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Generic American posted:Note to self; never ever bank on being able to watch the later airing of this show. Had to juggle around my DVR priorities a bit, and it turns out that the broadcast had fifteen minutes of the finale rerun eating into the beginning and stopped recording long before the episode itself actually finished... Same thing. I just had to  it to catch the missing part instead of waiting for OnDemand where I'd have to watch everything from the beginning with no way to fast forward. FX jams too many commercials into their airing blocks and it really fucks over anyone planning on watching later airings. The only workaround is to schedule the later airing in addition to whatever else comes on afterwards.
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Feb 27, 2014 10:55
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precision posted:Good lord what a start to the season. I think I remember from the somewhat revealing teasers that part of the plot this season may be that the KGB decides their naturalized spies are more trouble than they're worth (especially since the main patron of the program, Zhukov, is dead) and start eliminating them themselves because of the FBI's renewed interest in Directorate S. Easier to crash the program and start fresh with newer personnel than continue to support potentially compromised agents (or ones who are 'too comfortable' in their cover). Claudia might be behind that recommendation, which would give Elizabeth the impetus to kill her and end her story arc. And yeah, that was almost soft-core levels. I can only imagine the casting ad for the hooker riding cowgirl - "actress must be attractive but have small enough breasts to be completely obscured by moderate-sized hands - light touching and moderate levels of nudity also involved." BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 07:16 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 28, 2014 07:08
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ShakeZula posted:But...that was Keri Russell. I'm talking about the opening honeytrap scene with the Lockheed employee. You actually got to see more of Matthew Rhys in the later scene.
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Feb 28, 2014 07:17
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Ugh. Now it makes sense. I didn't pay attention to the other "Air Force Security" agent at first since he was in the background. It was Keri and the other guy's wife playing the hookers. I just assumed the hookers were extras or assets that'd been paid off. Guess that teaches me not to have one eye on my tablet and the other on the television. I stand corrected.
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Feb 28, 2014 07:20
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Josh Lyman posted:Keri was the blonde on top, riding the mark. "I have eight bosses. *Eight*, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it." Thanks, got the memo. 
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Feb 28, 2014 07:35
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At least we know a concrete date. Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in early June 1981. I was a month old.  Only reason I looked it up is I couldn't remember when Brezhnev died and I thought they'd made a goof with the Space Shuttle comment.
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Mar 6, 2014 09:03
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They've already figured out how to 'adapt' for a viewing audience that's becoming more enamored with DVRing, torrents, and binge-watching entire seasons in large sittings - charging the providers more. It doesn't hurt people who torrent, until the ISPs start clamping down on torrent traffic even harder, the providers get more up front, and the only people who suffer the most are those still paying a monthly cable bill.
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Mar 9, 2014 10:01
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Earwicker posted:Well he was probably also pissed because he's very worried about the kids being in danger, and Paige left her younger brother alone in the house for several hours when she was supposed to be watching him. *And* the more Paige snoops around, the more likely it is that not only might the parents be caught and imprisoned. They might also not be entirely convinced the near-liquidation of the other family wasn't an inside job. The guy *did* need Philip to do the grab because he worried he was (or would be) compromised. And yes, the crowbar scene was a stretch for me. It seemed like an 'add-in' to prove to everyone that even after recovering from an extremely serious gunshot wound that Elizabeth's still 'dangerous.' It could've been handled much better.
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Mar 15, 2014 11:29
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I'll bet that the 'three minutes in a car' thing with Claudia is that either the murdered husband or wife was her granddaughter/grandson. I don't know how they're going to get out of this one, though - both the woman and man saw Philip and Elizabeth's faces without wigs or prosthetic garb. Also, what I wouldn't give for a more detailed Claudia origin story, though - with her doing poo poo like slitting Nazi throats in Stalingrad or something.
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Mar 20, 2014 11:06
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I seriously don't see Martha surviving this season. First, Philip convinces her to stay on as Gaad's secretary because he's useless to her in any other capacity, and now she's likely to be reassigned since it's likely the new guy will want his own secretary. Now she's filling out that form and ominously holding the tape recorder like it's leverage. She should just paint a bullseye on her forehead with lipstick.
