ElectricBoogaloo February 5, 2015 Share February 5, 2015 Danger mounts for Elizabeth and Philip as they get closer to the inner circle of the C.I.A. Afghan Group. Stan monitors Zinaida. Agent Aderholt challenges Agent Gaad on a crucial operation. Arkady tasks Oleg and Tatiana with gathering high-level intel. Martha proposes a lifestyle change to Clark. Promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdEws-eLW48 Link to comment
AimingforYoko February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Damn, they follow up last weeks cringefest of stuffing Annelise's body into a suitcase with Phillip's amateur dentistry this week. Only Hannibal is ahead in turn-away scenes. 4 Link to comment
Primetimer February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 As Gabriel gently presses him on the Paige question, Philip must decide if he should challenge. (Scrabble humour.) Read the story 1 Link to comment
RazzleberryPie February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Well that was boring. I hope they're setting the stage for something interesting next week. 3 Link to comment
crgirl412 February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Odd episode but I'm not sure why. The "Oh, sh*t...." look on Clark's face after Martha got off his lap was priceless. 1 Link to comment
shura February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I liked it. It felt like the old school The Americans, the first episodes before story arcs really got introduced and developed. Odd that they have people on standby, ready to jump in and create a diversion for a tailed illegal to escape - and yet they don't have a dentist on retainer. Didn't Henry turn eleven not much more than a year ago? Wouldn't it make him a year or two too young for this stuff? Where did he get that picture of Sandra anyway? 6 Link to comment
benteen February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Henry getting that picture, while creepy, is another sign that he is better suited for the spy game than Paige. Really good episode. The "chase" sequence was tense even though you knew Elizabeth would get away. Loved the scenes between Philip and Gabriel, showing their much different relationship. Seeing the tooth pulled out didn't bother me...hearing those sounds did. 9 Link to comment
Ellaria February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 The KGB has a surgeon ready and available to remove a bullet from Elizabeth's stomach but can't find a dentist. Whatever. I hate going to the dentist so that scene was cringe-worthy. Still not convinced that it was a sterile procedure despite the swig of Stan's single malt scotch. Agree that Henry seems to be the better candidate for the Junior Spy Program. Martha is pushing her luck. An aunt of mine had a similar pink quilted robe. Overall, a somewhat boring episode. Unusual for this show. 5 Link to comment
SimoneS February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) It was a slow episode. I could not watch the tooth pulling. I have dentist-phobia. Ah, Henry. If I was Paige, I would not pick up those clothes without a glove. Edited February 12, 2015 by SimoneS 5 Link to comment
HunterHunted February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I had to mute the TV during the tooth scene. I'm glad I did because it allowed me to revel in all of the fantastic eye acting. Elizabeth and Philip were having a conversation with looks alone. 3 Link to comment
Umbelina February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Henry probably picked up that photo one of the times he broke into their house to play video games. 3 Link to comment
shura February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Henry getting that picture, while creepy, is another sign that he is better suited for the spy game than Paige. He is suited, no doubt, but I don't know about "better than Paige". Maybe she is just not into Sandra that way. Although she did sound a bit simple with her "Are you in love with Mrs. Beeman?" Yep, love, that's what we are talking about here... But seriously, the show doesn't know what to do with Henry anymore, do they? Did Philip pull the wrong tooth at first? I wonder if Elizabeth can now go to a dentist and get a bridge or if this is still something they'd be watching for. Link to comment
sistermagpie February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Did Philip pull the wrong tooth at first? I wonder if Elizabeth can now go to a dentist and get a bridge or if this is still something they'd be watching for. LOL! No, don't worry. It just cracked so he had to take it out in two pieces. I think it was probably already cracked. 2 Link to comment
Umbelina February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I think the old dude wants Paige more than he needs Philip. Or Moscow does. His own people may take him out if he keeps this up with them about not wanting Paige in. Hmm, so Oleg's dad is best friends with the new hard-assed leader of the USSR, and he doesn't follow the orders to go home? Sounds...tricky. Link to comment
Dev F February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) I didn't find this episode boring at all. In fact, it was the first episode this season that really compelled me from beginning to end. It's rare for an episode of series TV to have not one but two standout setpieces: the gripping low-speed car chase, and the horrifying but somehow amazingly sexy tooth-pulling scene. I also think it's amusing that after folks complained last week that the defector Zinaida's love for Milky Ways seemed oversold, Stan now seems to suspect that she might be deliberately overselling her pro-Western attitude to manipulate the Americans. Edited February 12, 2015 by Dev F 15 Link to comment
