shura
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Posts posted by shura
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15 minutes ago, GussieK said:
Really, this priest thing was inexplicable. He's a KBG agent posing as a Russian Orthodox priest? Or a Russian Orthodox priest who was recruited to be a spy? Huh? Why are there months between Gabriel's departure and the arrival of a new handler? Anyone understand this?
I thought he was a KGB informant rather than a spy. It was weird though, why did he call the meeting? He didn't really say anything there that seemed to be urgent. His Eminence drinks? Well, I assume he is Russian, so yeah, valuable intel there. It looked like he, too, was lonely after Gabriel's departure and just wanted to talk to someone. And Philip was, understandably, like "Yeah, sorry, man, I've got enough friends. Also, if we meet again, could you maybe wear something less conspicuous?"
Funny how Martha is apparently entertaining the concept of a "suitable" man she could be introduced to in Moscow. Wonder what that would look like.
1 hour ago, JFParnell said:Boarding school?? THAT's the big Henry reveal??!! Can it really be? After all this wondering "do they have something big up their sleeve for poor disappearing Henry? Has he been snooping around? Does he KNOW?" Nope -- kid just wants to wear a suit and tie and better himself.
And Chris is going there, don't forget that. Is it common for someone to write a letter of recommendation like that for a kid without touching base with his parents?
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Really, that's the episode title?
2 minutes ago, Miss Chevious said:Glad to see Liz and Mike were able to pull it together for this episode. Hope they can keep going without any flare-ups. He could have been a little more gracious while she was trying to apologize.
It might have helped if she didn't unapologetically call him a jackass while trying to apologize.
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46 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:
Okay. Please allow me to REALLY nit pick. When E was talking with the lady about the Immersion dinner she said that EVERYONE had to only speak Russian. But, then, when E asked her if they all spoke Russian, she then says, no, they can only say "Thank you and Where is the rest room," or something like that. So, why have that rule if that's all they can say? Odd, imo.
Hey, maybe that's why they are having a dinner party and not a book club meeting. If you like the food, you say "thank you." If it doesn't agree with you, you ask where the bathroom is. It's not going to be the liveliest of dinner parties, but everybody knows enough to participate :).
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48 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:
What's also funny is that Gabriel really didn't say the opposite of this to Elizabeth. He didn't say anything about Paige being a great recruit. He just said Elizabeth had raised her into a good person who didn't feel entitled to the world giving her happiness. Elizabeth probably took that as making her a good soldier, but that's not what he said. It was only Philip who got Gabriel's opinion on that.
Not exactly. Elizabeth also asked Gabriel there if they are putting too much weight on Paige, to which he replied "No, she'll be fine, she'll find her way." That sounded like an endorsement of the whole recruiting Paige business to me since that's what Elizabeth was asking about there, and he must have known that.
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9 hours ago, sistermagpie said:10 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:
Apparently Elizabeth is just going to disregard Gabriel's warning to Philip about Paige not being suited for this work.
I thought it might even have been more than that. That she took Gabriel saying that Paige shouldn't do this as if he'd said Elizabeth herself was a failure. She wants Paige in the game for a lot of personal reasons. Someone elsewhere pointed out that Philip had Elizabeth say how good Gabriel was before he told her what he said about Paige, like he was putting her in the right frame of mind for it. But I think Elizabeth didn't just disregard the idea, she pushed back against it.
There's yet another possible layer to this. Mind you, it's just a thought that occurred to me as I was watching Philip tell Elizabeth what Gabriel said about Paige, there is no reason to think the show is going there. But - IF Gabriel wanted for some reason to drive a little wedge between P and E, telling them different things that reinforced their respective conflicting positions on the Paige question would be a good way to do it. Then Elizabeth might start wondering whether Philip was telling her the truth about Gabriel's words to him since what Philip was saying would be the opposite of what she has heard herself. She wouldn't really have a reason to think Philip is lying, but then again, she knows he doesn't want Paige in the business, can he really be trusted here? But like I said, Gabriel probably wouldn't do that to them, both for personal and professional reasons. On the other hand, and also for professional reasons, it might not be a bad thing to have them a bit more independent of each other and maybe go back to the time and state of mind when Elizabeth was informing the KGB on Philip.
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6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:
their plan is now to abandon, torment, and bully an already miserable teenage boy in hopes that his unhappiness will drive his mother to move back to Russia?
