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Felix_Cat posted:I love that right in the midst of all the "Paige you must promise to never tell anyone we are spies" stuff Paige is just casually all "So yeah Henry is afraid of bears. I promised him I'd never tell anyone". Someone in the AV Club comment section thought it was a power move. Casually revealing a secret to shut down Philip.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 09:07 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 04:45 |
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God drat, I want to be able to write this e: Oleg & Co.'s dramatic reading owned. Stan revealing his final form owned. Martha's Woah.gif* owned. * FILEPHOTO_.GIF,WOAH: Accretionist fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Apr 16, 2015 |
# ? Apr 16, 2015 09:25 |
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zVxTeflon posted:He uses Phillips wigs to seduce mrs Beeman He's actually so inherently good at spycraft, he's her other man, but no one noticed. He's also the EST guy.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 16:46 |
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So, uh, what was Philip trying to accomplish by revealing his ~true form~ to Martha? Other than digging an even deeper hole for himself.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 16:49 |
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Guildencrantz posted:So, uh, what was Philip trying to accomplish by revealing his ~true form~ to Martha? Other than digging an even deeper hole for himself. I can only guess at this point but I'd say that he does have some real feelings for Martha and doesn't want her hurt more or killed, so by revealing his true face to her he's hoping to signal this and buy time/prevent her from fleeing to her parents & basically admitting that she's the guilty party to the FBI.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 16:55 |
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savinhill posted:I can only guess at this point but I'd say that he does have some real feelings for Martha and doesn't want her hurt more or killed, so by revealing his true face to her he's hoping to signal this and buy time/prevent her from fleeing to her parents & basically admitting that she's the guilty party to the FBI. This, and he was trying to create a truly intimate moment between them, beyond anything they had ever done as a "married" couple, to truly bare his face and his soul before her.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 20:28 |
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I never thought this season would have communist robots as a plot point.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 20:55 |
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The robot isn't communist. It is an american capitalist robot that has been suborned by the communists.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 20:56 |
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withak posted:The robot isn't communist. It is an american capitalist robot that has been suborned by the communists. It is a filthy goddamn traitor and will have an industrial magnet run over its innards like it deserves.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 22:38 |
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Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:This, and he was trying to create a truly intimate moment between them, beyond anything they had ever done as a "married" couple, to truly bare his face and his soul before her. I mean, really? If he was actually bald, sure, but he takes off the glasses and wig and is now much better looking and still has a full head of hair. If anything, I'd think that would make Martha even more nervous -- there was a plot point last season where she told Clark she knew he was wearing a wig, and she'd happily accepted that Clark was embarrassed about losing his hair and too self-conscious to be seen without it. So yeah, she was thinking "He's opening himself up to me" as Clark was pulling out the bobby-pins, but the end result shows her that he's been much more deceptive with her than she ever thought. I took it as Phillip having some real emotion over Martha, and wanting to at least show her who he really was before he killed her.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 23:21 |
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What are the chances that Stan's conversation with the black FBI guy got picked up by the communist mail robot? You could hear it beeping in the background. I thought that Oleg's big reveal was going to be dissension in the ranks based on that.
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# ? Apr 16, 2015 23:56 |
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By the way, I've always wondered -- is Martha supposed to be really ugly to most people? She's not TV hot, and she has sort of an unusual look, but I think she'd be perfectly fine-looking in real life. It's made a lot of her plot beats a little strange for me, like the recording of the FBI agents almost-but-not-quite talking poo poo about her last season, or this ep, when Elizabeth suggested Beeman might be trying to hook up with her and Phillip goes "Martha??" in disbelief. But then Amador WAS trying to hook up with her last season, and got killed for it. I don't get it.
