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theamericansAired:
18 April 2018 in the U.S. and Canada
This is a discussion post for episode 604 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 four.)
Original promo trailer
18 April 2018 in the U.S. and Canada
This is a discussion post for episode 604 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 four.)
Original promo trailer
no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 06:00 am (UTC)And Philip's in a different mess :( I feel bad for Henry. I wonder if any of his buddies has a dad who'd kick in for a quid pro quo.
Oleg using nonsense about the course he's taking to pass info on to Arkady through his dad! Clever :O
Paige Did The Thing Which Elizabeth All But Said Not To Do. :O I can only imagine the fallout from that over the next few episodes :O
Paige shagging the intern
Date: 2018-04-19 08:59 am (UTC)Re: Paige shagging the intern
Date: 2018-04-19 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 04:20 pm (UTC)Or maybe the ritzy prep school might kick in for the quid pro quo of keeping a star student and athlete who's exactly the kind of kid they give free rides to?
I love the whole Oleg/Arkady/Igor info line.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 07:35 pm (UTC)SAME :P
The prep school might suddenly "find" scholarship money if Henry has been legitimately keeping his grades way up plus helping the sports team pull some good wins.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-20 06:09 pm (UTC)While watching thoughts
Date: 2018-04-19 08:56 am (UTC)Philip's the one coming home late for once. Elizabeth outside smoking again.
Pointed shot with them as far apart as they can be in the kitchen.
Would she really take Paige on a burglary at this point?
Quick prediction - at some point in the season, Paige is going to disobey orders, come to see what's happened to Elizabeth and save her. Possibly at the cost of her own life.
So far, it's a contender for 'most boring burglary'. Ah, at last, even if it is a 'hey' and a shot in the dark.
I thought we'd see Kimmy again.
Ha, Paige's 'he's cute.. and he's an intern for a congressman!'
A wonderful three handed attempted conversation.
Is that how Elizabeth sees Philip? Lost?
'That takes...' skips over what Elizabeth went through to be 'ready'.
Ah, the deal! Even if we don't get to hear what it is.
There's obviously a code in that phone conversation, but I wonder what it is.
Pointed expensive school shot.
'But what?' I still don't believe this school fees plot line.
Good photos given the camera movement and the lighting :)
I am now waiting for a reminder that Philip could get a pile of reward money.
Something is making me think 'set' rather than real street, especially Moscow one. The lighting, I think.
'Are you rich yet?'
It's not a good sign that they haven't talked money like this before / recently.
'He's your department' - ha! When are we going to see divorce lawyers? Would his cover survive?
It'd be good for everyone, I'd get to do some spying...
Back to the secrets room, with the shocking secret that someone does actually want Stan for relationship advice!
Nice montage of people's evenings, even if I were Henry, I'd be asking why I wasn't featured. Good ending with Paige's 'what a waste' look.
Quick example of why she's not comfortable there, followed by an example of why she shouldn't be.
Elizabeth's more annoyed at the timing of the vomiting, interrupting the conversation, than anything else.
Ha, backstory! They're being remarkably nice to each other.
Re: Nice to each other
Date: 2018-04-19 04:11 pm (UTC)Do you mean the kids? That reminded me of a memoir-ish book I read where the author talked about kids sharing the little they had a lot in the USSR. I really liked that the memory wasn't the kids tearing at each other, but letting everyone have a spot at the scrapings on the bowl.
Re: Nice to each other
Date: 2018-04-19 09:19 pm (UTC)Re: Nice to each other
Date: 2018-04-19 11:13 pm (UTC)Re: Nice to each other
Date: 2018-04-20 08:57 am (UTC)He doesn't have as many dollars as he'd like, but he's not hungry - there's a sandwich there that he doesn't need to eat.
Re: Nice to each other
Date: 2018-04-20 07:52 pm (UTC)That's what I mean about fond memories of Communism. Of course he was living in poverty, but that doesn't mean Philip is thinking the poverty was a result of Communism. There's poverty in the US too--and he was in the USSR after WWII.
