The Day After

The Jenning’s household is pretty quiet with the seven month break that Gabriel got them. Playing racketball with Philip, Stan comments on how much energy Philip has. “Are you taking vitamins?” “No, just more sleep.” Without making life or death choices every week, both Philip and Elizabeth have been able to reclaim some peace. The wheels haven’t stopped spinning, though.

As we saw Elizabeth give Paige the riot act last episode, Paige has kept up her “duties” on keeping Pastor Tim and his wife close and unsuspecting. Philip has been taking a calmer and level handed approach with Paige. While Elizabeth in no certain terms gave her a job that she has to do, Philip is the one guiding her. She’s still torn over doing it (and PT notices her demenor) but she is taking a more proactive approach. It’s her idea that her parents go to a meeting to make PT more complacent by seeing them together, happy and “normal.” Philip’s time teaching Paige how to drive is multifaceted. At the meeting, PT makes tips his feelings a bit, telling Philip he wants to have a private discussion with all of them. He wants some kind of check up as he’s not convinced of their true intentions. Elizabeth and Philip will have some adjusting to do soon.

With things calm, Elizabeth has maintained her relationship with Young Hee. Given the chance (and the trust of Young Hee and her husband Don), Elizabeth gets a look around their house to dig up some dirt on Don. On finding nothing, Elizabeth is forced to make a scenario where she can blackmail Don to use him. It’s a terrible burden on Elizabeth. It’s back to terrible deception and it isn’t on strangers this time so it’s much harder to rationalize and emotionally accept. She’s become real friends with Young and she’s doing real harm to her friend. Spies have very few real friends and Elizabeth is forced to end her only one in a moraly corrupt way.

The Day After refers to a TV movie that aired in 1983 about a nuclear war between the USA and the Soviet Union. It’s a fearful drama chock full of death and destruction, one that makes its mark on everyone that watches it. Being in the trenches, it’s more or less the ultimate fear the Philip and Elizabeth think of every day. It’s what they were recruited to stop and Paige takes note of that feeling on her own. It reassures her of her natural instincts of wanting to do the right thing and help others.

There’s a lot of uncertainty from everyone. Oleg talks to Tatiana about their capabilities of always making the right choice with limited resources and information. Going ahead with a plan more through fear than information and logic could start a war. William goes directly to Philip about a new virus being cooked up. He feels unsure about the Soviets getting their hands on it. The stuff can liquefy organs and after the botched move of the last virus with an unsuitable container, he doubts their competence. It would probably get loose before it got out of the state. No one should have this stuff and he thinks they shouldn’t relay the info to The Center (hence cutting out Gabriel).  Philip agrees but Elizabeth reasons that if the US has it, it’s too much of a concern to let it slide. The US is the one that dropped two nukes so it isn’t a reach that they would use this stuff. She takes the hardline stance that they are doing all of this for the defense of their own people and the rest of the world.

For the first time, I’ve noticed a major time error on the show. When Phillip is teaching Paige to drive in the amusement park parking lot (I think it’s Rye Playland), the yellow roller coaster in the background was built a good 20 years after the show takes place. The design for that ride wasn’t developed until the mid 2000’s so that ride didn’t exist anywhere back then. It’s a garbage ride to boot too, horrible engineering, it beats the stuffing out of riders.

The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears

With a title like that, you’d never be able to guess the direction of this episode and it might be the best episode of the season. The direction was a real stand out this week with some really striking visuals and compositions. I just looked at who directed it to see if it’s someone well known and it’s Matthew Ryes! Philip himself! Not only is he a great actor, he can crush it behind the camera too.

Incredibly tense episode with emotions hitting the breaking point. A brilliant, almost silent, opening set the stage. Philip gets Martha to the plane and sees her off. A handful of dialog with some crazy minimalist environments and lighting to accentuate the mood.

First, Stan is at wits end. The FBI’s leads are all drying up, they can’t find Martha. They have come to the realization that they have to eat not seeing the spy in their own offices and the KGB making her disappear under their noses as well. Stan looks like hell when he visits Philip (it’s been awhile since he’s done that).

Philip has been running on fumes for awhile now and has been more or less the focal point this season for it. He’s depressed and he looks like hell. His only bright moment is knowing that he made the right move getting Martha out. Elizabeth goes to EST to check it out and they get into a huge fight about it. That was something to see, Elizabeth brings up some serious stuff. The shade she throws at him is unreal, essentially calling him a weak American. She’s tough as nails, but it turns out her fuse was only a few feet longer than Philip’s. While she disparages her husband for not Russian-ing it up and to just get on with his life, a complete freak out on Paige is just the start of her meltdown. Elizabeth lays down the law on Paige, which was super intense to watch. Then, her own agent, Lisa, breaks. Martha was Philip’s responsibility and after it’s all over, Elizabeth gets slammed with the same thing. Another thread in their web has broken, throwing everything off kilter. Lisa threatens to go to the police and Elizabeth reacts. When she goes back to Gabriel’s, where Philip is, she’s a basket case. There is no more anger, just shock, and devastation. Almost all of their hard work is gone.

Gabriel starts this episode in a similar emotional state as Elisabeth. He’s pissed his two agents are getting emotional and eroding their relationship. Not just between themselves, but with him. He tries to reason with and guide them, but they don’t listen or trust him. But then with the loss of Lisa, he sees the stress. There is no way to charge through what they are going through any longer. He vows to get them time off, they’ve been being pushed too hard and too long by The Center.

That leads into a long break, seven months, where they pull themselves together. In a very telling final few minutes, the FBI has restructured after the embarrassment of Martha and Stan is now in a better mental space when he gets advice from his ex-boss. When the time comes to make the hard decisions, keep your conscience in check and go for it. Watch carefully.