Phenotype fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Apr 17, 2015 |
# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:12 |
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Phenotype posted:By the way, I've always wondered -- is Martha supposed to be really ugly to most people? She's not TV hot, and she has sort of an unusual look, but I think she'd be perfectly fine-looking in real life. It's made a lot of her plot beats a little strange for me, like the recording of the FBI agents almost-but-not-quite talking poo poo about her last season, or this ep, when Elizabeth suggested Beeman might be trying to hook up with her and Phillip goes "Martha??" in disbelief. She's not "hot" and she dresses like a dweeby middle-aged secretary. I'm always happy at how relatively normal most of the cast looks, besides Keri and Matthew being showrunning hottie exceptions that have to wear terrible wigs to look more average. Martha Is the Embodiment of Everything We Dread on The Americans quote:Every second she's onscreen, I'm wondering if the person she's talking to is about to kill her. (And hats off to Alison Wright for playing Martha as smart and self-possessed, only as vulnerable to targeted psychological manipulation as anyone else would be.) Could Clark kill her? Yes. I thought for a second Agent Beeman might, because everyone has a darkness, as this show reminds us. Even the mail robot could go rogue and take her out. Every part of Martha's existence elicits an "oh God, something bad is going to happen" response from the audience. There's a link to last year's TV’s Saddest Character: Martha on The Americans, which also does Martha great justice as a character.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:20 |
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It has to have crossed her mind by now that if she just turns herself in and spills everything (and sets up Philip), she probably wouldn't get too tough of a punishment. She needs to be knocked off next episode. Like even before the opening credits.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:26 |
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withak posted:What are the chances that Stan's conversation with the black FBI guy got picked up by the communist mail robot? You could hear it beeping in the background. I thought that Oleg's big reveal was going to be dissension in the ranks based on that. I thought that guy was gonna be putting more heat on Stan earlier this season, with how he first acted with Gaad right after the pen mic was discovered and how bad Stan looked after he set up that horrible hotel plan with Oleg & the defector, but this is the first they've really had anything happen on screen about it. Stan could still be extra hosed if dude's been suspecting Martha and saw Stan visiting her. I can't really figure out how the mail robot would tie into all that though.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:31 |
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It would be awesome if the next cold open has a casual mention that the Martha paroblem is taken care of and that is the last we hear of her aside from the confusion at the FBI office following her total disappearance.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:33 |
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"Even the mail robot could go rogue and take her out." HAhahahahaha, that is seriously the best part of this series.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 01:51 |
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withak posted:What are the chances that Stan's conversation with the black FBI guy got picked up by the communist mail robot? You could hear it beeping in the background. I thought that Oleg's big reveal was going to be dissension in the ranks based on that.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 02:32 |
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Cuddly Tumblemumps posted:She's not "hot" and she dresses like a dweeby middle-aged secretary. I'm always happy at how relatively normal most of the cast looks, besides Keri and Matthew being showrunning hottie exceptions that have to wear terrible wigs to look more average. Maybe I'm just completely imperceptive of hair, but at least half of Phil's wigs look, well, believable. This show has made me want to learn how to rock a disguise as good as they manage to. Any Goons happen to have a beautician's guide to spycraft handy? Also, I don't get all the hate directed at Paige. Sure, she's dorky and even Holly Taylor has mocked Paige's being a complete goody-two-shoes, but the character has contributed to some fantastic plot development and behaves pretty drat realistically—I imagine Holly's gotten one Hell of an acting apprenticeship working with Keri and Matthew.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 03:26 |
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Phenotype posted:By the way, I've always wondered -- is Martha supposed to be really ugly to most people? She's not TV hot, and she has sort of an unusual look, but I think she'd be perfectly fine-looking in real life. It's made a lot of her plot beats a little strange for me, like the recording of the FBI agents almost-but-not-quite talking poo poo about her last season, or this ep, when Elizabeth suggested Beeman might be trying to hook up with her and Phillip goes "Martha??" in disbelief. But then Amador WAS trying to hook up with her last season, and got killed for it. I don't get it. I think she considers herself unattractive, which is why Phillip was able to exploit that and use that recording he doctored of Gaad and the other agents making fun of her looks to convince her to do stuff.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 03:27 |
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Cugel the Clever posted:Also, I don't get all the hate directed at Paige. Sure, she's dorky and even Holly Taylor has mocked Paige's being a complete goody-two-shoes, but the character has contributed to some fantastic plot development and behaves pretty drat realistically—I imagine Holly's gotten one Hell of an acting apprenticeship working with Keri and Matthew. There really hasn't been much hate directed at Paige. I think people were afraid that she seemed to be heading down the path of blackmailing her parents, which would be awful. e: And I wouldn't necessarily consider characters acting "realistically" to be a positive.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 03:41 |
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Put me down as somebody who thinks it'd be really funny if they told Henry and he just was cool with the whole thing and wanted to play his video games.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 04:13 |
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cheerfullydrab posted:Put me down as somebody who thinks it'd be really funny if they told Henry and he just was cool with the whole thing and wanted to play his video games. "Oh yeah, I figured that out two years ago. Travel agents don't have all night office emergencies."