Besides that, it is a choice to have the kids sharing with each other rather than having a big kid grabbing everything and making the little kids wait. I don't know if they thought about that at all when they were directing the kids, but it *is* a scene of people sharing the little they have in a story where a guy feels isolated trying to pay for everything himself.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 05:27 pm (UTC)I suppose I didn't really expect otherwise. It's not just Philip that's lost since he 'retired.' They brought out the best in each other somehow when they worked together even when what they were doing was awful. Now, they both seem adrift, especially from each other.
More and more worried about Oleg.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-21 03:40 pm (UTC)Elizabeth's secret missions
Date: 2018-04-21 04:38 pm (UTC)It made me remember that Elizabeth's working two jobs with this guy. She's being a nurse to spy on Glen the State Department employee. But her Mexico City job is to spy on the Russian guy and that's completely secret and all on her. So that's probably why she tries to put herself there physically as much as possible rather than get anyone else too involved with it. It's not an official mission. When you think about it, getting anyone else involved in it is dangerous immediately because she's working against Gorbachev.
Re: Elizabeth's secret missions
Date: 2018-04-21 05:52 pm (UTC)I think you're correct that she needs to be careful about keeping her helpers unaware of the extent that she's spying on the Russian contact along with Glen.
Re: Elizabeth's secret missions
Date: 2018-04-21 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-20 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 06:22 pm (UTC)Elizabeth’s haste to fulfill her suicide mission continues to wreak havoc and death. Her life is rapidly descending into darkness – literally in the case of the warehouse break-in that resulting in multiple people shot, unknown number of deaths while Elizabeth’s attempts to claw her way through plastic to get one of the sensors failed. I get that the break-in scene was filmed in darkness to simulate what she was experiencing, but to me that directorial trick didn’t work because the scene went on too long and became – to me as a viewer – irritating rather than interesting.
Elizabeth using the dying artist as a pawn to get into the baseball party spectacularly failed. Elizabeth ended up literally covered in vomit. The physical strain of that situation may even have hastened the artist’s pending death a little. The poor woman is already at death’s door. Elizabeth needs this woman to stay alive through the summit, but otherwise has no interest if she lives or dies. That’s sad. The artist did offer up yet another clue to what could possibly save Elizabeth’s own life though. The work doesn’t matter. She should have chosen to spend more time with her husband. Love is all that matters at the end of days. I said something similar in the ‘predictions’ post. I hope that Elizabeth decides to choose love over ideology. Ultimately it doesn’t matter which ideological side you’re on. The only thing that matters is love, family, and living a morally decent life. I hope Elizabeth learns this before the end of the series.
Henry took the news about Philip’s financial trouble rather well, all things considered. He looked alarmed and upset, but he didn’t react poorly, like a spoiled kid. To me, it seemed more like he just needed time to absorb the news and consider his options. I know there was a lot of previous discussion about how long scholarships last, etc. In the US at least, there are as many different types and amounts of scholarships as there are flavors of ice cream. Henry’s original scholarship clearly only got him to St. Edwards but wasn’t enough to keep him there for the duration. I’m kind of counting on the fact that Henry is an independent, smart young man. Now that he knows about the financial issue, I wouldn’t be surprised if he found some alternate new source of funding. Barring that, I think he would be pretty gracious about having to spend his last year is school back in a public school. We’ll see.
Kimmy! I was not expecting to see her again because I thought that Philip had dropped all of his spying activities. Clearly not. So here she is back in the storyline. How far will Philip go with her to keep her in DC? She’s technically of legal age for him to sleep with now. Will he go that far? We’ll find out. Elizabeth needs the information Kimmy provides, and Philip needs to spy on Elizabeth, so maybe the Kimmy caper is his way in to getting more information on/from Elizabeth. Such a tangled web.
