S03.E07: Walter Taffet

[stillshimpy]

Yeah, I was wondering why she was so panicky.  If she believes Clark then I'm assuming she would've expected him or his office to intervene on her behalf if she was caught.  I'm going with the idea that a part of her always knew something was hinky with Clark and now that the bug has been found she's starting to question her entire relationship.

 

I think regardless of whether or not Martha felt her willful denial start to crumble (and she really appeared to) that bug being found and traced to her would mean the end of her job and life as she knows it.  Even if if Clark was on the up-and-up she'd have to deal with Stan, Gad, Andholt etc. etc. etc.  looking at her as a traitor to the team.  Gad would never fully trust her again and that would be even if Clark was completely on the level.  So even if she completely believed absolutely everything from Clark, that bug being found and in anyway traced to her would mean the life she has built, the one she has cobbled together, will be changed completely and absolutely.  Every relationship that she has with her coworkers would too.  

 

So it makes sense that she was shaking and crying.  Even if she believes what she is doing is patriotic, it wouldn't change the "oh...there went my entire life...all the details of it....gone....for Always Absent Clark. SHIT!! What have I done?"  

 

But it also seems clear that she had some doubts about Clark because she wouldn't tell him what happened and insisted on seeing his apartment (which I assume has always existed as a part of his cover, rather than being thrown together at a moment's notice....because it's not like Philip would have had a way to tell anyone, "I totally need a domicile, STAT!") . 

 

As for Hans, I think it is one thing to believe in the righteousness of a cause and a completely different thing to see people abducted and killed in front of your face.  

 

Great episode.  I was giddy with joy that with the arrival of Andholt on the scene, the FBI's competence went way the hell up.  As for Stan talking about "the black guy" two things:  He also talked about his deep cover assignment with the White Supremacists, so it might have been evidence that he didn't emerge completely unscathed.  He at least separates people by race as an identifier.   b) Thirty odd years ago, it was still unusual for FBI agents to be people of color c) Stan has some kind of mistrust of Andholt that doesn't make a lot of sense, unless it is a subtle indicator of his deep cover leaving some lasting scars to his psyche.  

 

I LOVED the scene when Andholt notices the rattle and they all freeze, because they all got what it meant.  It takes a crap-ton of acting skill to play a scene without any kind of sounds.  My respect for Richard Thomas as an actor, in particular, was renewed.   

 

 

 

I wonder if Stan is going to suggest Aderholt as the one who placed the bug. Stan is already suspicious of him asking a lot of questions, trying to "get in good" with Gaad, make a name for himself. Wouldn't it be convenient if the new guy proved to be just a little TOO ambitious and planted the bug so he could be the hero who finds it. . .

 

That's an interesting thought, but I really, really don't think that Stan would believe that.  Gad is well and truly humped by that discovery, it doesn't only make Andholt look incredibly competent, it makes Gad look really, really bad.  

Edited March 12, 2015 by stillshimpy

[SunnyBeBe]

Yes, so with Gaad looking bad, it might be a good time to find out a little more about this new agent.  I'm not saying that Gaad or Stan would set him up to take the fall, but if Philip gets the heads up, he could set up this new agent and that would take the heat off Martha.

Edited March 12, 2015 by SunnyBeBe

[Umbelina]

 

No kidding, that guy is sharp! Question, why did Stan specifically refer to him as "a black guy" when he was talking to Philip? What does that have to do with anything? Casual racism?

 

That caught my attention as well.  I notice people make those kinds of comments under two circumstances.  One is if a person of a different race/ethnicity does something that annoys them or offends them in some way.  For instance, saying some black guy cut me off on the highway.  The other instance is if a person is in a position or environment where he or she stands out because there are few others like them.  I can imagine Aderholt being referred to as "the black guy" by co-workers who don't know him or remember his name.

 

I didn't take it as racism really, more of a way to easily identify someone, similar to "he's an old guy."  Possibly though, and yeah, I don't think the FBI was traditionally loaded with a lot of black people, even back in 1982.  The whole "wing tipped shoes" and suits, tons of LDS recruits, predominantly male and white tradition of the FBI wasn't quite over yet.  I don't know how much things have changed, even today.  The CIA was the agency with diversity, for obvious reasons, at least in field agents. 

 

Maybe so though, but since we are beginning to hear dribs and drabs from Stan's apparently harrowing 3 years undercover with the KKK or the like, maybe?

 

So, is the consensus with Martha's conduct after the bug is found that she now realizes Clark is not who he said he was and that he is a spy who has dooped her OR is she scared that much of her husband's value of her as a wife is based on her usefulness to him and now that she is not useful, he may abandon her? 

 

 

I thought she was scared the FBI may come to her house ad that's why she wanted to go to Clark's, but after seeing it, she wanted to return to her apt., so was that just a test to see if he really did have an apt as he had said?  So, now that he met that test, who will she believe?  She certainly loves Clarke I can't imagine her betrayal of him unless she's certain of his intentions.

 

There is no way that Philip would not have realized some big happened with Martha at work.  I didn't buy him treating it so casually.  No way, in my mind.  Someone will have to work with Martha and teach her how to pass a polygraph though agents have failed polygraphs and remained in their positions before for unknown reasons.

 

 

 

I couldn't be sure, and I'm really looking forward to reading the reviews and commentary this week, partially because of that. 

 

What my GUT said is that Martha wised up.  I didn't realize the guy worked where Clark's cover is!  Holy shit.  With that, and with her not telling Clark what happened (which shocked me!) I had the feeling she was going to gather more evidence on Clark, investigate on her own, be sure before she acted.  It's Martha, so would she turn his ass in, once sure, maybe "double" and feed him bad information, or would she try to run (doubtful) or risk confronting him and him killing her (doubtful) or just kill him herself (or try to.)

 

Either way, Martha just became a hell of a lot more interesting!  I loved, loved, loved that tension.  I'm also not sure why she put that thing back in her purse, why it was washed, all of it.

 

If Clark really worked for the FBI he probably would already know about a bug being found.  And Walter Taffet, isn't he working for the organization that Clark said he was in?  So between Clark not knowing something is wrong and Walter not acknowledging Martha in any way even in private her suspicions were raised.  And maybe they can tell it's a foreign bug?

Part of me wonders if Stan will end up being suspected, between his screw ups and his involvement with Nina.

 

 

Everyone will be suspect, as the guy made clear when he told John Boy "it could be you."  What is the name of the agency Clark says he works for?

--------------

 

As far as an automatic lockdown?  I can buy that not happening.  They don't know how long it's been there, it could be an ex janitor, or a visitor, an they may not want to alert the spy yet, but that doesn't work because they did the sweep.  However, I guess they could do routine sweeps.  Martha was the only one brought in that I could see, and it's just simple bad luck that she actually planted it.  They needed her for the log of visitors or she wouldn't have been.  Those secretaries always know the important stuff big wigs feel is beneath them.

 

Holy crap that was tense in the bathroom!  So well done.

 

I don't think Martha will keep quiet just to keep Clark.  She's no longer that desperate for a man.  If she's been used, my only real question is will she go for

Staying Safe at any cost

Getting Even at any cost

Being a patriot at heart

 

At least she was smart enough to not tell him, but she's out of her depth.  Damn, all this time I've wanted her gone, and now I'm kind of rooting for her.

 

 

 

 

[sistermagpie]

The bug was in the pen.  The receiver, recording type thing Martha took to the bathroom, ripped it apart and ran water from the sink over the circuit board.  She then wrapped it all of the dismantled mess in paper towels and put it back into her purse.

 

 

Right, but I was saying maybe the purse didn't leave the office that day. I don't remember if she took it with her and just lied to Clark about it or if she left her purse there. I hadn't thought about it until the comment came up. Maybe we saw her take it and I just don't remember.

 

I didn't take it as racism really, more of a way to easily identify someone, similar to "he's an old guy."  Possibly though, and yeah, I don't think the FBI was traditionally loaded with a lot of black people, even back in 1982.  The whole "wing tipped shoes" and suits, tons of LDS recruits, predominantly male and white tradition of the FBI wasn't quite over yet.  I don't know how much things have changed, even today.  The CIA was the agency with diversity, for obvious reasons, at least in field agents.

