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theamericans2014-03-12 07:45 pm
jae) wrote in theamericans2014-03-12 07:45 pm
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Episode discussion post: "The Walk In"
Aired:
12 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
16 March 2014 in Israel
29 March 2014 in the UK
This is a discussion post for episode 203 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 even if you're coming in late--and feel free to start a new thread if it seems too daunting to read through what's already been posted first. If you're reading this at a point where you've already seen subsequent episodes, though, please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season two, episode three.)
Original promo trailers
Episode recaps
From the Washington Post
From Vulture
From Hitfix
From the AV Club
From the Huffington Post
From IGN
From Collider
From Television Without Pity
From Sound on Sight
From tv.com
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From the Houston Chronicle
From spoilertv.com
From showratings.tv
From The Cloture Club
More to come once they're available!
12 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
16 March 2014 in Israel
29 March 2014 in the UK
This is a discussion post for episode 203 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 even if you're coming in late--and feel free to start a new thread if it seems too daunting to read through what's already been posted first. If you're reading this at a point where you've already seen subsequent episodes, though, please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season two, episode three.)
Original promo trailers
Episode recaps
From the Washington Post
From Vulture
From Hitfix
From the AV Club
From the Huffington Post
From IGN
From Collider
From Television Without Pity
From Sound on Sight
From tv.com
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From the Houston Chronicle
From spoilertv.com
From showratings.tv
From The Cloture Club
More to come once they're available!
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.
Re: sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
Oh my god, that's exactly what he did! He didn't do it by playing her, exactly--that was definitely a Philip way of being angry and scared rather than an Elizabeth one--but the tactic was identical.
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.
Yeah, this is my read too. She even tried to talk him out of getting close to Stan and it was only because he was able to make it about the work (and he could point to real intel Stan had given them as a result of that friendship) that it ended up being mostly all right. But Philip totally would have been happier having those kinds of relationships all along.
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.
This was absolutely my read too. And I agree that that was obviously something Matthew Rhys thought about in playing it that way (and was probably directed to play that way). He's not all "yay, she's finally ready" at ALL. This is so clearly the first time they've had sex, and yeah, okay, he does want that to happen, but he doesn't want it to happen like THIS.
-J
Re: sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
Re: sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
Re: sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
(Your whole post sparked a lot of thought so I had to sit on it for awhile.) I kind of love this line in retrospect because it fits into so many situations. It's always been "how Elizabeth wanted it" in their house, at least in Philip's eyes. Of course in Elizabeth's, nothing is the way she wants it either, as she doesn't want the fake husband, or the baby at all, but in that whole "I'm going to set all the rules and blame it on the Centre" I could almost imagine there's a subconscious aspect of if she can't be happy she's going to make sure he's no happier with the arrangement than she is. Because really if you think about it, they're both being forced to live with the same rules from the Centre. They both have to have the assigned baby. They're both forcibly married. They both have to have the assigned sex. This is no picnic for him either. They're just reacting differently to it. It has to really rub for Philip that it's always about her, even when the situation is no better for him. I just look at his face in that whole flashback scene and, god, it makes me in that instant completely sympathize with that one night screw up with Irina. Imagine having to live with that beating on your self-esteem for fifteen years.
I mean, the way they connected that with Paige's scene later, you're right. He's getting pretty much ignored the entire time. Elizabeth, through so vocally putting herself into the victim role has kind of created a situation where his feelings just don't count for anything. And it's like, I completely understand where Elizabeth is coming from too, but since she's very forcefully pushing everyone else around to get her needs met to whatever extent they can be, and he's always the one acquiescing (since a marriage just can't work with two bulldozer personalities), I always end up feeling so much sorrier for him. And add to that Paige's "can I go now?" when he's telling her his dad died when he was 6? Poor Philip. I kind of long for the day when he just blows his top and lets it all out just because it has to suck keeping all that bottled inside, whether he manages to deal with it and move past it mostly or not.
Re: sistermagpie's thoughts on first watch
Yes, this is what just kills me about Philip--and pretty much all characters like that. Because it's not like Elizabeth's a villain who's just being selfish. I get how things are hard for her, how in some ways they're harder for her. But that's a separate issue from the way she deals with people that makes her really hard to get anything from. And that's made worse by Philip's instinct to just acquiesce. That's why I wanted to be careful to say that he wasn't communicating things rather than making it as if it was about Elizabeth preventing him from speaking up. Like, she is making it harder, but ultimately he's also just choosing to keep quiet. (Heh, and the all of two times he ever tries to give his pov he's often ignored.)
It's funny, too, that I was reading comments where people were discussing which one they found really scary when they got angry. There were votes on both sides, and both of them are deadly so they're really even. But to me it's like, if we're specifically talking about them losing it and getting angry, I think Philip would be worst, if only because when we see Elizabeth losing it those aren't the times when she's the most scary. She's deadlier when she's focusing everything on what she's doing.
I also read another interesting comment on Tumblr where the person said she felt like Elizabeth's coldness was an armor she put on to protect herself, where Philip's iciness was his actual personality, despite how friendly and personable he seemed. And I could actually see what they meant. Like I don't think they meant that he was secretly a sociopath or had no heart, just that when Philip was being cold it was more natural. When he gets genuinely angry it's kind of there, where as when Elizabeth gets furious it's more an explosion of lashing out that can cause a lot of damage but isn't more dangerous than when she's trying to be unemotional. You can see why she doesn't tap into that in the field.
Actual personality
Ruby was shown being typically big, brash and American, giving her perspective on what she saw and not getting many laughs from her audiences, but the most interesting bit was on her relationship with her female minder / translator.
She barely smiled, and it was clear that Ruby blamed her for her material going down badly - the translations and how they were relayed were the problem!! So at one point, Ruby in effect asked her why she was so fucking cold all the time. The reply involved telling Ruby about growing up somewhere where if someone said the wrong thing, they disappeared, many millions of people had been sacrificed in the Great Patriotic War and whole populations had been transported etc.
There is stuff they are emotional about, but both Philip and Elizabeth are cold. How could they not be?
Re: Actual personality
It's on YouTube, split into eight parts. The final part with the confrontation is this one - it's a pity about the editing (there's only one camera, so Ruby's reaction shots are done later and I think are used to trim the translator's reply) - but the whole thing is highly recommended for the culture clash.
East Meets Wax
Re: Actual personality