I honestly believe that Philip would be so compartmentalized that he absolutely wouldn't remember whole chunks of his life when not in the place where he would allow himself to do that. So when the guy asked him about icicles and he said "I don't remember" I don't think he was lying. That's the track his mind is on when he's at work. He could have thought back and answered the guy honestly, but the headspace he was in then didn't remember such things. Similarly, if the guy had asked him to say something in Russian he might very well have been unable to do so at first.
But I thought he was also genuinely slipping back on his own as he continued talking to the guy because the conversation was also a trigger to "be himself." Not one as safe as Elizabeth, but one where he felt the need to say "I like the cold" when the guy was talking about his own identity wrt to home. That seemed like a big slip to me, tiny and inconsequential as it was. Surely Philip's chosen method of dealing with that guy would be to give *nothing* away at all, yet he volunteered that personal comment and gave the guy an opening. Maybe the Mossad guy couldn't understand exactly what he meant by "you miss it" or what Philip was missing, but I don't at all think the guy was supposed to be missing the mark when he thought he'd scored a hit there somewhere.
And that was proven later, imo, when Philip came home and specifically brought up that moment-not anything about Anton. There, with Elizabeth, he was able to ground himself and assure himself that there was continuity between the boy he was in Russia and the man he was now, that that hadn't been trained out of him or replaced by the facade of Philip which, although it holds a lot of truth, is also a lie.
But when I read Genevieve's comment it just seemed like she was pushing it down the far less interesting road of Philip just being conflicted about working for a country and a past he no longer remembers and that isn't enough to motivate him, and that seems less painful to me. Especially since Elizabeth's own way of relating to the world and to her country is so different. It seemed like positioning them moving in different directions when it was more two very different ways of processing and dealing with similar things.
Someone above said this was the first Philip ep since Duty and Honor and I actually felt like this was the first Philip ep period and it was all about (I meant ep had this as a theme not that everything with Philip was about it) introducing this different powerful thing--the state of being forever homesick even when you would consider yourself at home and what was needed to feel that way. And questioning not just motivation but identity on its most basic level. I just feel like her reading was more of an exterior problem than an interior one. And a simpler one, since it basically just leads to the same solution Philip's already arrived at so he's just waiting, when I think it's more bringing out the nuances of his position just as Elizabeth's exploring the nuances of her own. The real relationship encompasses everything about their identities--which includes Philip's disillusionment with political ideals, maybe, but also the separation of those ideals from other things.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Philip and his memories
Date: 2014-03-27 05:08 pm (UTC)But I thought he was also genuinely slipping back on his own as he continued talking to the guy because the conversation was also a trigger to "be himself." Not one as safe as Elizabeth, but one where he felt the need to say "I like the cold" when the guy was talking about his own identity wrt to home. That seemed like a big slip to me, tiny and inconsequential as it was. Surely Philip's chosen method of dealing with that guy would be to give *nothing* away at all, yet he volunteered that personal comment and gave the guy an opening. Maybe the Mossad guy couldn't understand exactly what he meant by "you miss it" or what Philip was missing, but I don't at all think the guy was supposed to be missing the mark when he thought he'd scored a hit there somewhere.
And that was proven later, imo, when Philip came home and specifically brought up that moment-not anything about Anton. There, with Elizabeth, he was able to ground himself and assure himself that there was continuity between the boy he was in Russia and the man he was now, that that hadn't been trained out of him or replaced by the facade of Philip which, although it holds a lot of truth, is also a lie.
But when I read Genevieve's comment it just seemed like she was pushing it down the far less interesting road of Philip just being conflicted about working for a country and a past he no longer remembers and that isn't enough to motivate him, and that seems less painful to me. Especially since Elizabeth's own way of relating to the world and to her country is so different. It seemed like positioning them moving in different directions when it was more two very different ways of processing and dealing with similar things.
Someone above said this was the first Philip ep since Duty and Honor and I actually felt like this was the first Philip ep period and it was all about (I meant ep had this as a theme not that everything with Philip was about it) introducing this different powerful thing--the state of being forever homesick even when you would consider yourself at home and what was needed to feel that way. And questioning not just motivation but identity on its most basic level. I just feel like her reading was more of an exterior problem than an interior one. And a simpler one, since it basically just leads to the same solution Philip's already arrived at so he's just waiting, when I think it's more bringing out the nuances of his position just as Elizabeth's exploring the nuances of her own. The real relationship encompasses everything about their identities--which includes Philip's disillusionment with political ideals, maybe, but also the separation of those ideals from other things.