 

 

Also in this conversation it was somehow relevant, I think, in his mind. If you're going to start complaining about somebody at work and it's the only black person in the office, sometimes it just seems right to get that out right away unless you make a conscious decision to not mention it. If you're an openly racist person, of course, you'd just complain about their race. But otherwise I can see Stan thinking that's something he should include in explaining where the guy was coming from, what the situation was in the office. I don't think he could even explain *why* he needed to say it--besides any racist thoughts on Stan's part there's also the racism in the society he lives in and certainly the bureau he's part of, so I can see him including that when trying to suss out exactly how he felt about the guy to Philip.

 

I love, btw, that this seems to be the first time Stan's really talked to Philip about something like that at his job, like just as Martha's crashing and burning Philip himself for the first time becomes at least a little bit of an asset, getting info on the office from Stan. In the same scene where Philip actually is honest about stuff with Stan as well. Their friendship is believably getting deeper and more real this season as they're both so isolated.

[Umbelina]

BTW, I just ordered a book mentioned in one of the reviews (or somewhere, can't remember, I'd be a crappy spy.)  Anyway, it arrived, and the pen-bug examples were in it, photographs of them.  There were also pen cameras and all kinds of tiny spy things, and much earlier than I thought, certainly before 1982~  I talk about it in the "Real life spies" thread if anyone is interested.

 

All I can think about is WWMD?  What Will Martha Do?  I can't wait to find out!  Now I really don't want her dead, I want her to TRY to expose Clark, or trap him, even though it will blow up her whole world.  Her whole world is already blown up anyway, but I think at heart, she is a patriot.  That's one of the ways Clark trapped her, she was upset at her bosses at work for not being more vigilant with security, leaving top secret files out, etc. 

 

Don't kill her show!

 

ETA, loved the recap Tara!

 

http://previously.tv/the-americans/hey-baby-whats-wroooooong/

Edited March 12, 2015 by Umbelina

[SailorGirl]

Right, but I was saying maybe the purse didn't leave the office that day. I don't remember if she took it with her and just lied to Clark about it or if she left her purse there. I hadn't thought about it until the comment came up. Maybe we saw her take it and I just don't remember.

 

 

She took her purse with her. We see her taking out the paper-towel-wrapped broken receiver and hiding it in her lingerie drawer. She then slides her hands over and pulls out her gun. 

[attica]

keep in mind this was early-mid 80s and women and black men and women in any position other than a very junior/administrative type role were still somewhat of an anomaly. Affirmative action was strongly in play and responsible for many of the few "minorities" in jobs of any sort of responsibility.

 

What's awesome to me is that it's The Black Guy that finds the bug. You know the cliche: he's gotta be twice as smart and work twice as hard as the white guys to get half as far. And as such, he's quick to find the flaw the white guys all overlook. The white guys should be all abashed at this, but: they won't. And if the show wants to be true, Aderholt will start suffering some microaggressions from his colleagues for (in their minds) making them look bad.

[maczero]

I think regardless of whether or not Martha felt her willful denial start to crumble (and she really appeared to) that bug being found and traced to her would mean the end of her job and life as she knows it.  Even if if Clark was on the up-and-up she'd have to deal with Stan, Gad, Andholt etc. etc. etc.  looking at her as a traitor to the team.  Gad would never fully trust her again and that would be even if Clark was completely on the level.  So even if she completely believed absolutely everything from Clark, that bug being found and in anyway traced to her would mean the life she has built, the one she has cobbled together, will be changed completely and absolutely.  Every relationship that she has with her coworkers would too.  

 

So it makes sense that she was shaking and crying.  Even if she believes what she is doing is patriotic, it wouldn't change the "oh...there went my entire life...all the details of it....gone....for Always Absent Clark. SHIT!! What have I done?"  

Maybe it's because I've never gave that much of a damn about my jobs or even my career, but that level of fear doesn't seem to correlate with I've just flushed my career down the toilet.  That was more of "Oh shit!  I'm going to jail for a very long time!" level of panic.

[max1m1976]

 Oooh,yes!Ring around Martha begins to shrink. I thought in the office will notice her nervousness,    but that would be too easy.Btw,it's a strange that when  agents found the transmitter( obviously a small radius)  they are not ordered  to  search all people at once.I can hardly wait next episode.Action,action...                                    On the issue of secrecy, if anyone is interested:as the KGB watched scientists in PRISON when they  working with UNclassified documents  .                                                                                                                    Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn   " IN THE First Circle"                                                                                                "No one was supposed to know Number Seven’s real name, but everybody in the institute did. It was the “Clipped Speech Laboratory.” “Clipped” was an English word. Not only the engineers and translators in the institute but the fitters, the turners, the grinders, perhaps even the deaf and slow-witted carpenter, knew that the original models for the installation were American, though officially they were “ours.” This was why American journals with diagrams and theoretical articles about clipping, which were on sale on newsstands in New York, were here given serial numbers, stapled, classified, and, to frustrate American spies, sealed up in fireproof safes".                                                                                                                                                                "No zek had the right to remain in his working quarters for a single second unsupervised by a free employee, since an elementary concern for security suggested that a prisoner would inevitably take advantage of a single second free from surveillance to break open the safe with the aid of a pencil and photograph secret documents with the aid of a trouser button.
Chelnov, however, worked in a room where there was nothing but an unlocked cupboard and two bare desks. So they had decided (after consulting the ministry, of course) to sanction the issue of a key to Professor Chelnov personally. Ever since, his room had been the cause of perpetual anxiety to the institute’s security officer, Major Shikin. During the hours when prisoners were locked in the prison behind a double steel-reinforced door, this highly paid comrade with the irregular working hours would come to the professor’s room on his very own feet to sound the walls, jump up and down on the floorboards, peer into the dusty gap behind the cupboard, and shake his head somberly."

Edited March 12, 2015 by max1m1976

[magdalene]

I think Martha may have sub-consciously known for a while that Clark is not all he seems to be but because she wants this relationship so badly to be true she has blinded herself to her doubts. Now that she has got a clue-by-four I wonder if Philip is going to end this season shot by her. Or if Martha is about to be killed off.   

If she gets busted by the FBI and her marriage to "Clark" is outed - how can that be anything but disaster for Philip? I know this show treats their various wigs almost like a super power but all it would take is for a certain FBI agent to see a picture of "Clark" - and game over.

Edited March 12, 2015 by magdalene

[Helena Dax]

 

If she gets busted by the FBI and her marriage to "Clark" is outed - how can that be anything but disaster for Philip? I know this show treats their various wigs almost like a super power but all it would take is for a certain FBI agent to see a picture of "Clark" - and game over.

 

If Philip kills her, and I think he will, he'll be able to burn all the pictures of Clark. He's probably been careful about that and I wouldn't be surprised if she just has got some pictures from the wedding and that's all.

 

It was interesting to have Philip  and Elizabeth on the right side, for once. Loved her conversation with the African guy; to me, it made easier to understand why she wants to tell Paige the truth. She feels so proud of what she's doing.  And here, she had reasons to be. She was fighting against the apartheid. 

 

I liked Stan at the office but I hated his scenes with Sandra. His  conversation with his son was better, but I still don't care about his personal life. I just can't connect with him. Every time he twitches his eyes I want to smack him down. Otoh, Emmerich did a great job directing the episode. 

[sistermagpie]

I'll bet Martha's parents have pictures too, though. And if Martha died they'd be completely public about Clark and wanting to find him and describe him.

 

What I was thinking was maybe it would work if they found some way to make it look like Clark and Martha both died.

[stillshimpy]

Maybe it's because I've never gave that much of a damn about my jobs or even my career, but that level of fear doesn't seem to correlate with I've just flushed my career down the toilet.  That was more of "Oh shit!  I'm going to jail for a very long time!" level of panic.

 

Oh absolutely agreed.  She was terrified, but again, losing that particular job -- working for the FBI and losing her security clearance -- aren't quite the same thing as losing a regular job.  That is life-wrecking stuff.  

