Episode discussion post: "Tchaikovsky"

[jae]

Aired:
4 April 2018 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 602 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 six, episode two.)

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Comments

Re: Paige

[sistermagpie]

One more thought about this, but I think this is also underlined in all the Paige/Claudia/Elizabeth scenes where they're literally trying to teach Paige to love Russia and hate America, whether or not one would put it in such an extreme way. There's a pattern of focus on all the ways Paige can be like them and none on how Paige might be independently.

Even the music conversation starts with Elizabeth saying Paige's preference about music and Claudia dismissing it and being sure she just needs to hear this music. It's a cliche thing for an older person to say about a younger person, but in this case there really is an aggressive molding going on here, and an erasure of anything about Paige that could conflict with that.

Paige herself responds better to stuff about her mom--she remembers seeing the Nutcracker and the character in the movie reminds her of her mother. She apparently has taken to Claudia too, but that might be mostly because of how she's connected to her mother.