Great to see Stan back on the scene.

quotes/thoughts!

This episode gets an automatic A due to the epic roll-by of Mailbot.

Ben Daniels was superb.

In the podcast, the Js noted that they had a literal Checkov’s gun with Martha, but never pulled the trigger.

I can’t recommend that podcast enough. Also talked about (but myself never thought of) is how is Oleg going to get information back to Arkady (and ONLY Arkday) in the USSR now that not only is he no longer a spy but pretty much shouldn’t even be in the USA at all.

A bit pedantic, I know, but that scene was actually shot in Manhattan (Spanish Harlem), not Brooklyn.

This show is gonna be great on re-watch.

Sidenote:

Paige won’t have really taken Phillip’s place until she seduces an FBI secretary.

She has to be trained in basic spycraft, so she can use it in her eventual high-security job.

My take was that she’s still early-on in her training. She’s a spy-intern. They clearly have hopes that Paige Jennings will become a high-level mole in the U.S. security apparatus. Having her be“Julie” and do basic spy stuff like watching and following people is the first step. She’s a grunt now; someday she’ll be a…

If this episode is any indication for how this final season is going to go, this show is right back to being the absolute best show currently on after a very mediocre fifth season.

“There’s Ronnie in his office again, playing with those nesting dolls. I wonder what he’s thinking about.”

That request for a lighter did not seem innocent no matter how many packs a day Elizabeth is smoking these days. Dude had Paige’s ID and was a creep to her on top of it he was a dead man walkin around not knowing it.

If you see a cyanide capsule in episode one, it will be chewed by episode twelve (ten? thirteen? how long is this season?).

Ok...this really will be the last comment.

In typically tragic Americans style irony it is the compassionate decision that Elizabeth makes to tell Phillip to “stop” working as a spy...that now separates the two of them perhaps more than ever before. Quite sad, considering they were closer than they had ever been in their lives at the end of last season.

From the VERY first shot we are back in business. Song choice, editing, color palette, a masterfully elegant montage. On board 100%.

After viewing the episode, I don’t have much to say other than “Holy shit! This is gonna be a good final season”