 

However, I do think that as it began to sink in that the jig was up, she had to start confronting all the stuff about Clark that simply doesn't track.  They are supposed to have this Super Secret Marriage (which again, even if she didn't figure out "KGB Fucker!"  is another "well, that will tank my life too" )  and all of that would have to come to light, even if she still managed to cling to the fiction that Clark was actually asking her to do something based in "it's patriotic really,  we're oversight and regulation, keeping the good guys as good as they can be"  , that would mean trouble too.  

 

I think it was just a combination of "I'm so screwed"  and it just started to sink in "I'm so insanely, incredibly screwed and....technically not a lot about Clark makes a ton of sense....why didn't he assign me to another officer rather than...I've never even seen his apartment...." 

 

But she still seems sort of caught on the fence.  Clark does take her to his apartment,  and she still trusts him enough to actually go with him.  That seemed sort of telling to me.   If it was "I'm going to jail for a really long time" level of fear, then it would seem she had absolutely realized, "He's not for real at all, is he?"  and she's still trying to test it out.  

 

I also don't think it is about loving her job either, but rather, that's the life she has put together.  She doesn't have a lot of friends, clearly, part of what made her vulnerable in the first place was that she was lonely.  She lives in her sad, single-lady apartment and when she does see Clark's place, she asks if they are ever going to live together.  Faced with losing one half of her life, she doesn't even have the guarantee of "but at least I gained all...huh.  Not much.  I'm a secret spouse in a sad single-lady apartment and I'm also watching my resume go completely up in flames, forever.   

So I don't think she's completely made Clark, she just realized how many things don't make any sense and how insanely screwed she really is, but I don't think it has occurred to her (yet) "I've totally been working for the KGB for years, haven't I?"  

Edited March 12, 2015 by stillshimpy

[Umbelina]

Yeah, I agree Shrimpy, and so do many of the reviews I just posted in the Media thread.  Oddly enough I was just reading the AV club excellent summary of Martha (and the scenes with her!) while you posted this.

 

Also, they still execute spies, long term jail and that kind of record might not be the worst of her fears. 

 

I bet Philip took care of the parents with photos thing, somehow, turning away from the camera or other easy tricks.  It would just be so sloppy if he didn't.  Maybe not though.

[Chaos Theory]

I don't think it has been mentioned yet but obligatory 80's reference:  Who Shot J.R.?

 

I don't think Martha will keep quiet just to keep Clark.  She's no longer that desperate for a man.  If she's been used, my only real question is will she go for
Staying Safe at any cost
Getting Even at any cost
Being a patriot at heart

 

 

I made a similar point on the Martha board and I agree.  I think she will do a bit of all three at different times.   First she will try to stay safe but being a patriot at heart she will confess and then she will do what it takes to get even.    Although some people think she will either kill herself or Philip will kill her I don't think either will happen.  I think she is far to interesting a character for the show to get rid of.  

[Ellaria]

So I don't think she's completely made Clark, she just realized how many things don't make any sense and how insanely screwed she really is, but I don't think it has occurred to her (yet) "I've totally been working for the KGB for years, haven't I?"  

 

I think that this sums it up quite well. Martha isn't an idiot...she is many things - lonely primarily - but not an idiot. I agree that she has not completely "made" Clark yet. She knows things don't add up; she's probably known this for awhile. Now its about facing hard truths regarding her job/career, her husband, her entire life. I am fascinated to see how this moves forward.

 

Of course, there is her gun. Nice little reminder last night. 

[Umbelina]

I'm hoping she shoots Philip, and somehow assumes she killed him.  Maybe she runs out in fear after, so Philip has time to make a phone call.  Elizabeth gets him out of there, and after saving him, they somehow blackmail Martha, or make her think she killed him?  "Liz" is his "sister" after all, so she could be the one to tell her he's dead.

 

After watching what she could do with wordless scenes last night (and and excellent director!) now I just don't want to lose her as a character!  No more Clark scenes, but that doesn't mean she still couldn't become an interesting cog.

 

Maybe I'm grasping at straws, but I'm hoping she sticks around. 

 

From that AV review:
 

It’s been said before, and I have a feeling it’ll be said again after this, but poor Martha. She’s been placed in a real pickle here, and Alison Wright does such an excellent job conveying her character’s distress, all facial scrunches and nervous hands and absolute silence. Oh, the silence in that ladies’ room is excruciating, in all the right ways: We know Martha’s in trouble, but in the absence of dialogue, our minds get to race right along with hers. Who might suspect that she planted the bug? Can she tell Clark that the bug has been discovered? Is bugging a federal agent’s office, even under the instruction of another federal agent, a treasonous offense? (You know what they do to traitors, right?) And how does she even know that Clark is a federal agent?

This form of narrative suspense relies so much on audience sympathies, and even those of us who haven’t placed a recording device in the office of the director of FBI counterintelligence can relate to Martha’s motivation here: She did it out of love.

 

Edited March 12, 2015 by Umbelina

[madam magpie]

Thank god for this forum, or I'd never have any idea what was happening on this show. I don't know if I don't pay enough attention or what, but for as much as I like it, I'm in the dark a lot. The whole thing at the end baffled me.

I like Martha, sad sack that she is, and I hope they don't kill her off, but I see no other way out of this situation. I guess she could turn completely KGB, but that's unlikely.

Was grateful for no Kimmie. Loved all the little nuanced relationship bits with Philip/Elizabeth. Feel terrible for the AA lady. (What's her name?) I found Philip's love routine a bit over the top during that dinner. Don't know if that was intended or not.

Edited March 12, 2015 by madam magpie

[Umbelina]

They lost me at the end a bit, probably one reason I love to read the recaps/reviews.

 

I'm STILL not sure if the woman Elizabeth shot was a South African agent/asset driving a kidnap van, OR, if she was simply a witness in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Neither are the reviewers!  Some think one thing, some the other.  The accent makes me lean toward "she was driving the get away van for when the SA spies kidnap the guy" with the kid who loves motorcycles, but I'm still not sure.

[madam magpie]

I thought she was South African by the accent. That's the only thing I actually understood! (Or thought I did, anyway.) Since I didn't remember seeing her before (did we?), though, confused me.

Wasn't the kid who liked motorcycles still in South Africa? The son of the guy Elizabeth was talking to. Or is that someone else??

Edited March 13, 2015 by madam magpie

[Mindymoo]

I thought she was South African by the accent. That's the only thing I actually understood! (Or thought I did, anyway.) Since I didn't remember seeing her before (did we?), though, confused me.

I had my closed captioning on because sometimes I don't catch all of the dialogue, and it said "South African Accent" when she spoke, so yeah. That was a South African accent, and she was working with them as the getaway driver.

[Umbelina]

Yes, the kid of the guy is still in SA.  The dad may normally be in the Soviet Union now, he's definitely a KGB asset though.

 

Yeah, the more I think about it, the dead woman with the bread was driving the OTHER GUY's kidnap van.

[shura]

I think regardless of whether or not Martha felt her willful denial start to crumble (and she really appeared to) that bug being found and traced to her would mean the end of her job and life as she knows it.  Even if if Clark was on the up-and-up she'd have to deal with Stan, Gad, Andholt etc. etc. etc.  looking at her as a traitor to the team.  Gad would never fully trust her again and that would be even if Clark was completely on the level.  So even if she completely believed absolutely everything from Clark, that bug being found and in anyway traced to her would mean the life she has built, the one she has cobbled together, will be changed completely and absolutely.  Every relationship that she has with her coworkers would too. 

So it makes sense that she was shaking and crying.  Even if she believes what she is doing is patriotic, it wouldn't change the "oh...there went my entire life...all the details of it....gone....for Always Absent Clark. SHIT!! What have I done?" 

Maybe it's because I've never gave that much of a damn about my jobs or even my career, but that level of fear doesn't seem to correlate with I've just flushed my career down the toilet.  That was more of "Oh shit!  I'm going to jail for a very long time!" level of panic.

