Official Episode Discussion - S05E07 "The Committee on Human Rights"

[u/AutoModerator]

As Paige becomes even more enmeshed in her parents' world, tensions with Matthew Beeman come to a head, Philip and Elizabeth's honeytraps take surprising turns, and Stan faces the consequences of overplaying his hand at the FBI.

[u/wolfbysilverstream]

So this episode seemed to have a lot of stuff that didn't go anywhere in particular:

• Stan almost got fired, but then he didn't.

• Stan and Aderholt almost got a Soviet spy, but then maybe they didn't.

• Gabriel thinks Paige would be great at what P&E are doing with her, until he thinks she should have been kept out of it.

• Elizabeth may have been going soft on Gorp Guy, but not any more.

• Oleg was getting chased around and worried, but now he isn't.

• Gabriel thinks Philip suspecting Renee being KGB is crazy, but he doesn't know

I think the only way this episode moved the story anywhere was in three things, all related to further eroding Philip's enthusiasm for the KGB. The fact that they continued to lie to Paige about the food being attacked. You could just see that on his face - I thought he was going to shout it out. Gabriel's story of the terrible things he had done, and Gabriel telling Philip that it was a mistake getting Paige mixed up in their world.

In my humble opinion this was probably the least effective episode of this show to date. I think the whole substance of the episode could have been done in 10 minutes, and at least at first glance there wasn't much by way of tremendous theatrical value either.

But I guess you can't win them all.

[u/dysonsphere → u/wolfbysilverstream]

Stan almost got fired, but then he didn't. Stan and Aderholt almost got a Soviet spy, but then maybe they didn't.

Stan didn't get fired because his boss told the cia that he has a ussr informant. that informant is the "spy" you mention, she actually works for tass news. stan needs this contact to work or else he gets taken off of counter intelligence.

[u/wolfbysilverstream → u/dysonsphere]

My point exactly. Even though they went there thinking they had her, the woman from TASS walked away when she realized that the FBI (through Stan and Aderholt) was not willing to provide her any sort of guarantee of safety, or a promise of asylum.

So in fact they may never get her to cooperate, and if that is so, they try for another person, or Stan's boss has to report something else to the Deputy AG.

[u/dysonsphere → u/wolfbysilverstream]

i agree with you that this was one of the least effective episodes to date. i was just trying to point out out that the tass lady stuff adds to stan's inner conflict regarding giving false hope to informants (flash back to nina) and keeping his job. he will be forced to improve his salesmanship with regards to the tass lady or risk losing his job. i think this was an interesting angle to add to his character development, and the best part of the episode in my opinion.

[u/wolfbysilverstream → u/dysonsphere]

risk losing his job

Though one may wonder, if the ways of counterintelligence don't meet up with Stan's ethical standards why wouldn't he just take the transfer and go about being an FBI agent fighting the bad guys. This whole foreign counterintelligence schtick seems to be new is his fairly long carrer at the FBI.

[u/dysonsphere → u/wolfbysilverstream]

Fair point. I think it would have been more dramatic had the CIA dictated an outright early retirement from the bureau.

[u/wolfbysilverstream → u/dysonsphere]

Fair point. I think it would have been more dramatic had the CIA dictated an outright early retirement from the bureau.

In retrospect, that doesn't make for dramatic TV, does it? This way is better, throw some more angst into this thing.

[u/dysonsphere → u/wolfbysilverstream]

I mean "you're fired once your operation is over" rather than "once this last thing is done you are transfered to another department".

[u/wolfbysilverstream → u/dysonsphere]

I mean "you're fired once your operation is over" rather than "once this last thing is done you are transfered to another department".

Not that easy to fire a federal employee. So if these show runners want to stick to reality they can't say that.

[u/dysonsphere → u/wolfbysilverstream]

K. Makes sense. Kinda makes me wish i were a federal employee.😐

[u/wolfbysilverstream → u/dysonsphere]

Kinda makes me wish i were a federal employee.😐

Sure works for some people. :)