Question of the week #29

[treonb]

With Season 2 almost upon us (yay!), our question this week: What's your wish-list for storylines you'd like to see? 

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

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[katiac]

I love these questions. In order...

1. Philip's background and a deeper look into the influences that have made him the man he is in the present.

2. The continued development of Philip and Elizabeth's relationship now that both are "all in" and have fully chosen to be married. What new things will they allow the other to learn about them? How will they grow closer? Will we ever see Elizabeth take that step to show love to Philip in words? Will we ever see Philip take that step to open himself to Elizabeth?

3. How does their family function and how will it have to change as Paige and Henry become more aware that something isn't quite right? How will this affect Philip and Elizabeth as parents and individuals? Does it bring up questions of their own childhoods and thoughts of home as they compare their upbringings to that of their children--one that is both true in some ways and false in others.

4. More of Elizabeth and Paige. There seems to be a natural rapport between Paige and her dad. Paige and Elizabeth have that classic mother/daughter strife which stems beautifully from the way they are so alike in many personality ways, but so different in upbringing. It's so fascinating for me to watch at times because I've wondered this from the very first time Elizabeth says, "She's delicate somehow," in episode two, that Paige seems to be the stubborn, truth-demanding, very vulnerable in certain ways version of her mother, as much as Henry is similar to Philip... except that it rubs because Paige is the Americanized version as much as Elizabeth is the Russian version--and only one of them understands why there's always that silent painful moment when those differences come into play.

5. More of Elizabeth and Sandra, and also Stan and Philip. I love the idea of them actually having friends with who there's no sexual undercurrent. Elizabeth has never had a real, pure friend as far as we've seen. It would be great to see her and Sandra get closer and how that might potentially influence her.

6. More background on Arkady and Nina. They got me interested in both of those characters in the last few episodes. Gaad too.

[jae]

At this very moment, my head is just saying: I HAVE NO WISH LIST, ANYTHING IS FINE, JUST GIVE ME MORE SHOW NOW PLEASE. But okay, if I calm that part of my head down, there are a few things (though I'm certainly not going to complain if they want to give us other stuff instead!).

I am with Katia in wanting to see more of Philip's background and how that is reflected in the man we know from the show. We know a lot about what makes him tick, but we only can make guesses as to why.

Nina is such a great character, but we know so little about her. I'd love to get the gaps filled in for her (at least some of them).

Stan's background as an undercover agent, please! And not just the details, but also a better understanding in how it plays into some of the ways that he's broken now.

This is a pretty specific one: I would love it if Paige actually came close to figuring out her parents' secret, but ended up interpreting what she discovered in a totally incorrect way. (My reasoning is that that kind of storyline could tell us something about Paige while also giving the audience one of those oh-my-god-they-might-get-caught moments that some of us so love.)

My favourite episodes are often the ones that refer to or are structured around real-life sociopolitical events, so more of that, please. (I'm not picky with respect to which events, though.)

Honestly, though, I'm good with most anything that shows long-term character development for any of them. On this show, I trust the writers to do well by us, so I don't have a massive wish list in my head.

-J

[jae]

P.S. It occurs to me that you timed this question well, Treon--it will be fun to look back at our various wish lists after the season is over and see which ones got filled!

[soupytwist]

Unsurprisingly, my list is basically EXACTLY THE SAME, but with the addition of Martha. I really hope Martha gets a storyline, and if I am really lucky it won't end with her death. OMG.

[quantumreality]

I could have sworn I answered something like this elsewhere! Hmm.

Aside from echoing your list, I'd really like to see how the characters react to the Able Archer exercise, as well as the then-brand-new "WarGames" movie.

[sistermagpie]

God, I almost just want the show to give me whatever it's got i store because it looks so good! But so far everything everybody's said I want. In that interview with MR and NE NE said that we would "definitely" get more about Stan's undercover work, but the question was when. I didn't know if he meant they'd actually shot stuff and he wasn't telling us when it would air, or if he was just saying that of course we had to get that at some point.

On some of the thing already said, the Jennings are surely going to look like even more of a success story to the Beemans now that they separated and got back together and I look forward to all parties discussing this with their opposite number: Stan obliquely talking about his inability to connect with Sandra, Sandra asking Elizabeth how they got past the problem (because Elizabeth, God bless her, has no doubt worked out an answer she could give her) and Matthew maybe floating the idea at Paige, only to have Paige longing to tell him that she thinks there might be more there than meets the eye.

I suspect Paige and Matthew will have a lot of interesting convos this year because of that, obviously. But I also want some good Paige/Henry. I would not be upset by Paige sending Henry on a few reconnaissance missions either, since he's the baby and can look dumber about it.

