* It is nice that Arkady seems eager to keep Oleg away from the Directorate S's.
* Wow, Arkady totally does mirror Lenin in that scene, only Lenin in the window is bright and Oleg is in shadow. I think one of the reviewers said this was like the ideal and the reality.
* Nina responds to Oleg's question with just a long look. I wonder how awkwardly that would play in real life where there's no cutaway. But this ep has had a lot of scenes that end that way.
* Stan says Anton's been missing for over 12 hours so there's a timeline check. That would make it the next day since it was night when they snatched him. So Elizabeth must actually be meeting this guy the next day.
* Her scene with Brad does seem a little out of nowhere. I mean, like it's suddenly giving her these files just so they can tie up that loose end and more importantly (because they could just as easily have just told us next week that the kid came through after the hand job) to have her explain her evolving feelings for Philip while dumping Brad. The "you're not too old" is really sweet there, though. It emphasizes how long these two have settled into these patterns and ways of living/surviving and how there's always hope they can change.
* People have said that Elizabeth really feels something about this kid but I don't think she really does. I think she's totally just doing her job here except where she's getting to articulate some feelings to herself. I don't think she dislikes him, but I think she more just appreciates him for being her first successful mission on her own after coming back. She's really just telling the end of the true rape story she started in the last ep.
* Nina makes sure to run in to Stan as if she's just missing him and isn't thinking about work at all because she knows Stan might ask about Anton-or whatever she knows about that.
* Btw, I realized that last week Philip's "Stan finally told me about the affair" was like a parallel to Nina's "Stan finally told me he loved me."
* Nina also sets up Oleg as a loose canon who's doing his own thing, so he might not be going rogue there at the end. Or something. They've been very tricky letting us know just what the Rezidentura is up to before the fact!
* Morning in the restaurant with Philip and Yossi so yeah, it's the next day.
* Yossi gets some water and tries a new tactic: Philip's a Communist, right? They do that better in Israel! Philip doesn't seem too moved by that, but it's got to be another attempt to draw him out.
* "I like the cold" probably doesn't have one specific meaning, but it's accompanied by the Russian flashback music, which to me says a flashback is happening that we're not seeing (and how typical of Philip to keep his flashbacks private!). Or at least that yes, Philip is being flashback Philip.
* Philip volunteers this information after a whole night of deflecting all attempts of Yossi's on this front. It's delivered in a way that rightly makes Yossi look at him. But the music, especially, seems like a heads up to us that this is a thing. It's like in the movie JAWS how whenever the shark was coming you heard the music even if you didn't see it. If it was a false alarm there might be panic but no music. The plunk of the Russian music is like the JAWS theme.
* Also I love that it's been subtly built up the whole time because Yossi genuinely does connect to Mediterranean weather. Being from a relatively cold place I know that some people from warm places assume that everyone would prefer it, and the writer's really awesome for introducing that simple idea and committing to it so much. Like yes, Yossi's trying to get under Philip's skin but he also really is a warm weather person made uncomfortable by cold and Philip has very different associations with it.
* I also love that this comes after he brings up Communism and it fizzles because again, whatever Arkady says, a lot of people relate more to home than ideas. If pressed, Philip would choose Russia with a Tsar over Communist Israel. Elizabeth would be so sad to have to do that.
* Yossi is thrilled over his triumph here, but Philip isn't caught out or anything. I love that it's not some big confession he accidentally let out and now feels exposed. He seems to just be telling the truth as a cold-weather lover, and maybe correcting the criticism of it being too cold in the USSR, but his thoughts are elsewhere--like maybe in the flashback we can't see.
* There's no way of telling what's going on in his head, but for instance, it's possible that while Yossi's points about the icicles went nowhere earlier (Yossi notices them because they're a novelty but Philip would just associate them with cold weather) perhaps at this moment after a whole night of this, Yossi's offhand comment and Philip thinking how he liked the cold brought a memory unbidden to his mind. Maybe one he hadn't thought about in years.
