theamericans | Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

I thought this episode was brilliant. Elizabeth’s fury at Paige for breaking protocol was breathtaking (and terrifying) to witness. Yes, Paige screwed up badly (as we’ve all noted here) but Elizabeth’s anger was so blazing that I thought that there was more to it than just angry officer chastising a young recruit. Paige is in terrible danger, much as Elizabeth wants to downplay that or kid herself that it’s just a temporary situation that Paige is working out in the field. Philip talked to Paige simply in the context of father/daughter. He was concerned about her feelings, but Elizabeth was all, “YOU DON’T GET TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS!1!1!1! YOU CAN’T COME HOME AGAIN!1!1!1! THIS IS A WORK NIGHT!1!1!1! GET OUT OF HERE!1!1!1!”

Lordie, Elizabeth. Project much about your own inner turmoil? Was this the moment that Philip decided to work with Oleg? Or was it when Elizabeth physically recoiled at the very notion that Russia might be opening up to the West and then vented about how much she hates every single thing about America and never wants Russia to change and neither do the Russian people) Maybe Philip had been holding onto the hope that Elizabeth was open to change, but now sees that she is a hardliner through and through. She hates change. She will never change. She will go down in flames to ensure that nobody else in Russia will ever have a chance either. When Philip gently pointed out that she hasn’t had any contact with an actual Russian person back in the motherland for 20 years, she snaps back that neither has he. On this very fundamental, crucial issue of change they are utterly opposed.

Elizabeth’s (much calmer) talk with Paige later only reinforced the fact that Elizabeth is willing to die for her beliefs and her work. She is at peace with her likely pending death. Or is she really? Maybe she’s like the general she just killed, ‘caught up in something’ and unable to see a way out.

My favorite scene in this episode was the conversation between Stan and Oleg. That scene only lasted…what…two or three minutes? But there was so much history covered, and so much said (and unsaid). Even the way the scene was staged and the way the actors moved and looked at each other was perfect. Stan’s brief but to the point apology: ‘they took my tape and used it against you and I fought with them and finally made them stop,” was met with Oleg’s incredulous reply. “That’s it?” Oleg went through hell and Stan thinks that just apologizing puts that business in the past between them? It’s clearly not enough because Oleg is simmering with understated anger when he points out that they threatened him AND his family. It doesn’t matter if Stan apologizes now. The fact is, Stan taped Oleg secretly with the intent of using the tape against him if the need arose. Stan fundamentally violated Oleg’s trust. And then Oleg brought up Nina, another subtle / not so subtle reminder that Stan can’t be trusted. Will these two ever be able to move past these issues and get back to being spy bros? I don’t know. I hope so.

Did anyone else laugh when Sofia declared that the coworker she’d blabbed to was a Soviet and Soviets know how to keep secrets? I think this woman may be the biggest blabbermouth in the show’s history. She’s quite endearing, but she is also an utter hazard to herself, her kid, Gennady, the FBI… everyone. On the topic of who can/can’t keep secrets, I wonder if Elizabeth was always planning to kill the warehouse guy, or if it was a last second decision because he mentioned that his girlfriend was in company security. She knows that the odds are high that he would have told his girlfriend about the ‘audit’ he’d just participated in because he’d figure that since she was in security, she would have already known about it. Elizabeth knows how to keep secrets. She shared just enough with Philip that she thought he could safely know, but no more, even though I think she wanted to tell him more about her mission.

Other thoughts
- I started to wonder how much of Claudia’s ‘lessons’ about Russia are truly meant to educate/indoctrinate Paige, and how much is meant to reinforce Elizabeth’s own nostalgia for the Russia of her childhood. What better than feeding Elizabeth the feel-good food that her own mom used to cook for her when she was a kid before mom gave her over to the KGB, to make Elizabeth feel good about now giving her own daughter to the KGB? I still don't trust Claudia at all.

