paige’s illegal career: it’s time to apply for an internship at the State Department.

The summit is a week away.

Rififi

Too many mistakes have been made.

The huge moment of the episode: the feds are hot on the trail of the illegals. Years of being a step behind of the Soviets, major breakthroughs have been made. Dennis brings in Stan to show off what threads they’ve been pulling on and that their detective work is paying off. Gennadi’s last x-ray drop contained the chipset for the radiation detector. That put them on the trail of what it does and where it’s made which pulled their focus to Elizabeth’s recent mistakes. The deaths were already suspicious, but this breakthrough makes them start connecting the dots between them. This leads them to find a big illegal in Chicago, “Harvest.” They’ve been following this guy for awhile and according to Dennis, they’ve been getting huge clues from him. It could very well be the start of them unearthing everything about the Soviet’s illegal program. When Stan sees this progress coupled with the anger he feels over Gennadi and Sofia’s murder, Stan rejoins the team.

Philip doesn’t bother to hide his anger to Elizabeth. Killing the couple crossed a line and he lets her know. Elizabeth doesn’t apologize, saying she’s doing what must be done and blows his concerns off. So he tells her the Kimmy mission is off the table and she gets mad. She lays into him saying she knew he wasn’t going to go through with it, he just wanted to sleep with Kimmy (which isn’t true). The Jennings home is not a happy place and that continues when Henry comes home for Thanksgiving.

Henry is desperate to stay at his private school so he did some work to ease the burden ($9k in 1987! For high school!) on his dad. Some possible scholarships and a potential business deal with the father of a wealthy friend. Philip isn’t happy about Henry talking to others about his business problems but in the end, he agrees (sort of) to talk to the father. At home, it’s clear everyone is fractured. His mom is out back smoking cigarettes and Philip and Paige are doing their own thing separately inside. No one talks, let along makes eye contact. He sees it most in his dad when Philip freaks out when he crashes his slot car. It’s enough for Henry to not ignore that something is wrong and he asks his dad who waves his concern away….your mother and I are not getting along at the moment. I think Henry gets the most screentime in this episode than in the rest of the entire series combined.

Elizabeth is still working on getting an in on the summit talks and she makes a little bit of progress with a kid named Jordan who’s an intern with the Senator she needs to get next to. And then she gets an urgent phone call on Thanksgiving day…

She runs out to meet with Claudia and she rather nonchalantly tells her that Philip has bailed on the Kimmy mission. Claudia doesn’t flinch at the news most likely because there is an immediate crisis: Harvest knows he’s being watched now and sent an emergency signal for extraction. Elizabeth needs to go to Chicago.

So she misses Thanksgiving dinner and also Stan’s impassioned speech about America fighting back against anyone coming after their freedom. A good portion of the table (Renee?) is a Soviet spy so that was a trip to watch.

The mission to get Harvest is not ideal. The woman working with Elizabeth is so worried as they make a plan that she asks her what their odds of success are. “Not very good.” Elizabeth is worried and when she finds herself alone, she does something very interesting. She starts drawing the TV.

While Elizabeth is gone, Philip snoops around her secret stashes for info to pass along to Oleg, which he does. And then Elizabeth does something else very interesting. She calls Henry. She asks about how he’s doing because they didn’t really talk since he’s been home. Historically we’ve rarely seen her talk to Henry and that been blatantly obvious this season since Elizabeth and Philip have pretty much split their parenting duties to one child each. And the conversation is crazy awkward. Elizabeth barely knows what to say to him and Henry has very basic answers to her questions. It’s obvious they’re very distant and Elizabeth is reaching out to Henry almost as her “last call.” She’s really worried about her mission.

When Henry tells his dad about the phone call, it raises all the red flags to Philip. He knows that wasn’t just a “mom checking in” call. He calls her the moment he gets the chance to. Speaking in code, Elizabeth admits she’s worried and she needs more help to have a chance of this mission not turning into another disaster. He tells her to come home and she flatly says no. She never directly asks Philip for his help and even says “I’m not asking you to come here” when he specifically asks her. The strain between them is as obvious as the implied request for him to come out of retirement. As she was packing to leave, Philip asked her not to go and she let him have it, which was basically a dressing down to her former trusted partner “He’s (Harvest) one of us and he needs help. He’s been doing his job and I’m not going to abandon him.”