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Mar 22, 2014 06:29
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leidend posted:I'm really enjoying the new season but I wish they'd stop showing Keri Russell as some physical bad rear end. It looks like a strong wind could knock her over. To be fair, in that fight she was extraordinarily lucky. Even if she were a world-renowned expert in Combat Sambo (probably what she would've been primarily instructed in), nothing's going to save you when the person you're fighting has 100lb+ of muscle on you, knows how to use it, a longer reach, and probably practices *way* more than you do. I haven't seen either of them sparring to keep sharp, or doing any sort of physical fitness regimens. The only reason that scene happened was to show that she still had 'fight in her.' It sort of reeked of the kind of situations they put the lead character in The Blacklist in to prove that she's a ~strong and independent woman~. leidend posted:Same thing happened to me. The "last episode" thing showed Beeman shooting what I can only assume was a wannabe Reagan assassin? Reagan wasn't at the hotel, I don't think. He was going to shoot his boss' boss or someone high up in the World Bank, but it was all a setup to put Beeman in line for a promotion to capitalize on Nina's access to him. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Mar 23, 2014 11:52
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You could just sense when Phil and Mossad Guy were having that chat about homelands that during the writer's meeting for that episode, the head writer said "now, before we get started, whoever suggests that one of them should say 'we're not so different, you and I' gets transferred to George Lopez's new sitcom."
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Mar 27, 2014 07:39
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drunkill posted:Why can't all episodes be ~50 minutes and be HBO length? Because FX has to have commercials.
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Mar 27, 2014 09:12
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TheAngryDrunk posted:Yeah, that scene in the car was pretty intense. You could tell it was getting to Phillip. It was only getting to him because he wondered if he'd be the same way if he were ever caught and faced with the reality of Paige and Henry growing up disgraced. At least the scientist's family would just think he was dead.
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Mar 27, 2014 22:59
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Narcissus1916 posted:hey history people, what would Anton the scientists' life be like back in the Soviet Union? He'd most likely be taken (provided he calmed down and played ball) to a 'closed' town like Arzamas-16 (today known as Sarov), which even to this day is their Los Alamos and remains closed. They'd want to get the best value out of him, and making him work in a lovely room in a prison doesn't work as well as placing him with other scientists in his field and telling them to ingratiate themselves and persuade him to teach them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_city These are towns/cities that are literally surrounded by nothing. Escape or ex-filtration is nigh-impossible, but unlike Siberia, if you do your job, you get to be bored and well-fed as opposed to being bored, freezing, and starving. You were also able to leave the perimeter, not that you had many places to go. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Mar 29, 2014 |
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Mar 29, 2014 08:29
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Zythrst posted:The other couple who were killed were blackmailing him or they'd out his homosexuality. Claudia thought this made him the top suspect in the murders, because he had motive and means to carry it out. I do have a feeling that Claudia's gonna die in the next episode, and we're also going to learn that the reason she's so invested in this is that either the husband or wife were one of her kids.
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Mar 31, 2014 11:25
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OmniBeer posted:..jesus, that was dark. It made her recall her 'training.' I have a feeling the experience in question wasn't part of male KGB training, though I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't make them "practice" homosexuality should the need ever arise. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Apr 3, 2014 |
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Apr 3, 2014 08:25
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JohnSherman posted:Where did you get that from? They were friends, but I don't think anyone ever implied they had a relationship. Yeah, I think the bald guy was an ideologically-motivated asset - he wasn't homosexually involved with the husband.
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Apr 4, 2014 05:58
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Narcissus1916 posted:Where were Elizabeth and "Clark" sleeping together in that horrific scene? A random safehouse? Did Phillip put on the wig specifically for her, or was he heading over to Martha's and Elizabeth grabbed him? I think Elizabeth was there because she wanted to goad him into showing her Clark's "animal," and as I said before, what she ended up coaxing out of him was his stress at being pulled in several different directions as well as having his family in a constant state of danger, and he ended up 'hate loving' Liz into remembering her instructor raping her at the end of her training. It's a long-standing and widely-believed rumor that female KGB NOC operatives were always trained by alpha-type males who would almost become 'fatherly' to them during their training, and towards the end, they'd be systematically raped by either said instructors or by another superior to test their fortitude and to send them out into the field 'hardened.'