sistermagpie February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I think the old dude wants Paige more than he needs Philip. Or Moscow does. His own people may take him out if he keeps this up with them about not wanting Paige in. I don't think the KGB should be *that* dumb--tossing out an amazingly successful agent with all his contacts and years invested in training him in order to gamble that his American teenager daughter could one day work for the CIA and be willing to spy for Russia while she did it--or maybe won't, or would be terrible at it. Seems like the Illegals are the most valuable things the USSR has and they wouldn't throw any of them away. I think it's more that Gabriel's there because they really really want Philip on board with this. They'll probably be thinking of ways to work around him if he doesn't get on board---or they might grudgingly move on to the next Illegals kid, I guess. But I think they're hoping to get the whole family and that's why they sent Gabriel. I did like, btw, the convo that Philip had with Gabriel, the way that he's not just freaking out as if he's not someone totally committed to this cause himself. Especially when it comes to intel on Afghanistan. I do think it's funny, though, that even Philip, like Elizabeth, refers to Paige 'growing up here' as her not being able to handle the kind of stuff they do as opposed to loving her country. 3 Link to comment
Superpole2000 February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I liked this episode more than the first two of this season. I particularly enjoyed Keri Russell's non-verbal acting, and the looks between Philip and Elizabeth. I root for that couple romantically. My only major criticism is the ongoing referencing of Paige without any progress made toward a payoff. By now it's just repetitive and unnecessary. Please...no more "We have to talk about Paige..." lines! 5 Link to comment
Mindymoo February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Thanks for the "Marathon Man" flashback, guys! 7 Link to comment
Shriekingeel February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I'm on Team Boring also. Nothing really happened to advance the plot except for a few odd introduced elements that may or may not amount to something (Henry's [presumably] masturbation pic of Amanda, Aderholt's flirtation with Dimwit). The Soviet embassy scenes, normally the most interesting part of the show for me, were a big yawn. Frank Langella really is a wonderful actor. 1 Link to comment
atir February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I missed something. Who was the babysitter's dad? And Phillip knows him? Link to comment
Dev F February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I missed something. Who was the babysitter's dad? And Phillip knows him? Her father is their mark's colleague, the head of the CIA's Afghan group. Link to comment
Umbelina February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 So that whole open house thing was a baited trap that Phillip walked right into? That's why they were being followed? Link to comment
AlliMo February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I loved it. The tooth pulling scene was Emmy reel worthy. Neither actor said a word but perfectly conveyed how despite the fact that they're deeply at odds over Paige right now, they trust each other completely. Somehow they managed to make that scene both brutal and appalling yet deeply romantic. 7 Link to comment
PinkRibbons February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I don't really get what happened at the end of the episode? I got the impression that they were hoping to blackmail the guy with sleeping with a minor, but I thought it sounded like the babysitter was coming on to him and he was shutting her down. So why the interest in her being the daughter of the guy's superior? I think I mostly just had trouble hearing the radio conversations. (Although it just occurred to me that that could present an interesting in for Paige. Who would suspect the babysitter's little friend of running surveillance on her father?) Link to comment
dramachick February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) Yikes! Molar extraction via pliers with single-malt novocaine. I wasn't as strong as Elizabeth because I was howling in pain. Nice job with the bookend surveillance training sessions and Elizabeth putting it into practice with that tense car chase. I was on the edge of my seat. I think that was the first time we've seen Elizabeth truly shaken when she broke down in that back seat. If she had been caught, that would have been the end of everything because Philip and the kids were just sitting at home. After seeing how worried Philip was, I was surprised that he wanted to risk capture again to listen in on the CIA agent. Is he trying to earn some chits to cash in later to prevent Paige from being used by the KGB? Edited February 12, 2015 by dramachick 2 Link to comment
Umbelina February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) Racy photos of the daughter, or possibly a Phillip seduction to blackmail her dad? I still don't get WHY they were being followed. Was the open house a trap? Also, this is in one of the recaps I just posted in the media thread. Did that happen? Now, did my eyes deceive me? The light is about to change at the intersection (of Liberty Road, no less). Agents grip their steering wheels; they can’t hear one another with all that static; they stomp the gas and BOOM! F.B.I. and C.I.A. cars smash into each other with the screeching splendor of what they would call a multivehicle crash.http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/the-americans-recap-a-most-painful-extraction/ Edited February 12, 2015 by Umbelina Link to comment
