Promo discussion: Episode 2x03

[treonb]

This post is intended to allow discussion of the upcoming episode, as reflected in the promos. 

Please keep the comments spoiler free from anything not mentioned in these promos.

Also, if you happen across any more clips, please drop a note in the comments and I'll update this post.

"Next On: The Walk In" (Watch on YouTube)

"The Americans: Exclusive Scene from Episode 3" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[soupytwist]

I feel like this promos may be bad for me, because they just make me want to wave my arms around madly and yell until someone provides the new episode. *g*

(I cannot WAIT til we found out what's going to happen re. the letter for the son! And the Center is "putting someone on" the kids... I don't even know what I think that means for anything but I am totally excited!)

[katiac]

I'm wondering if this could be something that could lead to the Center finding out Paige is onto something. It's a wild thought but then why else would the Center take that step (or rather, why would the writers take that step?)

[sistermagpie]

I think it's just to address the fear over the kids. Somebody's watching them like Gregory had watched them. I feel like they did something similar in the first season--not putting tails on people (though Elizabeth did ask Gregory to do that) but something where they addressed a threat in a way that explained why it didn't have to be a priority anymore.

But it can still have unintended consequences like somebody noting that Paige is visiting the house where Elizabeth was allegedly taking care of her aunt!

[soupytwist]

Yeah, I got protection mor than threat from that, too. But I definitely think someone might notice that Paige is investigating!

[treonb]

Interesting idea!

[georgley]

I'm loving these sneak peek scenes they are releasing. Love the intimacy between Philip and Elizabeth with this one.

[katiac]

That was what excited me the most... both seeing the flashbacks to their early life and also that we get to see a post-shower scene (squee!) and that FINALLY they will be on a mission together so not so much screen time apart. I've been missing their together-scenes :)

[jae]

I can't wait for those flashback scenes! Man.

I think what intrigues me most about the promo is the fact that Leanne wrote this letter at all. It makes her the polar opposite of Elizabeth, who's just SO adamant that her children are never to know the truth. I wonder what Leanne's reasoning is on this? And what a position to put Elizabeth in, especially since she has such a hard time imagining other worldviews on things she feels strongly about!

-J

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, I wonder if this is something different between the two of them or just a little adjusted? Like Leanne seems to be saying that if she's dead she wants her children to understand her. Where Elizabeth probably really would want that, she doesn't like lying...yet she's clearly got a horror of them finding out that she lied to them. Like she's the one that wishes she could raise them as socialists and tries to get little comments in here and there that are mildly pro- or at least not anti-Soviet. So I'll bet there's a reason that it's Elizabeth who's facing this letter Leanne would have written rather than giving that to Philip.

Looks like they really might use the Collins in interesting ways to bring out Philip and Elizabeth. In general, that's something that's really interesting even in the first two eps, the way that last season the two of them were usually shown working together, though we still saw them have plenty of missions apart. Now it's like because their relationship is strong, the show's letting us follow them as individuals rather than as a unit. Then I think we see them come together and try to help each other.

I mean, I'd absolutely love to see the two of them have an honest conversation about how they feel about lying to their kids. They had the fight in the pilot where Philip almost brought it up as just a small part of the defection plan and Elizabeth slaps him in the face. But that wasn't really a frank discussion about it. A letter from Leanne would open some huge issues if Elizabeth told Philip about it. Although I can equally imagine her never telling him about it.

[katiac]

I'm wondering if she really goes through with giving it to Jared, and I'd say no. It's such a huge risk and then does it really gain Jared anything (especially from Elizabeth's point of view) compared to how much hurt it will cause with no possibility he could ever talk to his parents and ask them why or get closure?

I'm curious how she can safely go to their house. Wouldn't that be risky if there's the danger the FBI could eventually become involved if these people are found to have no traceable past?

[sistermagpie]

I guess if they know as of now there's no FBI notice and presumably the KGB would have been casing the area to see what kinds of investigations were going on, it might be okay. Basically, I suppose they'll explain how she's able to do it if she does it!

[jae]

Yeah, that's my gut feeling, too, that she'll wrestle with it and won't ultimately do it. I suppose we'll see, though! I trust these writers to write it compellingly and believably either way.

-J

[katiac]

I'm just excited we're going to see flashbacks and (hopefully) touch on some more P/E type topics. I've been hopeful after reading interviews that there was some good emotional stuff this season and so far there's been good stuff getting set up, but nothing that has kept me awake until midnight replaying it in my head like last season.

[jae]

Yeah, it's almost like they have similar base feelings but polar opposite reactions to dealing with them.

I would love for Philip and Elizabeth to have a really frank discussion about lying to the kids. I do think the worst part of their story is never likely to be brought up with them even if they do ever get told about the "KGB illegals" bit, though--telling your children that you only made them because of orders would be just so horrifying for everyone involved.