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Apr 4, 2014 06:09
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Propaganda Machine posted:This is interesting. I tried looking into it, but all I got was stuff about the much-more-recent crop of agents who got outed and traded back. Out of sheer curiosity, do you have any sources? I could use some creepy bedtime reading. Unfortunately my own search is turning up more articles about The Americans and Beria than anything to back it up. I read it in a book long ago about Stasi and KGB training that was written right around '93 or '94, so it might've been bullshit, but I'll keep looking for something concrete using Boolean operators.
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Apr 4, 2014 09:32
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zVxTeflon posted:Whose house was the kid going into? the Beemans? No, another family in the neighborhood who set out on a car trip, who have Intellivision. That being said, I'm wondering if the family's going to get a computer now (for Philip and Elizabeth to brush up on their use), just to have a precious scene where Henry gets all emo that he didn't get a game console. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 06:00
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drunkill posted:Good news indeed. It seems FX want something to continue on once Justified finishes up, which is great. I think "Fargo" is the basket they're planning on putting the "Justified" eggs into.
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Apr 10, 2014 08:30
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Earwicker posted:Finally saw the episode and it was really weird. Why the needlessly long, tortuous and generally bad explanation of the early internet? And lots of other weird things like the conversation about paint, Henry's rear window subplot and videogames obsession, Philipp singing some dadrock song to him, the "squeeze your anus" moment, the new handler dressed up like a spy in an old movie and Philip pointing it out.. it all just made the show way sillier, a very different tone from the usual It might have been that they wanted a 'light' episode (with the exception of Philip dead-zoning that poor student) before the next one, which looks to be rather violent. Also keep in mind they're still probably trying to keep it light after the grisly hotel room scene - they don't want to risk turning people off, since the number of viewers is still healthy but has been decreasing per episode.
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Apr 11, 2014 22:15
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Minor quibble, but being Virginia residents, having that "Camaro" front plate would've gotten Philip pulled over. Virginia mandates front and rear plates for all vehicles. But whatever. I actually kind of like the Camaro as a plot device. If anything, it's the last car you'd expect a Soviet sleeper agent to drive because of its decadent capitalist subtext. I'd be more suspicious of a guy talking about how great his loving Yugo is. I was also surprised that Beecher the SEAL didn't break Miss Nicaragua's neck - that's usually the cliche writers fall back on in situations like that to make a situation seem edgier. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Apr 17, 2014 |
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Apr 17, 2014 10:41
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TheAngryDrunk posted:I give The Americans credit for attempting to accurately portray tranquilizer darts. So many movies/tv shows will have the person pass out almost instantly when they get shot. That's some fast acting stuff! At least here there was a struggle before it kicked in. I also like how they paid enough attention to detail that she was out longer because the darts were obviously filled with enough to take down a guy twice her size. And if she'd hit him with a second she'd probably have killed him. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Apr 17, 2014 |
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Apr 17, 2014 23:44
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Party Plane Jones posted:The whole point behind Oleg mentioning it to Arkady is that Directorate S didn't gently caress up and the plans weren't fake, the Soviet Navy tried adapting the props for a fast attack boat ("two sizes smaller") to a Typhoon as soon as they possibly could, rushing 5 months of testing into 3 weeks. Then they redlined the engines and the prop basically disintegrated. I thought the plans for the propeller were for a sub 'two times bigger' than the Akula. To me it sounded like they put an Ohio-class propeller on an Akula fast-attack boat. The number of dead sailors doesn't match up for an Akula, but they don't match up for a Typhoon, either - and the Soviets wouldn't have put an experimental propeller on such a high value testbed. If anything (mil-nerd cap on), the 106 deaths figure matches up far better with a Victor I/II/III-class SSN. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Apr 18, 2014 |
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Apr 18, 2014 09:56
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ally_1986 posted:This, has anyone said who his family connections are or are we just to make a guess it is some one high up in KGB/ Party? Well, his name is Oleg Igorevich, and there's no Igor here, unless you count Grigory Romanov: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/26th_Politburo_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union I think they just want to keep it filed under  .
