This show is great at the “breadcrumbs” thing. Throwing something out there and giving you the payoff later. What was the deal with Elizabeth’s dream anyway?
Yeah, Henry’s cologne is surely something that will play out later. I’m guessing Elizabeth’s dream reflected subconscious doubt about killing the pastor in the cabin, or perhaps about bringing Paige into the spy business.
Could the cologne have a microphone in it? Stan would be using it to bust Phillip for the affair but he would find something else out.
Henry’s friendship with Stan will be much more dangerous than Pastor Tim.
I agree. Philip and Elizabeth are so preoccupied with Paige and the Center that Henry is very much flying under their radar. His friendship with Stan is their blind spot and it will get them in trouble.
I thought it was ironic how Stan told Henry that realistically he has zero chance with his hot teacher, when Stan probably should have realized the same thing about Nina.
Ah, that’s good! And it wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the story, given Stan’s obsession with Nina–in other words, he might not blow the whistle on Philip and Elizabeth. He might try to blackmail them into engineering Nina’s return to the USA, no matter the means.
Does Nina (or her actress) look significantly different this season to anyone else? Maybe part of it is different makeup and unflattering lightning to make the Soviet Union scenes less glamorous, but her face seems shaped differently or something.
She’s way less hot, at least to me. Instead of supernaturally beautiful, she’s now just cute.
I might not be remembering, but did Pastor Tim really believe Paige when she said her parents were spies?
I’m thinking that if a teenage girl who is having problems with her parents tells me her folks are spies, I’m probably not going believe her outright. I’m going to believe that she’s is just trying to get her parents into trouble or somehow has the misguided notion that her parents are spies. Even if she says to me that her parents confirmed it, I’m probably not going to call the government and turn them in.
I thought Henry stole the unopened bottle of cologne that Stan’s thinking of during one of the times he snuck into Stan’s house.
I think the whole sequence was simply to show us that Philip and Elizabeth are really in the dark about this friendship with Stan.
Before that scene we see Elizabeth calling around to Henry’s known friends and asking that if they see him to tell him to call home. Then after that scene (I think Stan leaving the room was to provide a window for this) Henry calls home and apparently asks for permission to stay out for the evening and Elizabeth is telling him to just come home.
I agree that things are being set up for them to get blindsided by the Henry/Stan relationship. I haven’t decided if there’s something ulterior in Stan’s friendship with Henry or if it is just the ego stroke of having a kid that actually wants to be around him (unlike his own son).
I think the latter there. Phillip better pull out all the stops to repair that relationship there because if your a Russian spy the last thing you need is a pissed-off-at-you FBI agent living across the street. If he plays it right Stan will feel guilty about suspecting him (Phillip) making him (Stan) a better source than ever.
I thought that was a fantastic episode. Lots of stuff heating up, so much tension in P&E’s lives, all the factors playing against each other.
Two random thoughts:
-When Elizabeth was talking to Paige about how she has to charm Pastor Tim, I was wondering if there was an intentional sexual undercurrent? Certainly if Paige were a fully trained and ruthless operative, an obvious move would be to seduce Pastor Tim, although I very much doubt the show will go that way. But there’s no way that Elizabeth wouldn’t be at least aware of that sort of possibility.
-It’s unclear who these Korean people are, but if it’s just “get to know some people from another country, not kill anyone” it could be being set up as a very low-profile low-violence mission that they could bring Paige into, to show her “see, this is what we do”
I’m pretty sure the Korean woman’s husband is their target. He’s probably the guy whose high security clearance code they are trying to obtain for William.
It was evident that Elizabeth genuinely liked them. And I loved the Pepper Dance.
Good cliffhanger at the end.
I enjoyed the episode from start to finish; but I DID want to see the Jenningses at EPCOT! Severe disappointment! I wanted to see them strolling through the World Showcase pavilions, while Elizabeth criticized the current policies and politics of each nation represented.
To bad Disney wasn’t able to get the Soviets to open a pavilion; Paige would literally be seeing the The Theme Park Version of the USSR. 
This isn’t going to go well; if the trip to EPCOT’s off, but the Jennings aren’t able to get the Centre to cancel the hit on Pastor Time & his wife the shit is really going to hit the fan. I liked the scenes of Nina meeting with her lawyer; you’d think the KGB would just kill her, but apparently they’re still going through whatever formalities Soviet jurisprudence require.
I had actually forgotten about that little “Altoids box o’ death” before the cliffhanger! Nice fakeout. Also, I loved the way that William bolted and ran away as soon as the Jennings described how they found Gabriel.
Is Paige planning on letting Henry in on the family secret? Here’s a WAG as to where this may lead: Paige tells Henry, but swears him to secrecy - making him promise not even to tell their parents that he knows. Meanwhile, Stan will try to expose Martha, but she’ll outwit him and make him look like a fool to Gaad and the rest of the bureau. Gaad and co. will think Stan’s becoming paranoid for suspecting someone as sweet and guileless as Martha. Stan’s only consolation is hanging out with his surrogate son Henry. Over a dinner of undercooked mac & cheese, Henry tells Stan about his parents. Stan - remembering that time that Elizabeth hurt her shoulder and bruised her face “carrying the groceries” just after Gaad was attacked by a woman of her height & build - snoops around and discovers the truth. He tries to tell the bureau, but he’s seen as a laughing stalk there and they think he’s having a nervous breakdown. It doesn’t help that his ex-wife tells Gaad how Stan attacked Philip when he thought he was having an affair with him. Unhinged, Stan storms the Jennings home. He takes them by surprise and has the upper hand, but Paige ends up blowing him away with a gun. Stan crumples to the floor, and everyone stares at each other in shock for a moment. The door bursts open and a voice shouts “Oh my God! Is everyone all–” BLAM! A frantic Paige shoots at this new (supposed) intruder. It is none other than - Pastor Tim, who happened to be passing their house and heard the gunshot. Tim falls to the ground in a slo-mo moment, gapes up at Paige and mouths “Why? Why???” as his eyes slowly roll back into his head.
Henry - who was sitting in his room playing Atari and listening to AC/DC on his Walkman headphones all this time - blithely strolls out of the room. “Mom, I’m hungry!” he shouts. “Can we have pizza for dinner?”
Maybe, but it would be weird after she just chewed out Pastor Tim for blabbing to his blabby wife.
I’m not loving how Pastor Tim is being unrealistically naive about the whole situation, but at the very least, it’s not looking like they are going to turn him into a lech for Paige which would allow them to put a nice bow on it.
I think that The Center took out Gabriel because he was going soft. I also think that the bio-weapon expert guy is in on it.
What, like somebody broke into his apartment and opened up the container?
If they thought he was going soft, wouldn’t it have been a lot easier to just recall him?
If the Centre took Gabriel out the only thing left for the Jennings to find would be his empty apartment. And like zbuzz it would be easier & cleaner to simply recall him.