I was thinking about this more, actually (because it's like my favorite thing ever) and I was wondering if there's also a lot changing on this front for the Jennings lately with the Reagan administration heating everything up plus the new relationship between Philip and Elizabeth.
Because in the pilot Philip is I think very pragmatically seeing defection as a simple case of disappearing into their American lives and identities with some adjustments to bring the kids up to speed and be protected by a different government. That's something that still wouldn't have been as simple as he thought but I can see why for Philip it would seem relatively simple.
But one of the things that really strikes me about their life now is how integrated they are/are becoming--probably more than they would have been in the past. That is, they spend a lot of time these days being spies. It's not like they're actual sleepers where they live their American lives until they hear an alarm and then they're supposed to wake up and all that becomes a dream and they're spies again. These two are actually aware of themselves/thinking of themselves as spies *a lot* and that might not have always been so true. It seems like in the past, even last season, they would live as P&E with breaks for jobs and then return to their lives. Something like Timoshev in the car was unusual, and even their conversation in The Colonel about running with the kids felt like Philip and Elizabeth Jennings discussing the kids' welfare.
But now not only do they have Emmett and Leanne's murder hanging over their heads, plus missions going haywire that require days of work, plus Philip having a second fake life, but they've also got a new honest romance between the two of them--between the real man and real woman. (In the past their marriage had a lot of cover to it.) So I felt like that would have to also stir up in them--including in Philip who seems like he might have in the past disappeared into Philip Jennings and just let Misha hibernate--a constant feeling of who they "really are" even if they're not so sure about it.
The show seems to even be stressing this in a meta sense. Last season the big bad was Stan, the neighbor who threatened to discover they weren't really suburbanites. This season Stan retreated as a threat and P&E spend more time in the spy world connecting automatically with other agents from different countries--these are their people. I feel like the US characters as a whole often come across as less unwitting and more alien and threatening in everyday interactions. I think I may have even said something in earlier episodes about feeling something like relief coming from P&E when they were with other spies. (Plus of course there's the reflections of Paige and Sandra figuring out their personal identities and Stan feeling close to Nina because she's also a mole.)
I could believe that for years Philip could compartmentalize to the point where defecting simply meant being Philip without doing missions. He could go to Henry's assembly and think yeah, I could just say this pledge for real, maybe, why not? Russia was totally distant, like someone else's life. But I feel like it must be harder to feel American when you're so constantly aware of yourself doing your job or being in danger or hiding yourself from your children. And in the relationship he's now in.
So I almost wonder if for both of them, but maybe even more Philip because he shut off more completely before, their "real selves" however they exist now are now becoming more real than Philip and Elizabeth. Philip isn't in love with Elizabeth Jennings from Chicago, he's in love with Elizabeth as he knows her--and that includes the girl from Smolensk and the memories he shares with her in Russia.
For Elizabeth "soul retrieval" is about finding more to the girl she really is than her political beliefs. Just as Elizabeth is learning how to feel again due in large part to her new relationship with Philip, I think Philip is also getting in touch with parts of himself he'd shut off. Like he'd sent Misha away and now it turns out he's back--still hazy, but hazy is clearer than nonexistent. It's the parallel to Elizabeth's own emotional development to become a whole person.
I might even go so far as to say that last season Misha was so distant that he became just another persona, one Philip was briefly tempted to escape into when he was with Irina. I think MR referred to Philip as wanting to "be someone else" for a while when he slept with her, and that someone else was Irina's ex, Misha. But with Elizabeth he's something else--Misha who's now called Philip and has memories of both. Not a young man who stayed in Russia but the man he is.
All of which is really perfect just looking at the P/Y scenes, because it takes so long for Yossi to break through. Like there's no hint that Philip's at all effected at first. When Yossi brings up the icicles the second time Philip's looking out the window, not at the icicles. So it's not the mention of them but the combination of everything they talk about and current events, plus Philip sitting quietly for hours that brings his guard down just a little but not much until he's with Elizabeth despite the drive to the boat with Anton which at another time would have driven it underground again.
