R.I.P. Erik Bauersfeld 🙁
On a side note, this is the first time I’ve watched without being able to fast forward through the commercials. I thought just women who wanted to bang Tom were watching, but no, men who buy Mach 3 razors are so clearly the main demographic. It’s like us and the douchey Feel the Bern dudes who hate tweet Hillary supporters because they don’t understand democracy.
That said, the closest we got to Blurtmanager with my husband last night was when he yelled women’s lib at the TV after Richard Roper tells Jed he loves her. “After he just hit you, Jed!” he cried. To my husband’s credit, it’s hard to tell if Jed is still riding the Roper train (not like that) or if she’s fully turned away from him and just playing the act Pine tells her to. Truly it’s hard to tell where Jed’s loyalties and feelings lie at all. Which brings me to a bigger question…
Is Jed A U.S. Spy?
Think about it, who was sneaking into Roper’s office before Pine ever did? Who signed a contract to come on as Roper’s girlfriend? A contract! That’s like some weird scientology kind of shit. But it could make perfect sense if she was a U.S. spy. Why push so hard on the newcomer Pine if you don’t have another end game? Why would she even want to “get out of it” if she knew nothing and spent all her time on a lush villa in Mallorca? Other than to see her son again, but her sister and some reference to meth for breakfast made it feel like that ship was sailing fast.
Plus, why was Joel so keen to come on board when he did? Why was he pursuing Roper at all? Was it entirely tied to his affair with Angela, or was there a bigger play? Was his operative in place well enough that he was ready to advance her? Had Langley not been corrupt until this exchange? Was he under new pressure to cross Roper off? And why is he so certain that Pine is playing both sides now? Why now? Why wouldn’t they think this before? Was Joel’s whole Limpet funding just to get his operative further along and once things got too heated in Riverhouse he headed home to finish the job without Burr?
Am I seriously overthinking this?!! I mean, I still don’t really understand all of what happened in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, so I don’t want to put anything past Le Carré. It just seems odd that for ages Jed was content knowing nothing, being friends with Corky and the gang, and not asking hard questions like, “Who are you really?” Then Jonathan Pine arrives and all of the sudden she needs to know his actual identity and figures out exactly how to extract it from him? Or does she really know nothing and is now just scared and thinks Pine is her way out, like Samira thought?
Either way, wtf is Pine doing trusting her?! Sing it with me…
R.I.P. Corky
So, I was totally wrong and Corky did not make it to the end. A little disappointing since Tom Hollander is so fantastic, but, we must carry on. I wasn’t coming to root for the guy or anything, but he was really trying to turn a new leaf for Roper! He’d even given up alcohol just to prove he was still worthy of trust. Too bad that extra coffee kept him awake though. Otherwise he wouldn’t have known to spy on Pine’s return to camp.
But how he died begs more questioning… exactly WHO is Jonathan Pine? What precisely was his job in those tours in Iraq? How many men has he killed before? Should Jed have been listening to Corky all along and stayed away from Pine? Jonathan tells her in the tent, “Corky isn’t your friend. He’s a trained killer.” That’s probably true, but after Pine landed those Finish Him blows to Corky’s throat and heart, I had to wonder if Jonathan Pine also is a trained killer. Like whoa, where did that skill-set pop up from? I wanted to find this shower scene hot, but all I could see was Pine washing Corky’s blood off his perfectly formed muscles.
If I’m upset with Pine about this, how is Jed going to react when she finds out her wall sex buddy beat Corky to death with his bare hands? Because as much as Roper doesn’t seem like a man who goes downtown, Jed doesn’t seem like a gal who gets off on raw violence. So much so that Roper protected her from the truth!
Pine’s Cover Is Totally Blown
Speaking of Roper lying to people, how does Pine not think that his cover is blown at this point? The convoy left before Corky arrived, so how could Corky have been the one that leaked that message? Clearly it had to be Pine or Langbourne.
I get that Pine had to kill Corky to silence him, but wasn’t that in some ways confirming his guilt to Roper? Especially when Corky was still alive when the guards ran to get Roper and then was dead upon their return. Why would Pine kill him other than to silence him? If Corky truly had been sneaking off in the middle of the night (which let’s note that he was outside the fence when we saw him and we don’t know how he arrived there), and Pine really wanted to do good by Roper, wouldn’t he have kept Corky alive but severely injured for Roper’s questioning? I just don’t get why Pine is risking this, unless he is playing both sides. But mentions of napalm and shawls of dead villagers still make him want to vomit, so I’m pretty sure he’s not turned.
Angela Burr, Yes Please
I really came around to Angela this episode. When the convoy wasn’t the right one, and even Joel was angry with her, everything was against her, and then she goes home and find her husband’s been attacked. Oh, Angela.
I must say the decision to swap Burr’s gender paid off thoroughly in this scene. Nothing was empowering quite like the visualization of this super pregnant woman who is run ragged spending all day and night fighting arms dealers calling the ambulance and reassuring her helpless, attacked husband that help is on the way and it would all be all right. Really fantastic writing and acting with Angela this episode in particular. The baby’s room scene was just so strong. If she ends up dying, I’m going to be quite disappointed.
I know there’s more to say, but I keep getting anxious thinking about this episode again. Like now I’m thinking about the Thames sloshing against the river wall as Burr makes her way home in the dark. My heart can’t handle it. I have to think about something else and just wait until next week. Tell me your thoughts in the comments.
