I've seen various comments over in FB that maybe Stan will adopt Henry so that Henry can grow up and join the FBI. That's a very sweet, but I think, completely unbelievable outcome for him.
I've heard those too--for years now. I think it's honestly a byproduct of just kind of a sloppy thinking people have, especially when it comes to kids. To many people if a child on TV has a pleasant conversation with another adult the other person has become their "real father." (Stan's never even been able to fully be present for his own son--and yet he clearly still is Matthew's father; he hasn't just been handily replaced by Sandra's new bf--I've always found Stan/Matthew to be one of the more interesting arcs on the show, fwiw.) It makes me weirdly anxious because it suggests that it's really easy to replace a parent. People used to say the Tims were Paige's "real parents" even back in S3.
It's saying that getting to enjoy an entertaining kid who likes you and then send them home is being a parent while dealing with the kid even when they're rude, or being ignored, or being held in contempt, is *not* being a parent.
I mean, I get why people go that way since pretty much all Henry's conversations in the past few seasons have been with Stan, but even there they often established that Stan could go for long periods w/o seeing him. For all people claiming that P&E had no idea what was going on with Henry they actually showed plenty of interest in what was going on with Henry, and figured stuff out without being told.
I do wonder if there's significance to the way Henry rarely interacts with the family but almost always gets echoes of Philip. Even here his hockey-playing is something we first saw him doing with Philip, obviously it's a popular sport in Russia (one of Philip's first lines on the show is about it), Philip plays it himself, etc. (Philip is completely cut off from his family, so that might be the challenge to overcome there, mirroring Paige following Elizabeth.)
Re: Oleg, it does seem like it must be pretty important to get him to the US--he left for a reason. It would actually be kind of cool if they *weren't* meeting in the US--that would be realistic, wouldn't it?
If the courier mentioned is the hockey player from last season it might mean that the comedy of that hook-up was intentional, showing just how eager many average Russians were to interact with the West. (It might, of course, be the courier that Claudia is saying must be dealt with--she may have been saying "Stan Beeman" in response to something else, like who recruited the guy, and it was edited to sound different.)
Another interesting thing in the preview is the continuing difference in the way Philip seems to frame their activities in terms of personal responsibility while Elizabeth continues to see it as a test of personal strength. For her it's all about total commitment and *no questions* while Philip is saying no, the belief in a Grand Concept does not simply justify everything. (And as I think I once said before, this is echoed in Paige's view, even down to a throwaway line where she talks about going to Ethiopia to build a school with Pastor Tim and brushes off Henry's question of why they are doing that as if it's a silly question.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2018-03-12 09:23 pm (UTC)I've heard those too--for years now. I think it's honestly a byproduct of just kind of a sloppy thinking people have, especially when it comes to kids. To many people if a child on TV has a pleasant conversation with another adult the other person has become their "real father." (Stan's never even been able to fully be present for his own son--and yet he clearly still is Matthew's father; he hasn't just been handily replaced by Sandra's new bf--I've always found Stan/Matthew to be one of the more interesting arcs on the show, fwiw.) It makes me weirdly anxious because it suggests that it's really easy to replace a parent. People used to say the Tims were Paige's "real parents" even back in S3.
It's saying that getting to enjoy an entertaining kid who likes you and then send them home is being a parent while dealing with the kid even when they're rude, or being ignored, or being held in contempt, is *not* being a parent.
I mean, I get why people go that way since pretty much all Henry's conversations in the past few seasons have been with Stan, but even there they often established that Stan could go for long periods w/o seeing him. For all people claiming that P&E had no idea what was going on with Henry they actually showed plenty of interest in what was going on with Henry, and figured stuff out without being told.
I do wonder if there's significance to the way Henry rarely interacts with the family but almost always gets echoes of Philip. Even here his hockey-playing is something we first saw him doing with Philip, obviously it's a popular sport in Russia (one of Philip's first lines on the show is about it), Philip plays it himself, etc. (Philip is completely cut off from his family, so that might be the challenge to overcome there, mirroring Paige following Elizabeth.)
Re: Oleg, it does seem like it must be pretty important to get him to the US--he left for a reason. It would actually be kind of cool if they *weren't* meeting in the US--that would be realistic, wouldn't it?
If the courier mentioned is the hockey player from last season it might mean that the comedy of that hook-up was intentional, showing just how eager many average Russians were to interact with the West. (It might, of course, be the courier that Claudia is saying must be dealt with--she may have been saying "Stan Beeman" in response to something else, like who recruited the guy, and it was edited to sound different.)
Another interesting thing in the preview is the continuing difference in the way Philip seems to frame their activities in terms of personal responsibility while Elizabeth continues to see it as a test of personal strength. For her it's all about total commitment and *no questions* while Philip is saying no, the belief in a Grand Concept does not simply justify everything. (And as I think I once said before, this is echoed in Paige's view, even down to a throwaway line where she talks about going to Ethiopia to build a school with Pastor Tim and brushes off Henry's question of why they are doing that as if it's a silly question.)