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 04:55 |
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I'm probably reading into it to much, but I was curious about the use of Ultravox's song Vienna towards the end, particularly the lyric "This means nothing to me" timed just after Elizabeth invited Paige to Russia, and while Paige was shown with a blank or indecisive look on her face.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 07:53 |
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cheerfullydrab posted:Put me down as somebody who thinks it'd be really funny if they told Henry and he just was cool with the whole thing and wanted to play his video games. It would also probably be quite realistic. The Center are idiots for trying to drag Paige into the whole thing at the exact worst age for it, right in the most rebellious part of her teenage years when she's trying to be her own person. Younger kids tend to be extremely family-minded and they'll mostly go along with whatever their parents say and do. If the Russians had had that "second generation illegals" idea a few years earlier, Paige and Henry could have both been easily indoctrinated into becoming amazing spies. (The way it's going makes for better drama though)
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 08:59 |
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I did like the exchange between Gabriel and Claudia where he reveals to her that he's staunchly *against* what's going on with Paige, when he's been the Center's 'do it' guy for it, whereas Claudia seems to be the one egging it on, despite being apologetic when broaching it to Phil and Liz last season. In a similar vein, they've kind of let that admission of Claudia's to Liz that she'd outed herself as a spy to a guy she'd been seeing just get lost in the breeze.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 10:03 |
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Guildencrantz posted:It would also probably be quite realistic. The Center are idiots for trying to drag Paige into the whole thing at the exact worst age for it, right in the most rebellious part of her teenage years when she's trying to be her own person. Younger kids tend to be extremely family-minded and they'll mostly go along with whatever their parents say and do. If the Russians had had that "second generation illegals" idea a few years earlier, Paige and Henry could have both been easily indoctrinated into becoming amazing spies. It's a lot harder to indoctrinate young children secretly, though. They'd go to school and start preaching communism.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 13:22 |
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I feel like I missed a scene where Elizabeth got the OK to head to Russia to see her mother. Last episode, Gabriel made it clear that it was an impossible request, and this week Liz just springs it on her daughter like it's a done deal.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 20:03 |
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JohnSherman posted:I feel like I missed a scene where Elizabeth got the OK to head to Russia to see her mother. Last episode, Gabriel made it clear that it was an impossible request, and this week Liz just springs it on her daughter like it's a done deal. I wouldn't be surprised if Liz hasn't even asked to go yet, but they're clearly losing Paige (she's angrier than ever and kinda ran away to her truthful, non-spy, 100% American, backup parents); the dying grandmother was the only card Phil&Liz could play that might placate her. I bet it totally worked, too, despite Paige's "this means nothing to me" façade.
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# ? Apr 17, 2015 20:53 |
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Guildencrantz posted:It would also probably be quite realistic. The Center are idiots for trying to drag Paige into the whole thing at the exact worst age for it, right in the most rebellious part of her teenage years when she's trying to be her own person. Younger kids tend to be extremely family-minded and they'll mostly go along with whatever their parents say and do. If the Russians had had that "second generation illegals" idea a few years earlier, Paige and Henry could have both been easily indoctrinated into becoming amazing spies. The Center isn't exactly very knowledgeable about the typical norms of raising an American girl in an upper middle class environment. Not only did the previous generation not grow up the same way Paige has but they grew up poor as poo poo in Soviet Russia. So yeah. Not the right time but they don't realize it.
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# ? Apr 18, 2015 02:34 |
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The funny thing about the whole B-2 F-plot nonsense is the Russian were the ones who developed the mathematical principles behind it back in the 60s
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# ? Apr 18, 2015 08:04 |
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comes along bort posted:The funny thing about the whole B-2 F-plot nonsense is the Russian were the ones who developed the mathematical principles behind it back in the 60s If only they'd spent more time making their population computer-literate. =/
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# ? Apr 18, 2015 08:36 |
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The Center's attitude is always coldly logical. Elizabeth can't go to see her mother because there's no strategic value to it - other than her own emotional health which the center doesn't give a poo poo about. But the center might go for it if presented as "my daughter needs to see the country she'll be serving."
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# ? Apr 18, 2015 09:03 |
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Well, the scene from the trailer for the season finale showed them walking at night with "Apotheke" in neon in one of the windows, so I'm guessing they'll get behind the Iron Curtain by way of East Berlin.
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# ? Apr 18, 2015 09:11 |
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BIG HEADLINE posted:If only they'd spent more time making their population computer-literate. =/ It's actually kinda impressive how much they accomplished considering trade embargoes forced them to develop from scratch whatever they couldn't reverse engineer from smuggled components.
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# ? Apr 18, 2015 22:35 |
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My money is on Paige not coming back from Russia. Gabriel will keep her there for indoctrination and set up a serious Phil-Elizabeth conflict for next season (ie Phil will think Elizabeth was in on it even if she fights against the order).
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# ? Apr 19, 2015 01:03 |
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EchoBase posted:My money is on Paige not coming back from Russia. Gabriel will keep her there for indoctrination and set up a serious Phil-Elizabeth conflict for next season (ie Phil will think Elizabeth was in on it even if she fights against the order). Yeah, that wouldn't fit with them wanting Paige to get into the USG. So I see Paige, for your Junior year in high school, you spent it in St. Petersburg, yup clearance granted!
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# ? Apr 19, 2015 01:47 |
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TCD posted:Yeah, that wouldn't fit with them wanting Paige to get into the USG. She could spend only a few weeks or months there, it wouldn't necessarily need to be years. For whatever indoctrination/brainwashing/training the writers scheme up, they can make it be as quick as they need it to be for the story.
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# ? Apr 19, 2015 02:45 |
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EchoBase posted:She could spend only a few weeks or months there, it wouldn't necessarily need to be years. For whatever indoctrination/brainwashing/training the writers scheme up, they can make it be as quick as they need it to be for the story. I don't think Phil would lose his poo poo over a few weeks and a few months is too long for somebody to be a ghost and to have no questions come up when trying to get the jobs that the Center wants for Paige.
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# ? Apr 19, 2015 02:53 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 04:45 |
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The whole “second‐generation illegals” business is already operating beyond the bounds of reality w/r/t background checks, so who knows how Paige disappearing for months would be treated in‐universe?
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# ? Apr 19, 2015 03:48 |