Yes, iirc, the one scene where they talked she was already guilty about
sleeping with the guy. But they’re banking on her continuing the affair in
Moscow? And that the CIA guy is going to go along with it? Wouldn’t he be
suspicious at his mistress somehow getting back into Russia with him? Would he
even want her there?

I didn’t say it was poetic. They specifically wrote a scene where Elizabeth
was made to look helpless for a minute before Philip reminded her how to open a
bottle in Russia. It doesn’t have to be decadent to show that Elizabeth is
totally used to life as a suburban housewife while also being the one to deny
it. It’s…

Oh, there I agree. I think Tuan had created a scenario where he was confident—with pretty good reason—that Pasha would survive. He may have been wrong, since his parents might not have gone upstairs to check on him for a while. But I thought his plan made sense both as a spy plan where he didn't want the kid to die…

I didn't say he was incompetent, but he was being cavalier about Pasha's death in just the way you said—he thought the plan was foolproof because it wouldn't matter if he died. But you can't set off a situation like that and assume that the woman's still going to follow your plans. That's a life-changing,…

Yes, the fact that he seemed to not see the difference between a faked suicide attempt and an actual suicide showed he was not actually seeing this situation clearly.

I think Clark would absolutely have said all those things. He would have been giving regular reports on his relationship with Martha to him. She didn't just ask him for a kid and they fought about it, they went to a foster care agency and put in an application. It was only when she found out he wasn't really at the…

The mom actually wasn't really sick of the husband. She told Elizabeth that Alexei had become so concerned about Pasha that he was really trying and that just made her very guilty about having an affair. So I can't imagine her wanting to go to Moscow with her lover in response to Pasha actually dying. I'd say there'd…

He'd have to be really fragile to kill himself or run away because his generally sweet father yelled at him that he wanted their family to stay together. It's a compliment.

But that's exactly where he was wrong. There was zero reason to think that the plan would have gone off the same way with Pasha dead. One of the main themes of the whole thing was that Tuan did not understand parent/child relations. The last thing I imagine would have happened if Pasha died was that his mom would…

They didn't give him much of a hard time. They always said he was a good agent. They got upset in the moment when he dumped the suicide on him out of the blue as already going on in that second, which I think was reasonable. And then he gave them a hard time. Doesn't seem very out of line at all compared to the way…

I think everyone had the same authority to make a call in the moment, but it's not really that strange that somebody could have people mad at them even if things worked out. It's not that different than Tuan himself being mad when they did things he didn't like and he put it in his report. I don't mean the stuff at…

I don't think it's that easy to just throw in some fake teen. They went with Jim to begin with because he was fulfilling a very specific longing of Kimmy's and he's proven that that's the way to go. Now they have a relationship that has made Kimmy all the more trusting of Jim and less needy of a special friend in…

Well, yeah, I agree. But Tuan wasn't actually completely right. It was a bad idea to just do it without talking to them, and he was probably completely wrong in thinking that the results would have been the same whether Pasha lived or died. It was very good that the Eckerts were there to make sure Pasha was found…

Yeah, but it didn't keep him from doing the job capably, which is what she was talking about to Tuan. William did make it.

Yeah, didn't William actually pretty much have the career Elizabeth would have dreamed of for herself? He worked undercover for decades and then somebody else ratted him out (nothing whatsoever to do with him having or not having a partner) and he courageously killed himself rather than betray the Cause.

Yeah, it's easy to parent when you're not actually parenting. He's not being a surrogate father. He's enjoying a kid who makes him feel good about himself completely on his own time—and avoiding the more difficult relationship with his own son in favor of it. Half the time Henry's there his parents are at home. Henry…

IKR? It seems like one of the things going on with Gabriel isn't so much that he feels so badly about these people he's hurt, but that he's trying to make up what he's done to Philip by giving them what he can't give Philip. So Martha gets a daughter to raise, Mischa gets to now his uncle, Pyotr gets to know his…

I wish the show would allow them to have actual scenes together so Philip could see him more clearly.

Yeah, I really hoped that would become a rallying cry for him for the whole next season. Philip's always been the one who had a problem with Henry leaving.

Gotta disagree about that scene being at all contrived. That was all down to Walter's arrogance. He couldn't resist keeping the book and even displaying it. We'd seen the entire set up with Hank and Gail being connected, Hank looking at that quote. It was no mistake Hank saw the book and figured it out. It was Walter…