I don't understand the mechanics of this. I thought Morozov was a defector, which is why the FBI was guarding him so heavily in his private consulting trips around the country. And yet his wife is free to move back and forth across the Iron Curtain and pick which side she wants to live on? That's not really how it worked even for law-abiding for Soviet citizens, let alone defectors. She could, I suppose, count on propaganda value of her return (as in "it's really so bad over there that even our defectors choose to come back"), but then why would her CIA guy stick around all this publicity?
9 hours ago, sistermagpie said:Also way to continue to diss EST (hich you find too scary) while taking Tai Chi lessons from that guy.
Ah, but Tai Chi looks like slow kung fu, it's so much cooler that EST, which looks like slow... thinking about things?
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1 hour ago, raven said:
Was just going to post this. I had to rewind but yup, she threw her fist at his face in the stairwell. It was a fake-out pull-back but shows a nasty, angry side behind the fake fun with her. The amazing cameramen know their job because it's a really blink and you'll miss it moment but they got it. I couldn't catch what exactly Becca said to Floyd, maybe she called him an idiot. I get being pissed since he was holding both passports, but, I said it in the first episode, shut UP, Becca. And keep your fake fist to yourself.
I don't know if Becca's fun is fake. She might be that all-out, heart-on-your-sleeve kind of person that is just at 11 no matter what emotion she experiences, whether she is having fun or is scary angry. Notice she didn't try to downplay her anger there, she totally owned it in front of Phil.
1 hour ago, raven said:Redmond is an ugly bully but unfortunately he and Matt are a strong team that work well together. Ashton needs to let go the whole "lied to my face" deal - seriously, who cares? She's annoying me.
My thoughts on Ashton exactly. Chill, there's no need to keep getting worked up and declaring how much you hate liars. What's the purpose of that? You've learned a valuable lesson about what kind of people Matt and Redmond are. Now you know what to expect from them. File it and move on.
57 minutes ago, rasalas said:The editing is really bad this season. One example from this episode: Joey grabs a live chicken that's not halal and is shown having an "Oh, no!" moment when he realizes this at the judging mat. Then he's shown a few minutes later getting approved with a bunch of other people checking in at once, with no intervening footage showing him going back to the market.
The writing this season is not that stellar either. "School supplies are in short supply"? Really?
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1 hour ago, sistermagpie said:
I read elsewhere it's more about the soot on the key. It rubs off where it hits the tumblers and that gives them a way to copy it.
That's what I thought, too. In my mind, though, the soot would rub off more where the key blank hit the non-moving parts of the lock. Then you cut those parts out and you are left with something that will not hit those obstructions and will turn freely. (I'm learning so much about locks today.) One question - did Elizabeth do this key trick on the unlocked door to the shrink's waiting room? That's what it looked like to me. I wonder what the other patients there thought about someone entering like that. On the other hand, it was a shrink's office...
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1 hour ago, Sarah 103 said:
I don't understand why Stan is approaching random Russian people.
He's not sure Renee is going to work out and is looking for options?
I loved how they lampshaded the question of why exactly Alexei had to travel to the greenhouse in person. It seemed like Gabriel and Elizabeth pronounced his last name differently in that scene though. Come on, Russians, figure out how to say common Russian names!
I don't think we should assume that Philip's father would necessarily be despised for being a camp guard, and that other kids would be giving young Philip a hard time over that. This is still the 1940s, Stalin is not dead yet. Many people still believe that what the NKVD is doing is necessary to protect the Soviet state from it's numerous enemies. To these people, Philip's father might just be someone in law enforcement. And even people who knew the truth might shield their kids from it, just to avoid the situation where their kids give away what their parents are thinking.
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1 hour ago, mwell345 said:
I'll go stand in the corner all alone it seems, because I found this episode, like this entire season so far, to be...blah.
It could be that the whole episode was basically everybody emoting how they are suffering on the inside, and not much else. Usually we have tradecraft, a con operation going on, someone in danger of being caught, tension (was there even any in this episode?), period references, maybe comic relief of some kind AND the suffering. But 60 minutes of everybody exchanging meaningful glances or looking into the distance while thinking their own thoughts was just too much. It tired me out.
21 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:He's a teenage boy. They aren't exactly known for ramrod-straight posture.
Depends on the boy, some just have the posture naturally. What killed me about Henry is that he thought to bring food from his house to his friend. What teenage boy has ever done that? And, btw, vegetables!
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47 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:
I think he just had a very panicky moment because he might not have ever felt that pain before.
