The Americans 3.07
Mar. 12th, 2015 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which (some) secrets are revealed in more than one plotline.
MAAAAARTHHA! Alison Wright rarely gets the spotlight, but she was terrific here. I was incredibly afraid Martha would kill herself at the end of the episode with the Chekovian revolver. While this is still a possibility, I suppose, she didn't, and didn't tell "Clark" what happened at the office, either. Considering Clark Westerfield, Internal Affairs, WOULD know (wouldn't he?) if a bug had been discovered in Agent Gaad's office, let alone the very one he asked Martha to plant for him, it's very hard not to conclude Martha at this point has figured out Clark isn't Clark at all, and she's been used by someone else altogether. That she asked to see his apartment also makes me suspect that. Figures the KGB would rented one for Philip to use in such a case, which makes sense since it's a given Martha would ask for something like this at some point, but I didn't get the impression Martha was fooled. Now given all of this, the fact Martha neither killed herself nor confronted Clark makes me wonder whether she will try to do basically what Nina did in later s1 - redeem herself by confessing to her superiors and turning the table, i.e. trying to entrap Clark. Only I can't see how that would work because Stan would recognize Clark as Philip immediately if Martha shows him as much as a photo, and Stan can't recognize Philip before the show is nearing its end. So, maybe I'm reading Martha wrong and she still is fooled, but that was certainly not the impression I got.
Speaking of Stan and me reading things wrong, I thought after his two scenes with Oleg that he knew what the KGB did with him last season, but unless he's simply bluffing in order not to look like a fool to Adaholt, he still thinks Nina was an honest source? At any rate, Stan's description of Nina is pretty revealing in that it shows (again, because it was obvious even before she came clean to Arkady) how little Stan ever knew Nina.
Philip's and Stan's conversation over the pizza Philip couldn't share with his kids was another gem, and note both of them actually told each other the truth about what's currently on their minds, stripped of secrecy content, sure, but the emotional truth. Stan was having a good episode re: connecting with people via conversation in general, since, in a first for him and the show, he actually manages a conversation with Matthew that has content, reveals to Matthew important things about his father, has Matthew react positively and may start father-son bonding. (It also is the first time that Stan goes into some detail about what his undercover work with the white supremacists entailed, and what effect that had on him.)
Meanwhile, things couldn't be worse chez Jennings, except for the ending. Except if you're Paige, because I think that, leaving aside for a moment the reasons why Elizabeth showed her the worse Washington neigbourhoods, used the civil rights angle and told her about Gregory, Paige waking up to the fact that race equality in the early 80s in the US is still not there de facto though it is de jure, and that her church (and Pastor Tim) has a serious blind spot there is a good thing. (As opposed to why Elizabeth did it, I don't think it will make her see the KGB as a good alternative, mind.) The South African subplot makes a good counterpoint here because I think Elizabeth was torn when she listened to the ANC activist's tale about his son and his hope said son would fight (and possibly die) in the struggle (as opposed to getting killed over some motor bike). On the one hand, the mirror to what she's currently doing with Paige is obvious and she should unconditionally approve, she knows she should, on the other, she's clearly taken somewhat aback. And I think this is what later leads her to tell Philip she's been wrong (a first for Elizabeth this season, and very rare for Elizabeth in general) in not telling him about her "we were activists!" conversation with Paige. Which in turn enables Philip to tell her about what Gabriel told him, his son with Irina being a soldier in Afghanistan.
(Sidenote: that settles the question whether or not Philip believed Gabriel last week. Now I thought his reaction and the way he used it with Kimberly made it clear he did, but then I read some reviews declaring he's still sceptical and was uncertain again.)
(Sidenote II: whether or not there actually is a Mischa Junior is a separate question altogether.)
Which, again in an episode full of tension and distance otherwise, leads to one scene of intimate connection between Philip and Elizabeth, who doesn't react badly or makes this about herself but responds to the emotional implication this has for Philip. It's a rare breath of relief in an episode that ratches up the emotional stress for just about everyone but Paige and Henry.
Trivia: I wonder what the Doylist reason for Stan mentioning the colleague at work whose conversation has been bugging him is black is? At a guess, so that when Philip in Clark disguise sees a black man, say, at Martha's, he'll be able to guess this is the new FBI agent?