- The show continues to tease that Renee may be a spy. If she is, which team is she on: KGB, CIA, or other? If by the end of the series we discover that she is just an innocent civilian who loves Stan, I will laugh because I think viewers have been conditioned to think that everyone is a spy. Either way, the fact that they including this, “Stan, I want to be FBI! Can you pull some strings to get me in?” scene hints that we’ll be seeing more from Renee.

- Did Philip put himself in financial risk to expand his business only because he needed more money to pay for Henry's schooling, or did he expand the business because he simply likes being a businessman, but in capitalism businesses must always either grow or die? We know that Henry got a scholarship to start at his fancy boarding school, but that may have run out after the first year. He's been there three years. Scholarships don't last forever. Maybe Philip took the financial burden for keeping Henry in school all on himself to avoid having to turn to the Center for money. I think the Center would have provided the funds but then they would have had even more leverage over Henry's fate than they already do behind the scenes.

Edited 2018-04-12 14:17 (UTC)

Elizabeth’s anger was so blazing that I thought that there was more to it than just angry officer chastising a young recruit.

Honestly, I thought it still wasn't enough. Not that I needed her to be more angry, but the later scene with Paige seemed to leave them just where they were before, with Paige insisting she was totally mature and she "got it, Mom! I did a bad thing" and Elizabeth again encouraging her and ready to send her right back into the field. Sure she didn't let her spend the night at home, but the mom/daughter walk and talk was pretty close. Hans wouldn't have gotten that.

I wonder if Elizabeth was always planning to kill the warehouse guy, or if it was a last second decision because he mentioned that his girlfriend was in company security.

Definitely last second, imo. I think we saw that play out with him unfortunately mentioning his girlfriend (or fortunately for Elizabeth). If she was planning to kill him presumably she'd have had a better method.

- I started to wonder how much of Claudia’s ‘lessons’ about Russia are truly meant to educate/indoctrinate Paige, and how much is meant to reinforce Elizabeth’s own nostalgia for the Russia of her childhood. What better than feeding Elizabeth the feel-good food that her own mom used to cook for her when she was a kid before mom gave her over to the KGB, to make Elizabeth feel good about now giving her own daughter to the KGB? I still don't trust Claudia at all.

There definitely seems to be something of that in there. After all, it's not like Paige has any actual memories of this stuff. And yet these lessons, according to Elizabeth, just fill her with more rage when she's reminded she's back in the US. (Which she chose to stay in when Philip wanted to leave!) Her hatred of the USA seems to be driving her almost more than the hope of a Soviet future at times.

It was a funny presentation of food, actually. I'll have to watch it again to be accurate, but it seemed like Claudia was presenting this as great peasant food that helps them survive through all those famines and wars. But during the famines they would not have access to any of this stuff.

I wondered, actually, if a reason Philip doesn't tend to respond as sentimentally to Russian food as people often expect him to be (twice I've seen him accused of actually thinking it's crap by viewers) is because he doesn't have a lot of happy sense memories about food because he really just didn't have a lot of it. Things presumably got better as he got older, but the only food associated with his childhood we've seen on the show is hot water with an onion in it and black moldy hard sawdust bread rations.

Did Philip put himself in financial risk to expand his business only because he needed more money to pay for Henry's schooling, or did he expand the business because he simply likes being a businessman, but in capitalism businesses must always either grow or die?

It seems like he might have been speaking truthfully to the guy at the school in that he sunk a lot of money into the business but won't get the actual money for a while. So it's a cash flow problem that's pretty standard when a business expands? I'm not a business person at all, but there was a good storyline about this on Mad Men.

But like I said below, I feel like they're retconning a bit to put Philip in a role he wouldn't really be in with that school.

I suspect that Elizabeth would have been mildly stern with Hans in the same way she was with Paige the second time they talked. It was the screaming, red-eyed tirade that was exceptional, not her more reasonable approach afterward. That screaming fit was meant to show that Elizabeth has been pushed to the limits of what she herself can bear, IMO. Yes, Paige undeniably screwed up big time, but Elizabeth doesn't even have the time or mental bandwidth left to question if Paige is suited to this life. It was just YOU (I) screwed up. YOU (I) can't come home again. YOU (I) have work to do.

