jae: (theamericansgecko)
Jae ([personal profile] jae) wrote in [community profile] theamericans2013-11-23 06:45 am
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Season one group rewatch: "The Colonel"

This is the discussion post for "The Colonel" (episode #13, the season finale) 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. Feel free to join in even if you didn't get a chance to watch the episodes that preceded it!

[personal profile] katiac 2013-11-24 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you're exactly right about this, but I do think that he's not just deceiving himself about the role the children play in this, either. My read is that becoming parents sort of originally sealed the deal on his burgeoning feelings for Elizabeth, back in the day, so it's all sort of one big blob of an Achilles heel for him.

And really, this is one of the only "real" things about their lives that grounds them and can't be taken away. For someone like Philip who can be such a slippery personality, having something that roots him (to use Elizabeth's great choice of words) would be a huge draw.

The center never should have had Elizabeth have children of her own. It's changing her.

I've wondered about this too. In real life there were illegals who didn't have kids (though there were of course some who did too). I imagine that they must have discussed that; weighed the pros and the cons.


It's such a great scenario to have them have kids because on the one hand, who knows how much earlier someone might've gotten suspicious of them if not for the presence of kids continually working in their favor to present an image that was the opposite of "spies" in their minds? But on the other, it's a risk to bank on the idea they won't get attached to their kids and bond as a family. Sure, some people don't, but most do.
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[personal profile] sistermagpie 2013-11-24 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
They probably tried it differently with different people. Robert doesn't have kids, so they did have some agents working alone. I wonder if they thought Elizabeth was one of the better candidates for being able to handle the division of loyalty, with Philip there to smooth things with his manipulations.

[personal profile] treonb 2013-11-26 09:04 am (UTC)(link)
Except that Robert did have a kid, a secret family.

Which makes me wonder if the KGB expectations from people to completely devote their lives and give up a family wasn't too much.
sistermagpie: Classic magpie (Default)

[personal profile] sistermagpie 2013-11-26 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh right, but I meant that was his own thing. As far as the KGB knew he was living as a single man, so they must have put agents in different living situations that would have different advantages. For Robert the pressure of living completely alone seemed to be too much--I'd guess the KGB totally did expect him to just be "married" to the KGB, unless they ordered him to get into a Martha-type marriage, for instance.