Not poorly edited, imo. E was playing the long game - how long does it take for a couple to trust someone with their kids for a weekend. She worked the wife for 6-7 episodes.
Would it have been easier for you to understand with a 20-second scene of Don at work staring into a microscope with a giant sign behind his head saying ‘Level 4’?
She not only “worked the wife” for that many episodes, there was a seven month time jump in there too.
That’s plausible. When I was consulting, there were some clients that I truly enjoyed working with but when my job was over with them, I pretty much never saw them again. I did miss them but there was only so much time in my life.
I still wonder how E would prove that she had that liaison. She didn’t take pictures that we saw but I suppose that she could claim that she did. I still think that Don will tell her to fuck off when she tries to do the blackmail. It would be the smart move because she probably wouldn’t go through with telling Young Hee.
But did they even mention that he is a biochemist? Could have been as simple as a remark about him helping the kids with their science homework, or a mention that he couldn’t talk about work at home, or his wife referring to stress at the “lab”. But I never got ANY idea what he does. Yeah, I can see that he likely works with the lab since the 2 story lines are near each other, but it seems like some posters here KNOW what he does. For all they’ve said, he could be an accountant.
I just wanted to know if I missed something.
This episode was the first time it was finally explained, pretty much. “Pretty much” in that the explanation this episode was clear but not explicit.
Max, although after past episodes it was just speculated that Don works at the lab where William does, I’m pretty sure in this one it was made explicit.
I share your dubiousness about this. Too bad, because the lotion was a nice touch. And I don’t think it was pointless for her to make a move on him before he passed out. If he responded positively, then all the more reason for him to believe they had had sex once he woke up. But even now, he can think that after he got drunker and blacked out, his resistance wore down. Doing stuff when you’re drunk that you don’t remember later is a real thing. I had it happen a couple times to me, in my salad days.
ETA:
A lot of people on blogs and boards I read are suspicious of Tatyana. But I think this is like the pastor: she is just what she seems to be, and people are just suspicious for some reason.
Wasn’t Sophie’s Choice also featured in a previous episode? Or was that The French Lieutenants Woman?
I’m really not getting this at all.
E was in disguise, obv. went out of her way to meet this woman who is a part-time working mother of three kids. This, almost straight after we are told they need access codes to level 4.
We see glimpses of frustration that the husband barely acknowledges E exists, we see E cultivating the wife over several episodes and months, we see the husband’s indifference repeated.
I honestly don’t know what more you need. The whole point of the show is the audience isn’t treated like retarded goldfish.
In the scene with Philip and Elizabeth in the bathroom after they watched The Day after, Philip suggests they don’t report to the Center about the new virus, but Elizabeth responds with urgency, “They are making that poison for us, to destroy us… this is why we are here. I’ll search Young-Hee’s place. See if there’s anything we can use on Don.” There is a pause before she mentions searching their place, but it certainly seemed to be one stream of thought.
Then at the travel agency, Elizabeth, after lamenting that she couldn’t find anything to use on Don, tells Philip he’ll have to fix dinner for the kids because she is going with Plan Roofie. Immediately following that scene, Philip meets with William, who at that point isn’t sure if they are going to try to steal the virus yet, to tell him that “we’re gonna move forward.”
So all of that seems to indicate Don has some sort of access or something, or at least that they aren’t two separate operations.
But, yeah, since they haven’t explicitly made it known he is connected to the lab, it’s possible we are being set up for a twist.
I don’t think there’s much to the Oleg/Tatiana thing. I think they’re just f-buddies. (Can we use the whole word here if we’re not using it to insult someone or is it just a “pit” thing?) I mean, I’d be surprised if they’d be allowed to date outside people and pickin’s at the embassy gotta be kinda slim.
You can say FUCK anywhere, you just can’t say “fuck YOU”
You didn’t miss anything: they don’t know, they’re guessing.
Makes as much sense as the rich enjoy sex (or, just the ability to be loud if they wish) more than the poor.
We don’t know that he’s a biochemist. All that’s implied is he has level 4 access, whatever his job role.
And it’s not that the rich enjoy sex more, it’s that Tatyana had to be mindful of the neighbors and suppress noise, whereas Oleg did not.
Right. Clearly we are meant to think that the game with Don is to get Level 4 access. I suppose it could be for something totally different but I don’t see the point of that in the storytelling.
Personally I think it is just as likely ( maybe even more likely ) that he is head of corporate security for Walt Disney World in Florida and they’re just trying to secure four free passes to the Epcot Center. C’mon now - you expect Elizabeth to agree to pay retail for that monument to capitalist excess?
Exactly: we do not know, unless the definition of implied has changed since I last looked.
I am not being churlish… just pointing out that we might be snapping at a hook that’s being dangled by the writers.
As to Tatyana… that was my take, as well.
My issue with this has already been pointed out, but let’s consider it again:
The conversation with William about gaining access to Level 4 comes at the time E babysits.
So, E is already a trusted friend… a long game?
The writers must have discussed this.
Are we being played?
S4E3 - William tells P he doesn’t have the codes to access level 4. P says they are werking on it. This is after Gabriel gives E a list of company employees at Fort Detrick. The babysitting is 7 months later.
Then… why run the scene again?
Correct. Tatiana grew up in a kommunalka, her entire family would’ve lived in a single room and shared a kitchen & bathroom with their neighbors. Oleg comes from the nomenklatura; this childhood home was a private flat in one of those ornate Stalinist buildings in Moscow, and this family probably drove their private car to their dacha in the country on weekends. The USSR was far from classless.
what?