An even better way would have been for Renee to just tell her own handler.
Actually maybe all KGB does makes more sense? As in - Phil & Liz are KGB, but perhaps the KGB started to worry about them a while ago, both in terms of their safety with Stan living opposite and uncertainty about their commitment/loyalty - so they put loyal Renee in place to keep an eye on them?
Possibly, but that may not be part of her remit. On the other hand, P&E are known KGB assassins. It might be better to pass it on to them while keeping a low profile. Or, it may just have been propitious timing—having P&E over for dinner right after learning about the defectors. Or, she could have been ordered by the GRU to just drop the hint and let P&E handle it.
Any number of reasons why the thing played out the way it did.
Oleg was KGB.
Illegals don’t exactly grow on trees. And whatever rivalries there were, I doubt it was natural for the GRU to waste a valuable agent spying on KGB illegals in the US. Or can you cite any examples of this happening?
It isn’t tangential insofar as Riemann framing the likelihood of Renee being GRU inside the space of the pro/anti Gorbachev factions playing against one another.
Again, possible. Can’t wait to find out.
Before she died, didn’t Tatiana mention he wasn’t working for the GRU on this trip?
No, I can’t. But even if she were spying on P&E, I would think her primary mission is to get close to Stan.
Does he do that, or is he just commenting on all this shit hitting the fan at once?
What’s your take on this aspect of the situation, Riemann?
Assuming Renee is an agent, passing the info on to Elizabeth with two FBI agents in the next room is not low profile. Also, let Philip and Elizabeth handle what? There was no actionable info given. She mentioned a couple whose marriage might be failing, that’s it. What could they possibly have done?
That is usually not a sign of good story telling.
To any casual observer, talking about Stan’s problems at work would sound like normal housewife chit-chat. In any case, neither agent heard what she said; even if they could hear in the next room, it’s likely they wouldn’t be paying attention anyway.
We’ll find out what Renee’s story is soon enough. No point in flogging it to death at this juncture.
When they met this season outside the school? No, she didn’t.
Not to belabor it, but again this line of discussion comes from Riemann originally suggesting that the GRU placed Renee with Stan in order to keep an eye on Philip and Elizabeth. I agree with him that it makes more sense if Renee is KGB.
Right, I forgot about that flashback scene in the first season where we saw the KGB instructor telling the illegal recruits “It’s totally cool to talk in the open so long as it sounds like normal housewife chit-chat.”
Ack, I forgot Tatiana talks to the rezident after meeting with Oleg. Yeah, she says he’s not back in the US for the GRU, but she says that as a means of trying to figure out why he is back. “He’s not here working for the GRU, he’s not here working for the KGB…”
When he was in Washington originally, he was the KGB head of Line X for the rezidentura.
And how would the GRU know who the KGB illegals were? As noted, the agencies were rivals, and even the KGB agents in the embassy didn’t know who they were. Their contacts all went through The Center back in the USSR. So how would the GRU know where to put their agent, even if they had one available?
Wouldn’t there have been an extensive background check on Renee for her FBI job? P & E would fail something like that. Renee isn’t an illegal but she could have been recuited as a young adult.
Captain, I sense … sarcasm! 
While we’re on the topic of Stan … is he actually going to get away with performing an extrajudicial execution (i.e., cold-blooded, premeditated murder)? He’s already confessed it to his superior; is this the kind of thing you can expect once you’re inside the FBI?
Seems like a big loose end to me.
Good question.
Good point!
Series creator and co-showrunner Joe Weisberg makes the clearest declaration yet, in this week’s official podcast.
FWIW
Actual quote is slightly longer:
“Elizabeth for us…and it’s complicated to say because we’ve seen all these horrible things she’s done over the years, but we’ve never thought of her as a bad person. We’ve always thought of her as someone with a good heart, and a good soul who’s trying to do the job she’s supposed to do.”
The podcasts are publically available: https://player.fm/series/the-americans-podcast
BTW what was that database Stan was searching in his office? I assume it was some kind of law enforcement database, but I didn’t get the impression that the lack of results for the Jennings or their travel agency was supposed to be suspicious (to the audience or Stan).
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No, he was just checking criminal history I assume. But that could be informative in a negative manner if it didn’t pull up any parking tickets, youthful indiscretions, etc.
I found it remarkable that out of a population of 200 million plus there was absolutely no mention of someone named Elizabeth Jennings and only one mention of a Philip Jennings. These are hardly rare names.
And how can you run a business in the USA without a shitload of documentation on file? My guess is, you can’t.