good god yvonne strahovski, LOOK AT YOUR FAAAAAAACE

[elapses]

HEY GUYS KNOW WHAT I LOVE? SPIES WHO SUCK AT FEELINGS!!!!

SARAH: Who are you Agent Shaw? Because you know, I have never heard of you and neither has Casey. You're a very well-kept secret.
SHAW: I do like my secrets. Don't you? Being the daughter of a con man teaches you that.
SARAH: You really do read everybody's files, don't you?
SHAW: Of course, and I have a few questions for you. Seven months ago, when Chuck was in Prague you went off-grid for three days. This is a surveillance photo of a hotel in Lisbon. This... is you. Beckman ordered you to stay in contact, but you ran. Why?

SARAH: It's not what you think.
SHAW: I don't know what to think. Are you a double agent? A Ring operative? Or is this about Chuck?

SHAW: I do everything I can to protect my people. I lost one spy. It was my fault. And it will never happen again. ...why were you in Lisbon?
SARAH: I went to bury Bryce, my partner. He wanted his ashes there, Lisbon was our first mission. Anyway I wasn't supposed to leave but I promised him I would take care of it so I did. If you want me out just tell Beckman and she'll reassign me.
SHAW: Why would I do that. I need you. I just had to be sure that the Ring hadn't gotten to you already.
SARAH: And now do you believe me?
SHAW: Every word, Sarah.

SARAH: What's in the envelope, Shaw?

SHAW: She was killed by a Ring agent five years ago. Her name was Evelyn Shaw. Eve. We both made the same mistake, Sarah. We fell in love with spies.

All I can think about when I watch that last scene is this line from Marina & the Diamonds' "I Am Not A Robot" that goes "can you teach me how to feel -- real?" which is so obvious I guess, I think it's in the particular delivery. Motherfucker the whole Prague thing was totally a gimmicky writing thing but you can't help but translate it into real (fake) feelings: because this time he wasn't a spy, was he Sarah Walker? And yet here you are all the same.

BUT ANYWAY HEY GUYS I... REALLY KIND OF WANT THEM TO HAVE DELICIOUS ANGSTY SPY SEX (dudes, Shaw is totally one of the miniscule 1% of the male population for whom manpain is actually kind of attractive rather than annoying, because he is not into feelings and therefore he does not like to throw his inner turmoil in your face! THANK GOD, it has been so long since we have encountered an honest-to-god graduate of the Ryan Atwood Brooding school) (AND THEY HAVE TENSION) (AND YEAH, I HAVE FEELINGS).

Um so who's seen tonight's Life Unexpected?