Wow, this ep was the most intense for me yet. My stomach was jumpy throughout. That was some good dread! I think I'll have a ton to say after watching it again, but things that stood out to me that I remember from last night:
As much as I'm sure I'll appreciate the story with Stan and Nina I could never wait to get back to the Jennings in this ep. They were just crackling!
But Sandra had a great moment. Stan's just a dick this season. "Have fun." Still not getting it, Stan. Now I think about it it's a nice contrast to the Jennings where Philip's so hyper aware of being lied to, where Stan's so clueless he isn't even really clear on what his wife's doing and his kid's just in the shower somewhere. Also his girlfriend's playing him. Though he does share a little truth with her about the Laundromat. Maybe he's just excited he actually spend the night on a stake out for once.
I did like how the Rezidentura apparently used the half-crazy walk-in to their advantage.
Oleg continues to be hilarious--here's two tickets to something that doesn't interest you at all. Oh, it doesn't interest you at all? Make some money for yourself with it, sweetie, using my awesome capitalist advice.
I think Kelly is an ordinary girl who's going to have a friendship with Paige, not a KGB op who looks or is 14 and has a set up with a house and parents for Paige to hang out at. The show gets much more mileage out of people being inconveniently real than everybody being a clone spy.
In fact, I was talking to somebody who thought Kelly had to be a spy because "what were the odds" of Paige running into another girl who could empathize with her exact situation? Um, what are the chances of a 14 year old girl meeting another 14 year old girl who thinks her parents are weird? Those odds are pretty good.
Aunt Helen is badass and I love her.
I think Leanne just wrote the letter when Jared was a baby and then meant it to be for both kids rather than rewrite it.
Philip/Paige was great--and nicely contrasted with Elizabeth being nicer earlier, almost in a bait and switch. As she tries to be softer, or needs to be softer, Philip happens to find himself having to play the heavy, which is obviously not so different for him. But it was funny for him to also be channeling her "let me tell you about my childhood" thing, which he's never done before.
I tend to take the dead father at 6 as being equally potentially true or not true. Even if it was fake he would channel the real emotion into it that he was feeling.
I actually disagreed with someone elsewhere who felt Philip was just totally sketchy in that scene and was making Paige more suspicious because he was supposed to be yelling about the perils of Greyhound instead of his dead father. But I totally disagree. To me, that's like when on shows about True Crime there's always some dumb policeman who decides on a suspect because they're not acting the way a person "would" act in that situation, except the person totally is acting the way you would act.
So in this case, I don't think there's anything unbelievable about the fictional guy who's Philip Jennings reacting more passionately about Paige taking a risk *because she resents him not giving her more of a family* than focusing on bad things that happen on buses. The fact that he feared for her safety is implied by reminding her he's already lost family members. Plus, far from being mad about her intruding on his secrecy (as someone claimed to me) he opened up by having a personal reaction that referenced his alleged past.
This ep was also a first for me in that I was kind of rooting for that warehouse guy. Usually I just want P&E to get away and even when they're being terrible to people I get it's their job, but I guess I felt like Elizabeth was just so off her game that she created a more dangerous situation and then the guy knew it. I almost wondered if Philip worried about that too, though he wasn't there at first.
Okay, now the thing that really blew me away on thinking about the ep. Philip and Elizabeth, of course. This was another ep that I felt like really beautifully set up the way the two characters are contrasted. I felt like Elizabeth got a very clear arc in this ep that was straightforward and that she worked through by taking actions, where Philip was like a simmering pot getting hotter and hotter and yet always smothering it.
Like, we see here in flashbacks not just Elizabeth talking to Leanne about the letter which she originally agrees to deliver, but her not wanting to have children regardless of the situation. Leanne reminds her it's her duty. A year later, Elizabeth has worked herself up to do it--although this is actually probably two years of working up to it since Philip reminded her of the task when they first got there. So she's worked up to it, and she's doing it. That, of course, changed her and she's now dealing with more ramifications from that, particularly in dealing with Jared. She's now worried where Paige and Henry would go etc.
Plus she comes, on her own, to the conclusion that it's wrong to give Jared the letter, and she does it by taking action to get the letter, going to see Jared, talking to his foster mom, talking to Jared. There's some closure for Elizabeth in the episode. She's accepted Jared can't know, which means something for her own kids, and she's also working through her new feelings about her own children. She burns the letter, symbolizing a decision she's made and a conclusion she's come to on her journey.
By contrast, Philip was constantly not getting to say or choosing not to say whatever he thought. In the conversation with Paige he was emotional, but whatever real emotion there was there had to be filtered through the cover story. Whether the father who died was Philip's father, or a cover story that stood in for Misha's father who died when he was six, or a cover story for a completely different situation, he couldn't tell her the truth.