Yeah, if that guy has never been kicked in the nuts, then he must have only been around people with tremendous self-control. Even the native-looking greeter fellow looked like he was trying hard not to give it a go.
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2 hours ago, charmed1 said:
That was Bishop Desmond Tutu and he had stolen her peanuts for goodness sake.
Exactly. What was she to do in the situation but search for the peanuts in his crotch area?
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6 minutes ago, sportsgirl said:
And I'm guessing production hates him, giving the way his tiny hand cuts were on full display, along with his tantrum. I loved how they kept editing in footage of the other men, totally fine in their harnesses, while he was complaining about it.
Oh, production hates him for sure. I even suspect that they already hated him before the window washing task and that's why they wrapped his harness a bit tighter than needed. On a related note, I guess we now know why the show is now at 10 pm.
I didn't get the coin flipping "alliance." Was the idea that the first team to arrive would wait for the other team and flip a coin to decide who was the first team? Why?
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5 hours ago, dubbel zout said:
They were probably there to make sure Alexei didn't get snatched.
I suppose. Seemed like there were too many of them guarding him on that trip though, as if they had a reason to think he had to have extra protection. They don't guard him in such numbers in DC, from what I can tell, he bowls and has a beer with Philip without the whole platoon. But maybe that's because DC is a crowded place, as opposed to rural Illinois.
Still something is off here. If the company (or the government, for that matter) needs a Soviet expert's knowledge about things in the USSR (soil composition, pesticides, whatever), what is it that he has to go and see in person in an Illinois greenhouse? Seems like the writers just needed Elizabeth to discover the midges and didn't really think this through.
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17 minutes ago, Sarah 103 said:
I'm guessing they needed someone who knew about soil and information that someone who worked in Soviet agriculture would know (what kinds of pesticide are they using) but difficult for someone to find out. Do really want to send a spy in Russia to find out about soil, or do you pick the brain of a defector?
Oh, they got spies over there. It wouldn't be too hard to go and dig up some actual soil for analysis rather than rely on someone's word.
But wait, how is the FBI even connected to that project if this is just a private company growing pest-resistant wheat for sale? Were they simply accompanying Alexei who was consulting for the company? It looked a bit like an overkill then to send three guys like those.
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36 minutes ago, SunnyBeBe said:
Stan's girlfriend is so natural and appealing....man, if she's not genuine, it will freak me out.
Really? She looks phony to me. I feel like she talks to much to show how strong and in control she is. All these "we'll hold you to that" (to the Jennings she's known for what, two weeks?), "I'm teaching him [fly fishing]", "I'll keep him as long as he doesn't diss the Kings"... It looks to me like she is trying to convey an impression. And it doesn't really matter if this impression is of what she genuinely is - I see that she is making an effort (imo), and it makes me wonder. Maybe if she could show and not tell it would be different.
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So one can confess to a murder, try to interfere in matters of national security by blackmailing a government official, and keep going about their life consequence-free? That's cool.
I don't get why the FBI had to bring Alexei to that greenhouse in the middle of nowhere. What was so Soviet in there that required a Soviet agriculture expert?
Also wondering why P and E had to kill the guy in the lab. They left people alive before, like the guy at the sub propeller factory, for example. Were they not wearing disguises?
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Maybe the brim wasn't in the budget. Yo-Yo Ma doing amazing yo-yo tricks can't be cheap.
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Clearly, Stan is now going to control the whole government and they will do what he says. Because if they don't, he is going to go public and cause an apparently absolutely unacceptable diplomatic scandal. It's foolproof, how have people not thought of a thing like that before?
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6 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:
So unless you really, really know how someone thinks, "exit at 2 o'clock" or "exit at 135 degrees" is equally capable of misunderstanding.
And even if they don't misunderstand, there's also the practical matter of being able to determine where you are on a circle. It's all good and easy when you are looking at the whole circle on a map, but if you are actually driving around a large unfamiliar rotary with traffic you have to pay attention to, you are not going to be able to tell how many degrees in you are.
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1 hour ago, Netfoot said:
Yes, but 135° from where? He wanted her to turn at 135° from back the way they were coming from?!?? If I'm navigating and I say "Do not turn," or "turn zero degrees," I don't expect you to assume that means go back the way we came. Zero degrees is straight ahead. So 135° has got to indicate a switchback turn, either left or right, depending on whether you're driving on the left or right (and going around the circle leftwards or rightwards).
