"They used to have a Lincoln. Now they have a Reagan"
Due to the nature of the Cold War, both the Russians and Americans are developing technology and toxins that would destroy the other side in unconventional ways. Usually in a war, it's relatively simple: shoot the other guy. Sure, it's more complicated than that and you still have to be creative in order to win, but you can be direct. Here both sides had to get extremely creative in ways to destroy the enemy.
In 1984 - at least in this particular show, which is usually based off facts - it's now a war on food. According to intel by the Russians delivered via Gabriel, the Americans are trying to infect food with a deadly pathogen. Phillip and Elizabeth are both aghast at this revelation, because it was understood that there were unspoken rules in this cold war. But if one side is willing to contaminate food - and let's face it the Russians are 100 percent also willing to do the same - then it leads nowhere good.
I confess: I really love Alexei Morozov. I am as certain as one can be that he is going to die, probably at the hands of a seething Elizabeth, but for now, I'm glad he's alive. He's got an infectious enthusiasm for all the options he has for food. He probably loves America as much as the most patriotic Americans. Anyway, this scene was kind of a rehash of last week's scene: he praises the food options, talks shit on Russia. We do find out his son, Pasha, really misses living in Russia. It's teenager talk, but he'd rather die there than live in America.
We also get a bit more backstory on Tuan, whose entirely family was murdered. It usually takes me two or three times to understand everything going on, but basically I don't actually know where Tuan is from and whether his country was bombed by Russia or America. Sorry. He had an earlier scene where he explained "he's one of them" because "have you seen what communists did to my country?" which implies that it was Russians, but I don't really know why he'd be spying for them if that were the case. Either way, there's his motivation. He also calls Pasha weak and that he can get him to do anything he wants. He's definitely a good addition to the cast.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth checks out a farm and sees... something. She doesn't know either. She breaks into a greenhouse and discovers crops as far as the eye can see. She's browsing through and eventually finds herself by a collection of crops with bugs everywhere. Literally everywhere. I got itchy just watching that scene. This seems to be proof enough that the Americans are tampering with the food. Whatever rules the Cold War had before, the goalposts have moved.
The Americans are breaking the unstated rules in other ways too. Stan and Oleg had a good rapport, understanding, and due to that, both were able to avoid a disaster. Oleg has moved to his home country, investigating fraud among the very rich - no real news on that yet - but the FBI has taken this as a sign that they need to turn him as an agent. This suddenly and dramatically lowered Oleg's odds of living past this decade. Stan is pissed at this, and understandably so. Oleg essentially just saved the fucking world and in return, he's going to get fucked. They are going to use his humanity against him.
In other Stan news, the pathetic grade school pining last episode has morphed into a full blown relationship with at least one great date. Due to the fact that the show talks about Stan's love life a ridiculous amount in these two episodes - like seriously who gives a fuck - and that she's played by Laurie Holden and, let's face it, she's out of his league - something tells me she's way more important than simple love interest would suggest.
The most obvious route to go is that she's an agent too, which would make sense. It'd be weird if they didn't tell the Jennings this though. But honestly, his dick already got him into hot water with Nina so that appears to be the way to make Stan vulnerable. Then again, remember how that ended. He ultimately chose his country. The show reminds us here that Stan is a good agent too. He notices that Paige is not happy. He loves the relationship between Paige and Matthew, but he picks up on her general "off-ness."
You know who does not love the relationship between those two? Phillip and Elizabeth. They are fucking terrified of it in fact. They have reason to worry. Paige and Matthew have progressed to boob-touching. I don't know if it's because the show has put me so effectively into Phillip and Elizabeth's shoes or what, but I do not feel comfortable watching those scenes. The making out is painfully realistic - natural, but very awkward looking for two teenagers - and that goes a long way towards making me want to move the fuck on to the next scene.
All things considered, they are taking it pretty well. The self-defense classes continue and they are going to start teaching her ways to not accidentally tell him things. The rubbing of the thumb and index finger seems particularly helpful if you want to calm down. Funny how that works. I might actually do that the next time I'm stressed. They apparently don't care if she has sex, which I find weird, but makes sense because of how they use sex for their job. In all, I do think this was a lesser episode of The Americans - but that's still pretty good for most shows.
Notes
- I've never actually taken self-defense classes and the creators attention to detail is good enough that I trust this is actually a technique, but the casually swinging your arms and hitting that target does not seem useful to me.
- Also, I think in TV (and movies of course), sound effects are added after production - what you hear is not necessarily what you would actually hear if you watched the scene being filmed in the background - and the strength with which she was swinging her arms was considerably weaker than the noise that was supposedly coming from her hitting the target. I don't know if I was the only one noticing that.
- IMDB informs me that Holden is in six episodes of this show. She's probably a more important character than Stan's last girlfriend (who was also considerably out of his league. Sorry Noah Emmerich)
- Interesting that this episode was written by the creators themselves. Usually more important things happen when creators write an episode. Oh well. It was directed by Chris Long, his second straight episode of the season.
- I suspect the people who found the digging scene boring will not like this episode either. Just a guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment