shura

Stan should really be demoted to desk duty. His job was to make sure the KGB doesn't get close to Zinaida, he fumbled that utterly, and all Gaad says is go sleep it off and take some aspirin? Okay. She could have bluffed though. If Elizabeth shoots her, the whole bug-the-mail-robot mission becomes pointless, as the FBI would disassemble the mail robot down to the last screw to make sure it was not tempered with. As far as Philip having skills to install the bug, it may not require much, just finding a place to attach it and maybe making sure it's powered by whatever powers the mail robot. I find it curious how Gabriel said that Elizabeth rejected the first officer offered as her partner, and so, in a way, chose Philip. I bet she didn't even know about Philip when they suggested the first guy, for compartmentalization reasons. So it's the act of rejecting him that Gabriel is trying to sell Philip as Elizabeth "choosing" him. If Philip was the first guy offered, and Elizabeth agreed, there could be no case made that she chose him, would there? Besides, after she turned down the first guy, the KGB was probably like "look, comrade, this is not the Dating Game, shape up and get with the program."

If I were the FBI, just discovered a bug in the office, sent out a mail robot for repairs - and someone in the shop died, even if apparently of natural causes? I'd just get a brand new mail robot.

I felt like there were way too many characters in this episode. I kept going "Who is this guy? Is that Beth's ex? No, that's the Florida guy who is after Ray. Why is he after Ray again? Did Ray skip town with the guy's money and that's why there is a bounty on him? Wait, no, he actually skipped bail. Why is the guy looking for him then?" It's hard to keep everybody and their stories straight when there are so many of them. I had to laugh when Frankie actually tried to shame Reese for going after her in that bar in the beginning of the episode. How dare you, I am a bounty hunter, what did you think I was? I help justice prevail! Yes, yes, it's all great and noble, but I do need my badge back... I just can't see why he is interested. Has she ever said or done anything interesting?

Elizabeth is fighting more for the ideology than for her country. If the Sandinistas fail in Nicaragua, or if apartheid keeps on going is South Africa, the USSR and its people won't really be in any danger. I suppose an argument can be made that advancing communism worldwide would eliminate all Soviet enemies and thus would benefit the country, but I don't think this was ever voiced in such terms. The dogmatic Soviet thinking was that everybody's life would eventually be better under communism and fighting for it was intended to bring better life to the (working) people of the world. If Elizabeth succeeds in making Paige believe this, then Paige will not see it as treason and fighting against her country and its people -- she'll actually think she is fighting for her country, for making it a better place for the people she knows. I think his name was Vlad. Vlad's death is actually another reason why I don't think Arkady is trying to go with Oleg's wishes (rather than his father's, here and now) out of any potential career considerations. Who is to say Oleg will even live long enough to return the favor? It is unlikely, of course, that another diplomat will be murdered, but spying is a dangerous business, anything can happen. So, what kind of dog do you all think Snuffy is? I can see Aderholt with something small, shaggy and cuddly under his arm.

Honestly, I think Cooper needs to be reprimanded just for creating a workplace atmosphere where his charges are comfortable calling him "bitch".

I don't know. Career-wise, wouldn't it be better for Arkady to do the favor this friend of Andropov's is asking for? The guy has real power right now. Why forgo it and hope that Oleg maybe will amount to something serious?

I say he was honestly trying to figure out if there are indeed national security interests there, before he would even start thinking of subverting it, let alone handing out any justice. How is he supposed to know if nobody tells him anything more material than "it's national security, that is all you need to know"? And what is it that this unit does that is in fact a matter of national security? How does it work with judges anyway? Does a particular judge get assigned to a case by some authority? If so, how did a judge without proper clearance get assigned to a case like this? Or do judges come to work in the morning and pick whatever catches their eye?

I know, just give the robot its own spin-off already! Why have those things not caught on, by the way? Too clunky?