MAAAAARTHHA! Alison Wright rarely gets the spotlight, but she was terrific here. I was incredibly afraid Martha would kill herself at the end of the episode with the Chekovian revolver. While this is still a possibility, I suppose, she didn't, and didn't tell "Clark" what happened at the office, either. Considering Clark Westerfield, Internal Affairs, WOULD know (wouldn't he?) if a bug had been discovered in Agent Gaad's office, let alone the very one he asked Martha to plant for him, it's very hard not to conclude Martha at this point has figured out Clark isn't Clark at all, and she's been used by someone else altogether. That she asked to see his apartment also makes me suspect that. Figures the KGB would rented one for Philip to use in such a case, which makes sense since it's a given Martha would ask for something like this at some point, but I didn't get the impression Martha was fooled. Now given all of this, the fact Martha neither killed herself nor confronted Clark makes me wonder whether she will try to do basically what Nina did in later s1 - redeem herself by confessing to her superiors and turning the table, i.e. trying to entrap Clark. Only I can't see how that would work because Stan would recognize Clark as Philip immediately if Martha shows him as much as a photo, and Stan can't recognize Philip before the show is nearing its end. So, maybe I'm reading Martha wrong and she still is fooled, but that was certainly not the impression I got.
Speaking of Stan and me reading things wrong, I thought after his two scenes with Oleg that he knew what the KGB did with him last season, but unless he's simply bluffing in order not to look like a fool to Adaholt, he still thinks Nina was an honest source? At any rate, Stan's description of Nina is pretty revealing in that it shows (again, because it was obvious even before she came clean to Arkady) how little Stan ever knew Nina.
Philip's and Stan's conversation over the pizza Philip couldn't share with his kids was another gem, and note both of them actually told each other the truth about what's currently on their minds, stripped of secrecy content, sure, but the emotional truth. Stan was having a good episode re: connecting with people via conversation in general, since, in a first for him and the show, he actually manages a conversation with Matthew that has content, reveals to Matthew important things about his father, has Matthew react positively and may start father-son bonding. (It also is the first time that Stan goes into some detail about what his undercover work with the white supremacists entailed, and what effect that had on him.)
Meanwhile, things couldn't be worse chez Jennings, except for the ending. Except if you're Paige, because I think that, leaving aside for a moment the reasons why Elizabeth showed her the worse Washington neigbourhoods, used the civil rights angle and told her about Gregory, Paige waking up to the fact that race equality in the early 80s in the US is still not there de facto though it is de jure, and that her church (and Pastor Tim) has a serious blind spot there is a good thing. (As opposed to why Elizabeth did it, I don't think it will make her see the KGB as a good alternative, mind.) The South African subplot makes a good counterpoint here because I think Elizabeth was torn when she listened to the ANC activist's tale about his son and his hope said son would fight (and possibly die) in the struggle (as opposed to getting killed over some motor bike). On the one hand, the mirror to what she's currently doing with Paige is obvious and she should unconditionally approve, she knows she should, on the other, she's clearly taken somewhat aback. And I think this is what later leads her to tell Philip she's been wrong (a first for Elizabeth this season, and very rare for Elizabeth in general) in not telling him about her "we were activists!" conversation with Paige. Which in turn enables Philip to tell her about what Gabriel told him, his son with Irina being a soldier in Afghanistan.
(Sidenote: that settles the question whether or not Philip believed Gabriel last week. Now I thought his reaction and the way he used it with Kimberly made it clear he did, but then I read some reviews declaring he's still sceptical and was uncertain again.)
(Sidenote II: whether or not there actually is a Mischa Junior is a separate question altogether.)
Which, again in an episode full of tension and distance otherwise, leads to one scene of intimate connection between Philip and Elizabeth, who doesn't react badly or makes this about herself but responds to the emotional implication this has for Philip. It's a rare breath of relief in an episode that ratches up the emotional stress for just about everyone but Paige and Henry.
Trivia: I wonder what the Doylist reason for Stan mentioning the colleague at work whose conversation has been bugging him is black is? At a guess, so that when Philip in Clark disguise sees a black man, say, at Martha's, he'll be able to guess this is the new FBI agent?
