Much more watchable, about in proportion with how much better Parade is than the album Graffiti Bridge.

To be fair, Philip hadn't told out loud before this episode, either. I think the point of that moment is that it emphasized how far out of Gabriel's control Philip has gotten. He didn't know in advance about Philip dropping his disguise, he didn't know in advance that Martha knew (rather than simply suspected) that…

The problem is that, independent of the Centre, what resources does Philip have to extract anyone? He could drive her to Canada, but otherwise, does he have money to give her? Someone not-KGB who can get him a forged passport for Martha? Safehouses to hide in on the trip? Plus, him extracting her himself would mean…

So much frustrated desire to get to Moscow, it's practically Three Sisters in here!

I think the bus left the station on Philip killing Martha when he took those pins out of his Clark wig last season. If that wasn't the last sight she saw, she wasn't going to meet her end at his hands.

I think it was necessary. Martha was at that point in way over her head and Clark's cover as a U.S. counterintelligence officer had failed. She knew he'd been keeping a huge secret from her, and the main way to reestablish confidence with her was to trust her with a secret of his own. And it paid off—Martha got…

I like how the badass bounty hunters Mick was convinced they should all be terrified of last episode were all dead within 2-3 minutes of meeting the team in battle. Not that I wanted that conflict drawn out, but way to set expectations.

The only way this plotline could be bearable is if they returned to the present and found that Wells was no longer a well-known author—because surviving this apocryphal near-death experience the hard way was an important formative experience that made him the writer he would one day become.

Martha also has Checkov's nickel-plated .32 in her nightstand (and/or purse). This will not end well.

Well, thanks for coming out of the shadows, and good comment!

Yeah, but there's a legalistic thing—execution is punishment, and so the accused has to know that they are going to be killed before it happens. I don't think that execution is ever supposed to be painless. The question is what constitutes cruelty when you decide the state has to kill someone?

Good point, although I think you're underestimating the Arkady conversation's role. There's two steps to Oleg's isolation. First, you have his father basically telling him to stay in America—which is fine with Oleg, because he's generally liked America and his job there. Then, you have his second father figure,…

Good point—I know we've seen Elizabeth's backside in other scenes, but I don't remember that we've seen Russell topless.

I was raised Catholic, now lapsed. The "raised" part is I think where the creepiness dividing line comes in (at least, creepiness of the sort we're talking about right now). When I dealt with priests and nuns growing up, my acceptance of them as authority figures and moral guides was derived from the fact that my…

It only counts if you're rubbing your washboard abs while you're doing that…

Pastor Tim basically imposed himself on the Jennings family, using cult-like tactics to recruit Paige. It's freaky how Paige was roped into the church because she was lonely for a friend her own age, but once she joined, we never saw the girl who recruited her again, and we've never heard much about any friends Paige…

Not complaining, but it was a strange choice given that there was already really explicit nudity in the scene. Was there a standards and practices guy at FX telling them: Ya can have a butt. Or a nipple. But not both! That's too much.

This episode feels insubstantial because it's all about inchoate dread: fear of things that haven't yet fully taken shape. Martha feels her life slipping through her fingers, but she can't see Aderholt's surveillance, or be sure he and Stan are on to her, or even believe Clark's love is real. Philip senses the threat…

She has murdered her mail robot repairman and her friend. She will do neither.

Go now! I don't think Leto could manage again quite so soon, even though he is crazy.