 

 

 

I think it's all of the above, actually. Even if Clark and his job are 100 percent real, it can't possibly be legal to bug the FBI office, can it? Clark and Martha are breaking the law, his patriotic and honest intentions to keep the good guys good notwithstanding. I don't know if that's treason, but it's something jail-worthy for sure. Which, I think, is the only reason that can keep Martha from spilling the beans. I think that, being an honest and patriotic person, Martha would totally reveal how she planted the bug and helped Clark (again, all this is still assuming that she believes Clark has been telling her the truth, just for the sake of argument), even it means the end of her FBI career. She can always find a job somewhere else, it's not the end of her life - unless there is jail involved.

[Caria]

To answer an earlier question posed by Dowel Jones (I think, and I am too lazy to scroll back and look), the reason for the South African op is actually to prevent violence, believe it or not. This Venter guy is actually pro-Apartheid... but he is going to American college campuses, recruiting moles to join the anti-Apartheid movement, and then getting them to do violent and disruptive terrorist actions in order to discredit the anti-Apartheid movement. So the Center found a way to lure Venter out (by importing Ncgogo to act as bait) so that P&E could capture him. As was earlier pointed out, Venter had his own kidnapping van all set for Ncgogo, staffed by the now-aerated South African lady lugging a shopping bag. Elizabeth neatly foiled that with her Bindi shot. It was all very well paced, kind of complex, and beautifully planned. I adored that scene!

 

Thanks for this Kierstyn.  I gotta say, based on my confusion as well as reading similar posts here I don't think the show did a very good job of explaining this particular plot over the last few episodes. I think it might have benefitted from one or two additional conversation scene regarding, especially on the planning and execution of the plan.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Caria

[Umbelina]

I was just reading comments on a review site, and apparently that dead woman was ALSO seen talking to the student agitator on the steps earlier in the episode.

 

It was confusing, some reviewers still are getting it wrong. 

 

Basically, two kidnap plots.

 

KGB with their bait (the dad guy) lure out the

SA Operations Officer running the Student agitator guy (and the woman with the bread driving the getaway kidnapping van.)

 

Instead of the SA's kidnapping the dad, the KGB kidnapped or killed them.

[sistermagpie]

I was just reading comments on a review site, and apparently that dead woman was ALSO seen talking to the student agitator on the steps earlier in the episode.

 

 

I think that person was actually wrong. The person Todd was talking to at the college as another American student, not the SA woman.

[crabbypants]

I'm wondering if Martha uses her gun to kill herself.  I can see her becoming extremely depressed once she connects the dots, her anxiety getting the better of her, or both.

[beeble]

Apparently while Paige turns into a KGB agent, Henry has turned into Liam Gallagher. 

[stillshimpy]

One thing I really liked in this episode is that Stan and Martha are on such similar emotional trajectories when it comes to maintaining emotional denial.  Martha's is clearly beginning to crumble a bit, but it's not gone yet.  Stan began to dislike Anderholt (Andholt? Anderhalt?) because he accidentally made Stan think about whether or not Nina was playing him.  That Anderholt was then very kind about it when he realized Stan hadn't quite brought that "she was playing you dude, and she didn't tell you everything or else we'd know a lot more" into focus yet, Anderholt sort of gently backed away from the concept actually seemed to register with Stan also.  That Anderholt felt the need to be kind and deferential actually pointed to how it really must look to anyone other than Stan, and Stan seemed to really get that part.  

 

But you could see it bugged Stan and that it cost him something, one of the things he was clinging to, to say that maybe Nina wasn't completely on the up and up.  Poor Stan really was having as many "oh, there goes my emotional world..." moments as Martha was, just with less terror.  Just as he's sort of looking sideways at even the notion that Nina was less than "a good woman" who told him "everything she knew" and feeling uncomfortably needled by that, Sandra also tells him it is time to take formal steps towards divorcing.  

 

Whatever happy ending scenarios that Stan managed to tell himself over the last few years, they were quietly crumbling too.  Trying to believe that Anderholt is just trying to be super boss-impressing employee without merit was shot to hell when Anderholt proved he's actually good and very astute right in Stan's presence.  That adds some weight to the uncomfortable truths about Nina's possible lack of sincerity and "goodness".  

 

I was so glad Stan's son was kind to him and that he had something resembling an emotional anchor left in this world.  After all, his partner was entirely charmless (I thought) , but he was Stan's partner and he lost him too.  That's on top of the only person Stan could talk to for three long, soul-stealing years.  

 

Then there's Philip who can't even seem to consider that Irina lied or that Gabriel picked up that football and ran with it for his own goals.  

 

There was a really rich vein in this episode of the kind deeply humanizing naivete so many people maintain well into adulthood about love, and family.  That kind of "He/she wouldn't lie about that...."   Like how Martha can clearly be so terrified that she might vomit, pee or faint all at once, but she can't quite really come to terms with it all yet.  Same thing with Stan about Nina, or how he really doesn't have a wife any longer either.  

 

I think that Elizabeth did get that Gabriel might be lying to Philip though.  

Edited March 13, 2015 by stillshimpy

[sistermagpie]

Then there's Philip who can't even seem to consider that Irina lied or that Gabriel picked up that football and ran with it for his own goals.

 

 

Philip did openly accuse Irina of possibly lying when she told him about her son the first time. But I think at this point he either represses the whole idea and doesn't think of himself as having a son, or he feels like he does. Gabriel bringing it up worked. He probably still logically knows he has no way of knowing it's the truth, but he obviously feels like it's true and there's not much point in pretending he doesn't. Because at this point if he just doesn't believe it he's taking the chance of abandoning the kid entirely.

 

It would be great if Elizabeth starts to suspect it's a lie. At this point she seems to think Gabriel's totally on their side so it might really be a change to think of her messing with his head that much.

[SeanC]

When the titular Mr. Taffet appeared, I was sure that was Broadway's Jefferson Mays, and doubling back to look at the opening guest credits, surely enough I was correct. That's two shows I watch he's popped up in in the last week (the other being Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). Coincidentally, I saw him on Broadway in January in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which plays right across the street from the revival of You Can't Take It With You that his scene partner Richard Thomas co-starred in (which I also saw on that visit).

 

The second I heard the opening notes of "The Chain" play on the soundtrack I knew it was going to be a great scene.

 

This season seems, more and more, to be resting primarily on Matthew Rhys' shoulders -- Phillip is where almost all the narrative action is centered.

Edited March 13, 2015 by SeanC

[Dev F]

Whatever happy ending scenarios that Stan managed to tell himself over the last few years, they were quietly crumbling too.  Trying to believe that Anderholt is just trying to be super boss-impressing employee without merit was shot to hell when Anderholt proved he's actually good and very astute right in Stan's presence.  That adds some weight to the uncomfortable truths about Nina's possible lack of sincerity and "goodness".

 

Absolutely. That seems to be one of the major themes of the episode, in fact -- everyone confronting their own personal Walter Taffet, the person who simply is whoever they've been trying or pretending to be. For Stan it's Aderholt, the nigh-infallible agent who makes Stan question whether he himself is as competent as he thought he was. And also John Riesling, the white supremacist whose murderous evil he had to pretend to share even as it terrified him.

 

For Paige it's her parents, whose honest-to-God activism has her wondering whether she's doing enough. Elizabeth herself has Ncgobo, whose unapologetic stance on parental discipline makes her question whether she'd go as far to toughen up her own children. And both of the Jenningses have their fictional alter egos Jack and Lisa, whose fun-loving amorousness makes them feel the weary tension in their real relationship more acutely.

 

Even the spy-thriller setpiece that ends the episode plugs into this paradigm, as a South African snatch-and-grab team comes up against a precisely mirrored KGB team and discovers it can't possibly compare, while aspiring spy Hans finally gets a glimpse of the real operators and realizes how unready he is to join them.

[Bannon]

One thing I really liked in this episode is that Stan and Martha are on such similar emotional trajectories when it comes to maintaining emotional denial.  Martha's is clearly beginning to crumble a bit, but it's not gone yet.  Stan began to dislike Anderholt (Andholt? Anderhalt?) because he accidentally made Stan think about whether or not Nina was playing him.  That Anderholt was then very kind about it when he realized Stan hadn't quite brought that "she was playing you dude, and she didn't tell you everything or else we'd know a lot more" into focus yet, Anderholt sort of gently backed away from the concept actually seemed to register with Stan also.  That Anderholt felt the need to be kind and deferential actually pointed to how it really must look to anyone other than Stan, and Stan seemed to really get that part.  

