Anne Elk

Martha is devoted to denial. All the red flags in her marriage, and she refused to see them until it was impossible for her to ignore them any longer. Even now, she won't let herself go all the way toward admitting who her husband is working for and what it means. I'm betting she could look right at that sketch of "Clark" and not recognize it at all. She simply will not let herself do that.

It will take more than a quick ss# check. Remember, this is 1983 -- linked databases are a novelty. SS#s were not automatically assigned at birth and many people didn't get one until they were adults. The numbers weren't even assigned out of the same centralized office until the 1970s. And birth and death records would be paper records filed separately, probably at different locations, that would have to be cross-referenced and checked by hand. And that's assuming that Philip and Elizabeth are using actual identities of dead people and not just KGB-created fakes. So the FBI could maybe figure them out this way, but it might take months, at best. No way Philip would be so sloppy as to not make their trip look as innocuous as possible. And really, what's suspicious about a trip to West Germany? Lots of Americans were going to Europe in the early 80s because the exchange rate for American dollars was incredibly favorable at the time. The trip was a risk, but not a huge one, or the KGB wouldn't still be giving them so much freedom.

Hooray, my show is back! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised about Phillip's adolescent murder spree. The show has pointed out many times that what makes him such a good spy is his incredible ability to compartmentalize. Ruthless, brutally violent killer one minute, blandly ordinary family guy the next. The KGB probably had some psychological tests that picked up on that kind of personality and that's how Phillip got their attention. Languages, technology, sexual prowess -- all that can be taught. But they didn't have to teach Phillip how to be a cold-blooded killer, that came naturally. Amazing how the Martha/Clark relationship that seemed so predictable when it started has developed in so many surprising ways. And it is interesting that Phillip can't confide in Elizabeth or Gabriel -- who seem increasingly concerned that he's less effective as an agent -- and now he's lost even the minor outlet he had with Sandra and EST. Martha is the only one left he can share his inner turmoil with. No wonder he wants to protect her. I wondered if Pastor Tim might be thinking he can use his pastoring skills on Paige and her parents to win them over and then promote himself as some kind of peace movement leader. 1983 was right around the time of Samantha Smith and her trip to the Soviet Union, and many people were protesting against nuclear buildup and in favor of detente. It could be he's sincere in his beliefs, just naive about the people he's up against. Power games at the Rezidentura! I hope they develop this plot, I like the Russian actors and I feel like they don't get enough to do plotwise. And I want to find out who Nina's husband is before the show writes her off, as I fear they will soon do. How ironic would it be if Phillip ended up dying at the hands of the local FBI agent -- because of some ridiculous imaginary jealous love triangle? They seem to be going all in on making Stan a total asshole. So now I'm rooting for the brutally murderous KGB operative to defeat the asshole FBI agent. Nice job, show.

I think Anna was told what happened, but she was told the version that the Duggars claimed in their Megyn Kelly interview -- Josh was too curious about girls, he cried and confessed, he repented and gave his heart to Jesus. And then imagine the guilt they would have laid on her to accept this story. Both her parents and the Duggars (who were probably considered Gothardite roaylty at the time) were telling her that it was God's will that she marry Josh. By the tenets of her own religion, she has to believe him unquestioningly when he says he's repented. She's been raised to believe authority unconditionally, period. I'm sure she was told she had a "choice" but just like everything else in these religious cults, there were a lot of unspoken pressures on her to make the choice they wanted her to make. Anna is the perfect result of cult education -- she's never going to choose anything other than the cult way. She absolutely believes that Jesus's plan is for her to be a doormat. I think even if Josh told her he didn't believe in Jesus and wanted to live the rest of his life as an atheist, she still wouldn't leave him. It would be her cross to bear, and if she prayed hard enough then Jesus would surely change his heart.

A funny coincidence: If anyone has seen the film Georgia, which stars Mare Winningham, there's a scene in the movie where Jennifer Jason Leigh, playing Mare's sister, goes onstage at a club and sings an absolutely embarrassing, excruciating version of some song that I cannot recall. It goes on and on and on, and just gets worse and worse, and finally Mare has to go up onstage and rescue her by taking over the song and bringing it to a merciful conclusion. Anyway, I was kind of hoping that Cherry would do that to Scotty. It would have amused me.

