Season 2, Episode 10: Yousaf
This is a rewatch newsletter, there will be spoilers. I think I mostly marked them, but I was also working my way through a glass of this excellent recipe, so who can say.
Hi good morning comrades I have had no peace since seeing this video:
Anyways, the sweetness of that video [seeing Matthew Rhys with light in his eyes is perhaps the truest gift of all] is a fantastic transition into the fact that this is a very sexy episode! Philip and Elizabeth get it on in the kitchen, then later Annalise and Yousaf get it on while Elizabeth strangles/heart attacks a dude in a pool! Sexy!! [Also at some point Nina and Oleg are immediately post-coital, but ehhhhh….I don’t really count that.] One of the things I find fascinating about this show is that one sex scene rarely stands on its own in an episode. For every mutually tender kitchen scene with P&E, there’s something sordid and/or underhanded. [The math of this may be totally wrong, but thematically I stand by it!]
In this episode, they have a new mission involving a hot guy from Afghanistan named Yousaf [see: episode title]. When they were talking about why Yousaf was important, my brain went to that place it does when it’s wondering when Philip and Elizabeth will kiss again, but it’s something to do with global communism or something. They get their marching orders from this Kate lady…I don’t really remember what her deal is or why she’s here, but seems like maybe ultimately it’s because Margo Martindale was busy, which, fair! Margo Martindale GETS to be too busy for this!
image: Margo Martindale on the Kelly Ryan show
Margo Martindale being busy goddamnit!!
Anyway, they get Annelise involved, and I don’t remember if we’d seen her before but she’s fabulous and adorable and I’m pretty sure she dies in the season 3 premiere so don’t get too attached. Annalise is married to a fancy deputy undersecretary of defense guy [whatever THAT is!] and is involved with a Philip persona that’s essentially a spiffier Clark because Poor Annalise is a little tougher to impress than Poor Martha. Poor Annalise thinks she’s helping the Swedish intelligence organization [who are named what, BRÅTHULT?] so she agrees to chat up Yousaf at a party she’s not yet invited to and get some Info. [p.s. I would fail at being a spy the minute it came to inviting myself/trying to get myself invited places, which seems like a pretty big part of the whole gig.]
image: Yousaf and Annalise in lying in bed in The Americans
Unfortunately, turns out Yousaf is essentially the poolboy to this guy Javid, who has the job where you actually Know Things, and is also a very dedicated swimmer. The good news is that in a couple years when Javid either retires or gets a job of Knowing MORE Things, Yousaf gets Javid’s job. [No news yet on whether he gets his YMCA membership.] But the KGB and other communists don’t have a couple years to wait around, so they decide to kill Javid in a rejected plot-point for the movie Swimfan so that Yousaf moves up the ladder faster, which honestly seems like kind of a gamble to me. Was Yousaf’s LinkedIn profile even up to date yet? [Also if you haven’t seen Swimfan my god please see it instantly. It’s glorious trash and I think on it once or twice a week.]
image: a woman and man in a pool. The woman is looking at the man, who is looking off into the distance. the text reads “swimfan”
On the homefront, Glad Dad Philip is back, and joking about signing up Henry for Math Club, which I’m pretty sure Henry DOES join at some point??? And that’s why he goes to that fancy boarding school, because he gets confusingly good at math?? And that’s why [MAJOR SPOILER LOOK AWAY] they feel like they can leave him at the end? [That sounds harsh, they definitely weren’t chill about it, but, you know]
Paige is making BOLD moves trying to go to church camp right after everything last week? Imagine wanting to spend three months sleeping in a bunk, spending time reminding children to wear sunscreen and memorize some paragraph in Philippians. I mean, I can imagine it, because my sister and several other of my friends did do that, while I stayed at home with a fan pointed directly at my face so YOU TELL ME which one of us God blessed. Anyway, Elizabeth decides to bring the hammer down again this week after finding Paige’s attempted forgeries, and she and Philip have some very normie How Are We Raising Our Kids? mild conflict, which honestly I love to see.
Speaking of conflict with Philip and Elizabeth, the whole reason Annalise gets involved is because Philip is looking for a reason for Elizabeth not to honeypot Yousaf. Elizabeth is kind of offended because Annalise isn’t trained for this, and they have this fascinating bit of dialogue:
“I can do my job, Philip.”
“I know you can, but this time you don’t have to.”
This is followed by a look of disdain and sweeping-out-of-the-room from Elizabeth, and a reminder for us that the two of them right now have extremely different feelings about their honeypotting. Right now it’s honestly not that hard for Elizabeth to scam men, and who can blame her? It gets much harder for her as the show goes on and she embarks on long-term scammy friendships with women, like the plotline that’s just barely cooking with her and her new friend from AA.
Pivoting to How Foolish Was Stan Beeman Today? Being mopey about his wife’s affair with…..his affair? Who then comforts him, because Nina Sergeevna is extremely good at her job. Also bothering a grieving teen with crackpot theories about that teen’s families deaths!! “Did they travel a lot outside the country?” Stan do you even know what a spy is these days? [Spoiler: When you get to the end of the season and realize he fully knew his parents were spies, it’s even more of a side-eye to Stan who is getting completely played by an amateur teen. (WAIT I think I just remembered what Kate’s deal is. Fuck.)]
image: a red haired woman at a bar, Kate in The Americans
I know your secrets Kate!!!! I think!!!
Anyway, Nina is booked and busy getting all artfully-placed-sheets with Oleg, who really seems like he thinks he’s about to bring balance to The Force. Is this thing with Oleg genuine? Who can say? Honestly she may be better at this than both Philip and Elizabeth, though for a much shorter amount of time. She feels fully engaged in every interaction with Stan, Oleg, and that Russian guy she blew in the first season whose name I don’t remember. The episode right before this was when Oleg said something about how she has nothing to arm her except her beauty and intelligence which is….not nothing my dude!!! It’s really straight men who have nothing to arm them against Nina Sergeevna we should be skeptical of!
Quick thirst update on Arkady….in the snow…..under an umbrella…..trying to guilt Gaad. I love this song. Gaad is trying to play high and mighty even though he knows Stan FULLY MURDERED THAT DIPLOMAT KID, while Amador died mostly as a result of trying to stalk Martha, which Gaad doesn’t know but I DO, and I’m ANNOYED about it!!!!
image: Arkady and Gaad in the snow using umbrellas
One more quick thing: Gaad asks Stan, “You ever take your briefcase with you on vacation?” And Stan says, “No.” And they treat this as some incredible insight, but like. When’s the last time Stan WENT on vacation, or spent any time with his family voluntarily whatsoever!
One ACTUAL more quick thing: we love an episode that starts and ends the same way, especially if it’s with the Jennings being physically and/or emotionally intimate in the kitchen!
This is definitely longer than last week’s, so sue me/stick a heart attack needle in my neck during my nightly swim that I definitely take! There’s literally a whole thing with Larrick finding a Secret Code Guy that I didn’t even GET to!
image: Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys recording a selfie video in front of a wood paneled wall. Keri is laughing and Matthew is looking at the camera.
Once more, with feeling!!!!