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theamericans2014-03-26 07:45 pm
jae) wrote in theamericans2014-03-26 07:45 pm
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Episode discussion post: "The Deal"
Aired:
26 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
30 March 2014 in Israel
12 April 2014 in the UK
This is a discussion post for episode 205 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 you should also 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 five.)
Original promo trailers
Episode recaps
From Grantland
From The New York Times
From Time
From Vulture
From The Washington Post
From Rolling Stone
From The AV Club
From Hitfix
From the Huffington Post
From Collider
From Sound on Sight
From IGN
From Television Without Pity
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Geekbinge
From showratings.tv
From screenrant.com
From GAMbIT Magazine
From Crave Online
From spoilertv.com
From tv.com
From Unreality Primetime
From Newsmanone
26 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
30 March 2014 in Israel
12 April 2014 in the UK
This is a discussion post for episode 205 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 you should also 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 five.)
Original promo trailers
Episode recaps
From Grantland
From The New York Times
From Time
From Vulture
From The Washington Post
From Rolling Stone
From The AV Club
From Hitfix
From the Huffington Post
From Collider
From Sound on Sight
From IGN
From Television Without Pity
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Geekbinge
From showratings.tv
From screenrant.com
From GAMbIT Magazine
From Crave Online
From spoilertv.com
From tv.com
From Unreality Primetime
From Newsmanone
Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: The Deal part 2
* 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.
Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: The Deal part 2
That was maybe the sweetest thing. Particularly the way they just sort of folded together and she put her arm around him. They're so comfortable together now.
Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: The Deal part 2
I think the only time Elizabeth felt something for her target was when she was going to kill that dock worker and he took out the pictures of his kids.
* "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!).
That is way cool. Though I can barely hear it.
* 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?
Isn't that the quintessential teenager? Which now makes me wonder how they explained to the kids Philip being away for so long.
* 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.)
I was sure we were going to see the Statue of Liberty - and then I remembered: Oh, it's just filmed in New York.
"I like the cold"/"I remember"
I still think this fits in with my read, though, which means that I'm not quite on the same page with your interpretation of the "I remember" at the end. I really think the feelings of nostalgia/homesickness/whatever that Yossi evokes in Philip throughout their time together are very fuzzy and genericized, like he's viewing his memories through a veil of his current life and all the other characters he's played. Then later, when he's with Elizabeth, both the fact that he feels safe with her and her very Russianness (as well as the fact that she doesn't lose touch with her core self in the same way he does) brings him back to a place where he can and does remember the specifics.
-J
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
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.
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
That's a great analysis. We're really watching both of them draw all the pieces of themselves together into one person (or at least, maybe that's the long process.) I too have always felt Philip is kind of pushing Misha down, or maybe a better way to say it is he's stepped so completely into Philip Jennings that he's kind of let Misha fade away. Part of that would be to assume the identity for work purposes, and I guess we don't know enough about his past to say if there's another reason, but we've all kind of speculated maybe there's something painful there that made it so distancing himself from Misha made things easier.
And you're right that it's so great in the same way the relationship with him is kind of helping Elizabeth to get in touch with that part of herself that is scary and has been hard to access, she's doing the same thing for him, both "rooting" him in the relationship where she's the less slippery one, and also providing that focal point that gets him back to his original identity only she knows. They're really so great for each other in that way and while they have points of disagreement in the relationship too, there's also so many ways that they're just fundamentally good and healthy for each other, each nurturing an area the other struggles with.
That's how I see it too. And maybe another factor is it's also just now becoming something he can access and have something good associated with it. Not even thinking of his past before as a factor, Elizabeth refused to talk about their "other lives" so it would've been just a source of more loneliness. It was only once the pilot happened that talking about their Russian lives became this tender little intimate thing that was just for the two of them and no one else. And it was only once they got through the lies of the old "cover" marriage that they finally were in a place where it could feel completely safe sharing.
Yes! There was a moment or two early on I was worried, but they've been building to something great all along and this episode really tied it together in a great way.
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
The repercussions of that trait for the life he's ended up in are not incidental. The Misha "core self" that he shed like a snakeskin sometime in the middle of his illegals training and then literally left behind by leaving his home country is not just very far away geographically from the Philip life he's been living, it's also chronologically distant from his new life. And while the Philip Jennings identity has been permitted to take in new things and learn and grow and change, the Misha core self hasn't done any of that and been forced to stagnate as a result. It's a little bit like what happens to any immigrant who leaves his home and chooses to live within a new society: with every passing year, he gets further and further away from his old life, until the old place starts to feel strange to him (even if he never fully embraces the new one). But as a result of both Philip/Misha's malleability and his chosen career, this sort of thing is going to have a much, much bigger impact on him than on ordinary immigrants. Because in a way that would feel very real to him, he hasn't been living the life of Misha-who's-been-becoming-American, which is more like what he would have done as an ordinary immigrant--he's been living the life of Philip Jennings, an entirely different person with a different history and different personality traits and different beliefs. In the midst of all that, it would be almost impossible for someone like that not to lose track of his core self.
