Episode discussion post: "The Great Patriotic War"

[jae]

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

This is a discussion post for episode 605 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 five.)

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Comments

Paige and Jim

[sistermagpie]

Sadly, I think the show meant for the bar scene to be some sort of empowering, Me Too type girl power moment for Paige, but that entire scene made me cringe. Paige isn’t a badass just because she’s been taught how to fight. She’s an incredibly messed up young woman who doesn’t know how to function in a normal life.

And again she reacted to Elizabeth's actually very important advice by rolling her eyes and saying it wasn't a big deal. She just doesn't go back to that bar again.

She also turned Elizabeth telling her not to try to get information from that intern into Elizabeth telling her not to sleep with him. How does she still seem incapable of following this very simple line of thought? She couldn't do it with Matthew either.

It's a shame that after Elizabeth actually said the words that Paige wasn't cut out for this she backtracked again and rewarded Paige with that drinking afternoon. It was implying that the real problem was Paige "learning from her mistakes" by teaching her to hang out in bars like a spy by drinking olive oil.

Except the real problem isn't that she drank too much, it's that she doesn't understand the danger she and her family are in and thinks this is all about her being cool. Even the next day when she was sober she was defending her actions, lying about events to pretend she had no choice and brushing off the danger. It's just one bar she can't go to anymore!

By making it about teaching her to drink I think Elizabeth rewarded her for her actions, frankly.

Random thought: I loved that when “Jim” called Kimmy to tell her that it was all over, Philip wasn’t wearing the Jim wig and disguise. It reminded me a lot of when he took off the Clark wig and showed Martha his true (Soviet spy) face. Of course, with Martha he did that in order to bind her to him even more tightly than before. This time, he unmasked himself to set Kimmy free, just as he set himself free.

Someone else said that too--they also said they thought the camera angles changed at the end when Philip was really speaking to her as himself, warning her not to go to a Communist country.

Re: Paige and Jim

[saraqael]

I laughed when Paige essentially had a fit and yelled essentially, "You're not the boss of me!!11!!11!!" at Elizabeth. LOL. I think every teenager on the planet has said that at some point.

Of course, Elizabeth is pretty much Paige's case officer now, so technically she is Paige's boss as well as her cool spy Mom.

Re: Philip and the camera angles: I'll rewatch that scene tonight after work and check the camera angles. I'm always interested in how directors stage scenes. I was thinking about that scene again today and comparing/contrasting it to the unmasking with Martha. Here with Kimmy, he unmasked himself but purposely did not let her see his real face just to further drive a wedge between her and him.

I find it interesting that twice now with Kimmy, Philip hit a point where his own conscience would not let him act. He's done all manners of horrible things to various people, but the first time around he refused to sleep with her because she was underage, and now he refused to put her life at risk. Philip does anything he can to avoid hurting innocent people, particularly kids. We saw the same sort of impulse in him when he got so outraged at Tuan's plot to goad that Russian kid into committing suicide. Elizabeth may be able to justify this sort of damage in her mind as being Cold War collateral damage, but Philip really can't.

Where is Elizabeth's 'line in the sand'? She's got to have one. She is human. There's got to be an act or sacrifice that she simply cannot bear. What will it be and what might she do when/if it finally happens?

Re: Elizabeth's limit

[sistermagpie]

Where is Elizabeth's 'line in the sand'? She's got to have one. She is human. There's got to be an act or sacrifice that she simply cannot bear. What will it be and what might she do when/if it finally happens?

They let her off the hook by having the kid be asleep. She didn't even have to worry that he'd recognize her in her disguise.

Re: Elizabeth's limit

[saraqael]

They let her off for now. I can't believe that the showrunners will let her off the hook entirely before the show ends. More than ever before, the story hinges on Elizabeth's actions. Her actions brought Oleg out of retirement. Her actions forced Philip to finally turn against her. Her actions are keeping Paige tethered to a role utterly unsuitable. Elizabeth is destroying everyone and everything she comes in contact with. And yet...there must be something that she simply will not be able to bring herself to do. She's not superhuman.

Re: Elizabeth's limit

[andy73]

I rewatched the scene: Elizabeth tried to get off Ghennadi’s home twice when she realized Ghennadi was’t alone…

Poor Elizabeth… for her all things go to south….

Re: Camera angles

[saraqael]

So I rewatched the phone call scene (in fact I rewatched the entire episode) to pay attention to the camera angles and you're right. The camera circles around and draws closer to Philip as he's speaking, and it ends with a very cool shot (though out of focus) of an American flag waving in the background. That's pretty wild. The scene is telegraphing that Philip has chosen sides.

Speaking of the camera work, when I rewatched the episode, I noticed that the camerawork in the 'morning after' kitchen scene between Philip and Elizabeth is especially good at emphasizing what's happening between the two. I mentioned it in my Twitter. They're in the same frame together outside. When they enter the kitchen, they're still in the same frame, but the scene itself is divided: they're on one side, the empty house is on the other side. The camera starts to divide them to opposite sides of the frame when Elizabeth first proposes her plan. By the time Elizabeth describes Philip taking Kimmy to Bulgaria, he is almost entirely out of the scene except for the tip of his hand. It cuts to a reaction shot of him and she is almost entirely out of the frame. Then they come back into the same frame when Philip says, "There's got to be another way." Elizabeth starts talking and the camera starts dividing them again when she says, "It all comes down to this." Then they're back in frame together though neither looks at the other when she says, "All you'd have to do is go on a trip." They go back to separate frames when Philip objects and says, "She's just a kid." They stay in separate frames until Elizabeth says, "You're done." The very last shot in this scene is of Philip looking reproachfully at her. Elizabeth is just a dark blur.

That was really terrific staging, IMO. As I said on Twitter, you could watch this scene with the sound off and still know how troubled these two are by the way the camera divides them. There are only a couple of points in the discussion when they're actually together; otherwise they are pulling apart and just reacting to each other.

Re: Camera angles

[sistermagpie]

This is so cool!

Re: Camera angles

[saraqael]

I was very impressed when I went back and watched it again. It's almost like a dance with the camera work mirroring what the characters are saying and experiencing. When I watched the scene as it aired, I was far too engrossed in the story to notice this level of detail. I'm glad you mentioned the camera angles changing in the last scene with Philip because that's what spurred me to pay attention to the camera setups when I watched it again.

Re: Camera angles

[jae]

It's worth saying that the director for this ep was Tommy Schlamme, who is the same director sistermagpie and I saw in action when we went for our set visit. He's amaaaaazing.

-J

Re: Camera angles

[saraqael]

Oh wow! What a great coincidence.

Re: Camera angles

[(Anonymous)]

Still so jelly you got to see it during filming :D

- QR who is not logged in presently

Re: Camera angles

[jae]

I'm currently travelling so I've only seen the episode once (and it was when I was verrrrry sleepy), so I haven't felt up to commenting on anything, but this is so interesting! Thank you for all this analysis. Our comm's membership is so smart.

-J

Re: Camera angles

[treonb]

I went back to rewatch that last scene as well. I didn't even notice the flag first time around, but it is so obvious now