Oleg is getting really good at standing and brooding in Moscow. They should make a statue of him doing that. In general, loving Oleg and his mom. He and his dad are more at odds. But then, so is everybody and their dads.
Love how the show continues to circle around the scattered fathers and sons of Philip's psyche even while Elizabeth is able to get more to the point of things with Paige. Though Paige continues to be the most weirdly uninformed teenager in 1984 on the subject of the USSR. I mean, I get that she isn't going to just swallow the most extreme anti-Soviet rhetoric, fine. But she's really ready to just ask her mother if everyone is equal in the Soviet Union? You know, Orwell is commonly assigned reading in high schools, at least it was at that time. Some are more equal than others, Paige. I know she's always been drawn to authority figures but is she okay with police states? Does she know Pastor Tim would be arrested more seriously there?
Also, her answer about how she felt about Marx being anti-religion still felt a little off to me. She felt great at her baptism (echoing Marx's suggestion that religion is a drug) does not seem like the answer of someone who's supposed to have been seriously converted to Christianity.
It was sweet when she met Gabriel. Philip's being so difficult (mirroring Paige and her parents) over the past few seasons has really made him and Gabriel know each other, I think. Without that I doubt Gabriel would have opened up about his own regrets. Philip has now twice made the choice to put family emotional ties above everything--sending Elizabeth and Paige to Germany and now bringing Paige to Gabriel with Elizabeth. Gabriel sent Mischa back to the USSR in secret and now he doesn't feel he can stay.
Which made me sort of laugh, btw, the Mischa stuff. All that stuff about him showing up at the front door and having to tell Stan he's an exchange student and he's just sent back. Though maybe Gabriel will do something with him over there. Can't they do a tape exchange like with Elizabeth's mom?
Meanwhile, Philip remains COMPLETELY CLUELESS about the many flares his own kid is sending up. Even his half-hearted lecture about the Travel Agency petered out like the meaninglessness it was when Henry left the room so he could have a real conversation with Elizabeth.Like Philip didn't even feel the insult Henry tried to lob at him. It was never so clear how much of an act Philip puts on with Henry. And it was a good act when he was a kid. Philip gave him a constant, pleasant presence when he was a kid. The dad jokes aren't cutting it now. That happened with Paige too, so let's hope a confrontation is coming.
I mean, it's not that Philip doesn't care. He's shown curiosity about turns-out-to-be-girl Chris. But his whole relationship with Henry is based on being a bland suburban dad and nothing. else. He's not getting that Henry's totally picked up on what he thinks is favoritism and that he thinks his parents think he's worthless. Something he actually complained about to Stan this week. Stan, the cool uncle who just always tells Henry he's awesome.
Yet even in their little chat Stan tries to pump Henry about Matthew/Paige and Henry complains about his parents. Neither is talking to the person they really want to be talking to--even while still genuinely liking each other.
Also note that Henry, as ever, does not give Stan any information. He just says he doesn't talk to Paige about that stuff. Which is quite possibly true, but compare him to Paige when Elizabeth wonders aloud about Henry. She spite up every little tidbit of information she's got that might be useful.
Love the psychoanalysis stuff in this ep. Philip's flashbacks are like some 70s TV movie with the mystery they pose, and it's great that Elizabeth now helps him work through them. He'd basically worked it out before he even went to Gabriel, but I suspect there's still more to come. It was kind of sad that Philip comes to the realization of how sad it is that he didn't really know his parents at all and this leads to him and Elizabeth taking Paige to see Gabriel. Only Paige.
It's like they're parenting on two entirely different levels now. They parent Paige as their real selves, which is more complicated and interesting. With Henry they just strike the pose of suburban couple. Not that they don't care about it, but they're not sharing themselves when they do it. Now that they've gotten a taste of being able to be themselves with their kid, they're into it and less and less able to focus on the kid who lives in another world.
But then, where does that leave Henry? For me, I think he needs to meet them halfway. This show always amuses me in that it can make me agree with the most hardliner characters, but even though I can all-too-clearly see where Henry is coming from and I'm on his side, I can also see his parents' side. (Which is how it should be, if the writing's good.) Even Stan cheerfully said that nobody knew he was smart because he didn't work. Henry's often been presented as a kid who expresses resentment when his parents aren't there when he wants to be entertained, while not much caring about them when he doesn't. Stan is entertaining. Henry acts like a ladies' man with him, Stan backs that up and finds it amusing. He gives him junk food, sex talk, games and movies. There's nothing asked of Henry with Stan. This scene was sort of a throwback, but I wonder if it'll be less satisfying for them both.
I don't mean to sound harsh in saying Henry is shown "not caring about" his parents, like he's cold. I just mean that he actually is often absorbed in a video game rather than interacting with people. Last season, on the question of when Henry would be told, P&E said that was up to Henry, and that's more what I mean. He hasn't done anything to get himself a better relationship with his parents either. Even little attempts to ask about his life make him more resentful at this point. Which is understandable and very adolescent, but are probably not a good way to get close to them. Because it's not like he's actually confronting them directly, he's just being rude, usually about some petty thing in his own life--he doesn't care about the dumb travel agency, they weren't there to watch whatever TV thing he wanted, where's the Apple Jacks, there's not enough jam on his toast. I suspect if he really said how he was feeling he'd be a lot more insightful.
