The travel agency - was this a generational thing, moving towards budget travel? Poor Philip and his "we'll always be there for you". In another decade he'll shutter up his travel agency and move to the net. Though I think nowadays his "selling an experience" would certainly work.
I've seen a lot of people elsewhere thinking this was a storyline about the end of travel agencies but I think travel agencies were really only killed by the internet. Philip probably can offer budget stuff too. They were already available, I imagine. But I think this story was strictly about that personal touch and not being able to hand things off and expect them to be the same--iow, the whole thing was a metaphor for Philip not being able to tell himself that Elizabeth and everything she's involved in and Russia will be equally fine without him. It matters who you're dealing with.
I don't know whether we can completely connect that to the colonel dealing with Elizabeth this time instead of Philip, but I think Philip genuinely understood the guy and wouldn't ever have thought he'd be open to blackmail.
In fact, that kind of hooks back to the whole larger plot. Arkady went to Oleg and brought up what he knew Oleg had done, but pointedly did *not* blackmail him. He approached him the same way as Oleg later approached Philip, appealing to his sense of responsibility and wanting to do the right thing rather than threats of any kind. That's what Elizabeth/the Centre went with for the colonel and he just wasn't having it.
I think Elizabeth fired the gun--though she may have used his hand to do it. He had no intention of shooting himself in the face.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Treon's thoughts
Date: 2018-04-08 10:52 pm (UTC)I've seen a lot of people elsewhere thinking this was a storyline about the end of travel agencies but I think travel agencies were really only killed by the internet. Philip probably can offer budget stuff too. They were already available, I imagine. But I think this story was strictly about that personal touch and not being able to hand things off and expect them to be the same--iow, the whole thing was a metaphor for Philip not being able to tell himself that Elizabeth and everything she's involved in and Russia will be equally fine without him. It matters who you're dealing with.
I don't know whether we can completely connect that to the colonel dealing with Elizabeth this time instead of Philip, but I think Philip genuinely understood the guy and wouldn't ever have thought he'd be open to blackmail.
In fact, that kind of hooks back to the whole larger plot. Arkady went to Oleg and brought up what he knew Oleg had done, but pointedly did *not* blackmail him. He approached him the same way as Oleg later approached Philip, appealing to his sense of responsibility and wanting to do the right thing rather than threats of any kind. That's what Elizabeth/the Centre went with for the colonel and he just wasn't having it.
I think Elizabeth fired the gun--though she may have used his hand to do it. He had no intention of shooting himself in the face.