But more importantly, to me, were the scenes with Elizabeth. We know by now that she tends to not pick up on other people exactly feeling different from her (though she obviously made the right decision with Jared-it's not like she's incapable of correctly assessing situations), but that seemed really clear in this ep. There's the convo where she frets about them not having any real friends to take the kids and Philip says "Isn't that how you wanted it?" She reacts aggressively: "ME? WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" and he retreats into "I don't know, Elizabeth."
It sounds like Elizabeth is claiming, and has always claimed, that the Centre and their situation made it necessary that they not make friends and that she thinks Philip understands that, while Philip has always wanted American friends and gave that up because she insisted on it. Stan seems to be the first friendship he was able to form, and that was because he could pretend it was just about the intel.
So there we have a situation where Philip seems like he's revealing some actual long-time problem he's had and Elizabeth is defensive and denies any wrongdoing and he just lets it go.
In the 1967 flashback there's a much lighter moment where she says she sent a signal and he says, "You took a codebook outside?" or whatever he says. Since we know Philip is less of a stickler for rules than she is, I took that to be against the rules and reckless. I didn't think he was disrespecting her skills there (how could he after even that much time?) but having a genuine concerned reaction to a breach of safety protocol. But Elizabeth is completely confident that it was warranted in this case. I wonder if she'd have dropped it as quickly had the situations been reversed.
Then we get to what to me was the most interesting scene, the "I'm ready." For Elizabeth, this whole story is about her coming to terms with and getting ready to have these children. So her way of getting to that place is to just say "I'm ready" while unbuttoning her blouse.
Now, we know that back when they arrived Philip made some affectionate overtures and reminded her about the kids. He didn't seem to have the same issues she did. But throughout this scene Philip seems pretty wary of her. Part of it might just be that they're not so used to each other yet even after 2 years, but I seem to remember his body language as being a bit submissive--like he hangs his head when talking to her. This is maybe particularly when he hands her the orders to go after somebody, almost apologetically. So he's just given her instructions from someone else to maybe go sleep with someone, and then she orders him to sleep with her.
Only...a bit less sensitively. I mean, Philip's reaction when she says she's ready seems pretty negative to me. His "Are you sure?" didn't seem like concern over Elizabeth so much as concern that this was going to bite him on the ass or maybe just him hiding his own reluctance by reminding her of hers. Whatever's truly going on, he's obviously not happy about the prospect of what's going to happen. I seem to remember he sort of lets his eyes drop and sort of slides them to the side.
Everything about him says he's not into it, but Elizabeth doesn't react to that. She's not opening the subject as if this is a big deal that they're doing together. Hell, she doesn't open the subject at all, just starts unbuttoning. Even after Philip reacts that way she doesn't slow down a little and ask him if he's ready or whatever. The second she's ready it's just a done deal.
Even the nice thing she says to him is kind of hilarious because while I wouldn't call their relationship an exact flip of traditional gender roles, she basically is just announcing to him that is now to service her and give her a child, and "You'll be a good father" kind of fits with that. Philip's reaction to that seems to be a bitter kind of disgusted laugh. And Elizabeth's just not acknowledging any of it. She's ready so let's go!
I think that scene in particular just seemed really significant that way. Like the ep in general is more Elizabeth's story, and this is part of that arc because it's showing us her coming to the decision and later we see her with the baby etc. But in this scene it seems like Philip's reaction is telegraphing something pretty intense that's just ignored in the scene. So it's like in one ep we get three moments with Elizabeth where Philip seems to be telegraphing something that he doesn't fully communicate for one reason or another.
It just seemed important because there's plenty of ways to play Philip's reaction in that scene. Obviously it's going to be important whatever it is. But, like, rather than him being even a little hopeful or pleased about something, he looks dejected or maybe bitter is a better word. More bitter than he was in 1965, so I kind of connected it to their relationship.
So there's a lot of focus on Elizabeth as a parent and her reluctance about it, both in terms of sex with Philip and raising kids. But she never seems to consider that Philip has any feelings worth discussing or acknowledging whatsoever. Not, I don't think, because she's intentionally being insensitive, but because for so many reasons she just thinks he's a guy, this means nothing to him--even when it clearly does.
So I wonder if Philip's one emotional outburst about his family is tied to all of it. Because I just feel, like I said, that Elizabeth is getting feelings here that she's working through where Philip just gets scene after scene of stewing and being dismissed when he gets close to talking. Even Paige, understandably, reacts to him talking about losing his father with "Can I go now?"
Maybe that's again something Henry's subtly providing here. He and Philip start out enjoying each other's company talking about Polaris, and they end the ep having retreated to separate rooms dealing with their own little projects that kind of subtly mirror each other, with both of them holding things up and squinting at them. If Henry wanted company that night, he just silently accepted that it wasn't going to happen while Paige brings attention to how she feels.
sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
As much as I'm sure I'll appreciate the story with Stan and Nina I could never wait to get back to the Jennings in this ep. They were just crackling!
