Well, that was a freaking great episode. It might be the best one yet. I'm truly sorry I had to wait two weeks to finally see it, but alas this is what happens when you decide to get the free trial for Amazon Prime and need to watch as much as possible in that month. I've gotten behind in Justified, Hannibal, and The Americans. Much as I liked Veronica Mars, I'm going to have to say it would probably have been better to wait until summer for it.
First things first, this show sure is spending a lot of time focusing on the murder of three people who we met for one episode. I think this may have been a bit more effective if we met the couple in the first season. However, the murder of a family is a powerful thing and it mirrors the Jennings family so it still works. But that thought occurred to me when I had to go look up the name of the family since I had no idea (By the way, it's the Connors family)
The big reveal of the episode is that Claudia may been inadvertently responsible for their murder. This ties everything we've seen Claudia do this season make a lot more sense. Her weird insistence on needing to know if Andrew Larrick did it, her softer side, and her inexplicably going behind the center's back. (She was pretty staunchly by the book in the first season)
Now, I still think Andrew Larrick did it. I don't really buy that Claudia would reveal her identity to a significant other who could betray her. She's smarter than that. (Although there's a decent possibility he accidentally told someone else, but that would be an enormous coincidence) Plus, Larrick at the end said he suspected that Phillip and Elizabeth weren't CIA so he clearly could have been covering for himself in the case that they weren't.
I will have to praise Margo Martindale's work this episode and her entire duration of this show. I fear this will be the last we see of her. I'm sure the writers could find a way to write her back into the show, but she kind of has a steady paycheck on The Millers. She's only available for a limited time and they already kind of wrote her out of the show in a plausible way so it could go either way - as Oleg says "50/50."
Speaking of Oleg, it turns out that his sudden blackmailing of Stan was... planned by the Arkady Ivanovich. This caught me off guard, although it probably shouldn't have. We don't really know anything about Oleg except that he's ambitious, but admittedly it probably isn't a smart play to blackmail a known informant without support from the higher ups.
Now the question is: Does Nina know? What is the purpose of this play? To test Nina's loyalty? Or to test Stan's commitment to Nina? Or, really both? There's a lot of ways this could go. (Of course, since I'm two episodes behind, this has already been revealed.)
Stan however completely buys it. The phrase "Oh Martha" could be replaced by "Oh, Stan." Well, at least I know he bought it and then he went to see Frank Gaad, his former boss. Gaad tells him, "Maybe you're in over your head?" I think that scene was placed there for a reason. Stan might suspect Nina is in on it and testing her. Man, the double agent thing is getting kind of crazy for every action Nina or Stan does at this point. I have no idea what either side truly believes.
But Nina DOES tell Stan they are done... which doesn't strike me as an action she would take if she were in on it. Unless of course they want her to end it. Or she knew that Stan would expect her to react like this and needed him to buy it. Man, I am probably overthinking this, but I feel like literally anything could be the true answer. And yes I know not literally anything could be the answer, I'm just saying that's what it feels like.
In things that are much less ambiguous, Phillip and Elizabeth have playful flirting... until it isn't. Whew that was not at all where I was expecting that story to go. So most shows, upon having a wife find out that her husband is an animal in bed by another woman, would probably make Elizabeth jealous. And I'm talking most shows in a theoretical world where the husband and wife are also spies. I think you get my point. This show takes in a different direction, having Elizabeth be... turned on. Well, ok. I only hope my future wife would be so understanding. /Snorts.
And then she tries to get him to become Clark. Which... leads to one of the most unsexy sex scenes I have ever seen. Whew, that was brutal. Phillip knew what he does with Martha - assuming that's what he does with her, I honestly don't know - wouldn't work on Elizabeth, because of her previous rape. (If you can remember that information from way back in the pilot) And then Elizabeth cries and Phillip cries, and it was just one of the most horrific things you can imagine.
Also an unsexy sex scene? The sex scene between Lucia and Carl. That just made me uncomfortable. I really like Lucia and think finding out a young agent learning the ropes from Elizabeth is an extremely fascinating thing to watch. Hope this continues! Also, that was a brutal scene to watch when Lucia murders Carl. Man, I know I keep saying brutal to describe scenes, but... it's apparently this show's specialty.
And lastly, Paige quits the volleyball team because she likes the religious group she joined. She says she's not a liar, which probably indicates she doesn't want to be like her parents, who she's pretty sure are liars. Yeah that storyline is leading to nowhere good for anybody.
Whew I feel exhausted after watching that. Emotionally. I'm going to watch last night's episode on Monday and also post the review/recap then. I really want to continue this feature, but it's a little difficult when I'm so behind. But I should be caught up by next week's episode and I will hopefully be back on track.
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