What a cruel thing to do to an audience and a character. It
was pretty clear that the end was near for Nina Sergeevna Krilova but I didn’t
expect it to happen a split second after the KGB sentenced her.
I give credit to the show for deftly executing (sorry!) this
development. Nina has been a dead woman walking for several seasons so if they
killed her with a long scene before a firing squad, it would have seemed kind
of obvious. The way they did it, with the fake-out plan to free her and the
heartbreaking scene of putting her dead body in a sack, left us gasping and shell-shocked.
Of course, there were some signs, like the walk through the
bleak dungeon that looked more like a walk to the gallows than a walk to
freedom. I was pretty sure the scene with Nina walking into the snow with Anton
was a dream, since it looked too much like An
Officer and a Gentleman, but it increased the cruelty. And the cruelest cut
of all was the plan to free Nina, with the order from Oleg’s father coming just
a little too late. (When they find out, Stan and Oleg are going to go on a
rampage in the USSR, right?) But really, would Nina have been happy owing her life to yet another person and having to play chess piece again?
“Chloramphenicol” was full of some masterful, subtle
misdirection. Despite the bleakness of what the characters are dealing with,
there were some notes of hope, like flowers starting to poke through the ground
after a brutal winter. Despite mourning for his brother, it looked like Oleg
would get a win-win by going home and reuniting with Nina. Despite Stan’s
aimless post-divorce life, Matthew was going to start living with him part-time
and he never seems happier or looser than when he is with Henry (which is kind
of heartwarming but mostly sad if you think about it). Despite the glanders
scare, there was some hope when Phillip and Elizabeth decided not to kill
Pastor Tim and Alice but try to work them, and the morning after seemed like
the dawning of a more hopeful era. Then the Jenningses went bowling (I loved
Elizabeth’s “Very important part of training” to Paige in an exaggerated
Russian accent). Those hints of hope made Nina’s death even more horrible.
The glanders stuff was pretty rough for awhile but in the
end, Elizabeth never actually had the disease at all. I appreciated the
flashback to Nadezhda’s mother’s illness and the parallel that Elizabeth was
unable to tell her daughter what to do in the event of her death, plus the amazing admission that she would want Phillip to raise the kids as Americans. It was
unsettling seeing a delirious Elizabeth so vulnerable and this is the first
time she’s really come unraveled like that. The instructions to Phillip to
blame a dead Elizabeth for Pastor Tim and Alice’s deaths were chilling. That
long, teary hug between her and Paige showed that this put a scare in Elizabeth
like nothing else has.
Martha knows something’s up. There was a neat contrast
between her clumsy code when leaving a message for Clark and Elizabeth’s more
practiced code on the phone to the Jane Fonda workout-loving operator when
calling off the assassinations. The scene with Martha opening up to Aderholt
while Stan ransacked her apartment was very effective, with the character going
vulnerable on a level she chose and a level she didn’t. Even Phillip was
letting himself be vulnerable this episode, revealing the existence of his
children to William. It looked like they all might be dying anyway, so why not
open up? William (who better be in every episode) envies the Jenningses because
they have each other to confide in but Phillip is going through some things he
really can’t tell anybody.
I was fascinated by Martha opening up to Aderholt about
seeing a married man. I’m not quite sure how to read it, though. On some level,
does Martha know Clark has another family? She must at least suspect that he
would have some kind of cover identity and a fake family. That monologue was a
stunner.
What a cruel episode. More, please.
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