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

[apolla-savre.livejournal.com]

There's really no way to know. Plenty of Soviet POWs were sent to the Gulags after they returned home because they'd been in enemy territory and were accused to collaborating. There were spy exchanges, but there were also spies who probably were left to rot on their own in American prisons.

Twenty years in America, the fact that they'd probably object to leaving behind some of their kids' things, the children would probably get into trouble which would lead to blaming the parents and it all really depends on who's in charge, when they'd be caught/sent back, or anything really. After Stalin, Gulags and prison sentences tapered off a bit, but they're still sort of practiced - just not to the extreme they were. Plus, Moscow could always refuse to claim them/deny knowledge and with no way to show a Soviet passport and all forged documents, they wouldn't be able to get in publicly if Moscow didn't want them.

Elizabeth is really naive. When they suggested Gregory go to Moscow I about choked on my water. I love Russia and all, but I'll be blunt: a lot of them are racist as hell. An African American in the 80s would probably end up committing suicide if he had to live there for the rest of his life. No one would really trust him (he's a foreigner, it's the USSR, someone might be looking for traitors), he'd be isolated, no one would have his culture, he wouldn't know the language, he's used to a nice apartment, if he got put in a kommunalka tensions would probably rise, and he would not be prepared for the weather. She has this idea that all that matters is that he's fought for the cause, but that's not all that matters.

The kids would fare even worse. They'd been raised as Americans, aren't fully capable of understanding the ideology disagreements, Paige is materialistic (all the leg warmers which will start a famine :) ), used to a better quality of life, don't speak a word of Russian, and they'd arrive in the decade before the Soviet Union falls, the economy goes into haywire, and they would have to fight in the Soviet job market where who knows what would happen. In the 80s, they'd make friends because they'd be the epitome of the underground western culture but that'd really be it of the perks.

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, that's what seems to bleak to me is even if they got the kind of hero's welcome that Claudia and Elizabeth are promising Gregory, it would still be a nightmare because of the kids. Either the kids would stay in the US as citizens but be in foster care, or they'd go to Russia where they would be totally miserable. If Elizabeth thought it was hard to adjust to the US back in 1965 imagine if she got dumped there without speaking a word of English and everyone knowing she was a potential enemy. And that's if they get the hero's welcome. There's other possibilities that would be even worse where the kids might have no one. It's like the only good ending is if Elizabeth and Philip never get caught.

Which they seem to basically both acknowledge by the end of the season when they make plans to split up so that one of them can run with the kids to Canada. They've really only got each other to depend on.

[katiac]

Elizabeth is really naive. When they suggested Gregory go to Moscow I about choked on my water. I love Russia and all, but I'll be blunt: a lot of them are racist as hell. An African American in the 80s would probably end up committing suicide if he had to live there for the rest of his life. No one would really trust him (he's a foreigner, it's the USSR, someone might be looking for traitors), he'd be isolated, no one would have his culture, he wouldn't know the language, he's used to a nice apartment, if he got put in a kommunalka tensions would probably rise, and he would not be prepared for the weather. She has this idea that all that matters is that he's fought for the cause, but that's not all that matters.

I think a lot of what went on with Elizabeth and Gregory, more than perhaps naivety, was projection and, as Elizabeth says to Paige later on, seeing in them what you need to. Like that example is perfect because even right up until the end, she can't wrap her head around the idea that Gregory isn't going to want to go to Moscow. She's projecting her own idea (and her own wants--to go back to Moscow as a hero) of what he would want rather than seeing what's really there.

And Gregory kind of does the same thing with her. Like he tells Philip she would sacrifice the kids for the cause, and then later, actually suggests to Elizabeth that they run off together and leave the kids. So either he's completely heartless and would ask this of her despite knowing it would destroy her (which I don't believe), or he's simply in denial about what Elizabeth's family actually means to her. They mean nothing to him (and in fact are very threatening to him since they tie her to Philip) and so he's deluded himself into thinking they mean nothing to her because that's so much easier to face than the truth. Really, it's kind of like how Philip deluded himself into this one idea of Elizabeth pre-pilot, and part of his arc over the season was having to come to terms with who the "real" Elizabeth was and whether or not he could love her. And (this is off-topic) that was one of the most beautifully illustrated parts of the 10th episode because it was so sad to see what once seemed so right and true shown to have been based on what they both had needed to see, not necessarily what was there, and to have them both realize it, to one extent or another, just before Gregory's death.

And I can't even imagine what it would be like for the kids. Because even to have to deal with the ramifications of the lies Philip and Elizabeth have told them, while in the US and still reasonably comfortable... that could take years to get over. It would be even worse than for Elizabeth, even worse than everyone seeing them as a traitor, or not speaking Russian, because Elizabeth at least made the choice herself to take that step. They would essentially be ripped away with no say in the matter besides, "Do you want to go into foster care or go to Russia?"

[apolla-savre.livejournal.com]

I hadn't made that connection (seeing what you want to see) but it makes absolute sense.

Poor Elizabeth. Poor Gregory.

And I don't think Elizabeth could ever give up the kids, they're pretty much the only thing in her life that's never betrayed her (except for Paige, to a degree, but I think Elizabeth realized that Paige didn't hate her, she hated the situation and couldn't understand why it was happening.) They're all she really has. She can be true to them because she's their mother and regardless of whether she raised them in Russia or the USSR, she would raise them in the same manner, just with different languages and available topics. To them, she's "mom", not "Nadezhda" or "Elizabeth Jennings". There's no dual personality with them. Of course, she lies to them about her background, her main job, and stuff.