 

But you could see it bugged Stan and that it cost him something, one of the things he was clinging to, to say that maybe Nina wasn't completely on the up and up.  Poor Stan really was having as many "oh, there goes my emotional world..." moments as Martha was, just with less terror.  Just as he's sort of looking sideways at even the notion that Nina was less than "a good woman" who told him "everything she knew" and feeling uncomfortably needled by that, Sandra also tells him it is time to take formal steps towards divorcing.  

 

Whatever happy ending scenarios that Stan managed to tell himself over the last few years, they were quietly crumbling too.  Trying to believe that Anderholt is just trying to be super boss-impressing employee without merit was shot to hell when Anderholt proved he's actually good and very astute right in Stan's presence.  That adds some weight to the uncomfortable truths about Nina's possible lack of sincerity and "goodness".  

 

I was so glad Stan's son was kind to him and that he had something resembling an emotional anchor left in this world.  After all, his partner was entirely charmless (I thought) , but he was Stan's partner and he lost him too.  That's on top of the only person Stan could talk to for three long, soul-stealing years.  

 

Then there's Philip who can't even seem to consider that Irina lied or that Gabriel picked up that football and ran with it for his own goals.  

 

There was a really rich vein in this episode of the kind deeply humanizing naivete so many people maintain well into adulthood about love, and family.  That kind of "He/she wouldn't lie about that...."   Like how Martha can clearly be so terrified that she might vomit, pee or faint all at once, but she can't quite really come to terms with it all yet.  Same thing with Stan about Nina, or how he really doesn't have a wife any longer either.  

 

I think that Elizabeth did get that Gabriel might be lying to Philip though.  

Well, the problem I've had with the way Stan is written is that he is WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too naive for a guy who was undercover with violent neo-nazis for years. Stan should be an extraordinary con man, and it is really, really, really, hard to con an extraordinary con man. Nina should have had no shot. Extraordinary con men are aslo coldly manipulative, and Stan really should not be all that broken up about his marriage failing; angry about loss of control (with con artists it is always about control) with regard to his kids, yes. Extremely, persistently, melancholy about his wife? No.

 

Stan really has been written as too nice a person, despite his delving into murder with the killing of the Russian last season. The Stan we see is not the Stan of the backstory, and it's aways been a problem. Emmerich can obviously direct well, so it leads me to believe that the issue lies with the writers alone.

 

Martha's clearly a goner. For dramatic purposes, it's time, although the actor is one of the best on the show, perhaps THE best. The only question is whether it happens early in the episode, or later, and whether she points the revolver at Phlark first, or wether she uses it to shoot herself. Pretty unusual for a woman to commit suicide by that method, especially one insecure about her appearance, as I perceive Martha to be, so I think it would be pretty clunky writing to go that route. I hope they don't take it.

 

Then again, it's going to be really hard to to credibly keep Stan and John-Boy (oops, that's a 70s reference!) on the show, if Martha is discovered dead or disappears, after that bug has been uncovered. That's the sort of fiasco that ends careers for anyone within a few feet of the jackpot. The FNG would be the only one not either cashiered, or transferred to an Indian Reservation in North Dakota, since he found the bug, and hasn't been around too long.

 

I'm actually curious as to how they write their way through this, and I hope it is a pleasant surprise.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Bannon

[pasdetrois]

Philip wears eyeliner!

 

Loved that poor Stan's sullen son connected with Stan a little bit as they sat in that sad little apartment. (That wasn't the original family home, was it? Looked too tiny.)  As a traditionally-minded 1980s FBI guy, I understand Stan's belated determination to rekindle his marriage, but the storyline is boring.

 

I've always been very annoyed at Martha, to the extent that I have hated her time on the screen. Tonight was the first time I could not take my eyes off of Martha. My interpretation was that the sudden discovery of the spy pen jolted her out of her complacency about what she's done, and she was suddenly terrified for herself. Plus, she had to act very quickly while terrified to figure out what to do. I saw it as "my life as I know it is over and I may be headed to prison."

 

Can someone explain why she became wary of Clark, instead of rushing to find him and confide in him about the pen? I didn't catch what tipped her toward the frightened suspicion of him.

 

I'm expecting Clark to get rid of her via "suicide" and handily frame her for the pen. I just don't know how the KBG will pull that off - with whom would she be in cahoots if not Clark? Or, will The Pen investigation bring Clark closer to Stan's dawning recognition?

 

Loved the little moment when the three FBI guys silently leaned in toward The Pen.

 

The South Africa story bores me because I don't understand its connection to everything else, from a storywriting perspective. It just seems tacked on to everything else that's going on in the very busy lives of Elizabeth and Philip. It doesn't feel necessary to me, yet it's quite convoluted.

Edited March 13, 2015 by pasdetrois

[beeble]

Well, the problem I've had with the way Stan is written is that he is WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too naive for a guy who was undercover with violent neo-nazis for years. Stan should be an extraordinary con man, and it is really, really, really, hard to con an extraordinary con man. Nina should have had no shot. Extraordinary con men are aslo coldly manipulative, and Stan really should not be all that broken up about his marriage failing; angry about loss of control (with con artists it is always about control) with regard to his kids, yes. Extremely, persistently, melancholy about his wife? No.

 

In Season 1, Nina talked to him about the fact that he was a cop who was dealing with spies. Stan himself had to become a spy when he went undercover, but clearly the work did a number on him. He may not be cut out for living a secret life while he is still good at his job as an FBI agent. Undercover work would be very difficult and stressful, particularly in a case like Stan's where he already had a wife and family waiting for him. It wasn't like he was recruited at 14 and learned how to move in and out of this situation.

[stillshimpy]

Well, the problem I've had with the way Stan is written is that he is WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too naive for a guy who was undercover with violent neo-nazis for years. Stan should be an extraordinary con man, and it is really, really, really, hard to con an extraordinary con man. Nina should have had no shot. Extraordinary con men are aslo coldly manipulative, and Stan really should not be all that broken up about his marriage failing; angry about loss of control (with con artists it is always about control) with regard to his kids, yes. Extremely, persistently, melancholy about his wife? No.

 

I've seen you argue this before, Bannon and whereas I understand the complaint, I disagree with it for a variety of reasons.  First of all, White Supremacists would not be that difficult to fool.   It's not a movement populated by mental giants, for starters, but then more importantly, it is far more reliant on a particular script being repeated over, and over and over and over and ....oh....over....wait for it....and over .   It's not a particularly sophisticated mindset so fooling anyone into believing you are that rather one note "I hate everyone who isn't damned pale" script is not that challenging of a prospect.  

 

Stan explained that easily to Anderholt and believably, I thought.  But there's also a key difference in my perception of Stan vs. yours that makes me buy the character: What would make someone who does not in anyway hold such horrible views want to espouse them?  My answer is that he believes in rather simple (which is not interchangeable with simplistic in this instance) values.   

 

In this episode Stan rather touchingly keeps stressing that Nina was "good".  It's a simple moral view of a very complicated person.  I think that's how Stan survived the "stick to the hateful script" life.   It's not a complicated con though, it really isn't comparable to being a "conman extraordinaire" to my mind, because there's nowhere near as much "think on your feet and persuade" when dealing with a mindset that moronically hateful.  I have an example, as it happens I currently live in a suburb of St. Louis, recently along with every other appalling thing about the Justice Department's report emails were released from the Police Departments in the area.  That shit is the very opposite of requiring anything extraordinary to fake, if one had the urge.  

 

I think if Stan's back-story was anything other than "yeah, deep cover with a bunch of people with the depth of a puddle in almost all instances" I'd grant your point, but there is something so insanely childish, born-of-the-schoolyard "My dad can beat up your dad" in the concept of anything involving supposed supremacy.  It's also just an existing societal script that Stan would have had to revert to over and over.  It doesn't require a lot of creativity and since it is such a simplistically hateful mindset, it actually makes sense to me that Stan's damage manifests as an attachment to the complete opposite, simple concepts of "good" (vs hateful evil) doing something for your wife and family....thinking things like "I thought my son would be glad to see me" (after three years of his being gone....completely gone) ....It's not naive precisely, but it makes sense that after years of being immersed in "White good! Black bad!" moronville that Stan emerged with a rather narrow scope on his view of people.  

