IIRC, she basically said as much when she confronted him about telling Alice.

All true (although the Catholic characteristics you note are also quite true of older Protestant denominations), but I do wish they'd come up with a coherent set of tenets that his church belongs to, especially as it would better inform his dialogue. Too often, the things he says ring unrealistic in Christian terms—I…

How many times has this been said about him (all the way back to "Martial Eagle," at least). The guy's like a roach.

I would like to see "Martha" regularly become a verb here on The AV Club.

No Martha. No Martha. You're the Martha!

But what if Elizabeth going along with it is *her* working *him*?

That's true about Tim's viewpoint, and while I don't often criticize the writers, I think they've been extremely inconsistent with the actual tenets of Tim's brand of Christianity. That might work to dramatic advantage here—as witness all the differing interpretations in this thread of his thoughts and words—but it…

And it's ironic that he's the one who gave her Marx to read, which may have tipped her over to her parents' side for good.

Bare boning on the wedding night is a good idea.

Aderholt's gonna be the one putting two and two together.

In non-Soviet America, capitalism marries you!

Post-credits scene, series finale: Martha's doorbell rings, she answers it, and Arkady is there with roses.

She wants some reassurances from someone in her life that things are going to turn out OK, but she trusts neither her parents nor Tim enough to believe those assurances when she gets them, and they're always contradicting each other (and themselves). She's the monkey-in-the-middle, the ball is reassurance and honesty,…

Perhaps people are attributing Tim's approach to malice or selfishness when it might be attributable to cluelessness. He might indeed "know what spies do," at least to some extent, but he may not have a clue how to deal with it, and the Centre he takes orders from hasn't been any better at guiding him as the KGB…

Coming from an ex-Christian standpoint (and having family who trained in the youth ministry), I don't think that's the way PT is seeing it.

Python Vox staging:

"Why is the house always so clean when we get home from killing people and screwing dull Kansans?"

And the last time she said that, Paige ended up making a very unfortunate call to Pastor Tim. Plus ca change….

Philip perhaps with a tiny bit of openness toward a higher power or a spiritual life, and Elizabeth enjoying a tradition, a bit of the old home country despite the presence in it of that same higher power.

Belize, a.k.a. The Cornfield.