I got the impression that Margery's been waiting to have this exact conversation with Cersei for a very, very long time.

That's an excellent point.

You jest, but that's a fairly popular theory. The Center always has a "Plan B".

Yep. It's fairly likely that Pastor Tim's first call will be to Philip and Elizabeth, to warn them that Paige is channeling her anger at them into resentment fantasies and is now using those fantasies to lash out at them.

The cuts between Philip and Paige make me feel like someone's about to put a gun to their own head.

I'm pretty sure he loses Stan at: "I'm the KGB illegal who's been killing your friends."

As Reagan spoke the line "They are the focus of evil in the modern world," everything blurred out of focus except Elizabeth.

Another thought: when the future AIs first discovered David, their initial reaction was tinged with something like awe. I'm going on long-ago memory, but I think they said something like: "He has looked upon the faces of the Makers."

That's an interesting point. Now that you mention it, just about all the Soviet characters on the show look burned out and reluctant to do the jobs that they've been given. The only exceptions are "Agent WILLOW" and the relatively tiny handful of characters (Nina's KGB interrogator; Oleg's father, Elizabeth's mother)…

Maybe. It would be fitting (and darker, and more complex) if the robots had tweaked Monica's personality a bit to give David his idealized vision of her, instead of an accurate copy. . .and come to think of it, a real Monica would have probably been happy to see David again, but equally distressed about the fact that…

Killing Phil and Liz wouldn't be a casual undertaking, especially in a scenario where Directorate S is in the process of drawing down resources and leaving the country. My guess is that they'd just tell P&E to "go dark" until further notice.

The first piece of the outcome for Phil and Liz, under any scenario, is that they'd no longer be working to: 1) expose and foil the CIA's plot to arm the Afghan Mujahedin with Stinger missiles; 2) keep the FBI under KGB surveillance; 3) obtain and transmit images and physical samples of U.S. Stealth technology; 4)…

I agree with this article's assessment that the ending was better than it seems, but what keeps it from being brilliant is the (almost certainly Spielbergian) touch of having Monica return for an artificially limited engagement of "just one day."

True. Taffett might have grainy surveillance photos of Martha and "Clark" held in reserve somewhere, and his question could have just been intended to find out if she was lying. . .but so far he hasn't shown that level of subtlety.

The global implications are hard to predict, true enough. I shouldn't have said "the world". I was thinking more of the people of Afghanistan. The USSR was brutal and corrupt (an "evil empire", if you will), but it's hard to imagine how even they could have done a worse job of governing than the Taliban has.

If it came to that, I think Philip would see the situation developing long before Gabriel did, and would act first. He'd defect from the KGB and take Paige and Henry into hiding with him. Elizabeth might come along as well, but if she went her separate way, Philip would let her. If she tried to stop him, though, I…

I think the "Second Generation Illegal" plan came as a surprise to Elizabeth when Claudia unveiled it in Season 2. It might have been the KGB's intention from the start, but it wasn't Philip and Elizabeth's.

The Jennings wouldn't kill Paige or Henry. Not even Elizabeth is that committed to the cause. At worst, the two of them would abandon Paige and Henry and disappear, either with or without the KGB's acquiescence.

It's already in my sig block.

They can't lie about that. My guess is they'll say they're soldiers in a war, so yes; but they kill only when they absolutely have to, in self-defense (which, construed very very broadly, is sort of true. . .)