* So I guess I tend to read the scene less as Philip not remembering, wanting to remember and then remembering and more as Philip compartmentalizing and then suddenly having a memory pop up in his mind. Not quite as powerful as Proust's Madeleine, but one of those times when you're like--huh, weird. I haven't thought about that in years and now it's suddenly clear in my mind.
* But again, I love that it's not played as this big vulnerable moment for Philip because this is a spy show where people actually act like spies and self-protective people.
* Now it's dark again when they leave the safe house.
* Stan way underestimates Oleg, perhaps he feels a little too clever about having his own spy in the Rezidentura.
* Oleg plays right into that underestimation with that car.
* Poor Anton. The Russians claim their own, the Israelis claim their own and America, the country Anton claims as his home, isn't able to claim Anton.
* "I'm a Jew. I can't help lingering on ironies." Oh Yossi, you will be missed. Also nice bookend to Philip's ignorant Jewish stereotypes earlier with the "shekels" comment to have an actual Jewish man make a far more accurate and funny meta comment about being Jewish.
* I love that Yossi isn't simple enough to, like, suggest that the irony is so perfect that Anton is going to USSR without wanting to when Philip is the one who really wants to get on the boat. He knows that Philip has chosen/is choosing to be here, and if he thinks he has a family he knows this is his home now. He gets him in the true was that it's not really his home.
* And I also love Philip's "Enough." It's again so *not* melodramatic. Yet it's also not, like, bragging that what Yossi's doing is useless.
* And their last exchange is almost like a buddy movie in the making "It's not too late for me to kill you" just because he's like seriously, you are not now going to start making jokes about my wife.
*Though perhaps that is a subtle way of bringing Elizabeth's losing it up again.
* Yossi knows he's got a few seconds left to stick in what he hopes will be a festering wound to Philip with his comments about his name, face and children. It's like the most he can do for Anton here.
* But Philip gets him back good making sure Anton knows who matters to who here with his Passover comment. Yossi may have earlier said he knew his worth, but he and Philip have got to get a little satisfaction out of being backed up.
* Philip starts off having a little conversation with Anton the way he did with Yossi but he winds up having to just go behind the wall. Anton isn't a fellow soldier like Yossi. He's a civilian being kidnapped and sentenced to a terrible fate. Philip won't even look at him.
* I like that Paige starts out saying it's not *all* you to Elizabeth. It's a little you!
* I think Elizabeth is actually being genuinely open to Paige here but literally has no idea what "crazy life" she has. Her life really isn't crazy at all. I mean, it is but in ways she doesn't know. Feeling like there's something weird going on in her house and her parents are keeping secrets doesn't change that her life is well-ordered with a lot of support and her parents take an interest in her and care about her.
* I wonder if it's actually set up to really show that. Philip and Elizabeth have had the craziest two days and Paige kind of wanders in from a teen story where she thinks her life is just beyond weird and it's like...what?
* Still, I love that she tries to get something from her mom and then just realizes her mom wouldn't understand. She could never explain it and Elizabeth's just genuinely confused by the whole thing.
* See, the show just loves tricking us with what the folks at the Rezidentura are doing until they've done it this season!
* Nice surprise there yelling out there, Oleg, when Stan's in stealth mode.
* No idea if Oleg has authorization for this. Seems like he should, but the show takes liberties with that. I mean, he's playing the traitor here, so it's best not to just hope you can explain yourself after it works out.
* God, poor Anton.
* Nice cut from "human rights" to Anton in chains doing the reverse Ellis Island shot. (Not that he's leaving from Ellis Island, but it's a pretty iconic American image we've got here.)
* Did Philip walk around for hours until morning or was it just before dawn when he left the docks?
* Love that Elizabeth is basically waiting up for him. They haven't spoken all this time. Also love the detail of the light being on because she was.
* Man, it seems like hours since Elizabeth spent the evening with Martha. For me it has been--it's taken me like 2 1/2 hours to rewatch this. It's such a great ep!
* I wonder what papers Elizabeth has with her on the couch. Not like she'd have the Larrick files out.
* Sometimes even a sex animal needs to be the little spoon.