 

It's the moments where he's no longer guarded by those forged-in-fourth-grade shields of "how do you keep it up" from either side, that make Stan interesting to me.  How he can sit there and say Nina was a "good woman"....people just aren't that damned simple, when you get right down to it, few of us are so wholly defined by terms entirely lacking in shading or nuance....unless you're talking about people who have solely attached themselves to "White good! Black bad!" as their animating force in life.   

 

So that moment about Nina and Stan recognizing, fully getting that Anderholt pitied him for clinging to such a narrow view of a complex situation are the parts that show me that Stan forced himself into that small, simple "one note script" space.  Sandra is his "wife" in that same first-layer-definition manner.  

 

I get that we disagree, but I think it's a brilliantly nuanced characterization, because when I examine why Stan does hold these simple definitions dear, and really seems angriest, sharpest and most damaged when forced to move outside of those narrow boxes in his head (ripping up that bathroom, searching for something beyond the easiest, simplest definition of the defector) it makes such perfect sense.  Or when EST head jackass called him up on stage and one of those doors in the carefully locked up rooms in Stan's head got blown off the hinges and it was possible to perceive him forcing it back to being closed.  The actor is freaking amazing.  

 

There's a quote from Mother Night that I tend to whip out every few years:  Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.

 

In Stan's case, he emerged from "White Good! Black Bad!"  not as a screaming racist, but as someone whose ability to think in more sophisticated terms was damaged.  

Edited March 13, 2015 by stillshimpy

[Haleth]

Kudos to Alison Wright for her performance as a terrified Martha.  What a dilemma for her.  Confess to Gaad and she ruins her career, confront Clark (she still has no idea he is so very, very dangerous) and destroy her marriage.  I'm not sure why the discovery of the bug would cause her to question Clark's story though (other than it being preposterous from the beginning).  If she bought it way back when that he was working for an agency that was policing the FBI, what happened that would cause her to suddenly think he was lying?  I'm guessing she confronts him (with her gun) and it ends very badly for her.

 

Thank goodness there is one FBI agent who is competent.  Didn't Aderholt meet Phillip (and maybe Elizabeth?) at Stan's house once?  (Or am I confusing him with Amador?)  He may be the one to finally put 2+2 together and point out to Stan that he's been best buds with a spy for the past couple years.  Dope.

 

I was somewhat confused by the SA storyline but I don't really care.

[shura]

In Stan's case, he emerged from "White Good! Black Bad!"  not as a screaming racist, but as someone whose ability to think in more sophisticated terms was damaged.

 

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?

 

Can someone explain why she became wary of Clark, instead of rushing to find him and confide in him about the pen? I didn't catch what tipped her toward the frightened suspicion of him.

 

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.

[stillshimpy]

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?

 

It's not an assumption.  I think it has been demonstrated multiple times on the show, starting in the pilot, when Stan went out of his way to get into the Jennings garage because he did pick up on several things, several nuanced things that were just very slightly off center and into "they seem too good to be true, very practiced, I scent artifice".   

 

Initially in his contact with Nina, before it went to any kind of emotional level, Stan also showed a sophisticated understanding of motives, desires and fears.   But when closer to his emotional core, his emotional damage, boy did he ever -- for lack of a better term -- throw it into reverse and see things in very simple terms.   

 

There's a duality to Stan's thinking that is interesting to see, and he is only that simple in his approach when emotions are on the line.  He loved Nina, probably still does, and his first reaction to Anderholt's questions reflect that, but Stan is observant enough to note that Anderholt began to -- again reaching for weird terminology here -- compassionately placate him.  Stan both got that Anderholt was backing away from the "Well, how did you know she was telling you....OH.  Yeah.  'kay, got it, well I'm sure you had that right and that she was a good woman" ...not in some critical way.  Or condescending way, but in an emotionally astute manner where it clicks for him, "Oh...you loved her.  A lot.  Shit.  Okay, well I extend kindness to you now, recognizing that we are on emotionally sacred ground."  

 

Stan saw that and immediately tried to cover his tracks, "What do I know?"  He questioned Anderholt's motives, but Gaad and Stan immediately twigged to what Anderholt was doing and what he heard in that office.   Stan became very watchful of Anderholt when Anderholt did something -- perceived something that Stan spotted -- without being told.  From that point forward he starts to watch Anderholt carefully and it seems like the moment with the pen cap is not the "Aha! He's not on the level!" moment, but rather "He's really, really good at this whole thing, including being able to spot the stuff I carefully wasn't saying when talking about Nina."  <---- THAT ability is what makes me buy "Yup, he was able to infiltrate White Supremacists, because his ability to perceive shifts is very good...when he's not emotionally involved with that person."   

 

That is sophisticated.  Stan didn't actually tell Anderholt "She was one of the loves of my life" or even admit that he was having sex with her, but he actually took note of the moment that Anderholt recognized it and tried to respect it.  It was added to that moment when Anderholt went out of his way to make sure that Stan heard about the death of his friend in a compassionate way.  So either Anderholt is trying to be perceived as the good guy, or he really truly is the good guy, but when those two things combined, it flagged something for Stan.  Stan only downgrades to naive chump when he cares about or loves someone.  It seems like as soon as someone gains access to that very carefully guarded ground, he stops viewing them with anything other than loyalty and love.  

It makes sense, again with his back-story, because another thing that Stan would be after emerging from three years in the bath-o-hate is profoundly starved for all things lovable and decent.  And very, very lonely. 

 

ETA:  The only time Stan display naivete is with the people he loves or cares about.  It was extremely frustrating when it came to Nina, but then we don't really have any reason to believe that Nina failed to love Stan right on back, up until she realized he'd killed her friend as retribution for his partner's death.  Then she turned on him.  Besotted Stan annoyed the hell out of me, but being that love starved after three years of nothing emotionally authentic in his life and arriving home to a chilly and distant family that he couldn't even tell "Guess what? I've seen a lot of hate and hell" about.  

Stan's near desperation for emotional connection rendering him trusting on an irritating level makes sense to me. 

Edited March 13, 2015 by stillshimpy

[julieandcj]

Some info about Martha.

According to IMDb, Allison Wright (Martha) is listed in the cast of every episode this season..... So, she will be with us for a while longer! Glad, because I am one of the few people who like her!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2226071/

[sistermagpie]

Martha's clearly a goner. For dramatic purposes, it's time, although the actor is one of the best on the show, perhaps THE best. The only question is whether it happens early in the episode, or later, and whether she points the revolver at Phlark first, or wether she uses it to shoot herself. Pretty unusual for a woman to commit suicide by that method, especially one insecure about her appearance, as I perceive Martha to be, so I think it would be pretty clunky writing to go that route. I hope they don't take it.

 

 

I suspect Philip's going to work some magic here and keep things going--only because it seems so inevitable that she'll be killed at this point that I think they'll surprise us. That is, sometimes the show has uses inevitable things for suspense, but in this case it seems like Martha's death seems inevitable just so they can surprise us when it's not. 

 

Loved that poor Stan's sullen son connected with Stan a little bit as they sat in that sad little apartment. (That wasn't the original family home, was it? Looked too tiny.)

 

 

No, it was the house the Beemans always lived in. Stan just makes it look like a sad little apartment by his mere presence. He still lives across the street from the Jennings in the house he bought to be a family man that he didn't feel like! Sandra was even framed in the red door she painted.

 

Didn't Aderholt meet Phillip (and maybe Elizabeth?) at Stan's house once?  (Or am I confusing him with Amador?)  He may be the one to finally put 2+2 together and point out to Stan that he's been best buds with a spy for the past couple years.  Dope.

 

 

No, he didn't work at the FBI yet when they had that get together.

