Where things go from here: speculation and musing

[jae]

In their post-season-finale interviews, the showrunners have been very consistent about not wanting to speculate about what happens to any of the characters after the events of the finale, and have repeatedly said that it's now up to audience members to decide those things for themselves. Of course, to be consistent with both the nature and the tone of the show, any future imagined developments should probably be a) realistic (both in the sense of "consistent with reality" and in the sense of "psychologically viable for that person at that time"), and b) a mixture of melancholic and hopeful. But even within those parameters there are an awful lot of possible outcomes, and there are an awful lot of characters who those possible outcomes could happen to, as well.

So what do you think happens next? For any of the characters, and at any point in time after when the finale ends?

Comments

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[treonb]

Well, I did think she might meet her grandparents. But besides that, that Paige will try to give her a normal childhood, but that Olivia will still grow up with an abnormal family whether they tell her the truth or not. Once the internet comes along, she'll discover it anyway. She'll be curious and she's one generation removed from the emotional impact, so at some point she might want to go to Russia and learn about her roots and find her family. The smaller her father's family, the more she'll be inclined to start digging.

Also, about Duolingo... I started their Russian course, but after a while felt that despite doing well, I wasn't really learning the language. It was more a matter of learning patterns. So I dropped it.

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[jae]

Yeah, there are all sorts of juicy possibilities (not to mention pretty story parallels with Paige meeting HER grandmother) having to do with Olivia meeting her grandparents, but I thought about it and I just don't see it as realistic. I can imagine Paige eventually telling her boyfriend-and-later-husband that she occasionally sees her parents, but I don't see him as being all "oh, sure, take our daughter with you to Eastern Europe to secretly meet your wanted-by-the-FBI criminal parents, you have my blessing". And Henry would HATE the idea, and whenever she'd be going, he'd be going too. So yeah, I don't realistically think it would ever happen. I'm honestly not sure it would even come up as a possibility.

There'd definitely be no way to keep the whole traumatic ordeal from her, though. The stories about Philip and Elizabeth would be out there in the world, like, Olivia's friends' parents would be aware of the whole thing. And it would be common knowledge that Paige had gone to prison for working with them. So yeah, I'm sure there would be all sorts of issues there, come to think of it.

Thanks for asking! :)

-J

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[treonb]

But at some point she'll grow up and do whatever she wants. P&E might still be alive when she gets to her twenties.

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[jae]

That's true! So it could happen then for sure.

-J

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[jae]

The Duolingo thing was a tiny indulgence of mine, to be honest. I mostly try to let the characters lead where my imaginings about them go instead of my own personal interests, but it was killing me a little bit that neither Paige nor Henry were doing anything at all with languages! I mean, THOSE GENES, what a waste! :)

So I decided Paige would eventually learn Russian "extracurricularly", even if she never ended up doing anything with it for pay. It makes sense to me that learning her parents' language would be a little something just for herself that she never tells anyone else about (I think, even her parents? Because Henry would be there whenever she saw them.).

-J

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[treonb]

I didn't even think about that, but it would be cool if both kids realized they could pick up languages easily

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[jae]

I think if Henry realized he had that talent, he'd squelch it. I'm convinced that he'd shy away from anything even remotely having to do with his parents (we already see him doing that on the show, even before he consciously knew anything was wrong about their lives).

-J

Re: Henry, Stan, Paige

[sistermagpie]

Or maybe neither one does. I don't know how much of that is genetic or even if that's the main factor. Like sometimes wanting it is more important than having a talent for it, even.

Of the two, removing it from any context of this situation, Henry seems the one most likely to do it just because this is the kid who does things like deciding to memorize all the constellations himself for fun. But obviously there's more to it than that.

I mean, both the kids took languages on the show. I think there's a reference to Paige doing French homework and Henry has a Spanish tutor. At least at that point in there life there didn't seem to be any special attraction or talent.