How committed are you to the violins? I'm thinking let's chuck them, bring in guitars and do the whole thing in Spanish. It's going to be beautiful! La historia de dos agentes amorosos del Comite para la Seguridad del Estado... Speaking of the KGB, Martha has got to be at least considering the possibility that Clark is a KGB agent, right? She knows he is not what he says he is, she knows he wears a wig, she works in the counterintelligence department of the FBI at the height of the Cold War. They must have some kind of training in the FBI about recognizing when a spy is trying to work with you, mustn't they? Gaad and the rest are thinking "KGB", is it possible that Martha is not?

The season's still young, and judging by the blinking red light, the thing is getting PISSED. Btw, does anyone else find it bizarre that the mail robot has been featured so much? I think some major characters, like Oleg, have had less screen time.

I say that's an achievement right there - an underwhelming follow-up to a clip show. That's not easy to do! I loved the crime the AG guy was going to charge the judge with - "compelling federal agents to divulge classified information pertaining to national security". Compelling! All the guy did was ask, whose fault is it that the agents turned out to be dumb enough to think they have to answer? Seriously though, can it be a crime to ask a question?

The problem with this option is that, if Clark left Martha alone with her own thoughts on the matter, she might start wavering on her resolve to keep things quiet and might decide to do the right thing and help her country after all. Things could become too unpredictable. He either has to stay in the picture and try to control what she thinks and does as best he can, or he has to get rid of her. According to the police and the courts, i.e. the government he was fighting against, that is. I thought Elizabeth was alluding to that when she explained Gregory's life to Paige. Why, is that a big faux pas or do you think the two won't agree? I'm putting it on my list of things to try, right after the pineapple-pickle pizza.

Yes, of course. I'm just counting this as Martha's scene, not Stan's. "Have a good time... well, you know what I mean". Poor Martha. She has to go with what she knows, right? And what she knows is that she loves Clark and sincerely believes that he loves her. When he tells her "I will do anything to protect you", is there really anything else she can ask for? Although I don't see how you go to having sex right after that.

Vasily was the Rezident, and Nina's superior, before Arkady. On Stan's instructions, Nina slept with Vasily, tried to get info on the Illegals program (I think, a bit hazy on that one), and then set him up somehow (I remember someone planting some diamonds into the tea he was buying, and the diamonds got discovered when Vasily brought the tea back to the embassy). So he got arrested and sent back to the USSR. I forgot if Nina herself had anything to do with setting him up, or how he figured out she was not that into him really. No Stan this episode, huh? Aderholt continues to be awesome. I loved his composure and the way he handled Taffett's insinuations. Montblanc, eh? Way to be pretentious with the pronunciation, Walter.

I wonder how finding Tom can "exonerate" Lizzie. He is going to confess that she didn't kill the harbormaster, she just stood and watched idly as he killed him?

Right, and he says "I'll hold", but then gets totally distracted by the happenings in Gaad's office and hangs up before he hears back. Damn it, the Russians just can't get a break with their dental work on this show!

Was there a reason NBC was expecting new viewers for this episode? Was it following a must-see finale of something?

I, too, am willing to forget that "Sir" nonsense, but one of the things that kills me about Lizzie is how she interacts with people like her superiors and even senior officials of sovereign countries. She talks to them as if she is convinced for some reason that she is in command and they are expected to do whatever she says. She has that ridiculous steel in her voice, there is no decorum whatsoever when she argues with Cooper, she storms out of his office without waiting to be dismissed. I would prefer to see an unsure, inexperienced agent exhibit a little less insubordination. I suppose she could be masking her feelings of inadequacy this way, but there have been no signs that this is the case, and the show seems to be treating this as a totally normal behavior, for some reason accepted by all involved. In any case, even if there is a realistic reason behind Lizzie's work manners, they still annoy the hell out of me.

