Question of the week #14

[treonb]

The writers of this show seem to have a love for full formal names when it comes to the KGB side of the Cold War. Philip is always Philip, never Phil, and Elizabeth is never Liz or Beth either--and this despite the fact that Russian names all inherently have multiple alternate forms that everyone simply uses as a matter of course. The same goes for Robert, the other Directorate S illegal who we've met, and for that matter, for Gregory (who's not Russian, but whose own culture isn't exactly known for its lack of informal names).

Given this, the question of the week is a two-parter: one, what do you think the writers are up to with this? And two, any thoughts on an explanation for this that works within the world of the show?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first season in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[katiac]

How funny, I was just recently ruminating over the name issue while working on a chapter! They're so good about having the Russian names used in their various forms, nicknames, formal names, etc, but rarely do we see the American names done the same.

I think Philip is the an exception, though. Stan calls him 'Phil' all the time, and I believe in the scene where they meet Stan, Philip introduces himself as the same. I see that as indicative of his character--he slides into the skin of Philip Jennings quite easily and eventually starts to become him, identifying with him more than Mischa, where with Elizabeth, she's always putting on an act. She wouldn't relax and be "Liz" because that would be one little step closer to growing too comfortable as Elizabeth Jennings, when in her mind, she's always Nadezhda, playing a part in service to her country. And I don't think she'd call Philip "Phil" because that would kind of speak to the same fear she's had all along that he's getting too comfortable in their "fake" life too.

And now I'm trying to remember if Elizabeth called Robert "Rob" during the car scene... I need to rewatch! But I definitely agree with you that they've shown a fondness for formal names... an interesting topic to think about. They also call Matthew Beeman "Matthew" most (if not all, not sure) of the time, even though that's a name that's so commonly shortened. And a lot of the names they choose are ones that don't really have/need nicknames: Paige, Henry, Sandra, Nina, Claudia, Frank, Martha, Clark.

[treonb]

You're right, Philip does introduce himself as 'Phil': to Stan, in The Clock, and to 'Anne' in Duty and Honor.

Actually, I'm not sure he ever introduces himself as Philip. Does he?

[katiac]

Good question... now I'm trying to think back on it!

[treonb]

I admit I'm cheating - I'm going through the subtitles :-) Philip is used very often, though, so it's harder to tell.

[katiac]

Indeed! I always think of him as Philip in my head simply because that's what Elizabeth calls him.

[treonb]

And now I'm trying to remember if Elizabeth called Robert "Rob" during the car scene...

Robert is referred to only as Rob in the pilot, though that's only once in the car. In 'Gregory' he's never called anything else other than Robert.

[jae]

Thanks for checking this!

Who calls him 'Rob' in the pilot?

-J

[katiac]

I believe, Elizabeth in the car.

(But then, there are some things about the show I think are just continuity errors. They have that whole thing with the earrings and Paige, but she has pierced ears in the pilot. Or how they put Elizabeth's age as 42 in the pilot, but 37 in episode 3.)

[treonb]

Yeah, pilots are tricky, because the production team doesn't have the incentive then to actually map everything out.

[katiac]

Yes, and then the showrunners have been wonderfully candid about how they made a few mistakes, like putting Reagan speech from December, 1981 in the 7th episode, but then having the season end in May, 1981 (and the calendar says April, 1981.) So it's one of those things where I always have to look at the details given, decide which ones have to be thrown out to make the rest fit and just go with it.

[jae]

*nodding* And as another aspect of the age issue, there's the bit about how Elizabeth's father supposedly fell at the Battle of Stalingrad, which would have been too early in the war for her to have been two when he died. I explain this away by saying that she thinks it was in the Battle of Stalingrad when he died, but that's only because she wouldn't have had the opportunity to know the details of the history well enough, and he actually died fighting at the banks of the Oder in eastern Germany, in 1945. (I try to work with the various errors of canon unless they make it impossible. *g*)

-J

[sistermagpie]

I wonder if we could do a reverse Gregory here. If Philip was the person who dealt more with Robert and called him Rob all the time, Elizabeth might have picked that up the way Philip would have picked up Gregory. Even though both of them also worked with this other guy.

This makes me remember the conversation b/w Phil and Rob in the pilot which I love, about the Japanese karate team.

[treonb]

The only problem is that Philip only calls him Robert later on. , and really never refers to him as Rob at all. Maybe when he discovers there might be a problem he doesn't want to call him Rob anymore.

[sistermagpie]

You're right! There goes that theory. Maybe Elizabeth was just stressed in the pilot!