But the question is, why was there even a murder trial in the first place? How did the police get from "dead guy is found lying in the middle of the road" to "Noah killed him on purpose because of the scene in his fantastically successful novel where someone else gets hit by a car!!!" I have to admit, that question beats the hell out of me as well. Helen should have just called the police the next day and said that she thought she hit a deer in the fog and didn't realize it was a person until she saw it in the news. By then, the police can't prove she knew it was a person she hit, and they can't prove she was drunk. They'll probably charge her with something but she's a rich woman with three dependent children, so she'd probably get off easy. The only reason for her not to do this is so that Noah can be Mr. Noble and throw himself under the bus to save her. Scotty was drunk and out of control; why wouldn't the police just assume the whole thing was an accident? or even a suicide?

It's a sign of how contrived this ending was that they've left themselves nowhere to go next year. They're not going to turn this into a prison drama, so even though Noah just confessed to murder in a courtroom, they'll have to get him out on appeal or something. But then what? Meanwhile, Alison will be living in NYC and doing ... what? In the interest of making Noah into a self-sacrificing hero, they just turned Helen into a mustache-twirling villain who would not only run a guy over and ignore his body lying in the middle of the road, but try to pin the blame on Alison, who as far as she knows wasn't even there. And since no one plans on telling Cole about Joanie, and Alison will not be in Montauk, there's no longer any reason for him to interact with any of these people at all. I'm sure they will come up with some more preposterous legal wrangling or something to keep the show going, but honestly, it's contrived. I'll still watch it, because I like the show and don't care how contrived it is, but there's no denying it.

All right, show. I will say it: Noah is the most martyr-like, self-sacrificing person alive. I know that's what you've been trying to get me to think, so now I've said it. You get your wish. But I still don't like him. I don't believe for a minute that the paternity news went down the way it did in Alison's POV. The whole thing was like some kind of sick nightmare, with Scotty wailing away onstage while glaring threateningly at everyone (as if Cole would have let him do that), the red lighting, the fog, Alison looking as if she was sleepwalking, etc. I think Alison is repressing how Noah actually reacted and what he actually said because she knows there is no possible way to dress up the paternity revelation where she, Alison, does not come out looking like a total asshole who did a terrible thing. And she can't face it. Sure, she was involved in Scotty's death, but there were extenuating circumstances that let her off the hook. There's nothing like that to explain away what she did about Joanie. So rather than relive all of the terrible but true things Noah said to her, she's just not going to think about it. She admitted it; now cut to Scotty in the rowboat. It was interesting, though, that in both hers and Noah's point of view, she really did seem to be over "that asshole in the Beemer." Even in her own telling, she was unhappy as soon as he honked that horn, and she wanted to stay in Montauk. But then, tragedy struck -- and suddenly Alison is all passion and neediness. Just like she was when she and Noah met. That is what's really holding them together, I think. Good thing the two of them live on a TV melodrama, so there will be no shortage of tragic events to reignite their love. Why drag Helen into this? That really made me sad. Poor Helen, first her husband cheats on her and leaves her, and now she's going to have to choose between confessing to a murder or the guilt of letting him rot in jail for her. What the hell did she do to deserve this? I hope Cole and Luisa just cut ties with this whole bunch. Sell the damn restaurant and move back to NYC.

I keep wondering how many of these plot points are like the disappeared Lockhart children from the pilot episode, who I think were most likely written out so the writers could bring in the Lockhart curse storyline. In a normal TV program it would be no big deal to make minor changes like that as the story goes along. But in a show like this, it doesn't work at all. The differences in points of view are supposed to be important to the show; if the writers are playing fast and loose with the facts also, then the whole thing just descends into goobledygook. They might as well tell us next week that Cole and Alison are con artists who have been scamming Noah and Helen for their money, and they were never divorced, and their kid never existed. Or that they're aliens from Jupiter. I'm okay with the differing points of view, but I'm not okay with things being hidden from the audience that the characters would have to know about, just to make for a more dramatic reveal later on. So maybe Alison and Noah were pretending to be happily married and suppressing all this conflict, but it does seem like a bit of a cheat.

