selenak

Weird thing about Americans episodes: when they're over, you tend to go "what? But that can't have been the entire episode?!?" more often than not. This one also had a great title, to wit:

The two outstanding sequences in this episode were Elizabeth with the old lady played by Lois Smith, whose name I see from the internet is Betty (which of course a short version of Elizabeth), and Philip with Gabriel at the end, but before I get to them, some thoughts on the other episode elements.

Martha: I'm torn in interpreting this. If Martha really has decided she'll Do All For Love, it doesn't square with how we left her at the end of last episode, those opened eyes. Otoh, there's that phonecall from child services in the evening/at night, which we only hear Martha's part of. Note how she accepts it? "This is she." The formality of it reminds me very much how Elizabeth accepted her coded phone calls in front of Paige ("this is Mrs. Jennings speaking") , and the phone call came shortly after "Clark" arrived in the flat. Also, I think if Martha truly went from heartbroken to persuading herself to continue with the Ballad of Clark and Martha, only this time knowingly spying, I think we'd have seen some in between stage. So while the kitchen scene was going on and she very deliberately told him about the mail robot, my thought was "it's a trap!", and that Martha has reported herself (and "Clark") but was told to continue so the FBI instead of catching one fish will be able to get access to the entire Illegal network. Letting the mailbot be bugged isn't too great a sacrifice because unlike Gaad's office, the mailbot won't be witness to too many confidential conversations. (Which is why I found it a bit odd that Gabriel wanted it bugged in the first place.) There'd also be the irony of Philip now trusting Martha (and her feelings for him which were based on a lie) entirely at the very point she's wised up and uses emotiion against him for a change. In this case, we'll probably get a flashback a few episodes later to Martha confessing all to Agent Gaad in the day between Clark's departure and return. (It's also not as if the show hasn't done this kind of misdirection before - big time with Jared and who really killed his parents and sister in season 2, while dropping some tiny tiny hints only to the big revelation at the end.)

If, otoh, everything really is just as it seems and Martha decided to put Clark and True Love above all, it would make her less of a character and more of a plot point (to make Philip feel more guilty), so I'm rooting a lot for the above mentioned twist.

Stan and Oleg and the belated continuation of the "is Svetlana a double?" storyline: we still don't know one way or the other (if Svetlana is KGB, she would be too professional to break cover with someone who's clearly either not in the know or an American test of her loyalties). But the teaming up continues to be hilarious. Though definitely dangerous for both of them. It occured to me in the scene with Aderholt, Stan and Gaad that between Aderholt's earlier questions about Nina, Taffet's investiation into who put the bug in the office (if, that is, Martha hasn't confessed) and Stan now meeting a KGB agent in secret without having told anyone at the FBI about it, I could see a storyline developing where Stan ends up suspected as a KGB mole. Conversely, if someone at the Rezidentura finds out Oleg is secretly hanging out with FBI agents and is ready to expose a KGB undercover to save his girlfriend, neither Oleg's (currently pissed off) father nor Arkady will be able to save Oleg from his own ticket to Siberia. (He might end up together with Nina after all. And Baklanov. And Vasily.)

Speaking of blown covers, Hans after Elizabeth telling him he's been seen and hence his short career as a KGB agent is over deciding to kill Todd instead was set up by that glimpse last episode but also fitted with the episode's (and season's, and show's) general exploration of the ugliness of spy work. Of course that first killing goes wrong and ends up messy and prolonged. But not as long as another death the same episode.

Which brings me to: Elizabeth and Betty. This is the kind of plot Philip had in season 2, but not yet Elizabeth re: killing an innocent bystander. (Her decision to not save Lucia and let Lanart kill her, which deeply affected her, comes close, but Lucia wasn't an innocent, and standing by still is different from doing it.) Lois Smith delivers a great performance, making what could feel like overexpositionary writing when Betty basically narrates her life story somehow sound natural. Both Elizabeth and the audience geto to know Betty, and it's obvious Elizabeth both identifies Betty with her mother and with herself (at different times). She knows from the start that Betty will have to die - which is why Elizabeth doesn't lie once in her replies to Betty's question - but she's still letting Betty get to her instead of stonewalling and saying nothing. Elizabeth's whole existence is grounded on the conviction that the cause - the Greater Good - justifies everything, which is why Betty's last words, which I wish the trailer hadn't given away already (in the episode itself, it comes at the end of a long sequence of Betty only talking kindly to Elizabeth, which makes them even more effective), hit home so hard. "This is what evil people tell themselves when they do evil things". There it is, in its starkness, and that's why Elizabeth later when Philip asks her whether she's alright doesn't reply (and the audience, but not Philip, sees her cry - can't remember the last time Elizabeth did that, maybe early s2? s1 even?). (BTW, note that Philip himself is matter of fact about the death of bystander this time. He hasn't seen her, he's not the one who had to kill her, and thus she hasn't become real to him the way, say, the young waiter in the Afghan restaurant at the start of s2 was.) Even the method of Betty's death underlines the point, letting neither Elizabeth nor the audience of the hook. It makes pragmatic sense (shooting or strangling her would have given away immediately something happened, but an old woman with a heart condition taking too many pills by accident is absolutely plausible), and it meant Elizabeth had to face her victim for a long, long time, during most of which she could have stopped her but didn't, repeating that decision with every moment.

