Bumbling or not Bumbling?
NY Times recap: 'The Americans' Recap: Mother Russia and Her Children - The New York Times
When will Stan finally figure it out?
In this episode, Elizabeth, in disguise, has a sympathetic drink with a disaffected veteran C.I.A. officer played by Jordan Baker. Listening to the woman’s tale of sexism and maltreatment, Elizabeth waits for her cue, the three little words every K.G.B. agent longs to hear: “Screw the C.I.A.”
In moments, she is out the door and striding down the street with her prize in her pocket — the names of C.I.A. personnel backing the mujahedeen against the Soviets in Afghanistan (click here for a handy and concise B.B.C. timeline).
Two men burst out of the darkness, and we hear a familiar voice. Could it be Frank Gaad (Richard Thomas) on a foot-chase? Isn’t this below his pay grade? As they draw near, Elizabeth strikes. She takes both men down with some explosive hand-to-hand combat and clever improvisation with a passing motorcycle, and finds herself pointing a gun in the face of, you guessed it, Gaad, Stan’s boss at the F.B.I. She slams the gun across his face (Goodnight, John Boy!) and is gone. But so is the precious paper she was trying to protect.
At home, she’s battered and badly bruised, wearing her robe and holding an ice pack, as Philip and Stan arrive from an EST meeting – part of Stan’s latest attempt at patching up his long-broken marriage by retracing the emotional journey of his love-starved and now estranged wife. (And based on the crude snippet we hear of the meeting, it’s hard to believe Sandra, played by Susan Misner, found someone there worth hooking up with).
Unable to detect the wince beneath Elizabeth’s smile, **the bumbling Stan **buys her excuse that she was injured carrying groceries.
The next morning he sees the “other guy,” his amusingly bandaged boss, and ribs him about being on the losing end of the fight against a woman. A petite woman. Probably a Russian spy. Maybe even one of those illegals they have been searching for. And yet another set of sketches of her is on the way. Heh heh.
At this point, you want to shout: Dude, the spy lives next door! How did you ever stay alive undercover when you can’t make basic observations about your surroundings?
Stan will have to recognize her when that sketch circulates, won’t he?
'The Americans' Star Keri Russell on Season 3: Is it Sexist to Not Recruit Paige? This interview with Keri Russell pretty much gives away Elizabeth’s intentions with her daughter, so don’t read if you are completely anti-spoiler.
I just love this line …
Unable to detect the wince beneath Elizabeth’s smile, **the bumbling Stan **buys her excuse that she was injured carrying groceries.
The added “bold” type in this post was strictly my idea.