That cold opening fight alone draws blood. Also remarkable is Elizabeth's phone call to Henry that simultaneously feels like a 'just in case' farewell check-in and reveals how little connection they have. And that ambiguous, foreboding ending... Can't wait to see how all this ends but also can't almost bear to see how bad things will get either.
Another terrific episode, and one that did nothing to easy my concerns that Philip is not long for this world. At home, Henry's Thanksgiving visit shows that he is far more interesting than he's ever been in the past. And far more insightful, as well.
[8.3/10] It’s hard to recall a time when Philip and Elizabeth have been so at odds. There’s obviously the time when Elizabeth kicked Philip out of the house. There’s the fight not long ago when the two of them traded (figurative) blows over Irina and Gregory. But the former was born of personal hurt, and the latter was born of mutual exhaustion. There’s something that seems colder, crueler, less reconcilable about this fight.
There is an angry, accusatory tone when Philip tells Elizabeth he “knows” that she killed two parents in front of their child. There is a “so there” vibe when he challenges her by saying not only is he refusing to go ahead with the Kimmy plan, but that he poisoned the well so that no one else can pull it off either. There is raw venom in Elizabeth’s response that Philip was never going to carry out the plan, but that he just wanted to sleep with a college student because he wasn’t getting enough “action” at home. And there is sheer disgust when she tells him to shove his Forum talking points up his ass, and that she’s out to go save someone who “still gives a shit.”
In short, this standoff felt crueler and realer than any we’ve seen between the Jenningses before. Philip seems to have lost all trust in Elizabeth, thinking that she would do something that could hurt a child in that way, show such cruelty. And Elizabeth seems to have lost all respect for Philip, given that he would do anything to jeopardize a mission that, from her point of view at least, is vital to protecting the world and their way of life. It’s the sort of deep-seated, philosophical difference and break between them that cannot be easily resolved or mended.
Stan and Aderholt seem poised for a similar break. When Aderholt drops in to ask Stan to come downstairs, Stan makes a feisty quip about people ending up dead every time he makes that elevator ride (replete with a cameo from the mail robot!). But after letting him blow off that steam, Aderholt offers a bombshell -- the FBI has identified one of the illegals in Chicago. Not only that, but the feds are tracking and monitoring this guy, and trying to match his methods with ones that might be used by operatives in D.C. to catch other illegals there.
First things first -- holy hell, they should have made Aderholt chief years ago! As decent as Gaad was, Aderholt sounded smarter and made a better pitch than any other agent we’ve met so far. The show has teased us with the Jenningses coming close to capture before, but given that this is the final season, and that Aderholt seems to have a legitimately good plan, it feels like more of a real threat than it ever has before. That heightens the stakes both for Stan’s story of being pulled back into counter intelligence and the fact that Philip and Elizabeth aren’t on the same page right now.
Elizabeth is still running operations though. The latest sees her trying to find an alternative to the Kimmy plan by sidling up to an intern for a major senator. She makes her play at a foreign film to connect with him as a film buff, and sets up a “chance” meeting with him on the subway to seal the deal and get her hooks in.
It is, to be frank, the least exciting thing in this episode, but it also feels like a throwback to some of the original, more low key ops that the Jenningses used to run. The very fact that this is the beginning of a story rather than a single-serving ploy suggests that Elizabeth will make it out of the ensuing scrape without major issue, but it’s still nice, amid the fireworks of a final season, to see the show returning to its meat and potatoes spycraft a bit.
It’s also nice to see the show returning to its well-honed family material too. “Rififi” features Henry coming home for Thanksgiving and, holy cow, I don’t know how the kid that everybody forgot became such a likable character. His car ride home with Philip, where he talks about getting a summer job, setting up a business contact for his dad, and otherwise taking his family’s money troubles seriously and doing his part is such a heartening response to a difficult situation. To be honest, it’s hard to fathom how the Jennings, between the harsh nature of their work and the resulting benign neglect, managed to raise such a decent, well-adjusted kid. He senses what’s going on with his dad and reacts in a more mature fashion than, frankly, anybody else on the show right now.
He also fields a phone call from his mom, who doesn't want to have a real heart-to-heart or chat about what it’s like in “Houston.” She just wants to hear how school is going, how his romantic life is going, the sort of normal mom stuff that, according to Henry, has been pretty scant between Elizabeth and her non-spy offspring. Henry relays the weirdness of the conversation to his dad and, as Mrs. Bloom noted, Philip recognizes it as the same sort of “I’m not going to make it out of this” call that Elizabeth wanted to make to Paige when she was worried she would die from William’s biological agent.
So he calls her, and they have to talk in code, but the meaning is clear. Elizabeth won’t come home, so Philip is going out there. Even if they seem to hate each other’s guts, even if they’ve been on different paths for three years now, even if they’re fighting for things the other doesn't believe in right now, he can’t let his wife put her life at risk on her own if he could help her.
Is that love? It feels like it is. “I don’t want you to die” is not necessarily a high bar for attachment between two people. But “I will put my life at risk, do the thing that I hate, to help protect yours” feels like a higher bar to clear. “Rififi” opens with the Jenningses’ relationship in as bad a state as we’ve ever seen it, but it ends with them coming together despite that. If that doesn't speak to a deeper connection between the two of them, to something forged in twenty years together that supersedes even the strongest of countervailing convictions, I don’t know what could.
I loved those last few word “sit tight, I’m on my way” loved it. I can’t imagine how this is all going to end.
Shout by sebastianBlockedParent2018-05-04T15:50:38Z
The phone conversation between Elizabeth and Henry was so sad. She barely knows him. At this point I can't see a happy ending (whatever that is) for the Jennings.