But Sandra had a great moment. Stan's just a dick this season. "Have fun." Still not getting it, Stan. Now I think about it it's a nice contrast to the Jennings where Philip's so hyper aware of being lied to, where Stan's so clueless he isn't even really clear on what his wife's doing and his kid's just in the shower somewhere. Also his girlfriend's playing him. Though he does share a little truth with her about the Laundromat. Maybe he's just excited he actually spend the night on a stake out for once.
I did like how the Rezidentura apparently used the half-crazy walk-in to their advantage.
Oleg continues to be hilarious--here's two tickets to something that doesn't interest you at all. Oh, it doesn't interest you at all? Make some money for yourself with it, sweetie, using my awesome capitalist advice.
I think Kelly is an ordinary girl who's going to have a friendship with Paige, not a KGB op who looks or is 14 and has a set up with a house and parents for Paige to hang out at. The show gets much more mileage out of people being inconveniently real than everybody being a clone spy.
In fact, I was talking to somebody who thought Kelly had to be a spy because "what were the odds" of Paige running into another girl who could empathize with her exact situation? Um, what are the chances of a 14 year old girl meeting another 14 year old girl who thinks her parents are weird? Those odds are pretty good.
Aunt Helen is badass and I love her.
I think Leanne just wrote the letter when Jared was a baby and then meant it to be for both kids rather than rewrite it.
Philip/Paige was great--and nicely contrasted with Elizabeth being nicer earlier, almost in a bait and switch. As she tries to be softer, or needs to be softer, Philip happens to find himself having to play the heavy, which is obviously not so different for him. But it was funny for him to also be channeling her "let me tell you about my childhood" thing, which he's never done before.
I tend to take the dead father at 6 as being equally potentially true or not true. Even if it was fake he would channel the real emotion into it that he was feeling.
I actually disagreed with someone elsewhere who felt Philip was just totally sketchy in that scene and was making Paige more suspicious because he was supposed to be yelling about the perils of Greyhound instead of his dead father. But I totally disagree. To me, that's like when on shows about True Crime there's always some dumb policeman who decides on a suspect because they're not acting the way a person "would" act in that situation, except the person totally is acting the way you would act.
So in this case, I don't think there's anything unbelievable about the fictional guy who's Philip Jennings reacting more passionately about Paige taking a risk *because she resents him not giving her more of a family* than focusing on bad things that happen on buses. The fact that he feared for her safety is implied by reminding her he's already lost family members. Plus, far from being mad about her intruding on his secrecy (as someone claimed to me) he opened up by having a personal reaction that referenced his alleged past.
This ep was also a first for me in that I was kind of rooting for that warehouse guy. Usually I just want P&E to get away and even when they're being terrible to people I get it's their job, but I guess I felt like Elizabeth was just so off her game that she created a more dangerous situation and then the guy knew it. I almost wondered if Philip worried about that too, though he wasn't there at first.
Okay, now the thing that really blew me away on thinking about the ep. Philip and Elizabeth, of course. This was another ep that I felt like really beautifully set up the way the two characters are contrasted. I felt like Elizabeth got a very clear arc in this ep that was straightforward and that she worked through by taking actions, where Philip was like a simmering pot getting hotter and hotter and yet always smothering it.
Like, we see here in flashbacks not just Elizabeth talking to Leanne about the letter which she originally agrees to deliver, but her not wanting to have children regardless of the situation. Leanne reminds her it's her duty. A year later, Elizabeth has worked herself up to do it--although this is actually probably two years of working up to it since Philip reminded her of the task when they first got there. So she's worked up to it, and she's doing it. That, of course, changed her and she's now dealing with more ramifications from that, particularly in dealing with Jared. She's now worried where Paige and Henry would go etc.
Plus she comes, on her own, to the conclusion that it's wrong to give Jared the letter, and she does it by taking action to get the letter, going to see Jared, talking to his foster mom, talking to Jared. There's some closure for Elizabeth in the episode. She's accepted Jared can't know, which means something for her own kids, and she's also working through her new feelings about her own children. She burns the letter, symbolizing a decision she's made and a conclusion she's come to on her journey.
By contrast, Philip was constantly not getting to say or choosing not to say whatever he thought. In the conversation with Paige he was emotional, but whatever real emotion there was there had to be filtered through the cover story. Whether the father who died was Philip's father, or a cover story that stood in for Misha's father who died when he was six, or a cover story for a completely different situation, he couldn't tell her the truth.
