But not everything about the idea is absurd.

Oh, of course. And not just that they can talk about it more freely, but that it's The Right Thing To Do. She didn't like being lied to, so assumes Henry wouldn't either. And she's right. That's the exact reason they told her. But it's also way too dangerous.

I don't think we even know if it was Arkady's plan. Maybe somebody else set it up and he just had to accept it.

He pretended he had a religious conversion and that's why he doesn't want to sleep with her. So not exactly a nerd, but…whatever that is.

I doubt they'd think it was that simple to get a former soldier and head of FBI counterintelligence to betray his country

For me turning seems like the least interesting (but of course I'd have to see how it played out). In 1983, when the show is now, General Hospital is doing its own Russian Illegals story and of course the Illegal there winds up turning and helping the good guys.

Absolutely. I just meant that they're decision to tell her the main issue—that they're actually Russian spies—was prompted by Paige herself. They couldn't lie to her anymore about that—that is, they couldn't keep that secret from her anymore. They can still lie to her in general, of course. Just as she can lie to…

I don't think it was even their worrying about her stumbling onto it, it was that she told them flat-out that if they didn't tell her she would consider it a personal betrayal. They both saw that this was true and thought they couldn't lie to her anymore. So even if the Centre wasn't pressuring them they might have…

And in that scene she's not expressing guilt at all. She's telling her parents they're crazy liars and saying she has no intention of moving to Russia.

But she was right about them possibly having to leave. Philip not hearing anything about the tape on the bug didn't mean it didn't exist.

As I remember it, I think the guy tried to tackle him to stop him and wound up just smashing him through the door.

And didn't Natasha Richardson die a similar way after a skiing accident? She ignored her head injury?

Fun fact: There is a Russian version of that show, made in Russia. So he would say "Как я встретил вашу маму." (sounds like "Kak ya vstretil vashoo mamoo.")

Why would that have to happen? Much less happen with a whole season left to go?

Presumably they need several people to get it. William is the one in the lab, so naturally he would be handing off the sample to someone else, who eventually gets it to her or to Moscow. That's what they did with Glanders with the rat.

Actually it turns out it could A LOT to ask.

I like to think she meant he was "worse than she is" because obviously they would have killed Alice *first* to avoid just this sort of thing.

Right, but that's still specifically avoiding the practical reasons for not telling Henry. She can talk without stress and doesn't have to be secretive. That still leaves a lot of good reasons not to tell Henry, including the fact that he might blab just like she did (and Matthew did. And Kimmie did…)

Really, he doesn't even have to make a pitch. His goal here is handling Elizabeth, assuring her that he cares about her. Remember when Elizabeth asked him to get Mischa Jr. out of duty in Afghanistan? He came back with the perfect response for Philip—I asked, and the Centre said yes, but he's so patriotic he wants to…

That was the other guy in the group. The one for whom Kimmie babysat.