Back to Elizabeth and Philip, the look much better too. Paige has listened to her mother and is begrudgingly keeping close tabs on Pastor Tim and his wife. The two professional spies have been given a break on the constant lies and deceit, they’re not pretending and sneaking around 24 hours a day. But now their young daughter is being forced to put up the smoke and mirrors. Paige hasn’t been conditioned to do it like they were and it’s getting to her.

The next crisis is brewing.

I wasn’t a huge fan of last season. It was uneven with many slow parts that kept it from reaching the heights of Seasons 1 and 2. It kinda felt like the writers weren’t too sure where the season was going to end up when they started, took some extra work to get to the good stuff.

The end of Season 3 reset a lot and that allowed this season to kick off with a running start. Right away I got the feeling that the writers figured out the bulk of the season early and got to work with the details. They throw it back all the way to the beginning of the series with  Beth. The clone we pretty much know nothing about and even less about what she knew before she died. They found a fun and interesting way to mix things up and dig back into the central plot of the show. Saying Beth was messed up is putting it mildly and now we’re getting a great look at how Beth was put onto her final investigation…another clone. And it looks like she knows a lot.

The team is rather splintered so far too. Felix has sidelined himself to focus on his own life (much to Sara’s annoyance). Sara is finding more and more crazy stuff about the Neolution (whoa Biotech!) and her daughter is getting weird. Time for the golden child to start developing some powers. Rachel (not exactly part of the team but…) has been isolated to recover from her S3 downfall and gets a rather nasty visit from her keeper. Cosima is doing her best to move forward without Delphine and the comedy trio of Alison, Donnie and Helena are as strong as ever. The cops show up to the house during a terrible time forces Helena to fake being Alison, bringing repercussions from one of the best parts of last season.

All the credit in the world to Tatian Maslany. Being the lead of a show is one thing, but she’s playing something like 8 characters now and they are all different. She’s literally 95% of the show, I don’t think anyone works harder or better than she does on any TV show, she deserves far more acting awards than she has right now.

3 episodes in and Season 4 is on a tear. Really looking forward to the rest.

Travel Agents

With Martha on the lamb, it’s a race to find her first.

FBI: They are 100% positive that Martha is the mole. She’s been employed there for 10 years and no one ever suspected her. Her boss, who she’s sat about 20 feet from the whole time, is shell-shocked that it’s Martha. His career is over after this. One of his main jobs is finding turned KGB agents and he’s been employing one and she’s had access to a ton of information over the years. Stan is in his element, he sniffed her out and can consume himself in his work to ignore his faulty private life. This is a major breach for the KGB as they’ve tracked down Phillip’s alias and are starting to put things together about their relationship. The Clark cover is burned and the feds are on the hunt. They need this win.

Philip and Elizabeth: Complete damage control. They are doing everything possible to get Martha and get her out of the country. She’s a massive danger to them all to the point where Martha’s life hangs in the balance. Philip is in crazy trouble, having to abandon his Clark character is one thing, but the FBI might be able to find him even if they don’t get Martha (if they do he’s totally screwed). Powerful Elizabeth, stopping Martha’s hysterics and bringing her in, that was just awesome. Extreme times call for extreme measures (although the extreme measure would actually be killing Martha). Surprised Philip didn’t lie to Martha about joining her in Russia just to make it easier to get her on the plane. Some super intense moments for these two. The simple fear of getting caught. Elizabeth telling him more than once that the possibility of killing her is very real. Elizabeth asking him if he could go back with Martha to Russia freaked him out and the very telling scene where she falls asleep in her PJ’s and he’s there next to her wide-eyed and fully clothed.

Martha: Alison Wright really gets to strut her acting chops on this. Her building paranoia is just overwhelming. Her whole lonely life has led her to this unimaginable situation and she can’t cope any longer. I really thought she was going to take her life, but she ends up still giving her husband “Clark” a chance. The part where Frank tells Stan that the KGB went as far as to marry her was fantastic. The scope of their effort blew their minds. Sure they are in the spy business, but they never considered this level of deception  and it scares the hell out of them. I really don’t think Martha is going to make it out of this.

The Rat

This whole episode is Martha and gadzooks it does not look good. Stan is straight up closing in and Martha is a frightening mess. Elizabeth and Phillip have been in some jams, but this is looking like they’re going to take a massive hit on this one. Phillip has been in a panic to get her out with resistance from everyone and now he’s watching Martha unravel right in front of him. He’s been struggling with stress and guilt all season, Martha getting taken may be the final straw. That last scene with Gabriel and Martha? Man, let’s get to episode 7!

Another solid season in the books. Michael McKean steals the show as Chuck. Jimmy’s foil for his entire life, their relationship is one for the books.

Just like Breaking Bad, Saul is well written and it’s got some of the best directors working in TV. There are many great moments through the season, Jimmy getting his dream gig, doing his thing and getting punished for it, lighting that boat on fire to take Kim with him. Jimmy is a good guy, it’s just the lengths he goes to help or hinder people blow have little regard for rules. Chuck, on the other hand, is a colossal douche. I’m on Jimmy’s side for just about everything.

Mike had a great season too and it’s fascinating to see his side of Breaking Bad being built. His whole arc with Nacho that goes from hilarious introduction to tricky plan to success to oh-damn- that-wasn’t-a-success-now-I-gotta-deal-with-his-manaic-boss is some riveting stuff. The twins even show up in one of the most intimidating scenes ever recorded.

Killer season finale to crank each story thread. Mike getting interrupted has major character implications and Chuck’s egomania and spite levels hit an all new level. Next season it’s going to be Jimmy v Chuck in the courtroom and their relationship will end permanently.