This isn't something I really ask for, but it looks like Nina's going to get another interesting screen partner in Oleg and I want to see the sides that brings out in her. They're allowed to talk about their pasts after all.

Which probably leads to my number one thing, which is I'd love more little Russian echoes in the P/E marriage now that they're all in and know they're married to the real person too. I don't expect them to suddenly start blabbing everything, but any time they share even the smallest little ritual I get warm and fuzzy.

I can't even imagine where the Martha/Clark thing is going. It does seem like, hilariously, Clark's going to try to be as kind to her as possible and that this is probably going to make her more of a potential threat! It would be kind of ballsy if the show actually had a good story for Clark to get out of that marriage without it ending in true tragedy.

[katiac]

Which probably leads to my number one thing, which is I'd love more little Russian echoes in the P/E marriage now that they're all in and know they're married to the real person too. I don't expect them to suddenly start blabbing everything, but any time they share even the smallest little ritual I get warm and fuzzy.

Ooo... this! I love all the little quiet ways they build intimacy. Someone back on TWOP said it perfectly like almost a year ago (and I'll butcher it) by saying speaking in Russian and giving each other pieces of their Russian past was the way they built intimacy since they can't use sex or other traditional things to do so.

This isn't something I really ask for, but it looks like Nina's going to get another interesting screen partner in Oleg and I want to see the sides that brings out in her. They're allowed to talk about their pasts after all.

Oleg I already like and I've only barely seen him in the promo. He could take them in an interesting direction in the Rezidentura, I think.

On some of the thing already said, the Jennings are surely going to look like even more of a success story to the Beemans now that they separated and got back together and I look forward to all parties discussing this with their opposite number: Stan obliquely talking about his inability to connect with Sandra, Sandra asking Elizabeth how they got past the problem (because Elizabeth, God bless her, has no doubt worked out an answer she could give her) and Matthew maybe floating the idea at Paige, only to have Paige longing to tell him that she thinks there might be more there than meets the eye.

I think you're right. That would be very neat to see! And of course I'm desperately curious to see what Elizabeth's version of the story is.

[sistermagpie]

I was trying to picture some of those Beeman/Jennings conversations, and how it's so funny when Sandra asks Elizabeth if she's ever slept with anybody "foreign" and Elizabeth has to have a moment of not knowing what to say.

Now I'm picture Stan, knee-deep in an affair, seriously asking Philip if he's ever slept with anybody besides his wife, like cheated on her. Philip would be like...umm...I'm not sure how to answer the question. Because usually yes, all the time, but it doesn't count, except one time when it did, but even that didn't really count the way you're thinking of it...this is not something I can really relate to at all. But then, at the same time, I'll bet Philip would have some story for Philip, even he couldn't just turn it around by saying, "Are you having an affair?" Just as Elizabeth tends to turn questions so that she can be honest without being honest, Philip would probably try to answer in the way he thought would get the best result: would Stan want his friend Philip to have also strayed from his wife? Would it help if that was the reason for the separation? (Probably not, I'd think.) Should Philip be flawed, or should he be innocent? So many ways to go!

[katiac]

I know, right? I was watching that "first look" promo the other day and I noticed Stan and Philip walking around in the background at Henry's party with beers, and of course I couldn't help but wonder if they were talking through any details of how/why he was moving back in. There's that one little comment in one of the promos, but it would be cool to watch them dabble around it in that "two dudes talking" sort of way. The deleted scene with the two of them was neat to watch for that very reason.

[sistermagpie]

What was in the deleted scene???!!

[katiac]

Oh, have you not watched them yet??

It was during episode 8 from before Elizabeth and Philip have their cutesy moment in the kitchen. Philip and Stan have finished playing racquetball and go over to Stan's for a snack. Stan is drinking orange juice and they're both eating cold pizza. Stan asks how things are. Philip gives a general answer about work (as a travel agent.) Stan starts poking around into asking if things are better now between Philip and Elizabeth and Philip answers that they hit a rough patch for awhile, but things are better now. Stan makes some hazy comments about marriage and it being like some circus thing. Matthew comes in (which is great! we never see him and Stan!) and is noting his dad drank all the orange juice (if I'm remembering right) and Stan makes some joke about men and needing replenishment, and Matthew leaves. Stan invites Philip over for dinner and Philip leaves.

In retrospect, I kind of understand why it was cut. The tone was a little weird in places and it slowed down the pace a bit. But it was still nice to see as a deleted scene! And it leads me to notice how little we see of Matthew and Stan, which I guess is kind of their point as an absentee father, but I like it when they actually dig into that with angst in person. I also always miss seeing Elizabeth/Henry.