And the other big one. The early scene with Gabriel, Philip and Elizabeth is the first one where he's with both of them at the same time, and it shows slightly shifted dynamics - Philip is angry and protective when he thinks Gabriel wants Martha to plant the bug and/or take away the recordings (which would have been suicidal for her to do right now), Elizabeth notices and notices Gabriel noticing, and tries to make peace with the question about alternate sources in the FBI. That's one reason why, IMO, in the final scene of the episode Gabriel brings on the full warm paternal approach again when playing scrabble with Philip: praise, marriage advice, setting himself up as a confidant again by telling Philip the flattering story that Elizabeth had already rejected an officer originally assigned to her back in the day but not Philip (to counteract Philip's own impression that Elizabeth was disappointed at their first meeting while he was lightning struck). (Incidentally, as opposed to the existence of Mischa Jr. in Afghanistan it occurs to mem this story is likely true, because it's too easy for Philip to check if he wants to with a simple question to Elizabeth.) However, not only does Philp call him on the fact Gabriel is trying to manipulate him right then and there (while implying this works on Elizabeth when Gabriel does it), but he frames it explicitly as point and counterpoint of paternal responsibility failed and accepted. The exact dialogue:

P: The problem? The problem is you. Gabriel. And all this talk. All this talk. Because you think you can wrap me around your little finger. But I'm not Elizabeth.
G: I'm aware of that.
P: I trusted you. I trusted you. And your job was to look out for me. It was. And now my job is to look out for my family. Because no one else will.

I mentioned back in my review of the season opener that Gabriel not only comes across as a father figure for both P & E but was, given one of the few things we know (with relative certainty) about Phiip-Mischa was that he had no father growing up, probably Philip's original role model for paternal behavior. As their handler, he's also the stand in for the mother (and father) country. But current events have driven home for Philip that Gabriel (and of course the Centre) for all the easily summoned paternal warmth is an abusive father, asking for what shouldn't be asked (both Kimmie and Paige in different ways as the most glaring illustrations). Gabriel has become the failed father, the one who exploits and thus destroys instead of protects. (BTW, "your job was to look out for me" really works only with this paternal dimension because while a handler should of course look out for his agent in the sense of not needlessly endangering him, Philip is talking about more than their respective professional duties here; the trust Gabriel broke wasn't one to do with keeping the FBI and the CIA of his scent but with failing him morally and emotionally.) And thus Philip redefines his own role as being the anti Gabriel, "looking out fo rmy family". Which sounds as if he's given up on Elizabeth taking his side (again, irony, at the very moment she may start to doubt).

Now I've seen speculation that all this will lead to Philp taking the kids and defecting on his own, but I don't think so. Not least because that would end the show, and I do hope it will get at least the five seasons. But also because of the premise (which isn't about Russian defectors living in the US, but active spies), and the title, which isn't "The American". And because of the nature of shows with twists, and build up. Specific examples of shows that come to mind which present the type of twist I'm now speculating will come - the season 4 finale of Alias with Sloane, Sydney and Nadia on the roof, and the Penny Dreadful season 1 finale with Malcolm, Vanessa and Mina in the theatre. In all these cases, the audience has been led to believe the character who has to make a choice will make one type of choice either based on previous behavior or because the character themselves have said so or both, but instead, the character, in a crucial part of charater development, makes the other, unexpected type of choice. Well, it would surprise absolutely no one if Philip by the end of this season were desperate enough to, say, shoot Gabriel as the big gesture of rejection of KGB dominance over his life. It wouldn't be a big step, either. But it would be an unexpected yet enormously character forward pushing choice...for Elizabeth. So I'm calling it now. In the finale, there will be a type of set up where Phillip, Elizabeth and Gabriel are in a situation where Gabriel is about to do something that will decide Paige's fate once and all. And Gabriel expects Elizabeth to side with him because that's what she's always done. (Her one big act of rebellion against the KGB, litting little acts such as telling Philip about her Russian past aside, was going up against Claudia in her immediate anger once Claudia revealed the loyalty test situation. But Elizabeth has never loved Claudia, and she later easily shifted the emotional blame from Claudia and the Centre to Claudia alone.) Philip tries to stop Gabriel, fails, it's clear that it's Philip and Paige (and long term wise Henry) versus Gabriel, and thus she ends up, for the first time, going against the father figure and kills him. P & E then cover up Gabriel's death together as something the FBI did, and the show continues with them as spies for at least another season. Additional Doylist reason for this speculation: Frank Langella is fantastic as Gabriel, but he's also very old and if I were a producer, I wouldn't plan on him being available for more than one season; Margo Martindale's show has been cancelled. Also, the Phillp/Elizabeth relationship is central to the show and a key selling point. If they split up for good, the premise is gone. Every event in this season has driven home what a disaster the Paige-as-spy idea would be (independent from Paige being unlikely to want to be even an American agent, let alone a Russian one). Ergo, Elizabeth is the character who'll have to have her certainties altered and who'll have to make a radically different choice.