Paige. OMG. I am so, so glad that Philip called her on that naïve, smug ‘bad things happen in the world’ comment. Paige has barely left the security of her upper-middle class suburban neighborhood. She has no bloody idea about life or ‘the world.’ At this point, her desire to be the perfect reflection of her mom has turned her into a walking disaster. I did not know how to interpret that last shot of her conflicted expression as she eyed the government ID of the young man she just slept with. Did she only just realize that she’d broken Elizabeth’s clear rule about not sleeping with a mark? Or was that expression meant to indicate regret that she can never have a normal boyfriend (harkening back to her drama over Matthew) because her spy business must forever be in the way? Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Paige is so screwed up at this point (harkening back to Pastor Tim’s diary comment) that I doubt she’ll ever have a ‘normal’ life.
I hope that Oleg’s decency doesn’t end up getting him or any member of his family harmed or killed.
Elizabeth’s mission to kill the Teacups is going to put her on a collision course with Stan. Possibly, Philip’s continued work with Kimmy with get him fingered by the CIA. We’re headed towards the midway point of the season. It’s all downhill from here.
Loved seeing that Philip can forget his woes for a bit, pull on his cowboy boots and enjoy a night of line dancing with the work gang. He's discovered one of the major downsides of American capitalism: grow or die - which is kind of a weird reflection of the literal: 'perform or die situation' that Elizabeth is in, when I think about it.
Nice callback to Philip's childhood near-starvation experiences in comparison to his current life sitting in an office eating chips and a sandwich.
Saraquel and Teacups
Date: 2018-04-19 06:51 pm (UTC)I wondered if I was supposed to be as struck by that as I was. It's possible that he was just too shocked to be angry and will be later, but in the moment it seemed like he was devastated but didn't feel right about being angry when his father was honestly telling him the reality. It seemed to go along with the few things Philip has said about his childhood, where he would have worked and tried to help the family and not just assume he'd be taken care of. Also a big contrast to Paige's many angry scenes about her parents. Paige just still seems to be incredibly self-centered compared to Henry even though she's the kid devoting her life to getting Mom's approval. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had Henry act like a brat to bring home the whole "American capitalism has its own problems" theme.
Btw, what was with Elizabeth claiming that Philip was happy to see Henry doing everything Philip wanted him to do? Philip didn't even want him to go to that school. It seems more like the opposite--Philip's just happy with whatever Henry's doing. Likewise we had Stan being nervous about Matthew moving in with a girlfriend because he wants him to have an independent life first. Elizabeth was the main character who wanted her kid tied down and just like her.
The Philip/Henry call was also a big contrast to Elizabeth continuing to lie and keep secrets about things in the job that she wants Paige to do.
I thought that too. Besides the fact that no, it still makes zero sense that the school itself wouldn't just give him a scholarship because that's what that kind of school does for kids like him, I thought Henry would probably start thinking about it himself. Philip, after all, told him he was trying to come up with a solution himself. If Henry had an idea that might work and needed his help Philip would do it.
I was almost surprised Elizabeth didn't just say it was unacceptable because Henry would get in her way. Though her "Well, he's your department" was pretty equally dismissive.
Right now it looks like Elizabeth will pressure him to do so, pimping out her husband herself now instead of just accepting it as part of a job other people order him to do.
Elizabeth did tell her she could sleep with him, but it seemed like she was planning to mix the two even though Elizabeth said not to. She does not learn from her mistakes, really. Anyway, it seems like for Paige it's not really that everything is for the cause, it's that the cause gives her life meaning and makes it easier. She's less vulnerable in a relationship if she's really just spying.
But then also, Elizabeth's warnings are totally weak. She says Paige shouldn't mix the two but she clearly only respects things that are done for the cause. Paige has never seemed so pathetic as when she was smiling gratefully at Elizabeth saying she was proud of her for all this. Also, all the talk of Paige's alleged future career seems like a pipe dream. Neither Paige or Elizabeth seem much interested in it--it seems like they just expect it to happen. Meanwhile Elizabeth's having Paige drive her to her murders, risking her perfect cover more than a congressional intern would.