 

Yeah.  'kay, got it, well I'm sure you had that right and that she was a good woman" ...not in some critical way.  Or condescending way, but in an emotionally astute manner where it clicks for him, "Oh...you loved her.  A lot.  Shit.  Okay, well I extend kindness to you now, recognizing that we are on emotionally sacred ground."

 

 

Love this post! I would say that the *desire* for a good/bad world is something that was always with Stan, as evidenced by his explanation to Henry about how he wanted to be an FBI agent to catch bad guys like in the comics he read as a kid. Of course as he grew up he had to figure out that people were more complicated, but I think that, as you say, especially when it comes to people he cares about he certainly wants that good/bad certainty.

 

I love that description of what's going on with Anderholdt and I agree, I think Stan did recognize what was going on as it was happening. I think his feelings about Anderholdt are complicated and realistic, actually. The guy I think makes him nervous as any new, very good agent would, especially somebody who's so good at looking at him and seeing things Stan doesn't see himself. But he also recognizes him as a good agent. So he's currently working out his feelings about him. I think he'll ultimately put Anderholdt in the good camp, unless forces conspire to manipulate him to think otherwise.

 

All of which also brings me back to Philip, because this is somebody that Stan immediately sensed something was off about (not Elizabeth, but Philip), as he said to his wife. He also drove the same car Stan was looking for, so he checked the car. But since then Stan has explicitly named Philip as "a good guy"--very specific words. Philip is a natural spy, yet Stan is drawn to him and that's always seemed important to Stan's character to me. He seems so self-consciously out of place in the suburban world, but he's friends with this guy. On the one hand sometimes you figure--or figure that Stan figures--that he likes Philip because he's so ordinary. He doesn't deal with the stuff Stan deals with. Yet otoh, if he really saw Philip that way would he talk to him about his thoughts about killing people etc.? We know Stan has the ability to notice things without noticing he's noticing them and I think he's picking up on something with Philip--not that he's a bad guy but that he's far more complicated than he intentionally appears. Maybe he never really did let go of that impression that something was "off" about him, he just came to recognize it as something that made him more like Stan himself. I don't think Stan's supposed to be wrong or deluding himself when he says he thinks Philip's a good guy--he wasn't in love with Philip like he was with Nina. I took that as more Stan observing and drawing that conclusion. It's just that it's far from that black and white. Stan might ultimately have an even harder time wrapping his head around Philip than he does Nina!

 

I also thought that in this ep Stan was noticing Philip being a bit different. Usually their friendship has been Stan talking and Philip listening and saying supportive things as best he can. He's always very cagey. But lately Philip's actually begun offering opinions we know are based on his own current troubles and in this ep especially I thought NE played Stan as subtly being a little surprised when Philip volunteered that he and Elizabeth always seemed to be on opposite sides about the kids these days. Maybe it was the first time he felt like Philip was at all prompting him for any kind of encouragement for himself. He didn't really know what to say beyond "You're doing better than I am" but maybe this all plays together as part of Stan's arc of putting himself together again. Like, having relationships that aren't just based on Stan trying to play the role of good cop or suburban dad or husband or heroic FBI boyfriend, none of which he feels like he really pulls off sometimes. 

 

Even his dinners with the Jennings show a bit of loosening--at home with Sandra and Matthew he often seemed to be searching for what cliche thing to say (Stan falls back on that sort of thing a lot--remember him telling Elizabeth to "let her man" bring in the groceries etc.), but Henry got him to eventually give an honest answer about EST being weird. The Jennings, especially Philip, really do seem to be the way he's working himself into normal human connection, so he's going to be all the more set on seeing them as good people. 

 

Anderholdt, of course, would see them more objectively if it ever came to that...

[shura]

It's not an assumption.  I think it has been demonstrated multiple times on the show, starting in the pilot, when Stan went out of his way to get into the Jennings garage because he did pick up on several things, several nuanced things that were just very slightly off center and into "they seem too good to be true, very practiced, I scent artifice".  

Initially in his contact with Nina, before it went to any kind of emotional level, Stan also showed a sophisticated understanding of motives, desires and fears.   But when closer to his emotional core, his emotional damage, boy did he ever -- for lack of a better term -- throw it into reverse and see things in very simple terms.

 

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.

[smartymarty]

"I was just reading comments on a review site, and apparently that dead woman was ALSO seen talking to the student agitator on the steps earlier in the episode."

I thought she showed up in last week's episode talking with the student agitator. I remember the red hair.

[fib]

As was earlier pointed out, Venter had his own kidnapping van all set for Ncgogo, staffed by the now-aerated South African lady lugging a shopping bag. Elizabeth neatly foiled that with her Bindi shot. It was all very well paced, kind of complex, and beautifully planned. I adored that scene!

 

AaaahhhAaaaa! I could not figure out why it was important that the van's driver had a South African Accent - I KNEW it was important, but the fact that the van was a kidnap van also? Never occurred to me! Thanks!

[maczero]

I've always been very annoyed at Martha, to the extent that I have hated her time on the screen. Tonight was the first time I could not take my eyes off of Martha. My interpretation was that the sudden discovery of the spy pen jolted her out of her complacency about what she's done, and she was suddenly terrified for herself. Plus, she had to act very quickly while terrified to figure out what to do. I saw it as "my life as I know it is over and I may be headed to prison."

 

Can someone explain why she became wary of Clark, instead of rushing to find him and confide in him about the pen? I didn't catch what tipped her toward the frightened suspicion of him.

 

Kudos to Alison Wright for her performance as a terrified Martha.  What a dilemma for her.  Confess to Gaad and she ruins her career, confront Clark (she still has no idea he is so very, very dangerous) and destroy her marriage.  I'm not sure why the discovery of the bug would cause her to question Clark's story though (other than it being preposterous from the beginning).  If she bought it way back when that he was working for an agency that was policing the FBI, what happened that would cause her to suddenly think he was lying?  I'm guessing she confronts him (with her gun) and it ends very badly for her.

I believe it was nearly being caught that made her suspicious of Clark.  I'm  guessing the moment she left work she started thinking "how could a man who loves me put me in that situation".

[Boundary]

Martha's story has become a game-changer. Surprising, because I'd pegged Paige's story to be the game-changer.

 

Martha's clearly a goner.

 

Perhaps not (yet). Due to one simple fact, she didn't rush to Clark seeking reassurance. In fact, her suspicions - which have probably always been there - are now heightened. She hasn't confirmed anything yet but Martha is now faced with the choice that Nina once did. Martha will prove soon enough that Clark is a more sinister force in her life but also confessing to Gaad is a sure way to imprisonment. Nina chose to trust Arkady, and that gave her a lifeline but it was not guaranteed and sure enough, it turned out not to be permanent either. Martha could confess and that'll give the FBI their best clue as to Philip and Elizabeth's identities. And if Stan gets to have a good look at Clark ...

 

But Martha can't know that for sure. Like Nina, Martha has to play for Team Martha now. Interesting times ahead, provided the writers don't just off Martha. I've always said I hated Clark/Martha scenes and that I've always liked her FBI scenes, so I didn't want the actress gone. Now, the payoff for enduring those scenes could be huge.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Boundary

[Chaos Theory]

I think Stan and Stan's boss (keep forgetting his name). Are fairly competent at what they do. I think in a large part they have gotten by by being compentant white men. Stan was able to go under cover with White supremacists  because they arent mental giants and have a single mindset. They probably didn't ask too many questions when San a fairly well spoken, intelligent white man walked into their view spouting all the right lines.  

 

Stan is in over his head with the Jennings who have to think outside the box.   They exist in the grey areas and have to question everyone and everything.  They are extremely good at mind games.  Stan is out of his league.  Then in comes Anderholdt who probably had to be extremely good at what he does to even get noticed.  If atone is at the Jennings level it is probably him.  

I think it is incredibly telling that the guilty party (Martha) can sneak under the radar because she is so invisible. It will be interesting to see her reaction and the reaction of others when the spotlight is squarly on her. Which is why I don't think the show will kill her off.

I will be highly disappointed if it did.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[stillshimpy]

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?