His wife and partner of more than twenty years needs his help. It goes beyond help. This is about survival. When they fought about Kimmy at the start of the episode, Philip answers her Kimmy/manhood insult with “I was going to do it! Somehow you get into me like you always do, and I was going to do it!” That was an event born of manipulation. This is a cry for help, not a favor, born out of love and respect. Sure Elizabeth is desperate, but no matter what he can’t deny his love for her. He can’t stand around with her back up against a wall.

Phillip commits to going to Chicago.

We’re in the back half of the final season and it’s starting to heat up! A lot of threads are coming together and I’m on the edge of my seat to see what happens next.

The Great Patriotic War

It’s a growing war in the Jennings household.

The rift between Elizabeth and Philip is far greater than a disagreement. It’s a full division of ethics, morality, and political ideology. Since Philip decided to remove himself from the spy mission, he and his wife started living separate lives, all the way to the point in cleaving the parenting responsibilities in half. Paige to Elizabeth and Henry to Philip. Philip, from day one of the idea of getting Paige on board with the spy mission, has been opposed to it. He’s sat on the sidelines, in the dark mostly, on how Elizabeth is teaching Paige and the problems have gotten so bad, it’s becoming a danger outside of the house. Paige is taking risks and making terrible mistakes. And it’s all comes down to Elizabeth.

I’ve said that Elizabeth has been using (teaching) kid gloves with Paige for far too long and it’s blowing up in her face. She’s letting Paige make too many mistakes. Where others would have been let go, Paige is continuing to be used on missions. It’s nepotism at its worst. This time, Paige gets into a fight at a bar and throws down to physically defend herself. She’s known there so she’s drawn a huge spotlight to herself. “You can never go back there.” “Yes, I know that.”

Paige asks her mother to spar to blow off steam (and practice) where all of her transgressions come out–and Philip is there for it. She gets mad at her mother and snaps back, throwing an attitude far beyond her age and training. Sex comes up and that throws Phillip for a loop, forcing Elizabeth to tell him about the college intern mark Paige has/had in her sights. Elizabeth tries to talk him down, that she told Paige in no certain terms to not honeypot this guy to make him a source. With the bar fight, Elizabeth gets a much brighter picture that Paige isn’t meant for this line of work. When she says it to Philip, that he was right, he angrily tells her that “I said she would be able to do it. My point was that she shouldn’t do it.” Not only is he angry that his message was completely ignored, he’s furious over what Paige is turning into. The spy lessons may not be sticking too well, but the propaganda is.

Elizabeth spends way more time with Paige than Philip now. It also looks like Elizabeth and Philip don’t spend much time together. They definitely don’t have the bond they used to. Elizabeth is using Paige to keep the Soviet fight alive since she pretty much lost Philip in that role. As Elizabeth sees it, him stepping away from the work, is a giant step away from her. She can’t confide in him, she can’t work things out with him, she’s doing all the heavy lifting by herself. I think she resents him for it and that’s inadvertently seeping into Paige.

Philip is so flustered by finding out all that stuff about Paige during the sparring match that he goes to her apartment to talk to her. He asks if her roommate is around and when she says no, he finally speaks up about what she’s doing with her mother. Paige let’s loose with a flippant comment along the lines that he isn’t like her or Elizabeth, they see the world differently than he does now. It’s serious shade thrown at him and I’m not sure if she even realized it. I certainly did when his whole demeanor changed. If Philip was mad before, this pushes him over the edge. He tells her to attack him, show him what she’s learned, all the skills that Elizabeth has taught her on the quest to “save” the world.

He straight up dominates her. She’s tentative at first but he makes it clear he isn’t playing around. It’s a reality check from her father with anger fueling it. Oh, so you know what the world is like? You know everything? You think you’ve been in the trenches with your mother? You know nothing. He easily blocks every single one of her attacks and reverses the ones that leave her wide open. He could have easily choked her out but simply pins her against the wall, unable to do anything. This shocks the hell out of her. He is far more capable–and dangerous–than she ever thought he was. Paige still thinks the American source killed himself in front of her mother, she has no idea the extent of the darkness her mother, father, and those who have worked with them have done.