dramachick February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Racy photos of the daughter, or possibly a Phillip seduction to blackmail her dad? I still don't get WHY they were being followed. Was the open house a trap? Also, this is in one of the recaps I just posted in the media thread. Did that happen? I think they were being followed because the CIA agent already had a team monitoring him as per some protocol, and the team noticed that Philip and Elizabeth drove by twice. 2 Link to comment
Umbelina February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I didn't find this episode boring at all. In fact, it was the first episode this season that really compelled me from beginning to end. It's rare for an episode of series TV to have not one but two standout setpieces: the gripping low-speed car chase, and the horrifying but somehow amazingly sexy tooth-pulling scene. I also think it's amusing that after folks complained last week that the defector Zinaida's love for Milky Ways seemed oversold, Stan now seems to suspect that she might be deliberately overselling her pro-Western attitude to manipulate the Americans. Yeah, good catch. I couldn't figure out what set him off, but the phone rang during the white supremacist talk. http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/americans-open-house-215121 In revealing the tactics he used against the white supremacists (a victory that keeps getting further from where Stan is in his career today), Agent Beeman sets up an intriguing moment with the defector, Zinaida. It’s slippery, but framed like an epiphany: By condemning the invasion of Afghanistan and the imposition of “a godless system on a free, religious people,” Zinaida—as Stan did in Arkansas—is telling her TV audience what they want to hear, over and over and over again. “People love hearing how right they are,” Stan tells Aderholt. As a talking head on a TV screen, Zinaida is just as much a tool of saying what people want to hear as the oil portraits of Andropov and Brezhnev seen coming and going from the Rezidentura. 1 Link to comment
magdalene February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 This show has shown some really horrible stuff but Philip's dentistry was the first time I had to turn away and go "lalalala I can't hear you or see you". Yikes! I had cringy sympathy pain watching a pretend dental procedure on a fictional program. Though it really stretches my suspension of disbelief that they wouldn't have a dentist available for a situation like this. 5 Link to comment
chocolatine February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Yikes! Molar extraction via pliers with single-malt novocaine. I wasn't as strong as Elizabeth because I was howling in pain. I was astonished that Elizabeth wasn't howling. That woman is a freak of nature. And Philip didn't even sanitize the pliers? She could get a very nasty infection. The slow chase had me at the edge of my seat. Was it one of the CIA cars that caused the crash, or one of the KGB cars that came to rescue Elizabeth? Is Oleg's father summoning him back to Moscow to reunite him with Nina? If the father is close with Andropov, like Oleg said, he could easily have Nina sprung from prison. Martha thinks it's a good idea to foster a child in her one-bedroom apartment, with her working full-time and her husband there only once a week? If only she knew that every time she says stupid shit like that to "Clark" she hastens her own demise. 3 Link to comment
Umbelina February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 One of the recaps (AV club I think) said they don't think Martha is long for this show. I kind of agree. It's playing itself out a bit. Although I suppose Phillip could fake his death, but that sounds like a hassle. I watched the entire dentist scene. Their eyes were amazing, really good work on both parts. Apparently it took 4 hours to film, so they had to maintain that intensity with cameras right IN their faces, in a small room. It was so intimate, and it really showed their connection, after he shut her down earlier. They are a team. Maybe Phillip can win her over to his point of view about Paige? Also, what choice would Paige have? Why didn't Phillip call Gabriel on that? My only nitpick, or biggest one this week. So, they tell her they are spies and want her to join the KGB with them. So, if she has a choice she just says "no thanks." Then what? The KGB is just fine knowing a 14 year old knows their secret? Yeah, I don't think so. 3 Link to comment
Mozelle February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I surprised myself by being able to watch the molar extraction scene. After last week's "Annalise in a valise" scene where I sang "Lalala," plugged my ears with my fingers, and half squinted-half looked away, that I cringed only slightly during Philip's dentistry is quite the feat. Stan has been bothering me for at least a season now because he allowed himself to get so wrapped up in and distracted by Nina, that I found him to be near failing at work. I was glad to see that he seems suspicious of Zinaida's super duper, rah rah rah approach to the U.S. She's really overselling it. I'm also liking Stan's new partner. It was his pressure that got Gaad to acquiesce and really go after the car Elizabeth was driving. That entire low speed chase was thrilling just trying to figure out how Philip and later Elizabeth were going to escape. 6 Link to comment