They seem like open relationship types to me. They've been together a long time, but no marriage and no kids. Maybe they've got an understanding.

So last week Noah was talking about swanning around France like it was no big thing, and this week suddenly he seems concerned that they're going to have trouble making ends meet if Alison invests her money. Apparently Noah's wonderful personal qualities don't include being able to plan more than 6 months ahead financially. Nice. Everything that literary agent was saying basically boiled down to "There is no way I am going to convince love-addled college girls to buy a biography of Omar Bradley. Could this guy please get over himself." At least, it did in my head. I too am baffled about why Alison needed to be brought into the Lobster Roll deal. I thought at first that the idea was that she would just be a hands-off owner, providing the money while staying in Manhattan with Noah. But she seems to actually want to run the place. How could anyone, even optimistic happy Cole, believe that Luisa and Alison working together is a good idea? Especially after that remark Luisa made about the horse farm when they were planning their wedding? I guess this is just Alison reacting again in her usual passive-aggressive way: She feels uncomfortable in Manhattan, it's where Noah turned into such an egomaniac asshole, so her solution is to take her opportunity to force him out of Manhattan. I think that passive aggression may be the key to Alison -- she looks like she's out of control and needs rescue, she certainly sees herself as lost and victimized, and yet she always seems to get her way in the end. Could it be any more obvious that neither Alison nor Noah give a damn about the kids? Now that they have a nanny with an apparently unlimited commitment to their family, they spend barely any time with them. And Noah is STILL griping about Alison turning his office into the nursery.

I don't think TLC ever had the slightest intention to dump the Duggars. The strategy was to lay low, tease the leghumpers with updates on social media, and wait until public attention had moved on, then relaunch as a "new" show starring only the members of the family that the audience still wants to see. The audience still turns out in droves to watch weddings/births/courtships, and there's still 18 Duggars to provide that stuff. If anyone else proves troublesome, there's always siblings who can pick up the slack. This show could conceivably run forever. I also think they're doing the same strategy with Josh, it's just taking longer. But as soon as Anna is knocked up with another M kid, the audience is going to be clamoring to see that family reunited. Anna actually has all the power in the relationship right now, if she would only use it.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Part of the reason that Alison seems so mysterious to me is that the time jumps have left us to infer an awful lot about her choices and motivations, since the writers didn't think her inner life was important enough to tell us about it in excruciating detail like they did with Noah. For example, we never saw the therapist talking to Alison at all, and apparently we never will. I understand that she's not supposed to be a self-reflective character like Noah is, but some of her choices feel very arbitrary, like they're just setups for whatever surprises the writers have planned for the trial.

I guess I think that what happened between Noah and Helen 2 years ago is far more relevant to his life now than what happened between his parents 30+ years ago. But probably a lot of therapists would disagree with me there! I, too, wish the show would give some more insight into Alison, or at least have her do something where she isn't just reacting to another character. We know Noah is feeling the pull of his ambition to be a great writer, but what is motivating Alison? She apparently walked away from her medical studies without too many regrets, so it's not that. Even in the future trial scenes, it seems like everybody has a part to play in the action, but all we've seen Alison do is look worried. Maybe she will step up in the mystery plotline eventually, but if so, I hope it will be because she does something proactive, not just has other people doing things because of her.

Not that carefree sex is automatically worth more than a happy family, but Noah already had a happy family with Helen, and he already broke it up for the sake of carefree sex. And now everybody acts like that never happened. He's going through the same problem all over again, but neither he nor anybody else ever seems to consider that maybe he should relate some of what he already went through with his divorce to what he's feeling now. That's why this character arc doesn't work for me -- he should have more insight into this dilemma than he does, because he already knows what it feels like to live with these choices. I agree totally about the time jumps interfering with the development of the story. Maybe if I could see more of Noah and Alison being happy together it would seem more real to me that he might actually want to be with her. But since I've only seen him act like an overaged frat boy and avoid committing to his new family while daydreaming about Omar Bradley in France, it feels like he's making excuses.