[sistermagpie]

Thank you! I haven't seen anything on DVD yet. Usually I like to wait until I can get everything together and it's not on Netflix so I can't just rent it and watch/listen to everything so I may have to just start getting it season by season.

[katiac]

Most of the deleted scenes weren't that different... like one of them was Philip listening to the sex tape with Elizabeth and the guy from the pilot, but it was just shot a bit differently rather than having substantially different material.

One deleted scene I liked was from the pilot and had Elizabeth and Paige after Paige asks her to go to the drugstore. They have a medium length conversation sitting in the car in the garage where Elizabeth asks Paige what she thinks of Matthew and Paige says she's 13 and he's 15 and even 13 year old boys won't look at her. Elizabeth tells her she has to believe in herself. She goes into a little thing about how people walk around like they live in a fairytale and you have to be prepared for anything, and how she'd raised them to be strong and confident, etc, and Paige finally says, "But I'm not any of those things." And Elizabeth waits a moment and says, "Not yet." Then turns and starts the car.

Like, I also saw why they cut that one, since it didn't really fit the tone of the rest of the pilot and felt a little "off" at moments, but it was also nice to watch just on its own.

I was hoping they would've included the scenes with Gabriel. Spoilers a few weeks before episode 12 indicated we were going to see him in flashbacks, but then we never did. Might've been interesting.

[katiac]

Most of what they had on "The Colonel" commentary was repeats of stuff they've said elsewhere before, but I found it interesting that they said the moment Philip decides to go in Elizabeth's place to meet the Colonel is when they're talking in the dining room the night before. I was always curious about that... like if he'd gone home and thought about it, or decided when they stared at each other in the travel agency that morning. The "no I won't fight you" makes sense in that regard, but I just wasn't ever sure if that was REALLY what he meant by that.

And during the "Clark" crawls from beneath the blankets grimacing scene they remarked about how everyone is always asking how his wigs stay on. So at least they're aware it's like the top asked question everywhere!

[apolla_savre]

I want Philip's back story.

The first episode, where he tried on the cowboy boots made me think they were going to cut to a flashback of his backstory where he was a dancer for, like, the Marinsky theater or whatever. I don't really care about Irina/the ~love child~ because it didn't tell me anything about him I couldn't guess except his name.

I also kind of want to know more about the travel agency. Who are their coworkers? Why a travel agency?

I want some flashbacks of Volodya (Vladimir Kosygin). I really liked him. He seemed really laid back and sincere (fine, I cried when Stan shot him and I didn't cry over Amador) and I'd really like more to base Nina's transition from "I'll work for you, exfiltrate me" to "I'm going to tell my boss I've been spying for the Americans but because he lied to be about killing my friend, I'm going to spy for the USSR, even though there's a huge chance they'll send me to Moscow and shoot me in the back of the head."

I want Oleg to be awesome. What that means, I don't know. I just know I want to like him.

I want Stan to make some sort of confession to Philip. Like have him say that he shot at some KGB spies and have Philip put together that not only did Elizabeth almost die, they were almost caught by Stan and Stan might have been the one to shoot Elizabeth. Then have Philip be a bit awkward because that has GOT to put a strain on their relationship.

I want Matthew to team up with Paige to investigate the Jennings. That way there's more development of Matthew's character and it gives an opportunity of someone saying, "Great, the dad's an FBI agent and his kid's spying on us on behalf of our daughter."

And Henry reacting to Paige's crush on Matthew - some good old sibling teasing.

[sistermagpie]

I want Stan to make some sort of confession to Philip. Like have him say that he shot at some KGB spies and have Philip put together that not only did Elizabeth almost die, they were almost caught by Stan and Stan might have been the one to shoot Elizabeth. Then have Philip be a bit awkward because that has GOT to put a strain on their relationship.

Philip actually already knows this--Stan jumped right out in the street and he and the Jennings kind of faced off before Philip put the car in reverse and Stan started shooting. That Philip then called Stan to take care of the kids while he got Elizabeth help is just the icing on the cake!

[apolla_savre]

I guess I wasn't sure if Philip had seen it. I mean, he was trying to get Elizabeth and get away, I don't know how much he really paid attention to/cared about what Stan was doing.

I still want Stan to mention it to Philip, to see if Philip can keep cool or if there'll be some twitches/irritation that Stan will be confused about. If Stan doesn't bring it up, I think Philip wouldn't show anything, but if it's mentioned, well, that might be different.

[sistermagpie]

Oh yeah, either way I'd love to have it come up in such a way. What would he say? It's like the scene where Philip realizes that he's killed Stan's partner in season 1.

[apolla_savre]

Ok, so this isn't a storyline, but I realized that I really, really, really want Nicholas Lea to appear on this show at least once.

Just...Nick Lea, please? We already know he's had experience with Russian before.