ElectricBoogaloo February 12, 2015 Author Share February 12, 2015 Paige is a much nicer sister than I was. I did my own laundry but I certainly didn't go through my sister's dirty clothes and add her stuff to the washing machine. 3 Link to comment
SailorGirl February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 This show has shown some really horrible stuff but Philip's dentistry was the first time I had to turn away and go "lalalala I can't hear you or see you". Yikes! I had cringy sympathy pain watching a pretend dental procedure on a fictional program. Ohmilord, me too -- eyes closed fingers in ears, singing "la la la . .. is this scene over yet . . . I can't believe they are showing this . . . " Between the scene of Elizabeth being penned in and trying to figure out how she was going to get out of it and the whole tooth extraction thing, probably the most intense 15-20 minutes of tv I've seen since Breaking Bad. Just like with BB, I was drained at the end of this episode. I thought it was one of the best they've done so far! Link to comment
damalanop February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I found this entire episode compelling between Elizabeth narrowly escaping getting caught and then having her tooth pulled with pliers and no kind of real pain killer. Elizabeth is unreal! I'm also very impressed with how the actors in this show are able to convey feelings, thoughts, realizations just from body language. From Elizabeth and Philip in the tooth pulling scene to Stan watching Zinadia during her TV interview, you could *see* everything that they were thinking and/or feeling. This isn't easy to do yet, most of the cast is able to pull it off. Awesome stuff! While Martha prattled about foster children, I really thought Philip was going to end her life then and there. What about "I don't want to have children" does Martha not get? Then again, and I know this is a true understatement, Martha really does not know who she is dealing with. 2 Link to comment
VCRTracking February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) I was completely okay during the bone snapping scene last week, but this week with Phillip having to pull out Elizabeth's broken tooth with pliars? Fuck! It was hard to watch. The fact that Phillip had to go in twice to get two pieces... I had to have all my wisdom teeth taken out on four separate occasions just over the past couple of years. That was a professional doing it with novocaine and it was it just unbearable each time. Edited February 13, 2015 by maraleia you can curse here LOL Link to comment
attica February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I freaking love all the spy tradecraft. If all this show did was the tail-ditching and obbo stuff, I'd be riveted. I don't think I breathed much when Elizabeth was trying to get free. I also 'lalala'd through the first dental go in. Was able to hit the mute on the second. Yikes. It's bad enough when you hear the sounds of teeth breaking in your own head under the comfortably numb-ness of Novocain. Can't bear it on behalf of others with only some scotch on offer. That said, it signifies something that Philip would go the DDS route only when sexytimes were impeded by Elizabeth's discomfort. "Phlox" is a fun word to know and to say out loud. And apparently to rack up the Scrabble points. But I can see challenging that. I can't see challenging "Stygian." That seems way more mainstream a word, at least in attica-land. Maybe I had more mythology reading in my formative years than most, Stan now seems to suspect that she might be deliberately overselling her pro-Western attitude to manipulate the Americans. Now, now, it's certainly possible that she's both overselling and being truthful about how great a Milky Way is! 4 Link to comment
Tara Ariano February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I missed something. Who was the babysitter's dad? And Phillip knows him? Might be something that's covered in the post about the episode on this very site, perhaps! 2 Link to comment
sistermagpie February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 So that whole open house thing was a baited trap that Phillip walked right into? I don't think it was a trap--the guy was selling his house. But they were picked up by his security detail just as Gabriel warned they might be by driving around, I think. I don't really get what happened at the end of the episode? I got the impression that they were hoping to blackmail the guy with sleeping with a minor, but I thought it sounded like the babysitter was coming on to him and he was shutting her down. So why the interest in her being the daughter of the guy's superior? (Although it just occurred to me that that could present an interesting in for Paige. Who would suspect the babysitter's little friend of running surveillance on her father?) Not Paige--Philip. They were presumably thinking of blackmailing him, but the guy wasn't having an affair with her. But when it turned out she was the daughter of an even more important guy on Afghanistan, they thought about how they could use her. So her flirting with other guy gives them a way in--girl's got daddy issues and is looking to be seduced by an adult man. Like Philip is. Truth be told, I can't imagine anything I'd hate more than having to sit through teen!Paige being sent on spy missions. "Phlox" is a fun word to know and to say out loud. And apparently to rack up the Scrabble points. But I can see challenging that. I can't see challenging "Stygian." That seems way more mainstream a word, at least in attica-land. Maybe I had more mythology reading in my formative years than most, I honestly like to take that as one of the few tells we get that Philip isn't a native speaker. Not that his vocabulary isn't probably bigger than that of plenty of actual native speakers, but Scrabble-nerd American-born Philip would have known the word. Our Philip just somehow managed to miss that one. He's busy! 2 Link to comment