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Apr 21, 2014 00:34
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UtinniOnTheRocks posted:Arkady tells Nina his father is Deputy Minister of Transportation when they first introduce him Which is interesting, because even if it's a position of power, generally transportation was a poo poo job no one really wanted in the Soviet hierarchy. You were given impossible feats and tasks to accomplish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_the_Soviet_Union
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Apr 21, 2014 06:47
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Ugh. Why do I have the feeling that the whole reason Paige is ~On Fire For Jesus~ now is so Ollie loving North could put what was basically a cross between a Chick Tract and that ludicrous scene from every Catechism/teen Sunday School VHS tape about what to do if your parents are atheists and you're a person of faith. Seriously, I swear I remember the exact "you'll respect Jesus but not us" line from one I got fed during my own Catechism. And then to ram it home, Philip basically goes and basically mortally threatens the pastor/preacher wearing his 'walking probable cause' MurderSuit(tm), STILL threatens the guy to stay away from his daughter even after a representative of the/a church tells him he'll *cut him a loving check* for the donated money (which requires a bit of suspension of belief in and of itself)...just...ugh. grrarg posted:"I'm not good at seduction." drat, Clark is brutal to Martha. She is going to be devastated personally and professionally if (when) Philip and Elizabeth are exposed. Let's not kid ourselves, Martha's doubtful to last the rest of the season now that Philip's basically pushed the 'gently caress you' button. She'll gently caress up even quicker now. If anything, the only way she's getting out of this alive is if Phil and Liz frame her as a Directorate S mole. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Apr 24, 2014 |
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Apr 24, 2014 05:21
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ShakeZula posted:You know North didn't write a word of the script, right? He just gave them a bunch of insider info on Martial Eagle, to such an extent that they gave him a "Story by" co-credit. Tracey Scott Wilson is the credited writer. I stand corrected, then. But I still thought the Chick Tract stuff was exceptionally hokey.
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Apr 24, 2014 06:58
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nzspambot posted:goddamn the music was loving awesome Doktor Wroooth! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Westheimer Fun fact: Dr. Ruth was a trained Israeli scout sniper because she was so loving short she could worm her way into great blinds. She says she never killed anyone, though, which I doubt, although she was injured in 1948 from a shell and it put her out of the fight. http://www.snopes.com/medical/doctor/drruth.asp BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Apr 25, 2014 |
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Apr 25, 2014 03:47
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was Stan's Mrs watching
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MassRafTer posted:I get the impression Stan stopped at the McDonalds drive thru on the way to work and told the cashier he needed to hurry he was working on a big murder case involving stealth technology. "No, really - if you want the Soviets to be able to drop nuclear bombs from airplanes we can't see then go ahead and slack off making my Big Mac. Did I tell you I've got codeword clearance now? Because I totally do.  "
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May 1, 2014 08:07
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themrguy posted:Also yea, Beecher SEAL is awesome, it's great that they finally have an antagonist just as competent and ruthless as they are. I also love how he's not even sure he needs to kill Phil and Liz, either. In the teaser he says he's not hunting *them*, just the assholes who killed his friends, which just happen to be Phil and Liz. I also find it a bit far-fetched but not out of the realm of possibility that Beecher-the-SEAL could rewire that fried junction box so quickly, but also figure out a way to bypass or break the high likelihood of encryption just as fast. Also, does anyone know the name of the new handler? I can't find an updated cast sheet.
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May 2, 2014 10:28
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Gonz posted:Always be wary of a female assassin's magic heart attack aerosol whilst swimming laps alone in a pool. Pretty sure it was a nerve agent of some kind, hence her taking what I could only assume was a pyridostigmine pill.