Paige seems to be entering an even worse phase where she's not only clueless but clueless and arrogant. I really hope this leads to disaster because it would be a real cheat if we get some time jump where Paige is president because she was awesome all along.
Especially after the line-dancing. He probably has the ability to enjoy simple joys like dancing because it's a contrast to the grind of his early life. Elizabeth is the opposite, dismissing anything that isn't related to the cause. The only pleasure she seems to have are the Russia culture sessions at Claudia's which are less about Paige than they are about Elizabeth stoking her hatred of all things American and pretending this is the USSR. Then she steps outside and remembers she's kind of alone in that.
As usual Philip is alone in his flashback with no dialogue--no brother, even.
Re: Saraquel and Teacups
Date: 2018-04-19 10:31 pm (UTC)As for the school not giving Henry another scholarship... this has all been somewhat invisible to us viewers, so we don't even know if Philip even approached the school to check on alternate types of funding once Henry's initial scholarship ran out. Also, while I get that Henry is excelling at sports and whatnot, the school isn't actually obligated to provide assistance. When all is said and done, it's just an expensive prep school for well to do kids. There's one here in the DC area (Georgetown Prep) where the annual cost for tuition and boarding is nearly $60,000 a year - for a high school! These schools can be very cut-throat. Georgetown Prep for example offers financial aid but for less than a third of the annual costs. You pay, you find alternate loans or scholarships on your own, or you leave. Hopefully Henry will find an alternate scholarship source now that he knows what's going on.
I wasn't too fussed when Elizabeth told Philip that Henry was his department. She's just too tired to even think about anything else beyond what she's got on her own plate. I actually took it as a sign of confidence from her that Philip will figure something out.
Elizabeth still naively thinks that Paige will not be doomed to a life of street level espionage and honeypot gigs for the Center. She's kidding herself. I want to see her reaction next week once she learns what Paige has done. She won't care that Paige slept with a boy. She will care if it turns out that Paige slept with this guy because he's mark, or now, after the fact, if Paige wants to turn him into a mark.
Also, meant to include this in my original post, but I noted very much that when Claudia asked what to do next with Paige's training, Elizabeth said that it was all reminding herself of home. I remain convinced that all of this 'training' about food, movies, etc. is aimed at Elizabeth more than at Paige. Claudia knows she can manipulate Elizabeth with appeals to nostalgia and fostering family style affection for her as Granny rather than as Center handler.
Re: Saraquel and Teacups
Date: 2018-04-19 11:23 pm (UTC)I really believe him to be this way too--it came out in his first phone call too where he was talking to Philip about Stavos.
It's not so much invisible as told in shorthand in ways that are totally contradictory imo. The scholarship didn't run out, it just suddenly became more like a discount or financial aid.
On the subject of Philip trying to get more, so far it seems like we're probably not seeing that because it's not the main point so it wouldn't be interesting. That is, I assume we're just supposed to assume that the bill is what it is and it's either in Philip's budget or it isn't. That doesn't meant that Henry himself might not talk to people at the school who surprise Philip by saying of course they'll find the money for a star student.
But from Philip's pov the main thing seems to be about him questioning the rat race and going back to what are his real values. I mean, it's not like he ever had a big dream to be a businessman. He was just happy to not be spying. But I think his heart has always been in wanting to help people etc. That's also why he doesn't want to let Henry down or lay off the workers whose names Elizabeth can't remember. Business isn't really his best world.
Really, for all Elizabeth's telling herself and Paige about how her life will be different she's training Paige (not just in terms of skill but by example of what this life is about and what she should want to do) to be her. A person with no real place in US society who sniffs around the fringes of power looking for victims. Neither of them talk or act as if Paige's important career is in the near future.
