i) Firstly Kerri looks just like my mother used to at that age, in her Kansas getup. :eek:. I am…concerned.
ii) Did anyone think that some of the glasses being worn by “frumpy” characters are the height of fashion today?
iii) Re the wheat; maybe it was just an internal discussion inside the CIA, sort of a feasibility study, which the KGB got wind off and went bonkers over? It would play well into the theme of the show that no one as pure as snow and that bureaucratic inertia ends up doing some pretty terrible things.
iv) Why do I think Henry is going to be their downfall?
If Henry’s getting his own subplot I hope it’s something not related to espionage at all. It’d be interesting to see the Jennings suddenly have to deal with a problem not related to work.
I did like their list of stuff going on at the beginning of the episode. They are, after all, raising two different families that must be kept totally separate, keeping tabs on a pastor (who could blow everyone’s cover) & an FBI agent (who is getting suspicious), and then just the normal day-to-day spy stuff. Flying off to Kansas on a regular basis is really not conducive to keeping the rest of those plates in the air.
I do like that deep down Pastor Tim is pretty much what he is on the surface. A nice guy with a bad haircut.
One thing I like about this show is that plot threads may be left dangling for what seems like forever, but eventually they DO have ramifications down the road. Stan’s murder of Nina’s Rezidentura friend was something I have recalled from time to time, but figured was forgotten about by the writers long ago. Stan using it as leverage against the CIA/FBI superiors…does not bode well for him. But I was impressed that it was eventually addressed.
My prediction for Henry is that his math teacher will tell Philip & Elizabeth that he’s a math whiz and a budding genius who’s onto something with his quirky new habit of communicating with other kids over a system of interconnected computers…as if it were an ‘inter…web’. The math teacher will push for him to attend prestigious math academies. Gabriel will push for Henry to be sent back to Russia – the Motherland NEEDS math geniuses!
That’s a good call on Henry; everyone has such limited expectations of him. The teacher might tell them he’s a budding genius who has a natural flair for abstract maths.
One day, might even make a codebreaker or encryption kind of guy …
I always found it curious that the Rezidentura were always so focused on recruiting Paige into the illegals program (and Philip so adamantly against it), but nobody ever even mentioned Henry as a possible candidate. Sure Paige was a few years ahead of him, so they’d recruit her first. But nobody as far as I can recall has ever mentioned anything Henry.
Sure, and also this idea gives validity to the computer arriving at the Jennings’ a season or so ago which, irc, was a gift from the Rez and which didn’t actually have much context at the time.
I guess this would mean Henry is ‘always’ on the phone to his teacher or maybe another adult geek.
I think it is typical of entrenched bureaucracies that Gabriel is working P&E too hard and the system won’t allow anything different.
I mean, they’re working at least three separate identities (themselves, the pilot/stew and the Wichita personas, let alone the rock guy (is that still going on?) and the Chinese family (Same?)) at the same time. Add that in with the schedule required to keep all the covers AND fly halfway across the country twice a week, and that’s an accident waiting to happen. And with the Russian family, the easiest slip would be for P&E to forget that they “don’t” speak Russian and react to something the family says.
Plus the Center is so keen on recruiting Paige that they aren’t allowing P&E any time to monitor Henry. Who knows what he is doing? P&E sure don’t. He could be on drugs, committing crimes, involved with a 40 year old SaHM, or even gay. (Though all the time on the phone is probably talking to tech support for the computer. Or “Wendy” from card services. )
What if he takes advantage of everyone being gone and throws a wild house party? And walls are destroyed? And the police come? And find things? The center should cut them some slack, even if they don’t have anyone else available.
I so want to see an episode in which somebody – perhaps Henry – stumbles upon a massive stockpile of wigs and costume accessories in the Jennings house and see them talk their way out of THAT!
That they were working with too hard was a plot point last season. They got a multi month break. As it is, the Jennings don’t keep their disguises at home.
One thing to consider is that, at that time, the only real way to get computers to communicate was to use a phone modem. People not familiar with computers would figure he’s just talking a lot, but if he’s posting on Bulletin Board Systems of that time, hours spent using the home phone line wouldn’t be out of order. My family did just that at just about that exact same time, historically.
I’m guessing never reacting to someone speak Russian was a big part of their training (& part of the reason why they’re never allowed to speak Russian, even in private or with their handlers). A bigger problem is what happens if they accidently come across Pastor Time or Stan while they’re with the Russian family? Kansas aside almost all their operations have been in the Washington metropolitan area; they’re bound to come across people know they’ve met in different covers sooner or later. We had a couple near misses with Stan meeting Phillip.
Me. She’s still got the clueless smugness of a teenager, plus the fervor of the newly converted in the spy business. She wants to be the bestest spy ever, but she won’t acknowledge that she doesn’t know every thing, and mommy really knows best
)