 

We don't.  It would seem to be one of the things that helped him survive that experience, to whatever extent he has survived it which actually suggests it was present before that.  Also I think the story has pretty clearly illustrated that there was a change in Stan from Sandra's perspective.  That he became inaccessible and distant, not reachable.  That part -- and it is pure speculation from me -- I think may have been created by necessity during the deep cover assignment.  

 

 

 

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?

 

Okay, but being perceptive and having insight into others beyond the surface is a form of emotional sophistication, at least to my mind.  It certainly demonstrates an ability to have insight into another person's motives or behaviors that would indicate a better, higher or even more worldly understanding of people than a simple "good' "bad" filter might indicate.  

 

 

 

That's what I understood as a less-than-sophisticated thinking, not that Stan cannot notice things.

 

Aha, okay well here's what's going on from my perspective:  You and I define having a sophisticated understanding of another person or people differently.  There's more to being perceptive or insightful than "noticing things" to my mind.  In fact it's being able to build from that "noticed" to something more and beyond that indicates some level of (emotional and logical) sophistication to me.  Certainly above the average or ordinary, in my experience.  

 

 

 

Even his dinners with the Jennings show a bit of loosening--at home with Sandra and Matthew he often seemed to be searching for what cliche thing to say (Stan falls back on that sort of thing a lot--remember him telling Elizabeth to "let her man" bring in the groceries etc.), but Henry got him to eventually give an honest answer about EST being weird. The Jennings, especially Philip, really do seem to be the way he's working himself into normal human connection, so he's going to be all the more set on seeing them as good people.

Anderholdt, of course, would see them more objectively if it ever came to that...

 

Nicely put, sistermagpie.  I think that's it precisely, I think Stan lost his ability to easily access the authentic parts of himself.  I am assuming he did once have them as Sandra fell in love with someone who was not the same person she perceived Stan to be when he returned.  She felt he was changed, or so the story would indicate.  She knew him well enough at some point to understand how difficult his friend's death really would be for him.   Then he seemed to come home like a Method Actor having trouble dropping his role so used to living it was he. 

 

shura, as for why Stan then puts people into these very simply labeled unquestioned boxes after he cares about them?  That I don't know.  I also don't feel like I can make a very good guess at it beyond a couple of things already stated:  That people get into very difficult lines of work (like going under cover with the worst kind of bigots imaginable) because they believe in something.  In the rightness or righteousness (not to be confused with self-righteousness) of certain things.  

If I absolutely had to guess -- and it is a guess -- I'd say that the way Stan is supposed to have survived that deep cover assignment was to make certain people/things inaccessible to the experience, to guarantee that they would not be altered by it.  To keep them safe and it makes the most emotional sense to me that he has trouble letting go of that life-saving compartmentalization where he stuck the things he loved in a box called Good and then refused to raise the lid again, lest the shit he was surrounded by stain them in his mind too.  

 

But I fully own that that is a guess.  I find a reliable note within the characterization that has come up over and over.   Now if you go back a year, there was no character who earned more of my ire than Stan because he was so blind, which is why I ended up paying a fair amount of attention to his characterization.  It's a lot easier for me to have sympathy for Stan now than it was when Nina was on the scene. 

 

I do think that is something that is demonstrated with all the characters though: that need to keep certain things about ourselves intact.  This is such a difficult thing to put into words, but there are things we all know about ourselves.  Absolutes.  The ways by which we define ourselves that should anything happen, and we had to question those "this is who I am, at my core"  things, and perhaps lose them?  Then it would be possible to lose all sense of who we are in relationship to everything.  We all have our tethering characteristics.  

 

This show is great at demonstrating that.  This episode was great at showing that.   

 

Here's the one that I ended up wondering about kind of a lot:  So after reading here that the woman with the baguettes was likely driving another kidnap van -- I became really sort of obsessed with the question of "Yeah, so is Elizabeth shooting her in the head reliant entirely on hearing a South African accent in answer to her question?  Or is she just going to shoot the chick with bread regardless because why take chances?  

 

I went back and forth on that about six times trying to figure it out, finally coming down on the "....I think the accent was the determining factor?" only because she did actually wait for the woman to answer.   But also earlier this season, Elizabeth didn't kill Gaad, which still surprises the hell out of me.  

 

Because one of the reliable notes in Elizabeth's character is that she cares deeply about justice for people in a macro sense, but sacrifices individuals to that cause without much hesitation at all.  Like she can only care about the human race as a big blob, but can't connect easily with individuals.  So making those micro-sacrifices tends to be easier for her.  

 

So before the "Whoa, she didn't blow Gaad's head off, even though he got a really good look right into her face....why?" moment I would have absolutely said that the Baguette Lady was dead with, or without out a perceivable accent.  Now I'm not so sure and what brought about that change in Elizabeth?  

Edited March 13, 2015 by stillshimpy

[sistermagpie]

So before the "Whoa, she didn't blow Gaad's head off, even though he got a really good look right into her face....why?" moment I would have absolutely said that the Baguette Lady was dead with, or without out a perceivable accent.  Now I'm not so sure and what brought about that change in Elizabeth?

 

 

My theory on this is that it wasn't Elizabeth who needed to hear the accent, it was us, the audience. She asked her the time to get her to turn around because it was easier to shoot her, but by having her do that we could also hear her accent. If Elizabeth was basing it on the accent, I think it was only making her 100 vs. 99 percent sure that this was the woman who was working with them. But I think it was for us.

 

This show is great at that.  This episode was great at show that.

 

 

I so agree with this, and I love how organically the show finds ways to put the characters into moments that really show that in high relief. Stan knew he was getting to that place when he almost crossed the line with Nina, but now he's still dealing with the fallout. Elizabeth seems to flirt with it by being in love with Philip--it's so important for her to believe that it's all about the cause for her, yet underneath she does like the idea of someone caring about her. Philip from the pilot was shown wanting to be a certain kind of protector, and the Paige and Kimmie and Mischa Jr. storylines keeps upping the ante on that. Clearly there is more at stake there than Philip not getting his way--it's believably a risk of the destruction of his character, as Stan turning over Echo would have been. This is a show where characters often really don't know who they are until they're faced with the situation--and often they wind up doing something other than the thing they claimed they'd do.

 

It's this sort of thing that makes me wonder if Philip's confession about his son and by extension the way Gabriel is using the son, will start leading Elizabeth to her own crisis. Elizabeth, as you say, tends to care about humanity as a blob rather than individuals. But Philip is sometimes the one exception to this rule--they can sometimes allow the other to think things they can't themselves. So I wonder if that might start to crack open some feelings in Elizabeth that threaten her view of herself down the road.

 

I don't know a lot about EST but from what we've seen I feel like EST is a good fit for the show. The speaker guy talked about how people were often only "truly alive" when facing death or having sex, but it seems like this show says that those moments when you truly know who you are are not in those moments, but different ones.

[BigBlueMastiff]

 

Thankfully, the Kimmie story line was shelved for an episode.

Second that, I cringe every time Philip touches her. I've started fast-forwarding their scenes, so gross, I just can't.

 

Martha, it was nice knowing you.  You would have been the perfect girlfriend for Stan.  Two incompetent sad sacks on the screen at once, is far better than having two sad sacks spread out  through out the series.  I don't think that will be a problem much longer, because Martha is too stupid to live.  If I had any faith in the FBI office at all, I would have fully expected that there would be full surveillance on everyone that worked in that office.  Even if there was, they would still find a way to screw that up.

Totally agree, I hate both of these characters. Frumpy, frowny, doormat Martha will hopefully kill herself with the gun she found, and Stan, what a smug, selfish, delusional asshole. She is not still your wife, it is in name only, but you are too stupid and self-absorbed to realize that she's never coming back. She asked him to try the silly cult thing, because it was important to her, he scoffed, and then when she said be honest about what he thought of the seminar, he lied to her face, and got caught in it. I am so glad she's finally divorcing him for good. Now if only Stan would get killed in some botched FBI operation...

 

Which brings me to my least favorite, Paige. Uggghhh, hate her whiny, petulant self-righteousness. i was hoping they would drown her during the baptism, but I'll selttle for shipping her off to Mother Russia for some spy training. More Henry, please.

Edited March 13, 2015 by BigBlueMastiff