-J

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, in a way that's truly the worst part of the story from the kids' pov. And yet, it's another one of those things that maps onto ordinary situations too. I've known people who assume that had abortion been legal in the time and place they were born, they wouldn't exist, for instance. There's a lot of people who have kids under circumstances that aren't the best.

But if they ever really spoke to the kids honestly, they might get dangerous close to that if they understood some details about their lives (like that they're spy partners as well as married...which came first, etc.?) I can't imagine Philip or Elizabeth ever intentionally telling the kids this, but I'd love to see them deal with that idea if they were talking about it in general because this is such a huge part of their relationship, that they share this experience where they had kids on orders, but wound up loving them so much.

[katiac]

That's one of the most intriguing parts of it, I think. And I don't think they would EVER want to tell them that part, or any part, for that matter, but then Elizabeth has a problem with flat-out lying. Yes, she lies to the kids all the time when necessary (I was with Aunt Helen) but more often finds a way to indirectly not lie. But if they ever got to the point with the kids that they were telling them the truth, I wonder if they could put two and two together and then P/E would soften the answer into, like you said, a we immediately loved you so much version of it but not really lie either.

Really almost worse than the "we had you under orders" bit is the "we had you to reduce suspicion on us even though you were in constant danger of your lives being disrupted/destroyed if we were captured," which is so awful I don't even think P/E consciously think about it much if ever, even if they're aware that was the purpose. Even if Paige and Henry eventually were able to understand what their parents went through, how they were young when recruited, brainwashed, etc, they'd be a lot older before they'd have any sort of sense of perspective in the world, and it's also, I think, harder to look at your 40 year old parents and imagine how they could've ever done that.

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, it's kind of a fascinating place, really. Becauase the kids would be looking at it from a kid's perspective, which is all about themselves. So it's all about how could they do that to them, not care about them at all. But if Philip and Elizabeth were to try to explain it it's like...they were kids themselves, but they were more like young adults. Old enough to take on the job, old enough to be married, but not experienced enough to really know what it meant. So it was just abstract. But once the baby was real, everything changed.

Not that Elizabeth would ever talk like this to her kids, but I have a moment of horrible laughter at imagining her doing her usual "let me explain how hard this was for ME" reaction to confrontation where she explains to Paige and Henry how she's being saddled with a baby that she didn't want and she's worried is going to distract her from work, plus the kid will be American which is just horrifying to her. They should sympathize with how terrible that was...for her!" (And then Philip gags her.)

[katiac]

they were kids themselves, but they were more like young adults. Old enough to take on the job, old enough to be married, but not experienced enough to really know what it meant. So it was just abstract. But once the baby was real, everything changed.

Yes, this exactly.

Not that Elizabeth would ever talk like this to her kids, but I have a moment of horrible laughter at imagining her doing her usual "let me explain how hard this was for ME" reaction to confrontation where she explains to Paige and Henry how she's being saddled with a baby that she didn't want and she's worried is going to distract her from work, plus the kid will be American which is just horrifying to her. They should sympathize with how terrible that was...for her!" (And then Philip gags her.)

That's so awful and somehow perfectly Elizabeth to think about. I mean, have we ever seen her have any sort of reaction that's not just telling the other person how she's feeling about whatever?

[jae]

Oh my god oh my god that last paragraph! Horrifying...and yet that is EXACTLY how it would go. Shudder!

-J

[katiac]

I know. I'm SO excited to see the flashbacks and also excited for what it can bring out about Philip and Elizabeth by contrasting them to Emmett/Leanne.

[treonb]

I think what intrigues me most about the promo is the fact that Leanne wrote this letter at all.

Somebody needs to sit these spies down for a long talk about information security..

Though I guess Elizabeth has some things around the house too that would finger her as a Russian spy if anybody ever found them.

[christie]

I've been wondering why Leanne only wrote a letter to her son. My guess is that the flashback is so old that it's from before her daughter was born but I still wonder. And I wonder if that is the case, if she re-wrote it after her daughter was born.

[sistermagpie]

Or possibly it was because he was older and she assumed he'd decide how to explain it to Amelia? But you'd think she'd write to both of them, it's true. You might be right that she wasn't born yet--I hadn't thought of that but you could be right.

[treonb]

The thing about the Center tailing the kids, is that it's not new. In 1x06 (Trust Me) we already saw that they did it. It could have been just a couple of days before they brought P&E in for questioning, but it could have been far longer.

Looking at them now: most seem to be of the same day, as the kids are wearing the same outfits, but some were taken at different times and in some the kids look younger. Some of those pictures were taken INSIDE THE HOUSE (lifted straight off the show ;-). Yikes.

[jae]

Gregory was also following the kids for a while, though that order came from Elizabeth rather than from the Center.

Are you making a vid? :)

-J

[treonb]

Of course :-)

But in this case I was really looking it up just to check how much the Center had followed the kids in the past.