Well, maybe she simply didn't know if she would be able to break it into small enough pieces, or decided that it was taking too long to do it, risking that someone would walk in on her. A large piece would definitely cause a clog when someone else used the toilet. Then they'd quickly figure out the receiver was dumped after someone saw them discover the bug, and Martha was pretty much the only person, or one of the very few, who was in a position to see it. Good point. By the way, it occurred to me when I was rewatching that they didn't have to use Hans there. Elizabeth herself said she thought he wasn't ready and she wished she had three more months with him. They could have easily found someone else to stand watch there, the woman whose earrings Philip commandeered, for example. But they went with Hans, possibly to dirty him up and burn his bridges, so to speak. I wonder if this was Gabriel's idea, too.

Maybe he should have named his son Sue ;). In life that is true. Realistically refusing to ever acknowledge someone's ethnic or cultural background is problematic in that it denies that person's life experience. I used to work at a company that was growing and we had to interview a lot of people. The HR did a quick instructional meeting with us, and one of the things that I got out of it was that it's a huge no-no to mention a candidate's race, ethnicity, religion and anything like that in any context, even at a dinner conversation. The idea is that those things have nothing to do with the job, and if the candidate is not hired, they might start thinking "hmm, they brought up my race, and then didn't make an offer". It's a lawsuit waiting to happen. I'd never thought of it before and it really stuck with me, so maybe that's why Stan's line stood out for me.

The thing about Hayley is that she doesn't want to be listened to -- she wants to complain that she is not listened to. She can't do that when Blair is listening to her, that's why she needs him to make decisions, so she can then criticize them and complain that he ignores her input. It's like she likes to be the victim or something like that. Some people actually have a physiological reaction to cats that looks like fear. I knew someone whose heart rate would go up and she would start sweating when a cat was nearby. Once someone else brought a kitten into the building, the kitten was like three rooms away from my friend with the cat phobia and she didn't actually see it, but she immediately asked "Is there a cat here?" because she started having this reaction.

Oh, it was mega meta - it had layers! First, we have Elizabeth Keen yelling "I suck!" The judge is like, I am not quite sure what this is all about, but if you are going to get hysterical, let's just move on. I'm with the judge, I don't know whether it was supposed to be sarcasm, or wailing in self-pity, or some kind of catharsis, but I do agree with the sentiment - Lizzie sucks at profiling. And then we have Megan Boone yelling "I suck!" Obviously, Megan Boone doesn't believe she sucks, but if she doesn't suck, then I should probably be clear on what it is she is trying to convey in this scene. So in a way, Megan Boone yelling "I suck!" while not believing it indicates that she may, in fact, suck, even though this is not the intent of the scene. It's a thing of beauty, really.

Sorry, I should have made my point clearer. I was responding to the comment that it is being around the white supremacists for a long time that has made Stan the way he is. How do we know he wasn't this way before? I wasn't questioning his ability to pick up on things he sees around himself - I mean, he better be perceptive, otherwise what's he doing in the FBI? But once he makes a judgement on someone, like Nina or the Jennings, it seems that he almost stops noticing things about them. Now they are either good or bad, and he is going to think that of them until/unless someone screams in his face "take another look, dammit!" (and even then it doesn't always make him reevaluate a person, like when Gaad asked him whether Nina is having Stan for breakfast). That's what I understood as a less-than-sophisticated thinking, not that Stan cannot notice things.

You are assuming that he actually was a sophisticated thinker at some point. Do we know that this is the case? Maybe he has always seen the world in black and white terms, even in his pre-undercover days. Just to play devil's advocate, maybe Stan has never been sharper than those white supremacists he fit so well with. Have we seen anything that contradicts this? I don't think there was anything specific that tipped her off. It was the writers' choice more than anything that flowed logically from the situation, in the sense that it didn't have to happen this way, but still makes sense that it did.

I am confused. My understanding is that the absolute majority of Blacklisters have been murderers and occasional slightly less violent creepazoids like the guy who inseminated kidnapped women, for example. This is all horrible and tragic, to be sure, but how exactly is catching those guys a matter of national security?