After considering something, he could be playing her for her role in Nina's death. Her department is likely directly responsible for that. It's a bit deus ex machina for him to have been able to get that info (other than communications spying), but this show loves deus ex machinas, so I wouldn't put it past them. Oddly, the entire time, it's felt like she's been running him. That's just one other angle to consider, if it turns out Oleg is trying to screw her over.

pretty dull finale after a great season

Lot of tension throughout the episode. It was just missing that climactic ending to give you that feeling of not being able to wait until next season, something a show such as Breaking Bad did so well. S5 really has to end with some clue that points Stan toward Philip, ala Hank toward Walt.

I think they were trying to do this with Crandall talking about their marriage and kids while he was dying, but it wasn't quite enough.

Yeah, I'm sure that tidbit about being a happily married couple living the American dream (but don't think William specifically mentioned kids?) will play a part in the direction of the FBI's investigation going forward, but it wasn't much and then ending on the Paige-Stan's son thing took the air out of it. Ending on William letting it slip that it was a married couple with two kids, now that would have been compelling.

He does say "Like them... couple kids... American dream. Never suspect them. She's pretty. He's lucky."

I got the same sense you did about them undermining it when Stan was so chummy with Philip right afterwards. I thought the very last shot of Paige and Philip walking back to the house did a good job of being visually ominous though.

Ahh, well the couple kids drop is big then. I feel like Breaking Bad would have ended season with that line, Stan and black guy looking at each other, then cut to the Jennings family sitting down to dinner.

Yeah, the tension really dissipated way before the end, since we know that William pozzed himself and isn't looking to flip, but the Soviets don't.

One thing though, it's not really clear how much William actually knew about Philip. Philip was always in disguise when he met with William which implies they didn't really have any contact outside of scheduled drops.

Literally do it, it's literally worth it imo

That's true, though Philip did let his guard down to William because he related to him. I think William might have seen them without their disguises during the whole plague scare? I think the biggest detail William could have shared about them is what he did, that they have a couple kids. He also knew at least their assumed first names, right?

finale felt lazily rudderless to me

writers just twiddling their thumbs

Difference between 2 more seasons Vs 1 more. Can't progress the story too fast.

yeah, they were out of disguise while they were quarantined, good point.

The whole season was meandering, which would likely put a lot of people off. I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Tatiana-Oleg flight seemed to have a lot of subtext and forshadowing which didn't come to much. I felt that Tatiana was playing Oleg by sleeping with him, but that didn't bear out as the season progressed. Or maybe, like Nina, she was playing him at times and also had feelings for him. Maybe re-watching would gather some of that up.

A Paige and Matthew relationship would be a dream come true for the Centre, interesting to see Phillip's reaction which would likely be considered treasonous if the Centre knew. Liz and Phillip are clearly very amped up on fear by the end of the episode.

Playing him to what end?

ok i thought it through and i know what needs to happen.

Phillip decides to leave and takes Henry with him. Phillip ends up working a desk job sitting right next to Oleg. They befriend each other and start hanging out outside of work, playing a soviet variant of squash before finally opening a travel agency together.
Henry, exited about being able to live somewhere else, spends his time with Phillip's other son who teaches him russian. they live happily ever after.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe: Elizabeth, crushed by losing Philip and Henry, starts acting more and more erratic and taking more and more risks. In an attempt to get even more information from the FBI, Elizabeth seduces Stan. Elizabeth and Paige, who has been trained by Elizabeth and Directorate S, both move in with the Beemans and the show turns into a mashup of Alias/Hogan's Heroes/mission impossible.

I disagree

Paige storyline is huge; she is well on her way to being a full fledged KGB agent and has no idea of the possible repercussions of her actions. Phillip wants no part of this for her, Elizabeth has encouraged it.

I dont get this? Did you need it spelled out more what they were talking about? Or just thought it would be better if we actually saw it?

I thought it progressed fine.

William is dead (for a cause he didn't even believe in),
Stan has more clues, and Aderholt more involved
Gabriel has approval for them to end their mission and retire to Moscow(2 seasons left so that aint happening),
Paige is playing with fire, good spies cant leave a trail of loose ends like Pastor Tim or Mathew
Mischa is shown to be have similar doubts as Philip and was in prison for speaking out against the Afgan war,
Philip's father(in-law) may know just enough for him to be found with the farewell gift his 1rst wife left their son
Philip EST stuff is just sad, he is so lonely with really no emotional confidante, on the verge of confessing spy stuff to a bunch of housewives that are dissatisfied with their home life.

No clue what direction Oleg or Tatiana storylines are going, surely they wont just disappear. Get expelled is probably the end of Arkady story arc



We keep getting more and more snippets of life in Russia and it always looks bleak,never inviting, regardless of what social class we are peaking in on



I am all in on season 5

Its looking like the next 2 seasons will be centered around Paige.

FYI, the actress that plays her is already 19 years old. She can be made to look adult very easily.

I see a Mom to daughter Ninja training theme coming up. If all goes well we could easily see a Paige based spin off. But even if none happens, the next 2 seasons is definitely hers. I see Paige getting introduced to Gabriel soon after she goes through an experience that's gonna make her "Anti-American".

Through boyfriend, Paige infiltrates the FBI better than Martha ever did.

imagine the show got cancelled and that's the finale we were left with. would have been pretty, pretty disappointing

No idea really, she just didn't seem genuine at the start of their affair

Stan's giddiness over the kids definitely seemed suspiciously out of place. Stan is about as dour as dour gets, and this was after a bunch of tough days too.

That is a fair point

I thought the same. Maybe just a weird way of venting job stress?

Jesus, really? He doesn't see his kid every day, he works a stressful job that he can't really talk about, he's recently learned that his respected mentor was murdered... and he's dour? And enjoying his kid's teenage nonsense is unreasonable?

Reading his character as Eeyore is a real misjudgement. He's had bad **** happen to him, but he's not one to see a happy experience and immediately find the bad in it. He's been trained to look for patterns disguised as coincidence but is aware enough to dig in to things with a whiff of artifice. None of that should mean he's anything other than genuinely amused that his kid is copping a feel on a buddy's daughter.

i still don't get why oleg gave that information to stan. with any amount of thought he would realize it'd out KGB agents. it seemed like the show basically needed that to happen so they just had oleg do it, but i don't really understand his motivation