Stan definitely had a flash of suspicion for Martha. I don’t know what prompted it though. Could have been the investigator’s comment about trust being like an apple with a hidden worm. Martha seems so trustworthy on the outside.
Since the show was just renewed for a fourth season, I don’t think Paige will be running to the FBI or Pastor Tim anytime soon. But the final scene in the kitchen with Stan was masterful. Loved how Philip was sharpening his knives in the background!
Pastor Tim is still creeping me out. I keep expecting him to make a move on Paige.
I did wonder if Henry had an ulterior motive in visiting Stan’s house - more material for his secret stash?
Well, after The Big Reveal…being anti-P and E, it’s going to be fun to see them sweat!
Here are some questions:
If this were a real life situation, wouldn’t it be darn near impossible for Paige not to crack and tell someone? Were I in that position, the first person I would tell–being a Catholic–would be a priest, who would be sworn to secrecy under the concept of clergy-penitent privilege…so it figures Pastor Tim will eventually find out, and he would be bound to the same privledge.
How in the name of Pastor Tim could Paige live anywhere near a normal life knowing what she now knows and keeping it a secret? My next point is not in jest…can you imagine Paige hanging out at a Fourth of July party with her parents knowing they are spies for the enemy? “Hey Paige, never mind what we’ve told you…we have to keep up appearances…so let’s head down to the Mall and watch the fireworks under the Capitol dome…and don’t forget to wave the Red, White and Blue to make it look good. Then tomorrow, we go back to work trying to defeat your country.”
And it’s not just those situations…it’s everyday American culture stuff that might be too much for Paige…things like saying the Pledge of Allegiance…learning the Constitution in school (she would have to go through that again to graduate high school). Any situation which reminds Paige of her ties to her native country are going to be excruciating.
It seems the only way out now for P and E is to try to do what the Centre wants and bring her into the fold. The are going to have to pull off the mother of all persuasion (IE brainwashing) jobs for that to even become even remotely possible.
One thing’s for sure…Paige now has one helluva Sword of Damocles to hang over her parents heads! Give me what I want mom and dad…or I go running to the FBI…what a bargaining chip!
PS–did anyone else think that when Phillip said “if you tell anyone…his nestx words would be…you might be in danger?” Judging from the tone of his voice and the look on his face, I thought that was what he was going to say.
Tonight’s episode seemed very different to me. Very different from any previous episodes. The pace was so slow. On most other episodes, there was always at least one moment of action some high tension action. But not tonight. I haven’t checked yet. I’m real busy just now. But I would suspect the writer or director of this episode hasn’t done that before. I’m guessing tonight may be their first time. I know that is probably not true. But it just felt that way - kind of like a very slow melodrama.
Twuest, as far as this being a real life situation, it’s very difficult to respond to that. Seems like many things happen that would never happen in a rl situation. When Paige called Pastor Tim and he answered the phone, she said, “This is Paige Jennings.” Did anyone else find that incredibly strange? Paige probably has a closer relationship with him than anyone else in this world. She would almost certainly say, “This is Paige.” or she wouldn’t have to say who it was at all. How many Paige’s would he know? He would almost certainly recognize her voice and know who it was without her announcing her name at all.
Is there a Mrs. Pastor Tim? I can’t remember. But if not, Paige is likely his closest relationship too. If there weren’t other very big events on the horizon, I would spend a lot more time thinking about that. It’s very bizarre. Anyway, I feel like I want to say a lot more. But I just won’t have any time for a few days. Does anyone know how many more epis there are in this season? I would like to say that when I first found out Frank Langella was joining the show, I was real happy. But I decided for some strange reason that I just don’t like him and would prefer if he almost never appeared. Whatever he brings to this show, I think he could just phone it in. But I hope to have more to say later.
OK. I think there was something really important missing from P&E’s conversation with Paige. It was like they told her if she told anyone they would go to jail forever. But there was a second half to that which was never stated. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it never did. Did anyone see the significance of them watching Tootsie? I thought of a few things to say about that. But I’ll let someone else have the fun.
