Philip says very clearly that it's an old birds' nest that's been in the gutter awhile.

Speaking as a longtime Nina critic, I have to give her credit for the scene with her husband. I hate sex-kitten Nina in part because she just looks constipated. Whoever directed this one allowed her to play an actual human being with real facial expressions.

Were you ever a teenage girl? Any song you like gets at least six repeats.

It's the next morning and she's hoping it wasn't true.

But wasn't she drop dead gorgeous that evening? Really flattering hair and her tailoring was impeccable. Nice clothes in her home scenes too. New wardrobe staff?

Me too.

Here's something funny. I read a review from the UK for an early episode where they describe Gambon as predictably chewing up the scenery in his usual hammy way (that's roughly the wording.) It made me laugh because I could see their point; he did overdo the flailing and eye rolling in some of his scenes. Brits have…

It does seem strange. If Pettigrew was bleeding upstairs in his room after fighting with Eric, maybe something else happened that led to his murder. I'm not sure why Elena would have been colluding with Dan to replace the floorboards. Didn't she hate Dan at that time?

You're convincing me. I think the actress is doing a brilliant job of conveying the depths you describe. I also think the KGB wouldn't consider killing her now because anyone who died in that department would be labeled a spy and their life would be put under a microscope. In fact, I suspect someone will "commit…

I think the writers introduced her discovery of the newspaper story because it eliminates the possibility of her bragging or even mentioning it to anyone. This is a deeply conventional suburban girl who is horrified by drug dealing and bank robbery. Tarring her mother with that would humiliate Paige herself. She's…

It's funny because as a woman I cant see it at all. I don't want to elaborate since critiquing anyone's looks is an ugly thing (and God knows I 'm no beauty). But it pulls me out of the show completely when someone calls her beautiful. I just see an unlucky, homely female character (with a miserable expression that…

I see your point, but as a foreign national who was involved with an assassin in a plot to blow up an American building, there wasn't anyone he could report this to. Why would he want to?

I had no idea Philip was The Fifth Beatle.

I'm not sure where this idea arose that the blond junkie was a successful model. My guess? She's just another small town girl with fantasies. In fact, I think this whole thing will turn out to be about dirty dealings in the 2011 Miss Feed & Grain Modesto pageant. Clearly the junkie lost her runner-up spot to Mrs War…

Not sure if this came up in earlier discussions, but have you noticed that every single character is a liar? They all seem to have a powerful urge to mislead. The doctor says the kid definitely has mumps when that's not what she believes at all. The biologist accepted the dinner invitation from her boss but had no…

In hindsight (given this show and the change in decades) Donna's years of extreme ditziness look a lot less appealing. But you're right about CJ. I suspect he wasn't sure what to make of the only female executive in the cast and gradually got swept into writing to Allison Janney's personality. She was clueless about…

I was going to say something similar about Will. When I saw we were back in first episode territory I thought maybe Sorkin would go back and fix that glaring omission. He must know about the criticism he got for "telling not showing" a Will who was desperate for other people to like him. All we got was Will mentioning…

The writing on this series was almost always terrible but somehow mesmerizing. I'm interested in acting and I kept trying to figure out who was best able to overcome this awful material. And after last night I do think that Sam Waterston did the best job of any of them, He had to do a lot of dumb stuff but never…

I'm so glad you mentioned that. I was trying to remember the name of that film ; didn't PBS show it in the Great Performances series? Such a frightening piece. I remember not recognizing Spader at first. His great breakout role after a career playing nasty teen and yuppie pretty boys.

O'Brien or Miss O'Brien,please. She isn't the cook or the housekeeper.  And a widow can never be a lady's maid.