Fan community for FX's The Americans

Ah, I see what you mean. I mean, it's possible that he's not in love with her yet or how deeply--we don't know. I can't imagine he doesn't have some feelings for her by this point. It doesn't seem like it was something he needed later triggers for. It's like Zhukov said--it's not even so much about her particular traits but the act of being devoted to her, which I think he already is.

I think I do get what you meant by that now, though (and by the comparison to the knife scene, too, by the way). You weren't trying to say that Philip isn't really attracted to her/in love with her yet, just that that attraction and even that love are the very furthest thing from his mind in that moment when she comes to him and tells him clinically that she's ready and starts taking her clothes off. Do I have that right? And that when he says "are you sure," it's not even that he's double-checking to make sure she really is okay, but that he actually wants her to back out.

Yes! You put it across much better than I did-that's exactly what I mean. By the time we get to the pilot Philip's not only feeling the love, he's playing it, but here I don't think he is, at least not in this scene.

So yeah, I think he did want her to back out, which seems like another bit of irony in the scene, because this is about Elizabeth being ready and his state of mind's kind of irrelevant or just assumed.