Henry, otoh, is all about the future. His coach is saying he'll be team captain, he's taking AP calculus in junior year (a year early by my school's schedule). Philip's problems are derailing his plans for the future. It's like Oleg said--one side's all about the past, the other is about the future.
And yes, I think Claudia totally sees that it's Elizabeth who's manipulated by the cooking at the movies etc. Whenever they do something she and Elizabeth have an excuse to bond. This is exactly what Claudia tried to set up the very first season where she wanted it to be her and Elizabeth with their special understanding.
Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-20 09:08 am (UTC)And, depending just where she was, she was legal long before now.
Re: Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-20 07:46 pm (UTC)So Kimmy might absolutely still harbor a wish that he'd finally see her that way and they might know that and want to use it as the thing that would make her come home again before the summit.
Re: Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-21 04:00 pm (UTC)Re: Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-21 04:42 pm (UTC)In this ep, along with making the point that the two of them were platonic enough that they asked about each other's love life, they also made a point of saying both Kimmy and Jim were single. They could totally realistically "have a moment" still.
Re: Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-21 05:44 pm (UTC)You've touched on the aspect of this that bothers me the most about the situation with Kimmy. I don't actually care if Philip sleeps with her now because she is just older enough to be able to deal with the emotional aspects of having an affair with a much older man. She might even view it that way in her own mind: Jim is going to be my 'older man' experience. It's the fact that Philip was able to turn the 'Kimmy job' into a friendship instead of a Lolita seduction. She does think of him as a friend. He still thinks of her as being just a kid, but not in terms of a mark that he must seduce. Now, whether Elizabeth pressures him into it or whether he decides to do it himself so that he can keep spying on Elizabeth, it does seem like Kimmy is going to be flipped into just another honeypot gig. If that happens, he'd be betraying her friendship in the same way that Elizabeth betrayed Young Hee's friendship. Elizabeth can wall up all her regret but Philip can't.
Re: Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-21 06:50 pm (UTC)Also, even if he refuses to do it or finds another way, it changes the Philip/Elizabeth relationship for her to directly ask it of him, it seems to me. In the past one of the most reliable ways Elizabeth's actual investment in the marriage came out was via jealousy, even if it was unfounded. They've always been able to accept sex as part of the other person's job, one that Elizabeth sometimes found more distasteful than Philip.
Sex, especially sex within the marriage, has always been a central issue of the show, so it seems very significant for Elizabeth to personally pimp him out. It changes the dynamic between the two of them as well as the dynamic between Kimmy and Jim even if Elizabeth didn't realize it.
Re: Kimmy
Date: 2018-04-21 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 09:34 pm (UTC)I felt the same way, have to say. It wasn't tense, just annoying. This is the first time the show has made me feel that way.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-04-23 10:26 am (UTC)dark scenes
Date: 2018-04-23 06:22 pm (UTC)Re: dark scenes
Date: 2018-04-23 06:39 pm (UTC)Re: dark scenes
Date: 2018-04-23 07:04 pm (UTC)The showrunners talked about it on the official podcast this week, and they were surprised no one had called them on it yet. I guess they just had to wait a bit!
-J
A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-20 06:36 am (UTC)More seriously: it doesn‘t help my feelings about the episode that after giving us a great scene between Oleg and Philip right at the start, the show concludes said scene by Oleg saying they can‘t meet again in person as he‘s sure to be followed. I mean, this makes perfect sense! (And indeed Aderholt and Stan talk about the surveillance for Oleg later in the episode.) But after making us wait for so many years for direct interaction between our leads and the other Russian characters, two scenes are not nearly enough.
Incidentally, the moment Oleg said, in reply to why he left the KGB two years ago, that „there is something rotten to it“ (not the KGB, spying per se), Philip‘s expression was something to behold. It‘s something he‘s felt but never verbalized. Also, Oleg saying this is something different from Gabriel, with one proverbial foot out of the door already, saying that Philip had been right re: Paige. Philip doesn‘t have backstory with Oleg, Oleg didn‘t mentor him, and is indeed somewhat younger.