So with this battle going on, it was heartwarming to see Elizabeth and Philip come together. It had been so long since we’ve seen them express any sort of compassion to each other, it felt like a major milestone. Maybe things would start getting better between them. The morning after the lovemaking, Philip is a bright and bushy tailed man. After he makes Elizabeth coffee she lays down a bomb at his feet. Kimberly leaving the country, away from her father, is a problem. She needs the information the tapes they get stashed with her father. All other missions have failed and it’s desperation times because the summit is getting close. She needs him to do a hail mary mission: meet with Kimberly in Greece, get her to go to a communist country, plant drugs on her, and get her arrested. This will allow them to yse Kimberly as leverage to get her father to tell Elizabeth everything she needs to know. Then, Kimberly will be released and Philip will be all the way out of the spy game. Elizabeth will never ask him to do anything for the Soviet Union again. After a while, Philip agrees to do it. But…would he have said yes if Elizabeth didn’t break the ice last night? Did she honeypot her own husband to manipulate the decision in her favor?

Philip meets up with Kimberly and floats her the idea of visiting her in Greece. She doesn’t go for it and he ultimately crosses the line with her to get her to change her mind. After years of not getting physical with Kimberly (she was underage after all), he sleeps with her to change her mind about Greece. She wouldn’t be meeting up with her friend, but her boyfriend. He’s back doing everything he resents. When Elizabeth asks him if Kimberly agreed to the meet-up, he says yes but doesn’t tell her what he did.

Through all of this, Elizabeth has blinders on. She’s laser-focused on doing the work her homeland puts her on. Figuring out the summit is just one problem, Gennadi is the other. And she’s made much more progress on Gennadi. Following Stan has paid off, they’ve found him. Elizabeth is on the hunt and after one close call in an alleyway, she sneaks into his apartment to kill him. What she didn’t realize though, is that Sofia has come with their kid to spend the night. She tries to bail on the mission but gets caught, killing both parents and leaving the child to discover them murdered just feet away.

Stan is devastated when he arrives on the scene. That day he was hanging out with Gennadi, bored out of his mind wishing he wasn’t being forced to babysit this guy. Hours later, the people he swore the bureau would protect for their help are dead. Right underneath the nose of protection.  I think it’s safe to say he’s having flashbacks of Nina.

Stan mopes into the Jennings household the next day and finds Philip alone eating lunch. Over a drink, Stan tells him about the two Russians who were killed last night and Philip has a hard time hiding his honest reaction. It’s one of shock and disgust. While he explains it away to Stan as being surprised at hearing such a thing (which is true) he knows that it was Elizabeth.

Before this, I thought Philip had already been pushed to his limit. His fight with Paige was a physical manifestation of his anger and disgust. This news seals the deal, Philip completely flips. He calls Kimberly from a phone booth that night and severs ties with her. He will absolutely not help Elizabeth in any way now. He goes a step further than “breaking up” with Kimberly, he cryptically warns her about her trip. Stay in Greece, do not leave with anyone that approaches you. Come right back home. I think this is the first time Philip has risked outing himself. This is massive.

Philip has planted his flag firmly in American soil.

Mr. and Mrs. Teacup

Another brutal episode for Elizabeth.

The Americans have always been very careful about presentation. How scenes are shot, the careful and calculated way the spies talk. Give just enough information and always listen carefully. I bring this up now because of how stark the portrayal is between Elizabeth and Philip compared to how they used to be shown. They are almost always filmed physically far apart now. In the opening, after Philip comes home after meeting Oleg, Elizabeth comes in from having a cigarette. They have a conversation from opposite sides of the kitchen.

I find this to be the hardest part of the show to watch. We’re constantly shown how far Elizabeth and Philip have grown apart. The work ruined Philip psychologically, leaving the entire burden on Elizabeth. They have different ideas on communism vs capitalism now. They aren’t on the same side any longer and that’s even split their kids down the middle. Elizabeth tends to Paige and Henry is with Philip.