* So then Philip asks Elizabeth if there were icicles in Smolensk in the winter. And the music starts again. Again, I don't think there can any be one interpretation for exactly what's going on in Philip's head at any particular time, but he could have had this memory early this morning and now, home with Elizabeth, he remembers it again and can actually talk to her about it.
* And of course she can just say yes, there were icicles, because she doesn't have to automatically shut that down and say she can't remember. Though in the past she might have. One doesn't have to remember specific icicles to say whether or not they existed in your world.
* I love how well she understands what's going on. Like first he asks her that and she says "What?" in that way they do when the other is silent in a way they know they're thinking about something. And he says, "Naw," first, like he's assuring her that it's just silly he asked, but "we" (specific people-presumably other kids-left anonymous) used to have sword fights with them. And Elizabeth knows to share her own memory--or more important, she doesn't share her own memory, she reminds him of a shared memory.
* Now, it's also possible that only after Yossi was gone, maybe after the boat, Philip walked around and allowed himself to think about icicles and remembered this then, of course. Or even that he just allowed himself to talk about it now when he lay down with Elizabeth. If it was just about talking about it with her, the sword fights might not have been an actual memory--like a flashback in his head--at all, but just him being Misha who would naturally make that connection with icicles and talk about it. Like he remembers it intellectually but he's not having a specific memory at any point, it that distinction makes sense. It's like flashback vs. no flashback.
* I didn't originally remember just when he turned around but Elizabeth usually tells her memories face to face and it's actually a pretty consistent, iirc, quirk with Philip that he often looks into the middle distance whenever his own feelings (rather than someone else's) are being spoken of, by him or someone else. So he shares his icicle memory without facing her, but when she draws him back to a shared memory of the two of them it's like the perfect invitation to turn around.
* "I remember" is the most awesome thing ever. And I do take it as not so much a change from his earlier line as a sign of trust. Here, he can remember. He's not so lost as he may have seemed or felt earlier.
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timeasmymeasure
Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: The Deal part 2
Date: 2014-03-28 03:06 am (UTC)* It is nice that Arkady seems eager to keep Oleg away from the Directorate S's.
* Wow, Arkady totally does mirror Lenin in that scene, only Lenin in the window is bright and Oleg is in shadow. I think one of the reviewers said this was like the ideal and the reality.
* Nina responds to Oleg's question with just a long look. I wonder how awkwardly that would play in real life where there's no cutaway. But this ep has had a lot of scenes that end that way.
* Stan says Anton's been missing for over 12 hours so there's a timeline check. That would make it the next day since it was night when they snatched him. So Elizabeth must actually be meeting this guy the next day.
* Her scene with Brad does seem a little out of nowhere. I mean, like it's suddenly giving her these files just so they can tie up that loose end and more importantly (because they could just as easily have just told us next week that the kid came through after the hand job) to have her explain her evolving feelings for Philip while dumping Brad. The "you're not too old" is really sweet there, though. It emphasizes how long these two have settled into these patterns and ways of living/surviving and how there's always hope they can change.
* People have said that Elizabeth really feels something about this kid but I don't think she really does. I think she's totally just doing her job here except where she's getting to articulate some feelings to herself. I don't think she dislikes him, but I think she more just appreciates him for being her first successful mission on her own after coming back. She's really just telling the end of the true rape story she started in the last ep.
* Nina makes sure to run in to Stan as if she's just missing him and isn't thinking about work at all because she knows Stan might ask about Anton-or whatever she knows about that.
* Btw, I realized that last week Philip's "Stan finally told me about the affair" was like a parallel to Nina's "Stan finally told me he loved me."
* Nina also sets up Oleg as a loose canon who's doing his own thing, so he might not be going rogue there at the end. Or something. They've been very tricky letting us know just what the Rezidentura is up to before the fact!
* Morning in the restaurant with Philip and Yossi so yeah, it's the next day.
* Yossi gets some water and tries a new tactic: Philip's a Communist, right? They do that better in Israel! Philip doesn't seem too moved by that, but it's got to be another attempt to draw him out.