Wow. P+E handled that one about as well as could be expected. Still a lot of room for development in that situation.
Shifting gears to the defector story, I wonder if Oleg’s plan was to see if the defector sent word back that she had been threatened and if any activity results from that, he’ll know it was his actions that caused it. The boss is looking for a way to back people off of her without being obvious about it, but Oleg will know.
I thought it was kind of amusing that the KGB suffers from left hand/right hand syndrome as much as any big institution does.
I just watched The Big Reveal scene again, and a couple of things stood out…
When P and E are spilling their guts to Paige, P and E’s dialogue is fascinating… E kept trying to justify their position, while P just gave the facts. With P it wasn’t any of this “serving the cause” or “trying to make the world a better place” baloney that E was feeding Paige…with Phillip, it was “we were born in another country, we work for our country, and we get information.”
He almost seemed embarrassed about it.
Charlie Wayne also speaks to my other point. I swear when Phillip was admonishing Paige not to tell anyone, I was bracing myself for " if you do…bad things could happen to you, too". Was it that, or is the other shoe to drop the revelation the Soviets want Paige to flip?
If it’s the latter, as I said before, that’s going to take one unbelievable amount of brainwashing for it to work…and it was a wise move not to tell her that right away.
And wait until Paige finds out her parents have to kill people to do their jobs. Good luck with that. Anyone fior a lesson in disposing a body in a suitcase?
This show is at a crossroads…the writers must tread quite carefully if they want the show to be anywhere near plausible…or at least as plausible as fiction can be.
About the defector story. I’m putting the rest of this post in a Spoiler box because I think it’s just too silly to give it much credibility.
It may not seem like it, but I think that is just a red herring. The truth could be compounded to any level.
Level One: Things are as they seem. That lady really is a defector and her loyalties really lie with the USA. That is very unlikely.
Level Two: She is only pretending to be a defector for any number of reasons. Her loyalty really lies with the USSR and she is either fishing to catch someone who will approach her and tell her they also want to defect and she will report them. Or, she could be part of an operation by either the left hand or right hand - one group in the KGB. Then maybe a different group doesn’t know what is going on and they conflict. One group sends someone to threaten her to try and find her true loyalties.
This thing just goes on forever.
Level Three: She really is loyal to the USA and is just pretending to be a defector who is loyal to the USSR but the truth is that she is just pretending and is really loyal to the USA.
One group within the CIA may know the truth or may think they know the truth and this game just goes on forever. Who really knows the truth and what will they do when they catch someone who they think is lying?
In the end this can just go on forever and no one can really be sure of the truth. It can get really stupid and is almost too stupid to be worth this post. I feel like deleting this post. It’s all just so stupid.
As for the “other show”, I think P&E need to tell her that they will answer any questions she wants to ask, but then, they need to never talk about this unless they pre-arrrange a time because someone could always walk into the room. It was very embarassing when Stan was there. Paige didn’t know how to behave. She needs some guidance about that.
But if I was Phillip, I would need to tell Paige,
When you are older (I’d give a specific age), we can talk about whether you might want to do this sort of work. But you were born an American and you are an American and we expect you will want to live a typical American life and that is fine.
But if you want to explore living our kind of life, you can tell us. If you do not want to live our kind of life, that is fine and we’d appreciate if you would tell us.
Finally, you need to know that if you talk about this to anyone, there are many people who would try to harm any or all of the 4 of us. It’s a very serious matter. You can’t ever get drunk for fear that you might blurt something out.
So, you can ask us questions about it. But then we need you to understand you are free to chose to live whatever lifestyle you would like. But we need you to promise us that you will agree to a few things that will keep the 4 of us safe."
Absolutely! That is why they need to talk about it and come to an agreement that Paige will never tell anyone and she will agree to a few points of behavior - like she can never get drunk. There are probably a few other things like that and that needs to be spelled out to Paige.
As far as telling Paige they routinely kill people as part of their job, that will be a real laugh. How will Paige deal with that and her bible classes?