I can't remember, he might not have used the word "turn", he may have said "take the exit at 135 degrees" or something like that. I am picturing the trigonometry circle, you enter at 0 degrees and start increasing the angle as you drive around it, whatever the direction (I'm assuming counter-clockwise). This way, straight ahead is 180. So you reach the point on the circle at 135 degrees, and that's where Vanck wanted her to get off. At least that's my understanding of it. But yes,to me, certainly, "3rd exit" is absolutely unambiguous and easy to count.
1 hour ago, egnever said:But for general terms, I would like to know which direction I was going after I left the roundabout. Saying 135 is degrees perfectly reasonable, because then I would know that if I were heading in a southerly direction entering the roundabout, I would be leaving in a southwesterly direction. As opposed to certain roundabouts where a second right might end up be the equivalent of a left turn, and then I would suddenly be heading east and be wondering if the directions were correct after the fact.
Interesting. To me, the compass rose would only matter if I planned the route in advance (which I doubt Ashton did). And a roundabout would screw it up anyway :). I doubt very much that Ashton cared even what direction she was going without turning, let alone whether she needed to go SW vs SSW after the roundabout. It looked like she simply followed Vanck's directions to go straight and turn right there.
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Oh, they certainly wouldn't give Stan up to the Russians. I wonder if they could lock him up and conduct a closed trial? And present his testimony as delusional (I mean, what normal law enforcement agent shoots a diplomat in cold blood?) if it reaches the public?
The fact of the matter is, he murdered someone, can they really let him go free? And if they can because they are corrupt like that and really need to cover it up, the cover-up will have to involve removing Stan from the equation anyhow. You just can't let this ticking time bomb keep ticking out in the open, he always may go public with this thing unless he is locked up or worse.
Of course, Stan probably got Pastor Tim's lawyer's number and sent him his own tape already, so the government is kind of screwed there. Yeah, they've got to hush him up and discredit the hell out of him before anything has a chance to go public.
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2 hours ago, egnever said:
Completely don't understand the confusion regarding 135 degrees. It's a fucking roundabout, how else are you going to express how far you have to turn around it before you get out? You could say get out on the 2nd, 3rd, etc right, but without knowing how many spokes there were to the roundabout (and how they're arranged), it's not particularly descriptive to anyone with a decent sense of direction.
He arrived at the 135 degrees by looking at the map, seeing all the spokes and picking the one at 135 degrees. "Take the 2nd exit after you enter the roundabout" sounds absolutely definitive to me. I'd think that's what the driver would expect to hear, and so it would be more efficient than descriptive but unexpected high school math directions.
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2 hours ago, Umbelina said:
I STILL think Stan was covering his own butt with the blackmail "I killed a guy" stuff. Oleg has as much damaging information on Stan as Stan has on him. As soon as it happened on screen I thought, and even "said" in my head, "Wow! BRILLIANT move Stan!" thinking he was sneakier and more savvy than we thought. I realize now I could be wrong, and I'm not saying a part of that move was to aid Oleg, but to me? It was a side effect not a goal.
Whatever his goal, how is Stan expecting this to be successful? His play is "I committed a crime, and if you don't do what I want, I will tell everybody that I committed a crime." If that were to work, then any federal employee in a sensitive area would pretty much get impunity the minute they were hired, and would be free to not only commit crimes, but also help themselves to whatever they could think to extract from their bosses via this "blackmail." At some point (or right off the bat?) this would become a bigger problem than an embarrassing but harmless international scandal.
As it stands, what's there to stop the Deputy AG from saying "Thank you, Stan, let me call someone to take you to jail now", then call the Russian embassy and go "Hey, good news! We've caught the criminal who shot Vlad Kosygin! Terrible, terrible tragedy..."? And then proceed to let the CIA do whatever they want with Oleg?
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S05.E09: IHOP
in The Americans [V]
This disillusionment kind of paints P and E as very naive, I think. They knew they were stealing a weapon in that virus. Did they really believe it was never going to be used as a weapon if need be? Who would promise such a thing to them? It was used against the very same enemies one of which Philip himself has killed before. Is it the repulsive nature of this weapon that shocks him so much? But it's not much different from what P and E used on Weinberger's housekeeper's son. They've seen and done all of this before, they shouldn't have been expecting anything different no matter what Gabriel told them otherwise (if he did). If they feel misled and betrayed by the Center now over this, that's Paige's level of naivete.
That's a burn on Oleg's dad, right?