* "I like the cold" probably doesn't have one specific meaning, but it's accompanied by the Russian flashback music, which to me says a flashback is happening that we're not seeing (and how typical of Philip to keep his flashbacks private!). Or at least that yes, Philip is being flashback Philip.
* Philip volunteers this information after a whole night of deflecting all attempts of Yossi's on this front. It's delivered in a way that rightly makes Yossi look at him. But the music, especially, seems like a heads up to us that this is a thing. It's like in the movie JAWS how whenever the shark was coming you heard the music even if you didn't see it. If it was a false alarm there might be panic but no music. The plunk of the Russian music is like the JAWS theme.
* Also I love that it's been subtly built up the whole time because Yossi genuinely does connect to Mediterranean weather. Being from a relatively cold place I know that some people from warm places assume that everyone would prefer it, and the writer's really awesome for introducing that simple idea and committing to it so much. Like yes, Yossi's trying to get under Philip's skin but he also really is a warm weather person made uncomfortable by cold and Philip has very different associations with it.
* I also love that this comes after he brings up Communism and it fizzles because again, whatever Arkady says, a lot of people relate more to home than ideas. If pressed, Philip would choose Russia with a Tsar over Communist Israel. Elizabeth would be so sad to have to do that.
* Yossi is thrilled over his triumph here, but Philip isn't caught out or anything. I love that it's not some big confession he accidentally let out and now feels exposed. He seems to just be telling the truth as a cold-weather lover, and maybe correcting the criticism of it being too cold in the USSR, but his thoughts are elsewhere--like maybe in the flashback we can't see.
* There's no way of telling what's going on in his head, but for instance, it's possible that while Yossi's points about the icicles went nowhere earlier (Yossi notices them because they're a novelty but Philip would just associate them with cold weather) perhaps at this moment after a whole night of this, Yossi's offhand comment and Philip thinking how he liked the cold brought a memory unbidden to his mind. Maybe one he hadn't thought about in years.
* So I guess I tend to read the scene less as Philip not remembering, wanting to remember and then remembering and more as Philip compartmentalizing and then suddenly having a memory pop up in his mind. Not quite as powerful as Proust's Madeleine, but one of those times when you're like--huh, weird. I haven't thought about that in years and now it's suddenly clear in my mind.
* But again, I love that it's not played as this big vulnerable moment for Philip because this is a spy show where people actually act like spies and self-protective people.
* Now it's dark again when they leave the safe house.
* Stan way underestimates Oleg, perhaps he feels a little too clever about having his own spy in the Rezidentura.
* Oleg plays right into that underestimation with that car.
* Poor Anton. The Russians claim their own, the Israelis claim their own and America, the country Anton claims as his home, isn't able to claim Anton.
* "I'm a Jew. I can't help lingering on ironies." Oh Yossi, you will be missed. Also nice bookend to Philip's ignorant Jewish stereotypes earlier with the "shekels" comment to have an actual Jewish man make a far more accurate and funny meta comment about being Jewish.
* I love that Yossi isn't simple enough to, like, suggest that the irony is so perfect that Anton is going to USSR without wanting to when Philip is the one who really wants to get on the boat. He knows that Philip has chosen/is choosing to be here, and if he thinks he has a family he knows this is his home now. He gets him in the true was that it's not really his home.
* And I also love Philip's "Enough." It's again so *not* melodramatic. Yet it's also not, like, bragging that what Yossi's doing is useless.
* And their last exchange is almost like a buddy movie in the making "It's not too late for me to kill you" just because he's like seriously, you are not now going to start making jokes about my wife.
*Though perhaps that is a subtle way of bringing Elizabeth's losing it up again.
* Yossi knows he's got a few seconds left to stick in what he hopes will be a festering wound to Philip with his comments about his name, face and children. It's like the most he can do for Anton here.
* But Philip gets him back good making sure Anton knows who matters to who here with his Passover comment. Yossi may have earlier said he knew his worth, but he and Philip have got to get a little satisfaction out of being backed up.
