Episode discussion post: "Harvest"

[jae]

Aired:
9 May 2018 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 607 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 seven.)

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Comments

Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Dead HandHarvest

[jae]

Loved Harvest's last speech and the use of Russian vs. English in it. First, Harvest reports work stuff in English but his personal messages are in Russian. In the end that's what's actually important to him--his parents, his family. That's what he says as his real self.

<3

Yep, yep, yep.

-J

Re: Use of Russian and English

[sistermagpie]

Have any theories on Philip's choices there? It feels like his second message was personal to Philip as well (like I said, I imagined him hearing Henry saying it to him) so he spoke to the guy as himself too.

Of course, there was also the story from last season where he learned his father was a guard and thought that might have meant he was terrible (just like Philip) but that didn't seem right.

ETA: Seems that Harvest switched languages too, asking him if he remembered in English, so Philip was following his lead and answering him in the language in which he was being spoken.

Re: Use of Russian and English

[jae]

Your edit was how I took it (and that's basically standard practice with code-switching unless something else is going on).

-J

Re: Use of Russian and English

[sistermagpie]

Yes, originally I'd remembered it otherwise--I hadn't remembered that he switched to English the first time he asked him to remember.

Of course, being an Illegal Philip certainly could have chosen to answer him in English the second time, so he is still making the decision to code switch, which I think is much more right in that moment. (And Philip has very little experience switching language in his life, interestingly enough.) Since the show's rule is to have them speak whatever language they would speak, I like that they knew he'd do taht.

Re: Use of Russian and English

[jae]

I love that too! So much.

-J

Re: Use of Russian and English

[treonb]

After 20 years of forcing himself not to speak or think in Russian, would he still slip so easily into it? I guess that question is true for Elizabeth too, when she slips into Russian at the end of S1.

Re: Use of Russian and English

[sistermagpie]

This is actually something I thought about a lot after this thread. As it's worked out, Elizabeth has more scenes where she speaks Russian, but usually when she does it's because she's made a conscious decision to and is saying something rather important that she therefore speaks in an especially clear way. For instance:

Come home to Philip
We love you very much to Paige
We are them to Natalie
Yes, father/No in the wedding ceremony

The first she's intentionally using Russian to make a point. Paige has asked her to speak Russian and she knows Paige doesn't literally understand her. With Natalie she's revealing who she's avenging. The wedding is a formal ceremony.

So what seem to be KR's choices to speak...not sure how to describe it. Not robotic or over-enunciating, but just with a sense of importance and speaking clearly--make sense. It's the right choice for Elizabeth, imo.

Philip maybe still has spoken more Russian just because of that flashback with Irina. Those scenes seem more difficult because he's supposed to be speaking as a guy talking to his gf in his native language. Iow, he's supposed to sound natural, unaware of the language, conversational. And the language reflects that a bit too.

In his few other scenes MR, imo, makes the same choice--he doesn't have quite that same serious affect when he does it, even in the wedding when they're saying the same thing. Elizabeth probably would have given the words in Harvest the same feeling had she been the one saying them. But coming from Philip it sounds like a guy talking to another guy rather than a vow, exactly.

Part of it is maybe that MR is more comfortable sounding different and is just better at pronunciation, especially with a short line. But it fits the characters too, somehow, too for Elizabeth to sound the same in both languages where as to me Philip sounds more like someone speaking two different languages with different sounds in them.

I guess that doesn't really answer the question of whether they would easily pull the language up in their brain again--oops. But in almost all the cases they have reason to be thinking about it or they're hearing it before they speak. It just struck me how even with their native language it feels like they come across very differently.

Re: Use of Russian and English

[treonb]

I was thinking there's another difference between Philip and Elizabeth. Elizabeth kept on getting those tapes from her mother, Philip didn't. And I think this was also discussed in the past about their flashbacks - Elizabeth's flashbacks are in Russian, while Philip's are mostly silent.

Re: Use of Russian and English

[sistermagpie]

Ooh! Good catch. I hadn't even thought about the tapes but yes, if we assume Philip doesn't get any that gives Elizabeth an slow but steady stream of Russian to listen to. The only flashback he had with Russian (besides being called names a tiny bit in the scene with the bullies) was with Irina.