I'm interested as to where it will go, though. We had the EST guy saying the "love is there" if Philip let go of the roles he's playing, we have Philip saddened to realize he didn't know his own parents at all. Unbeknownst to him his first son wanted to know him and was prevented. Philip and Henry actually are both wanting a relationship with each other, they just don't know how to have it mostly because they are both playing roles with each other.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Sistermagpie's First Thoughts on Crossbreed
Date: 2017-04-12 07:29 pm (UTC)Love how the show continues to circle around the scattered fathers and sons of Philip's psyche even while Elizabeth is able to get more to the point of things with Paige. Though Paige continues to be the most weirdly uninformed teenager in 1984 on the subject of the USSR. I mean, I get that she isn't going to just swallow the most extreme anti-Soviet rhetoric, fine. But she's really ready to just ask her mother if everyone is equal in the Soviet Union? You know, Orwell is commonly assigned reading in high schools, at least it was at that time. Some are more equal than others, Paige. I know she's always been drawn to authority figures but is she okay with police states? Does she know Pastor Tim would be arrested more seriously there?
Also, her answer about how she felt about Marx being anti-religion still felt a little off to me. She felt great at her baptism (echoing Marx's suggestion that religion is a drug) does not seem like the answer of someone who's supposed to have been seriously converted to Christianity.
It was sweet when she met Gabriel. Philip's being so difficult (mirroring Paige and her parents) over the past few seasons has really made him and Gabriel know each other, I think. Without that I doubt Gabriel would have opened up about his own regrets. Philip has now twice made the choice to put family emotional ties above everything--sending Elizabeth and Paige to Germany and now bringing Paige to Gabriel with Elizabeth. Gabriel sent Mischa back to the USSR in secret and now he doesn't feel he can stay.
Which made me sort of laugh, btw, the Mischa stuff. All that stuff about him showing up at the front door and having to tell Stan he's an exchange student and he's just sent back. Though maybe Gabriel will do something with him over there. Can't they do a tape exchange like with Elizabeth's mom?
Meanwhile, Philip remains COMPLETELY CLUELESS about the many flares his own kid is sending up. Even his half-hearted lecture about the Travel Agency petered out like the meaninglessness it was when Henry left the room so he could have a real conversation with Elizabeth.Like Philip didn't even feel the insult Henry tried to lob at him. It was never so clear how much of an act Philip puts on with Henry. And it was a good act when he was a kid. Philip gave him a constant, pleasant presence when he was a kid. The dad jokes aren't cutting it now. That happened with Paige too, so let's hope a confrontation is coming.
I mean, it's not that Philip doesn't care. He's shown curiosity about turns-out-to-be-girl Chris. But his whole relationship with Henry is based on being a bland suburban dad and nothing. else. He's not getting that Henry's totally picked up on what he thinks is favoritism and that he thinks his parents think he's worthless. Something he actually complained about to Stan this week. Stan, the cool uncle who just always tells Henry he's awesome.
Yet even in their little chat Stan tries to pump Henry about Matthew/Paige and Henry complains about his parents. Neither is talking to the person they really want to be talking to--even while still genuinely liking each other.
Also note that Henry, as ever, does not give Stan any information. He just says he doesn't talk to Paige about that stuff. Which is quite possibly true, but compare him to Paige when Elizabeth wonders aloud about Henry. She spite up every little tidbit of information she's got that might be useful.
Love the psychoanalysis stuff in this ep. Philip's flashbacks are like some 70s TV movie with the mystery they pose, and it's great that Elizabeth now helps him work through them. He'd basically worked it out before he even went to Gabriel, but I suspect there's still more to come. It was kind of sad that Philip comes to the realization of how sad it is that he didn't really know his parents at all and this leads to him and Elizabeth taking Paige to see Gabriel. Only Paige.
It's like they're parenting on two entirely different levels now. They parent Paige as their real selves, which is more complicated and interesting. With Henry they just strike the pose of suburban couple. Not that they don't care about it, but they're not sharing themselves when they do it. Now that they've gotten a taste of being able to be themselves with their kid, they're into it and less and less able to focus on the kid who lives in another world.
But then, where does that leave Henry? For me, I think he needs to meet them halfway. This show always amuses me in that it can make me agree with the most hardliner characters, but even though I can all-too-clearly see where Henry is coming from and I'm on his side, I can also see his parents' side. (Which is how it should be, if the writing's good.) Even Stan cheerfully said that nobody knew he was smart because he didn't work. Henry's often been presented as a kid who expresses resentment when his parents aren't there when he wants to be entertained, while not much caring about them when he doesn't. Stan is entertaining. Henry acts like a ladies' man with him, Stan backs that up and finds it amusing. He gives him junk food, sex talk, games and movies. There's nothing asked of Henry with Stan. This scene was sort of a throwback, but I wonder if it'll be less satisfying for them both.
I don't mean to sound harsh in saying Henry is shown "not caring about" his parents, like he's cold. I just mean that he actually is often absorbed in a video game rather than interacting with people. Last season, on the question of when Henry would be told, P&E said that was up to Henry, and that's more what I mean. He hasn't done anything to get himself a better relationship with his parents either. Even little attempts to ask about his life make him more resentful at this point. Which is understandable and very adolescent, but are probably not a good way to get close to them. Because it's not like he's actually confronting them directly, he's just being rude, usually about some petty thing in his own life--he doesn't care about the dumb travel agency, they weren't there to watch whatever TV thing he wanted, where's the Apple Jacks, there's not enough jam on his toast. I suspect if he really said how he was feeling he'd be a lot more insightful.
I'm interested as to where it will go, though. We had the EST guy saying the "love is there" if Philip let go of the roles he's playing, we have Philip saddened to realize he didn't know his own parents at all. Unbeknownst to him his first son wanted to know him and was prevented. Philip and Henry actually are both wanting a relationship with each other, they just don't know how to have it mostly because they are both playing roles with each other.