* Philip starts off having a little conversation with Anton the way he did with Yossi but he winds up having to just go behind the wall. Anton isn't a fellow soldier like Yossi. He's a civilian being kidnapped and sentenced to a terrible fate. Philip won't even look at him.
* I like that Paige starts out saying it's not *all* you to Elizabeth. It's a little you!
* I think Elizabeth is actually being genuinely open to Paige here but literally has no idea what "crazy life" she has. Her life really isn't crazy at all. I mean, it is but in ways she doesn't know. Feeling like there's something weird going on in her house and her parents are keeping secrets doesn't change that her life is well-ordered with a lot of support and her parents take an interest in her and care about her.
* I wonder if it's actually set up to really show that. Philip and Elizabeth have had the craziest two days and Paige kind of wanders in from a teen story where she thinks her life is just beyond weird and it's like...what?
* Still, I love that she tries to get something from her mom and then just realizes her mom wouldn't understand. She could never explain it and Elizabeth's just genuinely confused by the whole thing.
* See, the show just loves tricking us with what the folks at the Rezidentura are doing until they've done it this season!
* Nice surprise there yelling out there, Oleg, when Stan's in stealth mode.
* No idea if Oleg has authorization for this. Seems like he should, but the show takes liberties with that. I mean, he's playing the traitor here, so it's best not to just hope you can explain yourself after it works out.
* God, poor Anton.
* Nice cut from "human rights" to Anton in chains doing the reverse Ellis Island shot. (Not that he's leaving from Ellis Island, but it's a pretty iconic American image we've got here.)
* Did Philip walk around for hours until morning or was it just before dawn when he left the docks?
* Love that Elizabeth is basically waiting up for him. They haven't spoken all this time. Also love the detail of the light being on because she was.
* Man, it seems like hours since Elizabeth spent the evening with Martha. For me it has been--it's taken me like 2 1/2 hours to rewatch this. It's such a great ep!
* I wonder what papers Elizabeth has with her on the couch. Not like she'd have the Larrick files out.
* Sometimes even a sex animal needs to be the little spoon.
* So then Philip asks Elizabeth if there were icicles in Smolensk in the winter. And the music starts again. Again, I don't think there can any be one interpretation for exactly what's going on in Philip's head at any particular time, but he could have had this memory early this morning and now, home with Elizabeth, he remembers it again and can actually talk to her about it.
* And of course she can just say yes, there were icicles, because she doesn't have to automatically shut that down and say she can't remember. Though in the past she might have. One doesn't have to remember specific icicles to say whether or not they existed in your world.
* I love how well she understands what's going on. Like first he asks her that and she says "What?" in that way they do when the other is silent in a way they know they're thinking about something. And he says, "Naw," first, like he's assuring her that it's just silly he asked, but "we" (specific people-presumably other kids-left anonymous) used to have sword fights with them. And Elizabeth knows to share her own memory--or more important, she doesn't share her own memory, she reminds him of a shared memory.
* Now, it's also possible that only after Yossi was gone, maybe after the boat, Philip walked around and allowed himself to think about icicles and remembered this then, of course. Or even that he just allowed himself to talk about it now when he lay down with Elizabeth. If it was just about talking about it with her, the sword fights might not have been an actual memory--like a flashback in his head--at all, but just him being Misha who would naturally make that connection with icicles and talk about it. Like he remembers it intellectually but he's not having a specific memory at any point, it that distinction makes sense. It's like flashback vs. no flashback.
* I didn't originally remember just when he turned around but Elizabeth usually tells her memories face to face and it's actually a pretty consistent, iirc, quirk with Philip that he often looks into the middle distance whenever his own feelings (rather than someone else's) are being spoken of, by him or someone else. So he shares his icicle memory without facing her, but when she draws him back to a shared memory of the two of them it's like the perfect invitation to turn around.
* "I remember" is the most awesome thing ever. And I do take it as not so much a change from his earlier line as a sign of trust. Here, he can remember. He's not so lost as he may have seemed or felt earlier.