It must mean something that Philip still has family back in Russia while Elizabeth has none. But what? I wish the show had given us more time with them. Now that all of those EST sessions have had a chance to sink in enough that Philip started to unlock memories of his youth, perhaps this season we'll see more memories emerge about his brother. Or who knows. Perhaps the show will force the issue somehow. Perhaps Arkady will have got his hands on Philip's personal files and will use Philip's family as leverage over him. Hard to know right now.
We know that Mischa Jr. would be pro-reform, unlike Elizabeth and Claudia who are clinging to ideologically informed notions about what Russia should be as opposed to what Russia actually is. If Philip gets kicked out of the US, he at least would have some sort of family ties back home to return to. I think that for Philip the only family that matters is Elizabeth and his American born children, but at least he does have these genuine (if estranged) family ties back in Russia. That's more than Elizabeth, Claudia, Gabriel, or even William could say.
So far as Paige is concerned, I doubt that Elizabeth or Claudia would hope that she could become as devoted to Soviet Russia as they are. What they need is simply for Paige to be disloyal to the US, in favor of what Paige would think of as loyalty to a higher, purer type of social value. They will twist Paige's own desire to do good by getting her to think that betraying America makes her an even better American than those who are merely,'blindly' patriotic. They will show Paige instances of the US doing the wrong things at home and overseas, while simultaneously painting themselves as the beleaguered underdogs of true equality and justice. Before you know it, Paige will think that she is helping the US by betraying the US. Then they will point her towards a job in the State Dept or related roles where she can leak 'little' secrets. Paige revealed herself to be just gullible enough to fall for this sort of approach. She has no friends. She doesn't think for herself, and she's hugely susceptible to getting caught up in other peoples' feel-good causes. (Can you tell that I lost all respect for Paige last season?)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2018-03-26 05:21 pm (UTC)We know that Mischa Jr. would be pro-reform, unlike Elizabeth and Claudia who are clinging to ideologically informed notions about what Russia should be as opposed to what Russia actually is. If Philip gets kicked out of the US, he at least would have some sort of family ties back home to return to. I think that for Philip the only family that matters is Elizabeth and his American born children, but at least he does have these genuine (if estranged) family ties back in Russia. That's more than Elizabeth, Claudia, Gabriel, or even William could say.
So far as Paige is concerned, I doubt that Elizabeth or Claudia would hope that she could become as devoted to Soviet Russia as they are. What they need is simply for Paige to be disloyal to the US, in favor of what Paige would think of as loyalty to a higher, purer type of social value. They will twist Paige's own desire to do good by getting her to think that betraying America makes her an even better American than those who are merely,'blindly' patriotic. They will show Paige instances of the US doing the wrong things at home and overseas, while simultaneously painting themselves as the beleaguered underdogs of true equality and justice. Before you know it, Paige will think that she is helping the US by betraying the US. Then they will point her towards a job in the State Dept or related roles where she can leak 'little' secrets. Paige revealed herself to be just gullible enough to fall for this sort of approach. She has no friends. She doesn't think for herself, and she's hugely susceptible to getting caught up in other peoples' feel-good causes. (Can you tell that I lost all respect for Paige last season?)