I disagree that Elizabeth is starting to replace her family with work. IMO, for Elizabeth, the family has always just been part of her work. That doesn't mean that she doesn't love them, but unlike Philip, I don't think that Elizabeth has ever drawn a line between the family and her job. The children were part of the job, meant to enhance their cover and breed the next generation of more perfect spies.
Absolutely, but I was specifically referring to the present situation where Elizabeth is not talking to Philip, Paige has become a trainee and Henry is gone (and she doesn't go to see his game). Her personal life is far more compromised than it was before, which I think fits the description of replacing her family with work in a new way. We've never seen her this alienated from everyone and everything not work related.
Elizabeth always felt she should put the ideology first and there was a balance between how she fit her family within that, but with Philip no longer her confidante, Paige a trainee, Henry not in the picture, and Claudia the handler being a grandmother, that's a huge change.
There is so little time left in this series for Elizabeth to finally learn that it's okay to live a life that is not devoted 100% to ideology. The show is dropping suicide pill shaped anvils on her head that if she doesn't wake up and choose life for herself (and now for her daughter), she is doomed (and so now is Paige). We're also coming right down to the wire about whether or not she will be able to separate her family from her ideology.
I agree--I think this extreme situation is part of that. Because it's not just that she's coming to the time where she needs to make the right choice as has been the case in the past, imo. At this point she has made more extreme choices in the direction of ideology--just as, tbf, Philip has made more extreme choices on the side of family. But Philip in this ep, imo, is already consciously thinking about needing to get more in balance. Elizabeth shows signs of the same thing, maybe, in bringing up Paige's training with Philip, but she's gotten herself tangled up in far more lies and secrets with her choices.
Even the secret that Philip is keeping seems like something he would have immediately told until Elizabeth's attitude and hostility put him off. Not that this makes it less of a secret, of course.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Replacing family
Date: 2018-04-08 09:31 pm (UTC)Absolutely, but I was specifically referring to the present situation where Elizabeth is not talking to Philip, Paige has become a trainee and Henry is gone (and she doesn't go to see his game). Her personal life is far more compromised than it was before, which I think fits the description of replacing her family with work in a new way. We've never seen her this alienated from everyone and everything not work related.
Elizabeth always felt she should put the ideology first and there was a balance between how she fit her family within that, but with Philip no longer her confidante, Paige a trainee, Henry not in the picture, and Claudia the handler being a grandmother, that's a huge change.
I agree--I think this extreme situation is part of that. Because it's not just that she's coming to the time where she needs to make the right choice as has been the case in the past, imo. At this point she has made more extreme choices in the direction of ideology--just as, tbf, Philip has made more extreme choices on the side of family. But Philip in this ep, imo, is already consciously thinking about needing to get more in balance. Elizabeth shows signs of the same thing, maybe, in bringing up Paige's training with Philip, but she's gotten herself tangled up in far more lies and secrets with her choices.
Even the secret that Philip is keeping seems like something he would have immediately told until Elizabeth's attitude and hostility put him off. Not that this makes it less of a secret, of course.