Season one group rewatch: the pilot

[jae]

This is the discussion post for the pilot episode in the group rewatch of season one. When you rewatched the episode, was there anything you noticed that you didn't notice the first time (and any subsequent times) you saw it? What things about it did you perhaps view differently after having seen the later episodes?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first season in the comments.

Comments

[sistermagpie]

My other favorite humor moment is Philip saying see, he told Elizabeth they should have put in a secret room and she says "You mean the wine cellar you wanted to put in below the laundry room?" and he says he did say it would have other uses. I love their domestic/spy conversations.

I think Philip took Stan to the garage because Philip suspects from the start that Stan is toying with him so he's going to go down or get away clean. He doesn't really believe Stan's innocently asking for jumper cables so doesn't bother to pretend he doesn't have them. At least that's how I read it.

Re: Philip, I don't know if he really flipped regarding the KGB. I think he was considering defecting when he thought they were made and he could get out ahead of it to save his family, but he never would have just broken under torture if he wasn't sure it was the best thing for him. When he's kidnapped in Trust Me I don't think he sees himself in a good bargaining position, plus he knows that Elizabeth would be counting on him and he wouldn't want to put her in danger. Dying for his country was probably never a problem for him.

Do they fully drop Stan's learning Russian? It's used well in Trust Me but I'm with you--I wish they'd bring it up again because I've no doubt Stan must be near-intelligible in Russian. Really I want a scene where he says something in Russian to Philip and Philip totally sincerely just says "What?"

I don't actually think Philip is being dense understanding what happened, just shocked at taking in the emotional impact. He pretty much does pick up on exactly what happened the minute Timoshev says what he does. He just wants one of them to say it.

[treonb]

My other favorite humor moment is Philip saying see, he told Elizabeth they should have put in a secret room and she says "You mean the wine cellar you wanted to put in below the laundry room?" and he says he did say it would have other uses. I love their domestic/spy conversations.

Me too :-) And that coffee scene you mentioned - I didn't really notice that at first (or second), and went back after your comment.


When he's kidnapped in Trust Me I don't think he sees himself in a good bargaining position, plus he knows that Elizabeth would be counting on him and he wouldn't want to put her in danger. Dying for his country was probably never a problem for him.

Good point. I guess in both cases, he's got his family as top priority, and he'd do whatever it takes (dying, defecting) to take care of them.

Do they fully drop Stan's learning Russian?

Not fully, but enough that it doesn't matter anymore. And Amador should have been quite fluent after a few years, but nothing.

Really I want a scene where he says something in Russian to Philip and Philip totally sincerely just says "What?"

That would be really cool. And it would have been good at the beginning, if Stan was trying to sound Philip out.

I don't actually think Philip is being dense understanding what happened, just shocked at taking in the emotional impact.

OK, I can accept that. But on the other hand, I'm thinking that if there was institutionalized rape there, it couldn't have gone unnoticed this way. Or could it?

[sistermagpie]

OK, I can accept that. But on the other hand, I'm thinking that if there was institutionalized rape there, it couldn't have gone unnoticed this way. Or could it?

Good question. I would suspect that he did know about it, or assumed it happened, or at least wouldn't be surprised by it. I think the men recruits would probably talk about how of course the top guys were sleeping with whatever cadets they wanted. But it was probably also easy for him to just not think about this translating into young girls getting raped against their will on a regular basis, and it was probably easy over the years to not think it could have happened to Elizabeth.

[katiac]

I mean, I would think there would still be an aspect of secrecy and shame for the female cadets which would make it not talked about, and it would not be something going on out in the open for the male officers where he might have observed it. And then the fact that he and Elizabeth had been married and known each other for nearly 20 years at that point, I think we can read from his reaction in the bedroom of, "So why didn't you tell me about Timoshev?" that they had gotten to a level of comfort around each other that he kind of expected she would've said something if that'd been the case. Of course, we find out over the course of the season that Elizabeth has been keeping a lot of secrets and telling some lies, but at the point Philip is now, he doesn't really know the degree to which she hides herself from everyone.