theamericans | Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

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

Yup. He shot thd guy in the eye iirc! That bailed him out because he killed the witness.

But then, he did it in a library where anybody could've seen him do it which is total loose cannon territory.

I'm gonna have to rewatch from S4 on, I think, but the show is a real slog sometimes so 13 episodes feels like a lot more.

True, though I don't know if Elizabeth knew that. We saw that the murder was a messy nightmare, but Elizabeth maybe just knew he'd killed him.

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.

Yes, she really could have used this as an excuse to get Paige out of this life and tell her to serve in other ways. Or at least try. She doesn't even make her prove herself to get back in. Everything continues as normal as if she didn't do anything earth-shattering.

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

Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

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