Ohhhh maan. Holy shit, that was intense.
My thoughts exactly. There is no better show on TV IMO, so after next week the TV landscape gets a little less amazing. But since it is ending, they are giving us a helluva fireworks finale on the way out.
(Surely there won’t be a Renee reveal in the finale? So she was just a red herring—or maybe they had plans for her but just ran out of real estate.)
Who else thought it was Renee that was about to kill Nesterenko right before E killed her instead? RIP Tatiana
They’d better do a reveal on Renee in the finale, because if they don’t use her for anything, that would have been a wasted opportunity to blow Stan’s mind in the finale, with her showing up dead while out on an Russian assassination mission.
What an episode. Tied up a lot of threads. I’d always questioned Pastor Tim’s confidentiality, but now we know he’s reliable.
I’m going to miss this show.
I kinda wish that Elizabeth had told Paige all about Martha when Paige was calling her a whore and bringing up Philip.
What an intense episode.
Hard to make predictions for a show as high-quality as this one, but seems like Philip and Elizabeth are home free to vanish if they want to. But since we have another hour of TV coming, they presumably won’t.
Two obvious things to stop them:
(1) Finishing “the mission” with Oleg
(2) The FBI gets of Paige and/or Henry and uses them as leverage
Misunderstandings are a close cousin to the show’s theme of loyalty (Pastor Tim, Moscow Elizabeth, holy crap Oleg!) Loyalty is notably often blind, anyway. If the theme had been misunderstandings this was the closing line of the series 
I still can’t figure what’s up with Renée, but it’s something and it will be big surprise I’m sure. I think still she’s an agent, just not Soviet or one authorized to operate by the U.S…
Also, a janitor loyally hurrying to cover for his boss’ mistake needs to accidentally leave a door propped open with a mop, so that the mail-bot can fall down a flight of stairs. Precious few minutes left in this series now, but I need this.
I wonder if Fr. Tim will ever realize that he might have saved a few lives by being less “confidential.”
Interesting that Paige finds sleeping around more objectionable than espionage or treason.
Way to go, Pastor Tim!
Man, I thought Claudia was gonna get a bullet to the head.
Was anyone else a bit more tense when Claudia’s hands went below the table?
Such a great scene, unexpected, but perfect!
Little bits like that are one reason I love this show.
Oh, and threre’s this…
I loved the flashback to Elizabeth taking her training too far back in Moscow.
Well I don’t think Paige thinks of what her parents are doing as treason (technically it isn’t for them), but I think Pastor Tim may have been right about her. Henry is the only family member with any shot at a normal life now.
I’m utterly shocked both women survived that scene unscathed.
Yeah, it was really odd that the best she could come up with is “Your father doesn’t care!” :dubious: If she really wanted to shock Paige she could’ve just brought up Philip being trained to have sex with men.
They’re in a very, very bad place. They’re in imminent danger of being found out, cant count on the Centre for exfiltration, it’s likely the Centre leadership will mark them for death while they still can, Elizabeth now has to convince Paige to go along w/ whatever their plan is or completely write her off, & Henry is clueless in New England. This is beyond a worst case scenario.
I was referring to her own actions, not her parents’. She’s an American citizen, and the US is the only home she’s ever known. Her identification with and apparent loyalty to the Soviet Union is odd, to put it mildly.
I would like to think Henry has a bright future, but I’m afraid being identified as the son of spies is going to taint him. Would Stan be able to get him into the FBI, for example, now that they know about his parents? Would anyone ever believe that he had absolutely no clue as to their true identity?
And again Stan and Oleg. Oleg wants to tell and Stan wants to believe him but neither of them can do it.
It hasn’t occurred to Paige that her own actions are treasonous either.
… and fucking old women, mildly attractive secretaries, and hot teenagers.
Elizabeth was very convincingly made up to look like a young Russian woman. I’ve seen countless girls on the street here (in Moscow) who look exactly the way she did.
Obviously. She relished the experience.
A great episode. But one thing in particular that struck me very personally – I have long recognized a lot of Brooklyn locations, including many Bay Ridge-adjacent locations, used as stand-ins for the Metro D.C. area. But the scene where Oleg got arrested was shot on a block where I lived for almost ten years. I hated to see Oleg get cuffed, but at the same time I kept thinking “That used to be my house!”
Dangling plot threads that may or may not be addressed next week:
Renee. Just who the F— is she? And will Stan and Aderholt ever get to have lunch just the two of them once she gets her job at the Bureau?
Henry, will he EVER catch a clue?
Paige, how much trouble will she be in given that she was an accomplice to her parent’s spying activities, even if she was in the dark about the true extent of their actions?
Claudia, will she skip the country successfully? (I hope not.)
Oleg, can Stan do anything to help him now?
Mischa (Philip’s son) – whatever happened to him?
The Checkov’s cyanide pills of doom, given yet another prominent moment in the camera as Elizabeth grabs her getaway emergency bag.
Mail Robot, will we ever see you again?
My prediction for next week: The Jennings, including Paige, go out in a blaze of glory to the strains of the Scorpions’ “Winds of Change”. Stan drops in on Henry at school and lets him know his whole family is dead (although perhaps managing to cover up the whole being international spies and assassins). Stan takes custody of a distrought Henry, who moves in with him and Renee. While Stan is distracted by Aderholt dealing with wrapping up the case, Renee consoles Henry. That’s when she quietly reveals that she’s a Centre operative and begins the process of recruiting Henry much the same way that Jared from way back in season 2 was secretly recruited by Claudia’s operative Kate as well.
More likely, she just doesn’t give a good goddamn. She would have to be really, *really *stupid not to have realized it.
I would swear the street scenes shot with the young Elizabeth were actually filmed in Moscow. Those bridges and underpasses were virtually identical to the ones around the Kremlin.
I don’t about that scene in particular, but haven’t they filmed in Russia before? I thought I remembered them talking about that, but also about how some of their Brooklyn locations fooled even native Russians (when seen on screen).
Yes!
During the confrontation with Paige, the veins in Keri Russell’s forehead popped out so much that I thought I was watching a Cardassian on Star Trek.
Which would you rather not see in the final episode? Another 8 minute long digging-a-hole montage or a Renee-is-a-red-herring reveal?