Episode discussion post: "The Colonel"

[jae]

Aired:
1 May 2013 in the U.S. and Canada
19 August 2013 in Australia
22 August 2013 in Ireland
24 August 2013 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode #13 of The Americans, intended for viewers who are watching the show on the Australian/Irish/UK schedule. There are no subsequent episodes after this one at the time of posting, but for the sake of future participants in the discussion, I'll still remind folks to take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season one, episode thirteen. :)

FX's original promo trailer:

"Season Finale: The Colonel" (Watch on YouTube)

FX's official "Go Undercover" replay with commentary from the actors and producers:

"Go Undercover: Season Finale Recap" (Watch on YouTube)

New reviews/recaps:
From The Guardian (UK)
From Unreality Primetime (UK)
From The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

Reviews/recaps from first airing:
From the AV Club
From Vulture
From Hitfix
From Think Progress
From the Huffington Post
From Collider
From Television Without Pity
From We Might Just Love TV More Than You
From jae at dreamwidth

Comments

[katiac]

And who will find out first, him or Paige?

I'm really hoping it's Paige because I think that could open up an interesting dynamic, and Philip and Elizabeth's relationship and their family dynamic is the thing I'm most interested in. Plus, Paige can find out without it stopping the story, or drastically changing it in the same way. Like, it's hard to imagine Stan could find out without the relationship completely changing. I guess they could go a blackmail angle, but realistically it seems most likely that if he ever finds out, they're captured, on the run, or else one of them is forced into being a double-agent. It completely changes the relationship because Stan doesn't have a lot of good reason to stay quiet.

But with Paige, she very little reason to tell someone and a whole lot of compelling reasons not to. Yes, the whole idea of spying on the US being wrong would guilt her, but I can't imagine she would tell anyone if it meant sending her parents to prison, her and Henry becoming wards of the government, and their lives being upended. She loves her parents and they love her. It could create a lot of great conflict if she eventually found out this secret about them and it could change that relationship and put some pressure there without having to end the spying part.

One thing I was just thinking about in the finale is the way Philip and Elizabeth handle big disagreement in the field and how it mirrors the pilot--and also kind of mirrors the issues they bring into their romantic relationship. Elizabeth is too intractable at times and has a hard time listening to anyone's opinion when they conflict with her own. Most of the time she shuts conflicting opinions down and goes ahead and does whatever she wants. Philip reacts to this by lying and going along with it like he'll just do it her way, but then sneaks off and does whatever the heck he wants instead. They do it in the pilot with Timoshev, where she shuts down any discussion of "should we consider defection for the kids?" and then he sneaks off to turn in Timoshev in the night. Then also again here where she shuts down any other options besides her meeting the Colonel and he sneaks off and leaves a note. It's kind of interesting how one communication problem kind of feeds the other, or exacerbates it, at least, in the way they play off each other.

[sistermagpie]

And Paige could also possibly be given another false story in ways Stan couldn't. Like if her parents told her they had some other secret job, like spying for a different country or whatever. Stan would know if they were in the FBI or not!

Not wanting to get into any spoilers, but I did read something that the creators have said about the direction they might go in next season in a very general way, but I won't say anything if spoilers are being avoided!

I totally hadn't thought of that way their behavior mirrors the pilot. And also in both times something unexpected happens that changes everything so they come together. In the pilot it's that their relationship looks like it's over with Elizabeth just accepting that Philip has betrayed her and being ready to probably die rather than defect. Then Timoshev confesses and Philip just kills him, which brings them together.

Here Philip realizes that it's Elizabeth who's in danger and runs off to save her, which brings them together in the escape.

[katiac]

Yes, and Paige has the interesting aspect where they could stretch it out for a long time without completely changing the game. Like Stan discovering much of anything that made him suspicious would probably point towards a quick end, or something where one/both of the Jennings had to start spying for the US in secret. Which would be an interesting turn, but really make it where they couldn't go back to the way things are now. So I kind of suspect they'd keep going with the actual spying for the KGB as long as it's feasible from a story standpoint, only switching it up closer to the end of the series.

But Paige finding out slowly opens up so many possibilities. She probably would have no idea what was going on at first, perhaps coming to some incorrect conclusions that cause tension, getting more suspicious of her parents' activities. Which would then in turn cause things to heat up for Philip and Elizabeth having to be under the constant threat of surveillance in their own house, and from a person they can't just get rid of or disappear from if she starts getting suspicious. And if they are forced to tell her another lie, like that they work for the FBI, how much more devastating does it then become when she finds out the "truth" she was told was yet another lie?

Elizabeth finds so many convenient ways to tell herself that her lies somehow aren't as bad as Philip's or "don't count" for this reason or that. Philip generally seems to put up with this from her, perhaps understanding she simply can't empathize very well and look at it from the other side, so she really DOES believe everyone else's lies are somehow different and worse. But Paige has shown no such indulgences of her mother and tends to call it like she sees it, which we saw a lot of during the separation. I don't imagine she'd let Elizabeth get away with nearly as much hypocrisy as Philip does.

I also simply find it one of the most fascinating angles that you have two genuinely decent people, who truly love their children, and yet have carried out such a massive and devastating deception of everything about their lives down to the reason they were conceived. Such great potential for meaty issues to be raised for everyone involved.

[sistermagpie]

I was just thinking recently how the creators, I think, said they got the idea for the show from the way CIA agents give their kids "the talk" when they get old enough where they reveal their jobs, and how that plays into the teenage feeling that your parents aren't who you thought they were. It also made me think how so many good shows deal with parents who lead secret lives that really overturns the thing we've come to expect for decades where the kids are cool and the parents, just because they're parents, are clueless and boring. Shows like this flip that and the kids are clueless while the parents are nothing like the "boring" people they appear!

Anyway, yes I agree, with Paige there's just more ways they can go. With Stan you have the danger of him looking stupid, and we know just where his imagination would go once he got suspicious. That's why they had to keep him from catching the Jennings doing weird things. But with Paige it's wide open. She could suspect just about anything, and pull in things that aren't even related to their secret just because they happened. For instance, she might see Elizabeth as the one who's truly shady due to the separation and Philip's more easygoing demeanor, even though she's clearly started to notice patterns throughout her whole life. Where Stan's life is arranged around counter-intelligence Paige might be more on the lookout for her parents being swingers or something. Or just imagine if she caught sight of Martha! Or her mom going to a bar! She's closer to the evidence, has been studying them forever, but also has way more reason than Stan to consider them as Russian spies. She's lived with them as totally American for years, would probably not even be able to get your head around either of them speaking anything but English, and she doesn't even know that Directorate S is real in her world.

Plus, as you say, the whole thing's purely emotional for Paige. Just as the Cold War can be a metaphor for the Jennings marriage, spying can be a metaphor for adolescent disillusionment. Paige, unlike Stan, loves her parents and loses everything if they're found out, plus she doesn't have Stan's drive to catch the spies (setting up a more Hank/Walt dynamic from Breaking Bad if you watch that). The betrayal is personal and it's also her parents worst nightmare. We get why they'd keep lying even if lying makes it worse. It's totally believable that Paige would lie for them if she found out, but that would completely change their relationship not just to Paige but to their work because Paige would see what they're doing as acting against her. Philip might be able to explain it (truthfully even) as being more about preventing war and not hating the US but I can't imagine Elizabeth being able to convince Paige she isn't a dyed in the wool Soviet who hasn't been won over by America in 15 years. She'd probably wound up saying something "But I don't hate you guys! You have good qualities under the capitalist corruption!" or something.