This season is just really awesome is what I'm saying.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Date: 2014-03-28 05:42 pm (UTC)Because in the pilot Philip is I think very pragmatically seeing defection as a simple case of disappearing into their American lives and identities with some adjustments to bring the kids up to speed and be protected by a different government. That's something that still wouldn't have been as simple as he thought but I can see why for Philip it would seem relatively simple.
But one of the things that really strikes me about their life now is how integrated they are/are becoming--probably more than they would have been in the past. That is, they spend a lot of time these days being spies. It's not like they're actual sleepers where they live their American lives until they hear an alarm and then they're supposed to wake up and all that becomes a dream and they're spies again. These two are actually aware of themselves/thinking of themselves as spies *a lot* and that might not have always been so true. It seems like in the past, even last season, they would live as P&E with breaks for jobs and then return to their lives. Something like Timoshev in the car was unusual, and even their conversation in The Colonel about running with the kids felt like Philip and Elizabeth Jennings discussing the kids' welfare.
But now not only do they have Emmett and Leanne's murder hanging over their heads, plus missions going haywire that require days of work, plus Philip having a second fake life, but they've also got a new honest romance between the two of them--between the real man and real woman. (In the past their marriage had a lot of cover to it.) So I felt like that would have to also stir up in them--including in Philip who seems like he might have in the past disappeared into Philip Jennings and just let Misha hibernate--a constant feeling of who they "really are" even if they're not so sure about it.
The show seems to even be stressing this in a meta sense. Last season the big bad was Stan, the neighbor who threatened to discover they weren't really suburbanites. This season Stan retreated as a threat and P&E spend more time in the spy world connecting automatically with other agents from different countries--these are their people. I feel like the US characters as a whole often come across as less unwitting and more alien and threatening in everyday interactions. I think I may have even said something in earlier episodes about feeling something like relief coming from P&E when they were with other spies. (Plus of course there's the reflections of Paige and Sandra figuring out their personal identities and Stan feeling close to Nina because she's also a mole.)
I could believe that for years Philip could compartmentalize to the point where defecting simply meant being Philip without doing missions. He could go to Henry's assembly and think yeah, I could just say this pledge for real, maybe, why not? Russia was totally distant, like someone else's life. But I feel like it must be harder to feel American when you're so constantly aware of yourself doing your job or being in danger or hiding yourself from your children. And in the relationship he's now in.
So I almost wonder if for both of them, but maybe even more Philip because he shut off more completely before, their "real selves" however they exist now are now becoming more real than Philip and Elizabeth. Philip isn't in love with Elizabeth Jennings from Chicago, he's in love with Elizabeth as he knows her--and that includes the girl from Smolensk and the memories he shares with her in Russia.
For Elizabeth "soul retrieval" is about finding more to the girl she really is than her political beliefs. Just as Elizabeth is learning how to feel again due in large part to her new relationship with Philip, I think Philip is also getting in touch with parts of himself he'd shut off. Like he'd sent Misha away and now it turns out he's back--still hazy, but hazy is clearer than nonexistent. It's the parallel to Elizabeth's own emotional development to become a whole person.
I might even go so far as to say that last season Misha was so distant that he became just another persona, one Philip was briefly tempted to escape into when he was with Irina. I think MR referred to Philip as wanting to "be someone else" for a while when he slept with her, and that someone else was Irina's ex, Misha. But with Elizabeth he's something else--Misha who's now called Philip and has memories of both. Not a young man who stayed in Russia but the man he is.
All of which is really perfect just looking at the P/Y scenes, because it takes so long for Yossi to break through. Like there's no hint that Philip's at all effected at first. When Yossi brings up the icicles the second time Philip's looking out the window, not at the icicles. So it's not the mention of them but the combination of everything they talk about and current events, plus Philip sitting quietly for hours that brings his guard down just a little but not much until he's with Elizabeth despite the drive to the boat with Anton which at another time would have driven it underground again.
This season is just really awesome is what I'm saying.