Episode discussion post: "Cardinal"

[jae]

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

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From Television Without Pity
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
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From Unreality TV (UK)

Comments

Re: be his girlfriend - Elizabeth and Gregory

[sistermagpie]

I actually wouldn't consider sharing a joint doing drugs with Gregory. I mean, not to make any particular statement about drugs, but in terms of impairing yourself I would just put pot more on the level of drinking with Gregory. This guy was mixing pills and freebasing--very serious stuff. I think Elizabeth would be far more likely to avoid doing hard drugs with somebody.

Interesting question about Gregory. It's hard not to think there's multiple reasons there. Gregory's obviously very trusted. I'm not even clear how much Fred understands about what Emmett was--does he get that he was a Russian Illegal, even? Or does he just think he's working for the KGB?

Anyway, with Gregory Elizabeth obviously for personal reasons needed Gregory to know who she was because essentially that's what he was for her. He was a great agent professionally, but the thing he provided for her personally was a person to whom she shared all of her personal feelings about her job. So I think whatever reason she used to justify sharing all these things to him (and I'd like to know if she discussed it with Philip first, with justifications that would have had to have been at least somewhat lying), she needed it personally as a port in the storm. Did she reveal herself first and then start talking to him that way? I'd guess it was the opposite since even Gregory talks about how he felt like he "already knew" who she was before she told him. Of course he's speaking about his romantic past so he's not necessarily being brutally accurate there, but I think she probably had already started confiding her feelings to him, feeling that felt scary to her even if they didn't reveal her as Russian, and then she needed to tell him the whole story to really explain herself.

What Fred does and doesn't know

[jae]

does he get that he was a Russian Illegal, even? Or does he just think he's working for the KGB?

My impression is that he had no idea, which is interesting. And Philip seemed to pick up on that right off, because when Fred asked his "real name," Philip said "Emmett" without hesitation rather than saying "we're not supposed to talk about that," like he did later about his kids.

I'm also under the impression that Fred thought it was just Emmett who was a spy, and that Leanne was just an ordinary American woman raising a family. He seemed broken up by not just Emilia being murdered as an innocent, but Leanne, too.

-J

Re: What Fred does and doesn't know

[sistermagpie]

That was my impression too. Especially with the name, if Fred was really asking his friend's real name and knew he was an illegal, wouldn't he just say Emmett couldn't have been his real name?

I would think there's probably different ways that people become agents and different relationships they have that change what they know. I'm thinking about the "right wing" journalist guy, for instance. I could easily imagine him being more in the know about the Illegals program.

Re: be his girlfriend - Elizabeth and Gregory

[treonb]

I agree that smoking pot is not as serious as cocaine. But I'd also expect Elizabeth not to get drunk.

I agree with you and Jae that she found a good reason to justify to herself why she revealed who she was to Gregory. I also agree that it's very probable that she really NEEDED it at the time. But now that I know them better, I think she did not follow protocol, and there were serious consequences to that.

Re: be his girlfriend - Elizabeth and Gregory

[jae]

I actually think she probably didn't actually violate any official protocols--this is Elizabeth we're talking about, and I'm sure she was even more hard-headed about rules things early on than she has been since things have started changing with Philip. But I do think she went as close to the line with Gregory as she was allowed to without actually breaking any of her organization's rules. I also suspect that the higher-ups at the Center don't know the extent to which she skirted that line, and no one closer to the situation is going to tell them.

-J

Re: be his girlfriend - Elizabeth and Gregory

[treonb]

On the one hand, I agree that it's hard to see Elizabeth breaking the rules. On the other, I think Stan is compromising himself with his relationship with Nina, and I don't see how that's allowed by protocol, even if it's with Gaad's permission / silent knowledge. What Elizabeth did was way way worse. Gregory could have been an FBI plant(I'd actually love to read an AU where he was.. I'd also like to read Philip's reaction when he realizes what Elizabeth did). Gregory could have been caught by the Feds and he wasn't trained like Elizabeth was to withstand pressure or torture or whatever. His gang saw her and can actually finger her, if only Stan would think of that option.

Anyway, to be heretical for a moment, I'm getting the feeling the writers didn't think this through.

Elizabeth's rule following exceptions

[katiac]

My interpretation of this is that Elizabeth did violate protocols--she just found a way to twist it around in her head so that there was an excuse for what she was doing.

My interpretation of Elizabeth is not exactly the same as other people's... like I feel she tells herself she always follows the rules, and that's a strong motivator in her head, but in reality? She just doesn't always. She violated the rules to let Gregory go. She violated the rules to go after Zhukov's killer. Allowing Gregory to know her real name and to tell him personal details about her kids was a real risk. And it was a selfish thing to do because like you said, he easily could've been an FBI plant.

But this is Elizabeth. She did what she wanted to for personal reasons and found a way to twist it in her head so it fit. It's the same way Philip having a one-night stand with Irina is somehow so much worse than her decade long affair. She insists they have to follow all the rules, but she is the one writing all the rules--and gives a good deal of leeway for herself in how they are interpreted, while not allowing the same for others.

