No reason they'd see him as failing. They both ended up dead. Doesn't matter which one of them pulled the trigger. Philip offered to kill when Elizabeth couldn't twice in the past.

She was an executioner for them for a long time. They got her drunk the first time, but that was far from the only time she killed people for them. Killing to keep yourself alive makes you a collaborator.

She wasn't drunk when she killed the soldiers. They got her drunk *the first time.* She executed many people for them over time. This wasn't one incident they were executing her for.

The government wouldn't get to decide that. Minors were allowed to travel to the USSR.

Yes, someone who enthusiastically volunteers to kill 100s of their fellow citizens over a long period of time for the Nazis is not the same person who kills 100s of their fellow citizens over a long period of time for the Nazis because they don't want to be killed themselves. But the punishment for her would still…

I think the priest may have filled out some church paperwork for them as a favor if that was something they could file with the state or whatever (since he did seem to imply something like that), but I think the priest would probably agree with you that there were things about the ceremony that made it not a true…

Well, yeah, I agree. It’s not usually what they do and it’s not about the
Cold War at all. I was just disagreeing that this wouldn’t be a very serious
mission rather than busywork. Nor would it be revenge. The punishment for
collaborating with Nazis the way she did was execution. So to the USSR this was
justice. It…

We’ve never been told their last names but coincidentally, I just happened to
look at a list on IMDB that seemed to reveal (I won’t explain how since that
could be a spoiler) that the name Mischa Jr. was given on the show actually is
Philip’s last name. If that’s correct then Philip’s last name is Semyenov (not
sure…

Because finding a collaborator in the US isn't something that happens with any regularity. If they came across one living in the US they'd want her. The real woman it seems to be based on was I think caught in Germany in 1970.

She's not semi-random to them. Catching a Nazi collaborator who killed many Soviet citizens would be very important.

Although when she did care about them it was in S1 and she kept trying to break them up. She saw Philip as a threat to Elizabeth's loyalty to the cause and didn't trust him right off that bat. (Was she reading Elizabeth's reports on him over the years?)

Quite possible, though she remembered it in this scene. But even if she did repress it's the same outcome. She was able to enjoy a long and happy life.

Yes. Most collaborators did what they did because of some pressure and not because they liked Nazis. She wasn't that unusual in that sense. She chose to kill others etc. to save herself and that's what she was being punished for.

I think he meant "official" in terms of saying vows. That was the thing they focused on when he married Martha. Doesn't matter how legal it is. Them doing the ritual is official.

She really was the woman they were looking for. She was lying at first, but then telling the truth.

The Soviet Union would never consider the capture of a Nazi Collaborator to be busy work. The fact that she got away with it for 40 years wouldn't make them any less determined to get her.

Of course that brings up the question: Why did she think that was a good idea, exactly?

People say this about Oleg too, that he's heading for defection. To me it seems like he wants to improve his country.

Yes, seems like the main connection to P&E was that the woman wasn't who she appeared, something they know something about. But even when Philip feels guilty about what he's done, he's not a war criminal. He knows that his own people consider him a hero. It's a very different thing.

I don't think she's supposed to be tormented. She's making a pragmatic decision, I think, more than acting out of despair. A year ago she never would have been able to even consider going home voluntarily. Now she's looking at her options and seeing that as a good one.