theamericans | Episode discussion post: "Crossbreed"

jae posting in

Aired:
11 April 2017 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 506 of The Americans, intended for viewers who are watching the show on the U.S./Canadian schedule. (Feel free to dive in to the discussion even if you're coming in late--and you should also feel free to start a new thread if it seems too daunting to read through what's already been posted first. If you're reading this at a point where you've already seen subsequent episodes, though, please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season five, episode six.)

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From:

treonb

It's hard for me to accept that Elizabeth didn't know about Philip's brother. It's also the way he was talking about it. He didn't need to bring up his brother in the story at all, so if he hadn't told her until now, he could have continued avoiding it. But he did bring it up, and didn't make a point of it, didn't even stop to say - "you know I had a brother, right?" or something, as if he assumed she already knows about it.

From:

saraqael

I totally see your point. Elizabeth did not react as if she did not know he had a brother. She's good at guarding her reaction to things, as when she very carefully, neutrally asked Philip if his most recent batch of memories were good. But is she good enough at keeping her cool that she would not react at all to finding out that he had a brother?

I think the show has been been somewhat contradictory about how much Elizabeth and Philip know about each other. On the one hand, when they were introduced they were pointedly told never to talk about their real lives with each other and only refer to their cover identities and fake bios. Each time we've seen them reveal something about their real lives, it's been presented as being of singular importance. Not only are they revealing something to each other, they're also revealing this info to the audience for the first time. On the other hand, it does seem to be a huge stretch that Elizabeth didn't know this basic fact about him. And we were told that she selected Philip to be her partner in this undercover venture, so she had to have known some basic information about him. On the other, other hand, she didn't even know his real name, so if they did give her a bio on him, it must have been extremely scanty.

I'm really torn about this. From a narrative perspective, it does work both ways. Perhaps she knew on paper that he had a brother, the end, no more details and since they were never supposed to talk about their real lives, she never thought anything more about it. And it's only now all of these years later, starting with Philip telling her (and us in the audience) about all of these memories that are surfacing in his mind that Elizabeth is realizing that Philip's childhood was so severely traumatizing that he blanked it all out. That would explain the very careful way she asked him if these new memories were 'good'. Perhaps what's new to her here isn't so much that he had a brother (who meant nothing to her other than as a bullet point in a bio), but that Philip's childhood was far more awful than she knew. That would tie back to the way she rolled her eyes at the psychiatrist's comments about trauma. She doesn't believe in such a thing as trauma, but now she's looking it right in the face of her own husband.

Unless the writers tease this whole thing out more, I'm always going to regard it in the same way that they set up the Mischa Jr story line. Nothing about how Irina set up his escape to the West really makes sense to me, but the emotional payoff worked out well. Did she know/not know about the brother before now? Maybe, maybe not, but the emotional payoff from this is working out spectacularly.

From:

sistermagpie

And we were told that she selected Philip to be her partner in this undercover venture, so she had to have known some basic information about him.

On this bit, if we assume Gabriel was telling the truth, I doubt Elizabeth was given any information from Philip's file. I assumed that Elizabeth accepted Philip as her partner after that first meeting that we saw. So she wasn't choosing him based on his biography, which wouldn't really tell her anything, but on the vibe she got from him that she didn't get from the first person she met.

Which would somewhat make sense if, for instance, she was reacting to Philip not being someone who would try to dominate her.

If she knew his biography at all it would directly contradict what Zhukov says about how important it is for them to not know anything about each other's lives, which was a wise choice. I don't think they'd think she needed to know anything besides that he was a Directorate-S officer. Him being from Siberia or being an only child wouldn't be helpful and only make remembering the fake bio that much harder.

But there's also the intriguing possibility that Elizabeth is simply trained to not react to anything like this. Of course, had he said that he'd been married before or whatever she would have reacted. That would be like when she saw he'd de-wigged for Martha and she said "Did you want her to see you?" But the brother wouldn't threaten her at all. It would certainly be within her abilities to tamp down her reactions in order to focus on the more important task at hand, which was figuring out why these guys were glaring at them.

And since they've lived together all these years without knowing anything about each other--and knowing that they know nothing about each other--it's maybe not so weird to her that he'd have something this huge to relate. Nor to him either, you know?

So while the way it was played made it look to me as if she already knew of the brother's existence, it's plausible that she didn't. And plausible reason for her to maybe not choose to poke at that just yet since it's clearly his father that he needs to know about.

From:

saraqael

My default assumption in all of this is that Elizabeth did not know about Philip's brother until we, the audience, found out. The writing up until now has just been too careful to show/withhold information about everyone's identities. The entire conceit of the show is about identity.

I'm going to have to re-watch the scene of the first memory that showed the brother because I can't recall if Philip talked about that one, or if he only mentioned these memories to Elizabeth in that phone call.

You're right that since they've lived together all this time without talking about their real lives, it's not strange that Elizabeth didn't react when he mentioned his brother in these circumstances.

It makes sense to me that she didn't know until now, but I can just as easily see that she knew (for how long?) but simply never gave it much thought because it was irrelevant to them now...or so she thought. We may find out more about what she did/didn't know, because this whole memory thing is still unfolding.

From:

sistermagpie

I'm going to have to re-watch the scene of the first memory that showed the brother because I can't recall if Philip talked about that one, or if he only mentioned these memories to Elizabeth in that phone call.

As I remember it--and I think this is accurate--Philip did not mention the first flashback. So, just as you said. He only said anything after he had the second flashback, speaking on the phone to Elizabeth. He described them as memories about his father bringing things home. So no mention of anybody but his father, and he just mentioned him bringing home food or clothing.

It makes sense to me that she didn't know until now, but I can just as easily see that she knew (for how long?) but simply never gave it much thought because it was irrelevant to them now...or so she thought. We may find out more about what she did/didn't know, because this whole memory thing is still unfolding.

It's interesting to think about because he would say something about Elizabeth. I mean, with Philip we've heard him just listen to things she says about her mother, but Elizabeth is pretty open about her. She tells stories as stories and Philip would have good reason to think that it's better to just listen to the story she told without pressing for details. If she wanted to give them she would.

But with Elizabeth...early on she didn't think it was right to talk about their personal lives, I'd assume, because we know it was only in the pilot when she did it. It seems odd to imagine Philip just giving her information when she probably would have told him to shut up because it was against orders. Now she'd in a very different place and knowing to ask questions because Philip's asking for help sorting out the memories.

But still, it seems like part of her new openness would include a new curiosity about him. It's hard to figure out just when he would have given her this information.