When they are in bed and Elizabeth coldly refers to Henry as Philip’s problem, I never thought I’d hear that. It was one of the bleakest things she’s ever said. There’s a wall between them in that entire scene and Philip tries multiple times to get through (whether that’s done through love of his wife or will of his mission is questionable but I do think it’s out of love) and it was hard to watch. He tries talking to her, touching her, making an effort to turn back the clock to when they operated as one. It leads to another hard line from Elizabeth: “I’m tired all of the time.” That says it all.

With Henry away at school and Paige in the thick of things, that puts Paige front and center of her parents falling apart. They openly fight, it’s so bad they can’t really hide it. With the stress of the spy game not being enough, this poor girl is being turned into knots over her parents feuding over her continued role spying with her mother. When it starts up, Paige immediately wants to leave, to try and stem her parent’s fight but Philip storms out saying it doesn’t matter, there’s no use in them talking about what’s going on so she should stay to talk to her mother. Paige had recently dug up info on someone she thinks could be a source and her mother flags her down from it. She’s not ready to make a source, she hasn’t had the necessary training. If she’s attracted to this guy, then you go for a normal relationship, you can’t have a real relationship be a source. It doesn’t work. So where do we leave Paige? She’s slept with the guy after a dinner party and she’s eyeing his work badge. She’s conflicted about what to do next. I don’t think she knows what to do and I can only hope she doesn’t make a massive mistake.

Henry’s bad news is that he probably won’t be returning to his school for his senior year. In the first episode of this season, I wrote that Philip had made great gains with the travel agency, but it turns out he expanded way too fast. The business didn’t take off and the loan he took out to make it happen is now crushing him. While Philip has the joys of beer, food, and line dancing, he now knows the American past time of debt.

Elizabeth goes on another mission to get the radiation detector using the security info she got from the guy she killed last week. It ends in a complete failure with no detector and three dead. Bad luck? Sloppy, rushed planning again or bad luck? It’s a disaster either way. And as a side note, this might have been the worst shot action scene in the entire series. I could barely see anything it was so dark.

Kimberly comes home from school and meets up with Philip’s “Jim” persona. They catch up a bit, Philip giving her no new information on what “Jim” is up to now and she tells him that she’s going to Greece for Thanksgiving which means the wealth of  information they’ve been getting from the bug on her father is about to be cut off right when Elizabeth needs it. There’s nothing Philip can do about it and Elizabeth gets mad which makes her push the limits…

It’s time for the World Series and the Haskard’s have friends throwing a party. When Elizabeth finds out who is going to be there (the perfect opportunity to catch Glen Haskard and the Soviet she’s been tasked to watch on the summit negotiation team), she pushes them to go. Erica think’s she’s too sick to go (she’s right) but Elizabeth lies through her teeth (I’ve taken much sicker people than you for a night out) to convince them to go. Elizabeth is desperate for a win and she’s now taking crazy risks to get one. She’s rewarded with vomit from Erica (“I shouldn’t be here!”) and another complete failure: the bug she had put on Glenn caught him talking with the Soviet but the conversation was stopped when Erica got sick. Elizabeth is secretly tormenting this family for no reason. Oddly enough the one thing Elizabeth did get from Erica was the message “I wish I spent more time with my husband.”

Also, I’ve been waiting for this for years and it’s now going to happen. The world of the Jennings spy family and their FBI neighbor, Stan, are coming into direct contact. The defection of Sofia and Gennadi has put HQ on high alert. Gennadi has got to go, he’ll be a propaganda nightmare for the Soviet Union. They think they’ve tracked down Stan as one of his handlers so he’s the key to get to Gennadi. Claudia gives Elizabeth the mission to follow Stan to get Gennadi’s location.

The fight between progress and the status quo has made a soup of misery for Elizabeth and Philip. Things are getting worse for the both of them with no relief in sight. How far will Philip go to stop her? How much can Elizabeth use Paige effectively and good lord is Paige going to get herself caught or killed on her own? Will Stan end up being the one to expose the Jennings’ after all this time? With how well Elizabeth’s missions have been going it’s impossible to see her pulling this one off.