Re: Elizabeth's rule following exceptions

[jae]

I do think your interpretation of Elizabeth as a rule-violator (and rule-maker) works in general, but I still don't think she could have broken official protocol in this case. I mean, it's pretty clear that Philip knew that Gregory knew her as Elizabeth and had regularly seen her (and probably him) out of disguise. It's also clear that their handlers (or at least Claudia) knew the same, even if they never knew she and Gregory were lovers. If there had been concern about Gregory potentially being an FBI plant, then Philip would have raised concerns about that early on, and we would have heard Claudia objecting to it too at some point. At the very least. So the KGB must have had good reason to believe they didn't have to worry about that.

My read is that Elizabeth must have gotten permission to set this particular employer-employee relationship up in the way she did, and that Gregory would have received an extra-long period of vetting as a result. I certainly agree, though, that the reasons why she wanted it set up that way were entirely personal, and that she would have justified it to herself on the basis of something other than the personal.

-J

Re: Elizabeth's rule following exceptions

[sistermagpie]

Here again I'd compare him a little to the right wing journalist guy in that not only do both of them see the two of them--or just Philip in the other guy's case so far--out of disguise, but they're also more actively involved in little stings and things they set up. Somebody like Fred seems to just pass info that he gets at his job to Emmett. Gregory knows about picking up a woman at X place, getting rid of cars etc. The journalist guy is part of the performance with the Polish exile. So they must have a certainly level that American agents can get to where they know this stuff. I don't remember if that guy ever referred to Philip as Philip, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Re: Elizabeth's rule following exceptions

[katiac]

I can see why the particulars of what name he knew, etc, could have some flexibility and that it's clear they give some agents more information than others. Charles Duluth seems to also have a higher level of trust--Philip sees him with no disguise. "Anne" too. And Dorwin knows Vasili is the Rezident and even calls him at the Rezidentura. But I still feel like it was probably a violation of protocol for Elizabeth to cultivate a romantic relationship with an agent she's recruiting for the risk she'd become as emotionally compromised as any of their honey pot targets. If she just wanted sex randomly, or had to have sex with him to keep him willing to work for them, I feel like it wouldn't be the same issue because it wouldn't be an emotional issue for her--but it's clear from the fact that she couldn't go through with KGB orders, and supported Gregory when he refused to go through with KGB orders that she was emotionally compromised by the relationship they'd once had.

Re: Elizabeth's rule following exceptions

[jae]

Well, when I said I didn't think it made sense to interpret her as violating protocols, I was specifically responding to your comment that "allowing Gregory to know her real name and to tell him personal details about her kids was a real risk, and it was a selfish thing to do because like you said, he easily could've been an FBI plant." I think it's very clear that everyone involved (Philip, their handlers, the Center) is okay with Gregory knowing her cover name and the fact that she has a family, and that in turn must mean they have reason to believe he's not an FBI plant. (And of course, if he had been an FBI plant, it wouldn't have mattered whether they were in a romantic relationship or not--it would have been just as dangerous either way.)

The romantic relationship itself, though--that I could see being a violation of...something? Probably not official protocols, because it's not the sort of thing that could be forbidden in their jobs, really. Someone like Elizabeth HAS to be able to have sex with someone like Gregory (I mean, Philip is clearly not violating any sorts of protocols with Martha), so you can't outright forbid "fraternization" with someone lower down the totem pole like you can in other kinds of jobs, and I'm sure the KGB isn't naive enough about these things to have it as an actual written rule that their agents are not permitted to have certain kinds of feelings. Behaviours you can make rules about, feelings not so much.

But just the very fact that Claudia doesn't seem to know that they were lovers during "Only You" (my read is that she suspects but has never been told) suggests that Elizabeth had reason not to tell her. So that could be very easily read as Elizabeth having violated some unwritten rule (or at least an ideal) by getting her feelings involved.

-J

Re: be his girlfriend - Elizabeth and Gregory

[sistermagpie]

I don't think she'd get drunk either--but that's kind of how I expected her dealing with pot. She'd smoke enough not to stand out socially, or to relax, but just as she wouldn't get so drunk to me very impaired she probably wouldn't want to get into the type of state Lucia was in, which is very easy if you start doing harder drugs. Likewise I could imagine her snorting some cocaine if she was in a situation where she felt really pressured to do it, but she'd try to do as little as possible.

Grannie knew the basic set up with Gregory in terms of him knowing who Philip and Elizabeth were and calling them by their real names, so it seems like she basically went through the official channels about it. I imagine the main thing she hid was her personal motivations. But she'd find a way to justify doing it professionally.

Re: be his girlfriend - Elizabeth and Gregory

[treonb]

Good point about Granny. No, I'm sure Elizabeth did everything by the book. I just can't see how the book allows it. But then, I also don't see how Gaad doesn't care that Stan is compromising himself.