theamericans | Episode discussion post: "The Walk In"

jae posting 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

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

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

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

katiac

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."

(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 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.

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.

From:

sistermagpie

Oh, btw, I totally forgot to mention that that Laudromat that Stan was at is not in Washington D.C. It's a couple of blocks from me.

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.

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.

From:

lovingboth

It may well be too old to available online anywhere, but there was a 1990s UK television programme on a working visit to Russia/Ukraine by the American comedienne Ruby Wax who's been based in the UK for many years.

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?

From:

lovingboth

Ah, it was 1989, "East Meets Wax".

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.

From:

jae

Wow, very interesting! Thanks for the link.

From:

sistermagpie

I'm amazed that never even occurred to me before but yeah, that's a huge cultural difference. It's like how when we watch Philip talking to Paige it seems so scary yet Paige clearly isn't afraid of him at all. She's not afraid of anything, hardly. She expects people to basically have her best interests at heart, and of course knows her dad wouldn't ever hurt her.