I don't think these things are showing Stan as sucking. Philip and Elizabeth *can't* do this out in the open. Stan and Aderholt don't need to hide what they're doing. They're intentionally approaching these people openly.

I'm not sure where the "or possibly" comes in. Highly qualified scientist with several PhDs and makes good money adds up to money and privilege. How else would he afford all that without money?

I think he does have reason to feel conflicted, though. Especially when he was a kid he was living in the aftermath of WWII. He'd have all the more reason to feel protective of the country. And he still wants to protect the country despite him being realistic about how not all their problems are the fault of…

I'd hesitate to get that from those flashbacks, though, because he's specifically remembering his father bringing things home. That's not quite the same thing as saying his homelife is miserable. The set photos of his house show a place that's very poor, but taken care of, so it's not like he's remember an abusive…

They're not particularly functioning as a family in that scene.

That guy's got so many things about him that signal money and privilege. Like he travels around the world and picks up nuggets of wisdom or culture that he brings back to his oh-so-well appointed apartment. Is that a second fireplace in his bedroom there? Or the same one he made s'mores on? Either way it's a high-end…

I think Marilyn, at least, is the woman that Gabriel once mentioned last season. I think he said she was a librarian who had a Communist newspaper sticking out of her bag so he struck up a conversation. He described her as someone you wouldn't notice even if she sat in your lap. So for Marilyn we might have a little…

I think it's the exact opposite. Elizabeth is completely one personality. That entire personality feels justified in what she's doing. The characters she plays are just superficial masks she puts on. She can come home and not be bothered by them because she knows she's right. She's the same girl she was growing up in…

Kind of the flipside to Elizabeth's "we're all in it together." The one isn't important, just the all.

And yet paradoxically she's the one with more relationships. She had Gregory for years with whom she was needy, and she had father figures in Zhukov and Gabriel. Plus her mother. Early on she even had more intense relationships with Claudia and Leanne.

Good point. Also, wouldn't he have been fighting during the war? So maybe he didn't become a guard until after that. If we assume Philip's the same age as Elizabeth he'd be born around 1942 and his brother around 1940. (So dad was around in 1942 and not away fighting.)

Wonder what the true story of Philip's mom and dad was. Did she really meet the most hated man in town at a movie and have a whirlwind romance that ended in marriage a month later?

I think he was telling Philip to watch his back and not feel free to pull any more stunts like the one where he sent Elizabeth to Germany. And not to be so openly challenging like he's been the whole time about Paige. (Henry will be coming up soon enough…)

No, he was an adult psychiatrist. Otherwise he wouldn't be seeing Elizabeth's character (or whoever's files she's there to get). She could roleplay Paige as an adult.

It's funny…I go back and forth on which one's more inscrutable but I think it's because they're inscrutable in different ways. Philip early on was more committed to his "nothing to see here" nice guy persona and it's only now we're seeing his past.

Looking back, Philip's the one that really got more out of his relationship with Gabriel because he was so much trouble. He even mentioned it here, saying he thought Gabriel was leaving because of him.

To a door to door sales/religious rep? Possibly, yes. I think we even saw that in the scene. Even when Elizabeth tried to say good-bye the woman would say okay, but here's one more thing.

I didn't think the scene had anything to do with Paige's reaction or the mugging. It was contrived, but contrived to make Elizabeth remember Young-Hee. Basically her own version of Philip's intrusive memories, only Elizabeth had her memory show up at the door in the flesh.

One of the things I loved in this ep was how Philip makes that funny comment about the psychiatrist asking Elizabeth about her dreams based on vague notions he has of psychotherapy from movies or whatever.

Didn't Gabriel say they got him a private flight? So it's possible the plane was particularly low-key and old because of that.