Then again, Philip is and was a very good spy. Whereas this season seems to want to make the case that he could fail at being a capitalist civilian. Not sure how I feel about this. Is this meant as some foreshadowing symbolism about how the reformists in Russia will eventually fail? Also, I suppose I can buy that while Philip and Elizabeth were running the travel agency together as a cover, making just enough money for it to be an okay cover, it was fine, but with Philip on his own determined to make it into a big success something like the overhasty expansion could happen. But other than signalling yet another way there‘s a distance between them now, I‘m not sure why we‘re spending so much time on this, when I‘d rather have Philip doing more spying, now that we have the promising drama of him having agreed to do so on Elizabeth‘s missions.
Meanwhile, Paige: still unbelievably naive for a 19 years old, buying the „it was suicide“ story even after Philip all but spelled it out to her. Given that Paige in this episode does what Elizabeth explicitly told her not to do, mixing dating with going after an asset, I‘m presuming that at this rate either it will be Paige who gets them busted, all by trying to help, and/or there will be another verbal explosion, this time by Philip, not Elizabeth, and he‘ll tell her exactly what being a spy means.
I was wondering how Oleg would report back to Arkady, given that they can‘t use the usual KGB lines anymore, and using his father and a report on those classes on modern transport methods he‘s supposedly taking was in retrospect an obvious but really smart answer.
Her patient/artist telling Elizabeth that in retrospect she wished she‘d spent more time with her husband and less working was a bit on the nose; usually the show does better in scenes when they had Elizabeth or Philip having conversations in their disguises which relate directly to a rl problem either one of them has. Kimmie‘s „you‘re stuck“ to Philip-as-Jim was less than subtle as well. We get it, writers. Mind you, it was good to get an update on Kimmie, who seems to be doing well. (Talk about one relationship that could have been horribly damaging but turned out to be anything but, though Kimmie would undoubtedly still be devastated if she found out why Jim originally befriended her.)
In conclusion: no more treadmilling, please. Given that Stan has to go back to „Mr and Mrs Teacup“ next week just when Elizabeth has been told to get rid of them, I do hope for some actual danger at least.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-20 08:06 pm (UTC)I could swear one of the previews showed them together at least once more. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part but my god I want them to meet again! Presumably they must have worked out some way to communicate at least.
So do you think it's definite that's what he meant? That's how I read it but grammatically he could have also been saying that the USA had something rotten to it. It made a lot more sense for him to be talking about spying, but I wasn't sure if somebody else thought he meant the USA. That doesn't sound like anything Oleg would particularly say, though.
I'm wondering that too. I like having a definitive statement that no, Philip has not come to believe that capitalism is the way to go. It's not just that he's bad at business, he also seems to be realizing he questions the drive of always having to grow and the reward being money and success. He would, I think, still much prefer helping others.
I also think it's valuable to have somebody arguing for non-capitalist systems as a practical, compassionate approach to problems of the world instead of just a faith that's knee-jerk anti-Communism.
But that doesn't mean I'm interested in watching Philip run a business successfully or not. I can care about that kind of story, but on this show I care about it about as much as I care whether Henry's hockey team wins the next game. Not at all.
It's kind of amazing how Elizabeth always seems to be surrounded by people who are eager to help her, whether they understand that or not.
Elizabeth's got a few episodes left to push Philip into making it horribly damaging.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-21 11:25 am (UTC)I hear you on Henry‘s hockey team & Philip‘s business. And yes, that‘s how I understood Oleg. I mean, he does give his opinion on the US when Philip asks just before thatt, i.e. „they‘re not crazy, and we can make peace with them“. (What Oleg would make of Trump, I don‘t even want to know...) Then again, Oleg, son of the transport minister, always had the money to enjoy his time in the US before (I remember when he was still in the trying-to-chat-Nina-up stage and all the things he invited her to). I think he enjoys various aspects of American life without actually wanting to live there for good. Since his expertise at the Rezidentura was science, I doubt he spend much time on the darker sides of US capitalist live.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-21 02:51 pm (UTC)Oh, of course! Me too. That's why I said Elizabeth would push him to do it, because he'd be the one doing it. He was pushed to do it before and wouldn't so yeah, of course that's all on Philip. Which, tbf, it seems Philip himself would agree to.