Well, pretty breathless after that. Structurally I was amazed the Paige revelation wasn’t the epi cliffhanger - no, she went on to eat a sandwich and watch tv!
This may be my fav epi of all time: ‘Yes we love you but everything you know about us is a lie, our whole life is a lie’. We’ve been waiting since the end of the last season for that.
It looks to me like a great set up; the crucial moment was the call to Pastor Tim - all he needs to know is that his parishiner is okay, and she is. That’s enough to take the heat out of his curiosity. He can believe the Witess Protection thing if it suits him, it doesn’t matter. That was the significance of the pre-credits scene - all he was asking for is the parents start to recognise Paige as more grown up (contradt with the year older Kimmie).
Imo, Paige will now reflect on all of this until the season finale when Reagn’s “evil empire” speech will see her tip over.
Yep, she’ll be heading out to the microfiche reader as we speak …
On Henry, not that teenage boys are in any way one-track minded but you have to think, while chatting with Stan, he was scanning the living room for more family photos of the appealing Mrs B. You could be forgiven for thinking Henry’s developing a skill with creating crafty pretexts to match hs sister and parents.
It’s real hard to tell which way Paige will want to go. I emphasize the words “want to” and you will see why below.
I agree she’ll start to inquire about what being a spy entails, so she will definitely do some research on that. However, it’s also logical that she will do research on the Soviet Union as well. Wouldn’t her religious leanings steer her away from turning after she learns what the USSR was all about?
I loved E’s line about knowing this info carries with it “responsibility”. What??? She made it sound as if Paige were obtaining her first drivers license or were becoming a babysitter for the first time.
Finally, something that I keep coming back to. Will Paige ever really have any kind of a “choice”? We’re dealing with the Soviet Union here, and as I posted earlier, personal freedom wasn’t exactly a priority in these situations. They can’t risk Paige knowing and not having her in the organization.
The only way I can see Paige living the life of a normal American after all of this is that she says “no”, asks Phillip for her help, thus possibly setting up the ulitmate confrontation…Phillip choosing family over country, which will not sit well with his employers.
Great epi last night. I was intrigued by the insight Stan has about Martha. Does anyone remember a dream Stan had about Martha? Apparently it involved the mail robot. So now he’s having these spidey-sense feelings that she could be suspect. That, and her proximity to Gaad’s office.
Seems to me there were many lines in this episode where we (the audience) would just sit up and ask ourselves … " and …?" but then nothing ever followed that.
I assumed what E meant was the responsibility Paige would have would be to keep her mouth shut.
If Paige wouldn’t like to think that what would happen to her little family of 4 would be similar to what happened to that other family that was found in that hotel room - all murdered - then Paige will really need to keep her mouth shut.
I started to wonder whether Paige knew that or not. Then I realized … Of course she realizes that. Paige is actually smarter than her parents!
Why do I say that? Because Paige figured out something was wrong a while ago and eventually put it together to the point she could confront her parents.
If her parents were anywhere near as bright as Paige, they would have been expecting that and known that that Paige would have figured that out a while ago and they would have prepared a response - something they both agreed on and were prepared to live with.
But … no! They just stood there like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.
That is why I say that Paige is smarter than they are and if there is any justice in this show, the finale will be about Paige using her brain to keep her parents out of a big jam.
I’m probably wrong. I usually am wrong about such things. But it will be so exciting now that I’ve put that into print to see whether I’m right. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when Philip and Elizabeth came clean (more or less) about their lives. I really thought they would opt for more misinformation. I’m very curious where the writers will take the show from this point. Choosing to have Philip and Elizabeth reveal themselves to Paige could turn out to be a fascinating plot point that leads us to some compelling stories. Or it could be a disaster from an artistic POV. I will certainly stay tuned.
As an aside, Keri Russell’s Russian accent is atrocious. I wonder why they chose her to say the line in Russian, since the show has been very good so far about keeping things pretty authentic when it comes to the Russian language. Matthew Rhys, despite his sometimes wobbly American accent, seems to have a pretty good ear and a talent for imitating sounds. They should have let him deliver the Russian line.
