For an episode called “Pastor Tim,” we barely saw the
titular pastor, only once dead in a dream Elizabeth has. Paige confesses her
confession to Tim, which of course her parents already knew, but her honesty
does her no good, as unsurprisingly, Elizabeth wants to kill him. “We can get
this miserable son of a bitch out of our lives,” she argues.
“Maybe we should leave,” Philip says. “You want to kill the
one person in the world she trusts.” It’s yet another marital conflict. I had
thought Elizabeth’s dream, with Paige finding the body, would spur second
thoughts but it looks like the good pastor will meet his end in an explosion of
a space heater at his cabin.
This episode was actually a little funny, with hilarious
one-liners like Elizabeth telling Philip she told Paige “Wait til your father
gets home,” mixing a wholesome sitcom laugh line with the decidedly unwholesome
scenario of killing your daughter’s spiritual adviser after she revealed your
treason. There was some tonal whiplash to this installment. Elizabeth tells
Paige her grandmother is dead and after a few tears, tells her own daughter
that she has to go to work, with the girl not knowing that work entails killing
her one friend.
Gabriel breaks the news to Elizabeth that her mother died
but that she wanted the girl born Nadezhda to know she loved her. “Did she?”
asks Elizabeth, which Gabriel takes to mean, “Did she really say that?” Of
course what she really is asking is, “Did she really love me?” It’s a
devastating question.
The perils of puberty mean Henry has aged visibly in the
year The Americans was off the air,
although it’s only a few days between seasons. It’s sad that the Jenningses are
so disconnected from their son and that he is more comfortable eating a bowl of
cereal with the sad neighbor than being home.
I had assumed Nina was lying last season when she told her
cellmate she was married but now we meet her estranged husband Boris. We also
see what connects her so strongly to Anton: each of them has an estranged
spouse and long-lost child. Now what happens to Nina? Maybe she feels like she
is doomed anyway and had nothing left to lose by passing that note. Nina also
says she is too old to marry again. What is she, 25?
Philip, still in the midst of his slow-motion breakdown,
opens up to his wife about beating that kid to death with a rock and this
brings the possibility of Elizabeth going to EST, which should go over just as
well as her going to church. EST is actually one of the few normal-marriage
secrets between the two.
Glanders (stupid sexy glanders!) is becoming the hot potato
of the show. Gabriel doesn’t want it and the Jenningses don’t want it. If that
vial breaks, “Tens of thousands of people start oozing pus all over the streets
of DC,” the snarky handler tells Philip. “So it’s safe in my house, then?”
Philip deadpans.
The twitchy pilot leaves the glanders in the bus, which
leads to a brutal, very risky murder. I was thrilled to hear the show use one
of my all-time favorites, the stone-cold classic “Tainted Love.” Now I’m
reading into the lyrics and trying to guess which apply to the characters:
The love we share
seems to go nowhere
But I’m sorry, I don’t
pray that way
Once I ran to you, now
I run from you
Take my tears and that’s
not nearly all
Don’t touch me please,
I cannot stand the way you tease
Really, all of the above and more apply to Philip and
Elizabeth.
No comments:
Post a Comment