I don't know much about running a travel business either but I guess you're right that Philip may have just run into a cash flow problem just because there are not enough people taking holiday cruises at the moment. But still, the scene was setup specifically with Philip calling the loan officer about missing his payment on Henry's student loan, then eyeing the pop science business motivational book, to him going to cheer on the team to land more sales. I read that as meaning that Henry's student loans are an underlying cause of Philip's business expansion. I wonder if Henry's scholarship was only for the 1st year, and everyone just assumed that he would continue to get scholarships but then didn't. That's not uncommon. Since Henry is (finally) showing up as a meaningful presence in the show, perhaps we'll find out more. Be interesting to see if Henry would care more about school related money issues getting between him and the American Dream, or about finding out that his parents are KGB spies.

I suspect that Elizabeth would have been mildly stern with Hans in the same way she was with Paige the second time they talked.

I think she would have just fired him on the spot, actually. Because I agree--this is completely about Paige being her daughter. Elizabeth's committed to keeping Paige on the job no matter what mistakes she makes, and she's also overly emotional about wanting her to be protected from uglier aspects. Here again she told Paige that her job would be different with no evidence that she might herself not wind up in the park at night with a "crazy" guy shooting himself in the face.

Re: the stuff with the school, I thought the book was Philip desperately trying to get his people to make money fast because he knew he had this bill coming due, not that Henry's school was literally the reason that he expanded. If he needed money for Henry's school he wouldn't have wasted money on a new office etc. The expansion is what's put him in financial straits.

The idea that Henry no longer had a scholarship (I think they do mention it but say it doesn't cover all of it) seems like a total retcon to me that doesn't make much sense. Henry got what seemed to be a full scholarship (it seemed like Henry immediately said to his parents that money wouldn't be an issue if he got the scholarship) based on a few months of good grades and now that he's the school hockey star with what seems like Ivy League potential and presumably still great grades he no longer has one? Henry's an investment for the school.

What was even less believable was that Philip, the father of the school's star hockey player and from what we know excellent student, who has never missed a payment so far, is being spoken to by the bursar like the shifty dad who never pays on time. That guy should have had way more deference to Philip given not only his history but Henry's status at the school.

Elizabeth might have fired Hans on the spot, I agree. But she would have done so in a far more reasonable tone of voice. The way that Elizabeth ranted at Paige was entirely personal. Sure, she's angry at Paige for screwing up but even that incredible screw-up doesn't account for the incandescent rage Elizabeth expressed. I suspect that Elizabeth knows that Paige isn't suitable for field work, and she also knows that she herself has very little time left to teach Paige anything and that's all adding to the stress she's already under.

As for Henry, it's really not uncommon for scholarships to only be good for a student's first year at school. The expectation is that the student would reapply for the first scholarship and maybe others. The school would be vested in trying to keep Henry there, but they'd expect the parents to make up for any shortfall if the scholarship ran out. As for the bursar cutting Philip some slack... nope. Philip is incredibly lucky that the guy gave him any grace period to pay at all. when all is said and done, private schools are just a business like any other business. You don't pay you get cut off.

Elizabeth might have fired Hans on the spot, I agree. But she would have done so in a far more reasonable tone of voice. The way that Elizabeth ranted at Paige was entirely personal. Sure, she's angry at Paige for screwing up but even that incredible screw-up doesn't account for the incandescent rage Elizabeth expressed. I suspect that Elizabeth knows that Paige isn't suitable for field work, and she also knows that she herself has very little time left to teach Paige anything and that's all adding to the stress she's already under.