Agreed on Oleg. "Something rotten" just doesn't sound like a conclusion he'd have come to about the US, even if he had a lot of criticisms of it. The way he related to it seemed more like he actually did see something fine at its core (hence liking its music etc.). "Rotten" seems more like what he'd come to see about the KGB.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-21 04:33 pm (UTC)I didn't see Philip's struggles with capitalism as foreshadowing for what happened in Russia when the oligarchs snatched up all of the state assets. I'm not sure that Russia ever had a change to set up a true market based economy because the oligarchs snatched up all of the government assets so quickly. It seemed to become a criminal kleptocracy almost overnight. I think that what Philip is going through now is meant to be taken on face value. He's mired in the rat race aspect of capitalism and he doesn't know what to do. If anything, I'd almost see Philip's money woes as foreshadowing the economic disaster that ultimately struck the entire Western economy during the Great Recession in the late 2000s. The quest for ever more wealth and capital finally blew up in everyone's faces. Philip's just dealing with that same pressure on an individual scale.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-21 05:03 pm (UTC)Also I think it links back to the spy stories and who these characters really are. Oleg and Philip both were repelled by that "something rotten" in the KGB, but at heart they are individuals motivated by the desire to "make a difference." Not only is Philip stressed out by the pressures of business, he doesn't think there's enough of a reward for the stress.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-21 05:33 pm (UTC)The people who fail at capitalism aren't quite reduced to scraping the bottom of empty soup pots...but they aren't much better off. They rely on government handouts or food banks run by all the folks like Pastor Tim and other charity minded people who believe that everyone deserves the dignity of a decent meal.
I totally sympathize with Philip who is just seeking a middle ground between being wealthy or being reduced to getting food handouts at Pastor Tim's food bank. When is enough enough? Why does his work his tail off but still find himself hurting for enough money to support his family? What's wrong with this capitalistic picture? It's not what he thought it was. Compared to his experience back home, America seemed like a breeze. He couldn't understand the darker aspect of the 'American dream' until he had to live it. Now he understands the relentless pressure that a purely capital-based economy puts on people.
Re: A bit belated, my review
Date: 2018-04-21 06:49 pm (UTC)Right I agree. I think that's part of what he was getting at with Stan. He loves having what he needs and enjoys having fun stuff to do in his leisure time. What he doesn't get is having to grow for the sake of growth. He doesn't see the reward of always expanding because you always need more. That's where I thought he was coming from there.
Which, imo, was always what his values were. He thinks everyone should have a safety net with enough to eat. He got that in the US--though he really got it through the USSR who plucked him out and prepared him for it.
It's like I remember saying at some point way back in New Car where he and Elizabeth talk about enjoying the perks of the US. Philip very openly enjoys cool stuff like a fancy car, but if he had to choose between him having a fancy car and his neighbor having no car, he'd choose for both of them to have less fancy cars. There's always been a clear limit to how much Philip values the perks. He doesn't put them over people.
He seems pretty open to the flaws in both systems--which is why he'd naturally love the idea of both cultures being able to learn from each other. He thinks the USSR can still be the USSR even if it incorporates some stuff from the West, but the West could learn some things from the USSR as well.
Philip and Stan
Date: 2018-04-21 09:38 pm (UTC)Re: Philip and Stan
Date: 2018-04-21 10:20 pm (UTC)It seemed important, actually, that Philip *wasn't* trying to get Stan to either buy something or help. It was a change from the previous episodes where he was trying to push his employees to make more money and sell things. Now he'd let go that desperation, maybe because he was realizing he felt better doing things that mattered, like he said to Kimmy.