theamericans | Episode discussion post: "Cardinal"

jae posting in

Aired:
5 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
9 March 2014 in Israel
22 March 2014 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode 202 of The Americans, intended for viewers who are watching the show on the U.S./Canadian schedule. (Feel free to dive in to the discussion if you're reading this later and have already seen subsequent episodes, but please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season two, episode two.)

Original promo trailers

"Next On: Cardinal" (Watch on YouTube)

"The Americans: Exclusive Scene from Episode 2" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From Vulture
From Hitfix
From The AV Club
From The Huffington Post
From IGN
From Think Progress
From SpoilerTV
From Zap2it
From Television Without Pity
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Filmthrasher
From showratings.tv
From Newsmanone
From Screenrant
From the LA Times
From Geekbinge
From tvrage.com
From Unreality TV (UK)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sistermagpie

I feel like I don't remember the ep enough at one viewing to make too many comments...but I will anyway. These were the things that stuck out to me the first time, besides just generally loving it.

Like Jae, I was amazed at how quickly it went by.

There were some nice subtle touches about the new distrust between Paige and her parents. She was openly looking at Elizabeth with concern when she suddenly "remembered" something she had to do at work, and was I think concerned about the sudden trip to the movies as well. She seemed to especially pick up on the emotion in Elizabeth's voice when she said "You're home" to Philip. And then when Paige ran away out of guilt/discomfort (no more intimate love scenes between the two of you, please--I know I wanted you back together but TMI!) Philip and Elizabeth I thought both turned to watch her go like they'd noticed her emotional state too. It's not a prime concern yet, but they're noticing.

Nice to have Henry suggest he and Paige helping Mom and Dad at work if things are getting too hard. Never again, Henry!

Speaking of which, I like Philip calling the family "team."

I think Elizabeth's almost relieved to be dealing with the other agent where she's in control and knows just what to do, playing big sister to somebody else freaking out.

I feel like some of Philip's best qualities sometimes go without being noticed as much as Elizabeth's so I have to give a shout out here to his handling of the Fred situation. He barely regains consciousness before he's talking the guy down, getting a bead on everything happening in the scene (he's calling in a distress signal, etc.) and then using things he noticed in the apartment to figure out what makes the guy tick--the models and the money. Talk about Sherlock Holmes deductions. (Which was fitting since Fred apparently had both Sherlock Holmes and John LeCarre on his bookshelf.)

I also looked out for Philip using his trademark repetition during the scene and I seem to remember he did it at least 3x. "Listen to me. Listen to me" being the first I recall. Also "You know who I am. I told you who I am."

Also, I think it's the word "model" that's difficult for Matthew Rhys whether or not it has airplane after it.

I fact, that's a nice parallel to his other manipulation scene with Martha where he gets her to reconsider the new job by appealing to her sense of purpose and encouraging her to value her skills.

But nobody can manipulate everybody all the time, so she's probably getting that gun. A Chekhov .49 no doubt!

Philip also smoothly becomes "the guy" when he gets what Stan's buddy needs for a bachelor weekend. I sometimes get the feeling Elizabeth always first tries to sell everybody on the vacation she would like. ;-)

People have noted that Philip and Elizabeth are so separated lately-not by their choosing. I really like that they're setting up this sort of automatic bonding between spies. There was that reviewer from last week that feared that Philip would be more "bonded" with Martha because he was apart from Elizabeth, but the show actually seems to be setting up a very different type of conflict. Rather than it being a case of who you spend time with, it's all down to who you can be more honest and relaxed with.

There was a real sense, imo, of relief for all these people when they spoke to each other, even if the other person was a stranger (at least once whoever had the gun put it down). And it was all based on this common feeling they could know they shared. Lucia could tell Elizabeth what the guy she was with "thought" knowing who she really was. Fred could ask Philip Emmett's "real" name and get it. Philip could understand departed Emmett by knowing how unusual it was for him to talk about his kids--and Fred could immediately know that the boy with Philip was his son. (Not a big leap, but it was more than knowing it was his son, it was knowing that Philip was what he was and this was his son.)

I think Nina's convo with Oleg is going to have a lot of juicy deep meanings as we go on too. She really was right to be so dismissive of Oleg's claim that she was the first person who wasn't exactly what she seemed. That really said a lot about Oleg, the bored rich kid who thinks he's superior to all the drones in the world because he can't appreciate the complexity of human nature despite how many times he's been abroad.

That probably also fits with Oleg being in the technical side. He probably somewhat represents the kind of spycraft that deals in hard data. This reminds me a bit of one of the LeCarre novels--I think A Perfect Spy. The Cousins (i.e., the Americans) insist there's a mole before the Circus believes it because they're looking at statistics and data.

Henry yet again gets a rambling story to tell while no one else is listening to him. He didn't notice the tension at the table at breakfast last week and doesn't notice his parents unholy distraction on the street this week. No wonder later Henry only hears "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Paige questions why Mom suddenly wants to go to the movies. And of course, Henry also has that ironic "I care about real life more than a game" when he actually means watching TV. Which somewhat works both ways--the Collins murder was on TV earlier, and that's real life. But he probably means fiction.

From:

soupytwist

Philip was INCREDIBLY good at his job to not get killed in that situation!

I definitely read Paige as noticing Elizabeth's jumpiness and weird desire for a movie which then led to her abandoning them at a movie, too.

I love your interpretation of why Elizabeth suggested that holiday, ahaha.