kikaha February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 What car do Phillip and Elizabeth use on their missions? Their own? 2 Link to comment
Bannon February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) I like the show lot, but this episode demonstrated an aspect of it that makes me like it less, and almost caused me to drop it after the the ridiculous season 1 finale; Elizabeth and Phillip's opponents are entirely too often morons. In this episode, we are asked to believe that a high level covert operative in the CIA's Afghan group would absentmindedly leave a important portable communications device, out in his home office, as a bunch of strangers traipse through his home for a real estate agent's open house. We are asked to believe that the CIA would have enough concern to surveil his home well enough to put a tail on Elizabeth and Phillip when they leave the open house, but they wouldn't add things up when the radio communications were blocked, and the car accident took place, followed by Elizabeth disappearing, to know the CIA operative was thoroughly blown, or alternatively, that Elizabeth and Phillip would not know that the CIA knew that the operative was thoroughly blown. There isn't going to be anything that can take place with the babysitter arc, that now allows for suspension of disbelief, that doesn't entail concluding that the CIA and FBI, or Elizabeth and Phillip, have room temperature IQs. Throw in the really bad, and all too very common (to a lot of action fiction) plot element that entails a 110-120 pound woman beating the soup out of men who are fit and trained in martial skills, and outweigh the petite woman by 75 to 100 pounds, and the show has missteps that could be avoided with more diligent writing. Edited February 12, 2015 by Bannon 3 Link to comment
shura February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) it signifies something that Philip would go the DDS route only when sexytimes were impeded by Elizabeth's discomfort. Hey, it was a Valentine's Day episode - he did it for love! We are asked to believe that the CIA would have enough concern to surveil his home well enough to put a tail on Elizabeth and Phillip when they leave the open house, but they wouldn't add things up when the radio communications were blocked, and the car accident took place, followed by Elizabeth disappearing, to know the CIA operative was thoroughly blown, or alternatively, that Elizabeth and Phillip would not know that the CIA knew that the operative was thoroughly blown. There isn't going to be anything that can take place with the babysitter arc, that now allows for suspension of disbelief, that doesn't entail concluding that the CIA and FBI, or Elizabeth and Phillip, have room temperature IQs. This is a good point, but the way things stand now it can still work. The blown operative is removed from the Afghan group (what else can the CIA do about it?), but he is not needed anymore anyway since Philip and Elizabeth's eyes are now on the babysitter and her father. Edited February 12, 2015 by shura 3 Link to comment
Bannon February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 They already had the father identified. I suppose they could try to blackmail the babysitter/'daughter, with knowledge of her affair with the blown operative, and get access to her father, but at this point the CIA would assume that the entire group was blown, would no doubt find the device in the communications equipment. This operation would be over, unless the CIA, or Elizabeth and Phillip, are idiots. Link to comment
shura February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 The plan, as I understand it, is to seduce the daughter and get access to her father directly through that, without regards to the loser with the portable phone. You are right though, the CIA should really replace the whole Afghan group now. And maybe try to use the current group as bait for Philip and Elizabeth (which they, in turn, should anticipate as well). Interesting. Let's see if the writers find a way to do something plausible there. 4 Link to comment
Penman61 February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I'm guessing the bit swapping out Brezhnev's portrait for Andropov is a set-up, the first in a series to come very, very quickly. :) 3 Link to comment
Bannon February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Yeah, there is no way the CIA would blithely assume that the babysitter shtupper was the only person in the group compromised. They'd assume that one agent being identified lead to them all being identified, especially since they all gathered in public. What would ensue would be everybody being examined with a magnifying glass, to find evidence of them, or family members, being observed, The most damaging intelligence disasters of the Cold War did not come from blackmail or recruitment, but rather from run of the mill greedheads deciding on their own to contact the KGB, to get cash. Recruitment and blackmail are way too chaotic to be reliably effective, whereas a traitor who decides on his own that he wants to get some money is pretty hard to detect. 2 Link to comment
