Last aside:

He’s a complex character with different forces competing internally.

Agreed. Phillip has always seemed, even from the beginning of the series, as primarily driven by personal issues rather than political ones. He goes along with the program, up to a point, but never seemed particularly passionate about it. More a victim of circumstance, looking for a real family, than a single minded…

Aside:

I think an important element of Elizabeth’s character is that she is now a transplant. She has lived in America as long or maybe even longer (as a fully aware human) than she ever lived in Russia.

Two notes about the art (by the dying painter) in this season:

It was interesting to see him attempting both american capitalism and line dancing. He is definitely trying on the American personae in more ways than one.

It’s an interesting thought.

Elizabeth getting literal art therapy from a dying woman.

More between the seasons stuff?

ah...so it was just introduced this season.

I wasn’t quite certain immediately whether her “blanking out” like that was specifically about nuclear obliteration but yeah, that is the most obvious (and likely) explanation.

I didn’t recognize him. I assumed it was a contact developed between seasons.

I’m not sure I would have really noticed the dynamic last week, if the creators of the show had not mentioned it explicitly. That Elizabeth dismisses the work but is distinctly fascinated by it, perhaps as an externalization of both the torment of the artist AND Elizabeth herself. Death, depression, pain, anxiety,…

The use of Reagan going into Alzheimer’s is definitely a thing that happened, but it is pretty funny (in a dark kind of way) to see it surface here, reported secretly to Elizabeth of all people.

And now we have the emergence of Phillip the struggling capitalist.

Anxious Stan accompanied by the talking heads is so funny.

Great to see Stan back on the scene.

Pathetic to watch all these people who obviously know Roseanne is a lunatic try to ride her coattails for this lousy gig.

She knows of what she speaks and it may well tear her apart by the end of the show.