I think there was TOTAL relief about being able to communicate in this episode, for sure. Actually, now you've mentioned it, emotional catharsis coming from honest communication is totally a theme. (One which we've usually seen from the other side as "not being able to be honest SUCKS SO MUCH"; it's nice to get the good pov for once!)

From:

apolla_savre

To be honest, it was painfully obvious (at least to me) that he was calling in a distress signal. No one emphasizes how great a steak was like he did.

It also makes me think that maybe Emmett's job was as a chef at a restaurant? Annelise signaled Philip at the Travel Agency, where he works, so did Emmett and Leanne have a restaurant?

From:

sistermagpie

Oh, it was obvious to me too! But I was more referring to Philip just having regained consciousness and going straight into calming the guy down as if he'd been awake the whole time instead of only waking up halfway through the comments about steak. He hit the ground running with a lot of new info to take in (a second ago he was reaching into a box. Now he's tied up etc.)

From:

katiac

Makes me think of an article I read on CNN a little while back about "Could you have talked your way out of this?" like the woman did with the guy who broke in armed to a school and managed to talk him into surrendering. I thought of Philip when I read it, and then in this episode he hit on all those points.

That's just purely Philip at his best. He reads people and figures out how to reach them.

From:

jae

I sometimes get the feeling Elizabeth always first tries to sell everybody on the vacation she would like.

OH MY GOD, THIS IS TOTALLY WHAT SHE WAS DOING! And she probably does it to just ordinary customers, too. Oh, Elizabeth.

-J

From:

katiac

It strikes me that in their travel agency business, she would probably be the more valuable at the behind the scenes stuff--keeping them organized, doing the books, keeping things on track--where Philip would do more of the customer service.

From:

jae

Oh, for sure. But I'm sure she can still do it if she needs to.

I do love the idea of Elizabeth doing the books. ;)

-J

From:

katiac

I just loved the scene of her lining up her "Life" money so fussily. So how I picture her in my head.

From:

quantumreality

You know, that's a kind of "following in her mother's footsteps" motif - didn't her mom have to keep track of the local CPSU accounts in her hometown?

From:

jae

Yes! Good point. That's lovely.

-J

From:

sistermagpie

Now I'm wondering if Philip's dad was some shady quasi-outlaw working a black market or something. Basically I'm just saying he's a salesman so I'm picturing how he'd be following in somebody's footsteps with that.

From:

quantumreality

Philip also smoothly becomes "the guy" when he gets what Stan's buddy needs for a bachelor weekend. I sometimes get the feeling Elizabeth always first tries to sell everybody on the vacation she would like. ;-)

Ha! Yeah, Elizabeth was sooooo not in-tune with the guys' idea of a night (or three) out. But Phillip's all "Yeah, Dude Ranch." I'm only surprised he didn't say they had complimentary brewskis. :P

From:

treonb

Nice to have Henry suggest he and Paige helping Mom and Dad at work if things are getting too hard.

I completely missed that line. And he has no idea he helped out last weekend.

I feel like some of Philip's best qualities sometimes go without being noticed as much as Elizabeth's so I have to give a shout out here to his handling of the Fred situation

I definitely agree. He was speaking so convincingly, I wasn't even sure he hadn't gotten it all from Emmett. But how could he?

As for Martha - it's sad that Philip's the only one who realizes she can be much more than what she is now.

Fred could ask Philip Emmett's "real" name and get it.

That didn't seem like too big a secret. I'm guessing his name is top headlines right now. I think you're right, though. There's a definite relief when they can finally talk with somebody who can understand. And that goes for that relaxed meeting with Emmett's family last episode.

Henry yet again gets a rambling story to tell while no one else is listening to him.

I kind of pity him. He gets all these lines when nobody really cares what he's saying.

From:

quantumreality

I hope they don't turn Henry into Chris Brody.

And yeah, Phillip coming up with all that stuff - just wow. I wonder if he knows how similar some of that stuff is to being a hostage negotiator - de-escalate the situation and at least pretend to be interested in what the person wants.

From:

alisonx

I hope they don't turn Henry into Chris Brody
This made me shudder. The thought of any member of the Jennings Family turned into a punchline is unfathomable. Keidrich and Holly seem really well cast, especially Holly. I have complete faith in Joel and Joe and the writers that this show will not let me down, and will certainly NOT allow Paige and Henry to turn into anything remotely resembling Dana and Chris. knock on wood. This comment made me sound like I really hated the Homeland kids but I didn't really, they were the least of that show's problems.

From:

quantumreality

Yeah, the tendency to push Chris into the background was a fandom joke by the time the third season ended. Henry may not be old enough to appreciate the nuances of things yet, but he has a kind of native street-smartness that's already bailed him and Paige out and I'd like to see more of that.

And I as I noted in my symmetries writeups I think Paige is harder under her core than Elizabeth realizes, and it's this trait that I think could be a great aspect to explore as she plays spy on her own time.

From:

sistermagpie

Yeah, I actually like the way that Henry is often shown. Because when he's rambling on about something, if you listen to it, it's giving him a personality. Sure it's the personality of an ordinary 11 year old boy, but it's not always cliche. The apple story is a goofy thing most boys would like--but note that Henry is the person who steps in to make sure the kid doesn't get hurt. Then his lecture about the foolishness of two tests on the same day...that's just a kid thinking something through fairly intelligently. It's not important to his parents so they're half-paying attention, but it's actually subtly showing Henry as a kid who's pretty intelligent and interesting. Not to mention pretty nice. He's just not so precocious that he pays attention to things outside his view.