Absolutely. I think her yelling at Paige here was actually coming from the same place as her comforting her in the premiere. Both times her real emotion seems to come from protecting Paige and protecting Paige from seeing her doing the uglier parts of the job. She protected her from her mistake with the sailor by killing him herself. Here she was upset that she couldn't protect her from seeing Elizabeth with a dead body.

She's still lying to her. Still covering up--it's unclear if Philip or Claudia know about Paige not only leaving her post but shouting "Mom!" as she did it. Paige herself might not even remember it or think it was that relevant.

And Elizabeth again in this ep repeated her mantra that Paige's job will be "different."

As for Henry, it's really not uncommon for scholarships to only be good for a student's first year at school. The expectation is that the student would reapply for the first scholarship and maybe others.

No, that just makes no sense with *this* type of private school, which typically offer plenty of full scholarships--all 4 years. It would only be revoked if he didn't fulfill his end of the bargain--that is, if his grades dropped below the minimum or he broke rules. This is a rich man's school. If they want Henry, money is no object. They don't run out of scholarship money.

As described last season, this is exactly what superstar Henry would be getting for four years. He obviously has kept up his end, so now he's exactly the kid they offered a free ride to only now he's even more valuable because it turns out he plays great hockey.

Their business is in finding and cultivating future successful, impressive alumni and Henry is showing every sign that he's just that. Nickel and diming the scholarship money with his dad and sending him back to public school is a waste of their investment.

If they wanted Philip to be in this kind of mess they should have just written it as a story where Henry got into the school and Philip was determined to give him what he wanted by paying for it. Instead they wrote a story about being a superstar with a free ride scholarship Philip couldn't refuse and now want to retcon it into financial aid package that still leaves middle class parents strapped for cash.

ETA: Just FWIW, I know that they never actually laid out exactly what the scholarship was, free-ride all 4 years or not. But what bugs me is the implication last year was that Henry was so amazing everyone wanted to help him and money was no problem because "scholarship" would cover everything. And now they want Philip more responsible. It bugs me that they just didn't do that from the start. Have Henry ask his parents to pay the expense and just say he thinks he can get some financial aid or a scholarship that makes it less expensive.

Edited 2018-04-13 01:27 (UTC)

Yep. It's how such schools keep some of their academic records: effectively pay smart kids to go there and stay until they've got the grades that some of the 'only there because they paid full whack' ones can't. Sports is a bonus.

The issue with family money is more around Philip spending on nice consumer items like the car complete with early car phone.

Firing Hans seems dangerous. They wouldn't want somebody feeling jilted and getting upset at them and going to the FBI. If he was a really bad spy (like Paige), there's a lot they could give him to do. Same for Paige. Since Elizabeth sees her as a "9 to 5" spy, there's no real reason to drag her to all these operations. I think Elizabeth is trying to create a fantasy of her daughter going in her footsteps.

But she did fire Hans. She fired him when he was seen by the other guy. He got himself back in by taking care of the problem, but obviously Elizabeth felt perfectly comfortable saying they couldn't work with him anymore.

Come to think of it, I remember now he screwed something up, ended up shooting a guy in like the worst place possible?

I don't remember how he bailed himself out of that :O

Re: Hans and Paige

sistermagpie - 2018-04-14 01:05 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Hans and Paige

(Anonymous) - 2018-04-14 02:03 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Hans and Paige

sistermagpie - 2018-04-14 18:28 (UTC) - Expand

You're right, I completely forgot that. But she didn't fire him from helping the cause, just from doing field work with her. That is what she should be doing with Paige. Though in Paige's case, she can't just cut off connection anyway. Even if she fires her as a spy, she still comes home every once in a while.

Hans: You th-- you think he may have seen me?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Hans: You don't know for sure.
Elizabeth: I don't have to. Hans, it's over. Us. This.
Hans: You've trained me well. We've-- we've worked so hard.
Elizabeth: I can't take that risk.
Hans: I want to serve. I wa-- I want to be of use
to our cause.
Elizabeth: You will. You'll just serve in other ways.