This show continues to impress me and last night’s episode was excellent.
I have been a little worried about how exactly the Paige situation would play out since last season’s Jared arc. We all knew the reveal with Paige was coming eventually but last night showed how well they set everything up. The growth and development of her character, over the course of the series, made for an intense confrontation between Paige and her parents. I loved that she laid out all of the facts she has been gathering but I was still unsure if they would spill until P & E gave each other that look (this show gets a ton of mileage out of silent looks).
Before the season started I would have guessed that they would tell Paige at the end of the season. However, now this seems like the perfect time to give Paige a glimpse of the truth. Even though I do think she has matured (and it shows in how she handles the situation), I’m pretty sure her head will explode when (if?) P&E reveal the deadlier aspects of their spy work.
This part is just me thinking out loud after having an argument with a friend earlier. She insisted that Paige would be more loyal to her country but I don’t buy it being that simple. I was born in the mid-80s, so the only knowledge I have of adolescence during the Cold War comes from random stories from my older siblings. That being said, I see nothing wrong with Paige being contemplative and not immediately reactionary under the circumstances. Sure she is an American but she also loves her family. She knows that they are spies but she does not know exactly what that entails yet. Paige may have the occasional teenager disagreement with her folks but we all go through that. That end scene with Stan coming over for dinner suggests to me that Paige will take her time working through this new information.
Personally I like the Stan-Henry bonding story. P&E are very focused on Paige and her new found religion so Henry has taken a back seat in the household (when is the last time we saw Phillip and Henry playing hockey). Stan has been spending a lot of time popping in on the Jennings clan at assorted times and he hangs out with Phillip a lot (going to those lectures). With his own son only staying over every now and then, Stan has a lot of lonely free time. Additionally, he has been digging through a lot of stuff that his son outgrew or left behind. When I think about all of this, it makes sense that they would bond (it helps that they also have the same taste in women :D)
Pastor Tim still creeps me out but I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Nina is scary good at what she does. I had my doubts initially but it should be a lot of fun to watch her storyline develop.
Howdy Frosted Glass and welcome (I think that was your first post in this thread. I could be wrong).
Obviously I’ve also been thinking about the reveal coming in mid-season vs end of season. I’m thinking there is likely a reason it came mid-season and that means the remaining 3 epis will have a lot to do with Paige. She hasn’t been to present in the past few episodes and so it looks to me (for whatever that’s worth) that she could figure very prominently in the last 3 epis (I hope I have it right there are 3 epis left).
So, I expect (boy will my face be red if I’m wrong), the last 3 epis will be very heavily centered on Paige and she will figure prominently in the season finale. I’m guessing the problem with Martha and her gun and her discovery that Clark is not for real figures in somehow.
I mean first we have Martha learning Clark is not who she thought he was and then we have Paige learning that her parent are not who she thought they were. What will happen next? If it’s Stan learning that P&E are not who he thought they were and Stan accepting that because he values P’s friendship just like Martha and Paige accepted it, I think I will just have a nervous breakdown. (that was just a silly joke … or is it possible that Stan would ever side with P&E and not turn them in?).
No. I expect that something will happen with Martha and P&E will find themselves in the biggest danger they’ve ever faced of life imprisonment and then Paige somehow saves the day.
P.S. I know that is really far-fetched and the likelihood of it happening is almost zero. But what joy could we get from life if we couldn’t hope for the unexpected? Maybe we can start a poll where people could say what they think will happen in the finale somehow? It would be very difficult but someone here could prob figure out how to do that.
Hi, to echo Charlie it’s good to have a new voice around. I wish I could agree with you on the above but it’s certainly a great punchline and I may yet steal it ;). Fwiw, I think Henry is playing the FBI guy - I mention it in my blog thing.
More generally, I have written the blog post for this epi. While not entirely happy with it (yet!) most of my main points are there and fleshed out. If you have a few moments please take a look - any and all comments most welcome:
