Well damn Stan. His plight is starting to parallel Martha's plight in assured destruction. The only difference is that Stan should know better. Not only is Nina working as a double agent on Stan, he is providing information to the Soviets to protect her. And now she's "cheating" on him. I will look forward to the day that he finds out. It will be glorious.
You're probably wondering why I say it will be glorious. While Noah Emmerich is doing fine work crafting Stan, he's a character who has lost me. I'm not saying he doesn't have value as a character in this story, he's just no longer in the list of characters I care to succeed. The facts are that he took advantage of Nina, cheated on his wife, and thinks he can control Nina. He has been in espionage most of his life and should know better. Whatever comes to him, I feel safe in saying he had it coming. My only worry is that when he finds out, Nina will suffer.
I really loved the polygraph story. I'm not sure of how polygraphs work or how to beat them, but I know they are unreliable enough to where I can buy that she can beat one. I will store that clenched asshole tidbit if I ever need to beat one in my life. There's one question I have about that polygraph that seemed intentional. Nina says that she knew Stan killed the agent, which Stan didn't know, and then she said that she had never deceived Stan, but she did deceive him in that exact moment. Stan seemed to realize it with his reaction so if there's any hope for him, he will know the polygraph is useless. But knowing Stan, he'll just stay in lalala land on this one.
And the other big reveal is that Nina is now sleeping with Oleg. I don't really know how I feel about this, because I don't know if I like Oleg. And, um, Nina's declaration that he could do anything to her was not something that would make me like him. Knowing Nina, she said that because she's playing him in a way too though. Oleg at least acknowledges that he knows she's lying when she says she doesn't care about Stan.
For the other "good" guys, Phillip and Elizabeth are evidently now dealing with a wild card in Lucia. She planned to kill Andrew Larrick without their knowledge, which obviously concerns Elizabeth. This story could go one of two ways. One, it leads to her demise because they cannot deal with a wild card at the moment. It's the direction Elizabeth seems to be heading towards. The other is that they show her development as a way for us to see how Elizabeth developed. I hope for the latter, but the former is probably the direction they go, unless Lucia is to become a season three mainstay. (The way I see it is either she dies this season, or she gains main credits sequence next season ala Nina)
The Larrick information from last week proves pointless - he's not going anyway. He's going to Nicaragua. I still don't honestly understand the Nicaraguan stuff and I'm not really that concerned about it to be honest.
But we got a really cool Ocean's Eleven type break-in. I really liked the scene where Rosenbloom attempts to explain ARPANET, which is essentially the internet as he describes it. It reminded me of the scene in Ocean's Eleven where they explain the casinos and do some slick camera work to show what they are talking about. In fact, Oleg's explanation of the polygraph as a wasp was also really fascinating. That's some pretty stellar writing right there making exposition scenes that good.
Phillip gets help from an alcoholic journalist, Charles Duluth. I have a confession. I have no memory of this guy at all, but he was apparently in two season one episodes. I really liked him, which really confused me because presumably he hasn't changed. He says he is committed to doing this in the future, but the look on Phillip's face tells me he is uncomfortable working with him again. (Also the idiot wrote it on his hands and then rubbed his hands together while sweating, something I caught immediately so props to the show for foreshadowing that)
As a side note, the scene where Phillip plants the device to copy the machine is thrilling. Once that guy walked in, it was clear he was going to die. The way they did that was cold though. Phillip appears out of nowhere, cut to him rolling a trash can now with a lid. Damn Phillip. Kind of weird that Duluth had no issues with Phillip killing a guy though. Maybe that's just me, I would have probably freaked the fuck out.
And lastly they give Henry a tiny plot. He sees his neighbors leaving and at first I thought it was a sign that he was missing something in his family. But no the little guy just wants to play on his friend's awesome gaming console. Phillip seems pretty hard-lined on not getting him a video game. This isn't a big deal, but it does lend to the real family dynamics. Paige gets the week off for whatever reason.
Overall, another pretty great episode of The Americans.
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