Re: Hans and Paige

sistermagpie - 2018-04-14 22:18 (UTC) - Expand

Nitpick: I think it was Henry's tuition payment.

On the topic of who can/can’t keep secrets, I wonder if Elizabeth was always planning to kill the warehouse guy, or if it was a last second decision because he mentioned that his girlfriend was in company security.

I'm pretty sure she hadn't always planned to kill him. It was his mention of his girlfriend's role that did it. Elizabeth had only just begun to work him. Ironically, he only opened up to her about the girlfriend because she was being so friendly and confiding and making him feel important.

If Elizabeth had more time to make this warehouse infiltration a long-term project instead of a quick grab, she may have ended up pulling a Clark-like relationship with this guy. Poor guy was just in the right place at the wrong time because Elizabeth is in a rush. She doesn't seem at all bothered by murdering this innocent man, either. In contrast, Philip was tied up in knots over killing the innocent US scientist and other 'innocent' individuals (like the truck driver guy from early on in the series). I don't think Philip agonizes over killing people who are knowingly participating in the great game of espionage or politics, but killing the innocent always bothered him. Not so for Elizabeth.

It's shocking they didn't even check the guy out enough to find out he had a girlfriend in security. They would have sent her to him personally and usually that's part of it.

They don’t have time. Plus, remember, this is not a normal Directorate S operation. This is covert ops within/against Directorate S. Elizabeth isn’t getting the more normal background support she used to get from the Center.

Oh, I get that's the idea. Although it seems unlikely they had time to get this guy into the hotel room (obviously they'd have told her which guy to go after) but no time to know anything about his personal life, since that's usually why you pick the guy.

Unless this was the only guy who had this information and so Elizabeth just went after him blind, which is pretty risky. Obviously.

I'm not sure I agree that she didn't seem bothered by having to kill him. I know that over the course of the show it's been Philip that's been shown as being very affected by having to kill innocent people, but I don't think Elizabeth is unaffected (and this is quite apart from the protracted death scene with the old lady in season 4 (was it?) that still feels to me like it snuck into The Americans from another show altogether). She's businesslike for sure, but I felt she was quite rattled by having to kill the young marine in the previous episode and that she always is. It's just that she's much better at compartmentalising things than Philip is so these actions don't haunt her the way they do him.

I thought she was bothered, but not the way Philip is bothered. She didn't plan to kill him and will now have to take care of the body and make sure she didn't leave any fingerprints etc. She doesn't have time for any of this. There's no way she can make this not look like murder, and the same goes the marine last ep. She's leaving a trail of bodies and somebody's going to pick up on it.

You're right. She is good at compartmentalizing all of the killings.

I'd be really disappointed if she's not after him for something. She acting too weird, and it's not just conditioning.

Though regardless of whether she's a spy, I didn't get this new idea to get into the FBI.

If Renee turns out to be a US-based agent of some kind, when she asked him to break the rules to get her into the FBI, she may merely have been testing him for signs of corruption.

It's odd, though. I hope the show provides a decent explanation for her behavior and role on the show.

I think they'd be stretching believability beyond the breaking point to suggest that a US spy agency made a woman marry an FBI agent to test him for corruption.

If it's something like the CIA checking into him for possible corruption - that's a pretty thin charge to try and hang onto Stan, but then again they did bust Al Capone for tax evasion.

Maybe ~~Proxy Snyder~~ Agent Wolfe or his boss got tired of Stan's antics and started digging into the Nina thing. If so they might've realized there was more going on than in Stan's official reports, and decided to proceed with a way to charge him for treason; when they couldn't make that stick, they decided to liaison with the CIA to see if they could dig anything up outside of the country that could tie into Stan's possible charge.

I admit, it's pretty thin. :\

They'd be expected to last throughout in the UK.

Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

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Saraquel and Urban Transport...

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Scholarship

Hans and Paige

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Elizabeth's murder

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Elizabeth & murder

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Renee the spy

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