But more importantly, to me, were the scenes with Elizabeth. We know by now that she tends to not pick up on other people exactly feeling different from her (though she obviously made the right decision with Jared-it's not like she's incapable of correctly assessing situations), but that seemed really clear in this ep. There's the convo where she frets about them not having any real friends to take the kids and Philip says "Isn't that how you wanted it?" She reacts aggressively: "ME? WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" and he retreats into "I don't know, Elizabeth."
It sounds like Elizabeth is claiming, and has always claimed, that the Centre and their situation made it necessary that they not make friends and that she thinks Philip understands that, while Philip has always wanted American friends and gave that up because she insisted on it. Stan seems to be the first friendship he was able to form, and that was because he could pretend it was just about the intel.
So there we have a situation where Philip seems like he's revealing some actual long-time problem he's had and Elizabeth is defensive and denies any wrongdoing and he just lets it go.
In the 1967 flashback there's a much lighter moment where she says she sent a signal and he says, "You took a codebook outside?" or whatever he says. Since we know Philip is less of a stickler for rules than she is, I took that to be against the rules and reckless. I didn't think he was disrespecting her skills there (how could he after even that much time?) but having a genuine concerned reaction to a breach of safety protocol. But Elizabeth is completely confident that it was warranted in this case. I wonder if she'd have dropped it as quickly had the situations been reversed.
Then we get to what to me was the most interesting scene, the "I'm ready." For Elizabeth, this whole story is about her coming to terms with and getting ready to have these children. So her way of getting to that place is to just say "I'm ready" while unbuttoning her blouse.
Now, we know that back when they arrived Philip made some affectionate overtures and reminded her about the kids. He didn't seem to have the same issues she did. But throughout this scene Philip seems pretty wary of her. Part of it might just be that they're not so used to each other yet even after 2 years, but I seem to remember his body language as being a bit submissive--like he hangs his head when talking to her. This is maybe particularly when he hands her the orders to go after somebody, almost apologetically. So he's just given her instructions from someone else to maybe go sleep with someone, and then she orders him to sleep with her.
Only...a bit less sensitively. I mean, Philip's reaction when she says she's ready seems pretty negative to me. His "Are you sure?" didn't seem like concern over Elizabeth so much as concern that this was going to bite him on the ass or maybe just him hiding his own reluctance by reminding her of hers. Whatever's truly going on, he's obviously not happy about the prospect of what's going to happen. I seem to remember he sort of lets his eyes drop and sort of slides them to the side.
Everything about him says he's not into it, but Elizabeth doesn't react to that. She's not opening the subject as if this is a big deal that they're doing together. Hell, she doesn't open the subject at all, just starts unbuttoning. Even after Philip reacts that way she doesn't slow down a little and ask him if he's ready or whatever. The second she's ready it's just a done deal.
Even the nice thing she says to him is kind of hilarious because while I wouldn't call their relationship an exact flip of traditional gender roles, she basically is just announcing to him that is now to service her and give her a child, and "You'll be a good father" kind of fits with that. Philip's reaction to that seems to be a bitter kind of disgusted laugh. And Elizabeth's just not acknowledging any of it. She's ready so let's go!
I think that scene in particular just seemed really significant that way. Like the ep in general is more Elizabeth's story, and this is part of that arc because it's showing us her coming to the decision and later we see her with the baby etc. But in this scene it seems like Philip's reaction is telegraphing something pretty intense that's just ignored in the scene. So it's like in one ep we get three moments with Elizabeth where Philip seems to be telegraphing something that he doesn't fully communicate for one reason or another.
It just seemed important because there's plenty of ways to play Philip's reaction in that scene. Obviously it's going to be important whatever it is. But, like, rather than him being even a little hopeful or pleased about something, he looks dejected or maybe bitter is a better word. More bitter than he was in 1965, so I kind of connected it to their relationship.
So there's a lot of focus on Elizabeth as a parent and her reluctance about it, both in terms of sex with Philip and raising kids. But she never seems to consider that Philip has any feelings worth discussing or acknowledging whatsoever. Not, I don't think, because she's intentionally being insensitive, but because for so many reasons she just thinks he's a guy, this means nothing to him--even when it clearly does.
So I wonder if Philip's one emotional outburst about his family is tied to all of it. Because I just feel, like I said, that Elizabeth is getting feelings here that she's working through where Philip just gets scene after scene of stewing and being dismissed when he gets close to talking. Even Paige, understandably, reacts to him talking about losing his father with "Can I go now?"
Maybe that's again something Henry's subtly providing here. He and Philip start out enjoying each other's company talking about Polaris, and they end the ep having retreated to separate rooms dealing with their own little projects that kind of subtly mirror each other, with both of them holding things up and squinting at them. If Henry wanted company that night, he just silently accepted that it wasn't going to happen while Paige brings attention to how she feels.