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May 3, 2014 07:31
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The entire thing that's putting me off about the religious angle is that it's showing HORRIBLE loving tradecraft on behalf of Philip and Liz. The last thing they should want is Paige crying to all her new Jesus Buddies about how much her parents don't understand and persecute her ~faith~, which in turn will lead to at least one of them talking with their parents about it, which in combination with Philip visiting the preacher/pastor dressed in his MURDERSUIT will start raising some suspicions. Maybe not "maybe they're godless Russian spies" suspicions at first, but definitely the "they're weird and maybe we should try to find out why/'save' them" kind. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 09:43 on May 3, 2014 |
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May 3, 2014 09:41
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Baloogan posted:You would think KGB deep cover agents would be the most jesusey people around. Or at least "Jesusey" enough that people would be apt to say "they're good people" and dismiss anything potentially bad they hear about them because "they're good people."
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May 3, 2014 09:51
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Gonz posted:The reason nobody suspected the 9/11 hijackers was due to the fact that they'd consistantly frequent strip clubs and drink alcohol and do all sorts of non-Islamic extremist stuff. They blended right in. Conversely... "Hey, my friend Paige says her parents are angry that she loves Jesus." "That's *terrible*, honey...which ones are they again?" "They live five streets over, house kinda on the middle of the block." "Oh, the one with the new Camaro outside?" "Yeah." "I wouldn't worry about it, sweetie - he sprung for the IROC-Z package, which means God hates him and showed it by removing his good sense." ----- And yes, they're really overplaying Liz's ultra-nationalism. At this point, if Stan's suspicions are piqued again, all he really needs to do is pull a High Fidelity and blast the Soviet National Anthem outside of their house and Liz would burst through the loving walls like Roger Rabbit in the bar scene. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 11:53 on May 3, 2014 |
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May 3, 2014 11:09
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precision posted:'Nam Phil best Phil. Seriously. 'Nam Phil looks like an extra that didn't get shrunken down for The Hobbit. "I'm the tall dwarf. They call me Phillip with the Constantly Bumped Head." Subterfrugal posted:I don't understand why SEAL Team Psycho killed Kate without even trying to interrogate her. He wanted to make a statement more than interrogate her, plus he'd already made it clear that she wasn't getting out of her predicament alive. In SEAL Beecher's sociopathically-driven mind, he probably felt he was doing her a favor, since the fate that would've befallen her for getting herself compromised (even though it wasn't her fault) probably would've stretched on agonizingly longer than him just breaking her neck and ending it quickly - that's why I think he at least told her she'd "done her job well." I'm also guessing the message on the inside of the toilet paper roll was "I'm compromised" and her leaving the toilet seat up was what got Elizabeth's attention. That's just something you don't see in the apartment of a woman living alone. The one sad thing is that Drew Carey's brother (I don't know his name) had better 'secret compartment' security than Kate. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 10:50 on May 8, 2014 |
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May 8, 2014 09:47
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leidend posted:Does the death of redhead lady (so bad with names) mean Claudia's coming back? Please? I'm not sure - the way she said 'Goodbye, Elizabeth' sounded very final - I took it to mean she was either going back to Russia to stand trial for compromising herself to her lover, or she was going to off herself. I'm still holding out hope for 'suicide bomber Granny.' The other thing that bugged me about them going through her apartment was that they weren't wearing gloves, and there are assets they could've compromised with official cover, who would only face expulsion if it were a trap set up to nab whoever came to check on her. If anything, it would've been a *perfect* job for Arkady to give Nina an episode or two from now to tie up her loose end neatly. Also, I have a nagging feeling they're setting Stan up to kill Nina, Oleg, and Arkady, and *himself* all in one sitting, just to 'go out like a hero.' BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 11:03 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 10:59
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Party Plane Jones posted:Goes against all the previous Clark interactions, especially with the sister saying he's a selfish rear end. Having Clark agree to that doesn't fit in with his character. Also, the minute he says "in a few years," the point isn't dropped, she'll just start in on whittling down the timeframe, which gives her even more leverage over him in regards to getting him classified information. He already knows that every time he caves, he loses more leverage over *her*. I do think Martha will survive this season, though - unless Beecher-the-SEAL finds her first. I was pretty sure early on to mid-way through that she was living on borrowed seconds. Case in point, that would be a hell of a plot twist - Learick kills Martha and frames Philip/"Clark" for it. BIG HEADLINE fucked around with this message at 12:38 on May 15, 2014 |
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May 15, 2014 10:58
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