maczero February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 (edited) I watched the entire dentist scene. Their eyes were amazing, Was there any evidence of tears from Elizabeth? I thought her eyes looked watery but it didn't look like she cried. That woman is a beast. Also, what choice would Paige have? Why didn't Phillip call Gabriel on that? My only nitpick, or biggest one this week. So, they tell her they are spies and want her to join the KGB with them. So, if she has a choice she just says "no thanks." Then what? The KGB is just fine knowing a 14 year old knows their secret? Yeah, I don't think so. I was thinking the same thing. Killing her or shipping her off to Russia, isn't going to fly with her parents (at least not Phillip). So now the KGB risk losing in place assets (Phillip & Elizabeth) for someone who won't be ready to do any serious work for at least four years. The plan, as I understand it, is to seduce the daughter and get access to her father directly through that, without regards to the loser with the portable phone. Wow! That's going to be an controversial storyline if they make Phillip the seducer. First, it's icky as hell for us as the audience to watch the protagonist do something like that. Second, Phillip has a teenage daughter. I can't imagine he could separate his role as a father to do something like that. This was the same guy who beat the shit out of a perv for speaking to Paige. Can someone explain why Yousaf doesn't just tell Phil & Liz to fuck off? Sure he killed Analise but she admitted to being a spy, and supposedly Yousaf is very valuable to the CIA. Wouldn't the CIA have his back rather than have him go to jail for murder? Edited February 12, 2015 by maczero Link to comment
rubyred February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Can someone explain why Yousaf doesn't just tell Phil & Liz to fuck off? Sure he killed Analise but she admitted to being a spy, and supposedly Yousaf is very valuable to the CIA. Wouldn't the CIA have his back rather than have him go to jail for murder? I think it's because he's now compromised by the KGB, the very Russians his country is at war with. It's not a matter of what the CIA would or wouldn't do, but what his own countrymen would. He's a traitor for working with them. As an aside, one of the things I appreciate about the Yousaf character is that though he's presented as suave and urbane, he is completely able and capable of doing the dirty stuff. He's barely had any lines yet you know he's completely on top of the situations he's been in. Thanks to those who explained the babysitter part, I had no idea what was going on there, other than dumb CIA. I also can't believe the Russians are pursuing this second generation illegals thing, it's ridiculous. Does Paige even know she has Russian heritage? She's too young for the honeypot angle (wait....is that what Hans is for?). Link to comment
sistermagpie February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 Can someone explain why Yousaf doesn't just tell Phil & Liz to fuck off? Sure he killed Analise but she admitted to being a spy, and supposedly Yousaf is very valuable to the CIA. Wouldn't the CIA have his back rather than have him go to jail for murder? He's not only a murderer, he's been feeding info to the KGB through Anneleise. That's why he killed her to begin with, so he's not going to admit to it now. Thanks to those who explained the babysitter part, I had no idea what was going on there, other than dumb CIA. I also can't believe the Russians are pursuing this second generation illegals thing, it's ridiculous. Does Paige even know she has Russian heritage? She's too young for the honeypot angle (wait....is that what Hans is for?). Paige isn't at this point intended for any honeypots. The point with her (and Jared etc.) was for her to just live her regular American life and get a job in a good place. Jared was going to be an engineer, so might have gotten a job with access to top secret technology, for instance. Paige could work at some government agency. They can do this because they can pass a background check and would get the education the KGB thought it was best for them to get once they're adults. Then they just sit in their job and pass info to the KGB. Philip pointed out that there's no way to know that the KGB wouldn't later want them to do things that would put them in even more danger, but they're right now just supposed to be like Fred was (and Fred got killed being Fred so that's not so safe either). 3 Link to comment
maczero February 12, 2015 Share February 12, 2015 I think it's because he's now compromised by the KGB, the very Russians his country is at war with. It's not a matter of what the CIA would or wouldn't do, but what his own countrymen would. He's a traitor for working with them. As an aside, one of the things I appreciate about the Yousaf character is that though he's presented as suave and urbane, he is completely able and capable of doing the dirty stuff. He's barely had any lines yet you know he's completely on top of the situations he's been in. The problem is he's now a true traitor that's dug himself in an even deeper hole. If I were in his shoes I would've flipped on Elizabeth & Phil like the CIA lady in the season opener. I'm thinking he could've had a cushy life in the US after that even if he couldn't go back to Afghanistan. 2 Link to comment
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