No doubt! The new guy was just a little over zealous in his getting to know Martha, how she reacted to the files no longer sitting out, and sympathizing with Stan over the loss of his friend who was also an agent. He was in the business of looking for stuff, so the sticky pen that would have just been a nuisance to Gaad ( Frank might have just tossed it in the trash) became a point of interest to the new guy.
If Beeman sees the picture of “Clark” its curtains for the Jennings. The disguises are designed to have striking features different from the real Agents, so if a description is given, it does not match them.
Anyone who knows the couple will not be fooled.
I must come to you with hat in hand.
I ask for your help to explain why it would be wrong to dump the recorder right away. I would have feigned a headache or something and left the office right away to go down the street to buy some aspirin or something like that and I would have dumped a few pieces of the recorder in a trash can, a few other pieces in a sewer grate, etc.
Remember The Godfather 2? Remember how the young Vito Corleone made the brilliant move of dumping one part of the gun in one chimney and another part in another one until they were all gone?
That seemed so clever to me. A great way to dispose of evidence. If I were Martha, that is what I would have done with the recorder. Right away. Then come back to the office with a bottle of aspirin or whatever I had used as my cover story.
But I must admit that your approach seems to have worked out just fine. Would I have gotten caught doing it my way?
I’m wondering why “Clark” didn’t, at some point, have Martha replace the pen with something less likely to be discovered. (A bug inside a bookend, perhaps.) The pen would, at some point, be grabbed by Gaad and used, and it inevitably would have felt odd to him because of the weight of the bug.
I’m also wondering how the investigators could ever finger Martha unless she cracked and confessed. If she brazened it out, what could possibly tie her to the bugging?
nm.
Ack! I deleted the wrong post. Oh no!
Sticking it out? At some point the KGB/Carl will need to know what happened to the transmitter. If she comes clean to the KGB she’s gone from an unwitting pawn to a willing participant in espionage. Even though she’s had issues with her work at the FBI, she’s got a big ol bucket of water splashed in her face. She doesn’t know who Carl is, her marriage is a sham. It’s a big leap to betray your country for a guy who isn’t as advertised. I really don’t think she’ll leap, she’s had to live with a lie, one who doesn’t want children.
I don’t think the pen felt “odd” to Gadd, I just think it, as all pens do, ran out of ink. He took it apart, as many office types will, to check the ink level or to blow in the hole at the end of the refill or whatever. It wasn’t until he chucked the top onto his desk that the new guy noted something askew.
Yeah, I’d like to see Stan’s face when the balloon goes up on P+E. Especially after him razzing Gadd about getting beat up by Elizabeth.
I don’t think they can escape the photo problem. It would be hard to believe that Martha’s parents don’t have copies of the wedding pics. Of course, they could kill Martha, sanitize the apartments, fly to wherever and get the wedding pics, but…nah, I think the good family Jennings will be on the run soon. But that doesn’t work, either. Where could the show go from there? All the story lines are in Washington.
I would love to be there when Stan has been looking at some of the photos of Martha and her husband or her sister-in-law.
I would give almost anything to be able to see the look that flashes across Stan’s face when he realizes that his best friend and confidant, his next door neighbor and trusted drinking buddy is actually the KGB agent that has been causing his office such trauma.
What will be going through his mind at that moment? Will it be shame at the realization that he will have to face up to all his FBI buddies who will (in secret) be pointing and laughing at him?
Will it be horror at the realization tha so many of the bad things that has happened in his life (especially about Nina) may have in fact been caused because he couldn’t put two and two together and come up with The Jennings?
Whatever it may be, I would just long to be there at that second and see his face. Noah Emmerich is a real pro. As an actor, how will he handle this instant? What kind of look will flash across his face?
It is bound to be one of the very finest moments in this entire show.
Please God? Please oh please? Let me be there?
That would actually be fairly easy to get rid off. Make sure she is at her parents then bump all three off.
Take the pictures then.
Its actually plausible. Make it look like a burglary gone wrong. Possible the FBI will never put 2 & 2 together.
Its very limited range. Whoever or whatever was receiving and recording the transmissions had to be in Gaad’s immediate vicinity. What better suspect than the secretary who sits right outside his office every day of the workweek?
Well, I was assuming she was either going to dump it down the toilet, to which I would think it might get stuck, or in the trash at work. But doing that points to a woman since I’m sure someone would see a guy going in/out of the woman’s bathroom. I don’t see a problem with leaving, IF she can get out with it. Who’s to say they were going to let anyone go.
The hard part is to know what’s going on in her head, has she figured out she’s been conned, is she trusting Clark? I can see if she’s learned she’s been duped turning in all she has, and while she might not get clean away, she might get off lighter then dragging it out.
To me it seems she thinks Clark might be lying to her, but she doesn’t know. She goes to his place to see it, then wants to be alone to figure it out.
Well it has to be someone in the office. I can see IA looking at everyone, she doesn’t seem to be the best liar. If they don’t find something right away I can see putting a lot of pressure on all the employees.
Thank you for the explanation.
Isn’t that a good reason for ‘Clark’ to have had her put a bug inside the base of a lamp or such, at some point into their relationship when things were going well? Something like “the pen was great to start with, honey, but I can’t really do my job unless I know the pen won’t be used or taken home or thrown out due to lack of ink. Could you just slip this little device up inside the lamp off to the side of the desk [or whatever]?”
It seems a bit implausible that Philip would never have thought of this–about how easily the pen-plan could be derailed.
That’s a good point, if one assumes that the recording device had to be on or near the person servicing it.
However: 1) The investigators have NO idea where the recording device was located, even if they know the approximate range within which it had to be placed. It could have been up in the ceiling, for all they knew.
And, 2) If Martha doesn’t crack, they’ll have nothing except “you’re one of the people who worked in this building and could have serviced a recorder, wherever it was in here.” That classification would apply to dozens, at least.
(That said: Martha probably doesn’t have what it takes, emotionally, to brazen it out. I’m just saying that if she did, the investigators would have no way of getting her.)
I just rewatched this episode and I’d like to suggest to anyone who wants to see some really excellent acting to rewatch the scene where Martha goes into the washroom to try and dispose or secure of the recording device.
She does a fabulous job of acting. The expressions on her face convey a tortured soul - someone who is in the throes of pain of worrying that she is going to Hell.
I never guessed that Alison Wright ever had it in her power to give such a powerful performance.
It is well worth seeing again. I saw some things the second time that I never saw the first time.
They might not be able to prove anything, but she would be a prime suspect. She’d be surveilled and throughly reinvestigated, and probably transferred to another, less prestigious post until they had something more substantial on her. This alone would be enough to thoroughly upset her life.
However, I’m sure she’d crack long before they started closing in on her.
The first thing they’re going to do as part of their investigation is subject everyone in the office to a lie detector test. How well do you think Martha’s going to do on that? :dubious:
They wouldn’t even need to be so drastic. Our intrepid spies aren’t the only Soviet spies in the US. Just send whichever team is closest to steal the wedding pictures from the parents’ house.
The only way they could be “sure” they got all the pictures, though, would be to force them at gunpoint to hand them over. And then whacking them would be mandatory in order to tie up loose ends.
Jeez, do I ever have a devious mind! :eek: