This is one of the things that's always bugged me about the plot, though. If you want to tell a story about how "this could happen to anyone" and "all it takes is one mistake" and "the system failed an innocent man" why set up a crime that's this bizarre with this much circumstantial evidence? The guy is alone in a…

Oh yeah, they definitely discussed that, with Elizabeth thinking it was better for Paige to lose the Pastor than lose her parents and Philip going along with her since she wouldn't run. But I think that discussion was just private between them. They ultimately were willing to let the Centre kill them while the…

Paige would have cared, but Paige's opinion wasn't a factor during the EPCOT weekend. All the Centre knew was that her parents were on board with killing the Tims. Only Philip was against it and he gave in to Elizabeth. So the Centre would have no reason to think they would be upsetting anybody they cared about by…

Right—which Gabriel brought into it after Philip and Elizabeth decided not to kill him. At first they were both part of the plan to kill them so Paige was assumed to just be clueless. After they requested that the Tims not be killed Gabriel said he'd tell the Centre that keeping them alive would make Paige more…

But we SAW that they placed the bug in response to a Jennings crisis situation with The Colonel and Philip had to marry her to get her to do that, which was not the original plan. Then she started bringing home files completely to Philip's surprise as a result of the marriage. Then she only started xeroxing reports…

But the show is explicitly telling you that they don't always make their decisions just on those factors. It's not even the first time, since Gregory was given the option of going to Moscow without Elizabeth even requesting it.

That's not the point. Elizabeth and Philip were going to EPCOT to facilitate the Centre killing the Tims without them being involved. Philip and Elizabeth were part of the plot, so the Centre was not going to look bad to them by killing them. It was only the incident with the vial that the Jennings told the Centre…

Nobility wasn't an issue with the pastor and his wife because nobody wanted them alive. In Martha's case they've got somebody who was very helpful to them and an agent asking them to get her out rather than just kill her. Since getting her out also keeps their agent from being exposed, it's not crazy at all that they…

A secretary can have lots of information that could be useful to them. She's worked with these individuals for years and so could know stuff about them, and she'd also know about lots of procedures. That's why they targeted her in the first place, back before they had any dreams of her actually copying documents or…

Martha worked in counter-intelligence at the FBI for years, which would give her information beyond just Gaad. Also, I think any American defecting was good PR for them.

The universe of the show has shown multiple times that people on the Russian side are capable of motivations like loyalty or even nobility.

But they weren't going to look bad to their agents in that case (before Alice was pregnant). The Centre was going to kill the Tims with the approval of Elizabeth and Philip, who were playing along by going to EPCOT. When the Jennings both said they shouldn't be killed, the Centre agreed not to kill them.

Because it's actually not unheard of for them to spirit somebody out of the US despite it being easier to kill them. It wouldn't be the first time they didn't make a decision solely on it being easiest.

I can't say I agree with that analogy. They're not grieving parents being bullied or insulted, they're snotty teenagers making dumb arguments for not having defense lawyers to somebody's dad who took time out of his day to talk to them. (None of them seem to have a relative who's been on the other side of the bars.)…

Yeah, but that's no reason his argument couldn't have been made more strongly. "But what about Hitler?" is not something that should throw a defense lawyer.

Stone's classroom presentation was just brutal. There's probably a way to answer "Would you represent Hitler?" to a girl whose great-grandparents died in the camps, but you probably can't do it off the cuff.

They're not attributing a trait to them because of their race like it's a DNA thing. They're talking about the society they live in and the messages it sends out, consciously or unconsciously. Judy King doesn't represent all white women by any means (there's plenty of other white characters who are different from her…

She did feel depressed and told others it was a done deal, but I think the words he used were about recommending it to the judge, not adding it himself.

Getting Martha out was actually not just added on to the transportation for the rat. The official meeting about getting her out only had one person who knew the rat operation existed. It was only we the audience who knew that Tatiana was able to provide a plane (when the first plane fell through) because of it—Arkady…

We're talking about two entirely different areas of experience. She's worked in the office for years. She knows who works there, gossip, office procedures, operations that have been going on. This is why Philip targeted her.