I definitely do think Elizabeth is a tie back to his Misha core self in many ways, even if she never has "met" him--her very Russianness is a factor in this, as I've mentioned, and also the fact that she's also had to go through the motions of leaving her core self behind but has never done that fully. But even Elizabeth is not going to be able to perform the Herculean task of "reintegrating" Philip with Misha in any fully articulated way, especially if they continue to live the lives they do. I mean, not only is he off playing house with another wife as Clark, the two of them even still call each other Philip and Elizabeth in private, even when they're absolutely certain that no one else is around to hear them. They never, ever speak Russian with each other, either, even as they allow themselves to occasionally dwell briefly on who they were before they became Philip and Elizabeth Jennings. And maybe for Elizabeth that's all just a sop to following orders, nothing more, but for Philip it would be something more significant and something more fracturing in an ongoing way.
Does this make any sense?
-J
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
So it’s like they have to create a new everyday identity that takes pieces from more places. If the marriage is "real" than it's not these two people playing the roles of Mr. and Mrs. Jennings, suburbanites. Of course they've also always interacted as partners as well as spouses, but it's a whole new thing what they're doing now, one that brings more aspects of their spy life into their home life and even more importantly, adds bits of their backgrounds, the most important and first part of that being Elizabeth's rape. Knowing that info puts the whole current woman in a different perspective as does knowing about Gregory.
But your post really makes me see the episode as even more beautifully cohesive in the way it's set up--which I will of course now elaborate on to great length!
Elizabeth is now "learning to feel again" but recovering that part of herself isn't going to resurrect the girl or the feelings of the girl she was at 17. She's been changed by experience and age. It's kind of like you said re: Philip--there's stagnation and she has to learn to do it again. With Philip, I don't think there's a core self who's the guy he was when he was 17 either, but it seems like what he's learning to do (or maybe will start to learn to do—he’s not doing it yet) where Elizabeth is learning to feel is to learn to be somewhat authentic, which he maybe doesn't know how to do anymore either. "Authentic" in this case doesn't mean Russian or Misha, but it does incorporate those things in ways he probably hasn't done in a while, except in certain situations.
That's why I think it was such a big moment when he even says something like "I like the cold." This is a character who is so completely the opposite of consistent Elizabeth. She can be so clear about her motivations and perspective and beliefs. She explains exactly where she's coming from and why as best she understands it. It's got to be intentional that Philip is so the opposite of that, so even his flashback ep says nothing about him. His true motivations sometimes seem even hidden to himself. So the few times he actually expresses a personal preference or hurt with no pragmatic reason seems so important. And this ep just seemed to underline in so many ways that he was accessing something that was very new--like not just the things he was feeling were new but the reasons he was feeling them were new.
To support that idea I go to the larger themes in the ep that came up over and over. There was a big trend in this ep of people trying to understand and claim their identity for no one other than themselves. Paige seeks places to "put it all"-i.e., make sense of all her feelings as a consistent whole, Elizabeth is trying to learn how to feel again, Sandra is doing soul retrieval to find parts of herself that are lost. Sandra wasn't doing it to win Stan back, Elizabeth wasn't doing it to be a good wife, Paige wasn't doing it because of her mother. Really everybody in the ep except those strictly involved in advancing plot (which I'd say Stan, Oleg and even Nina and Arkady mostly were) were wrestling with these questions of fragmented and lost identity and looking for ways to organize their whole selves in different ways—Elizabeth played out some things with Brad, Paige turned to organized religion, Sandra was drawing.
But at the center of the whole dang thing we have Philip NOT doing that. On the contrary, he’s avoiding it. Maybe doesn’t even get it. Granted, he’s not in the best situation to be doing so—he’s very much at work. But it’s more than that. And let’s face it, even when he’s at home he doesn’t express interest in it. Writing this now I actually find myself wondering—has Philip even ever agreed with Elizabeth’s desire that the marriage be “real?” I mean, putting it in those words? The one time I remember him talking about it was at the end of D&H when she asked if it could be real and he said “I don’t know.” We know he loves Elizabeth and wants her to love him, but does he have the same concerns about it not being “real” in the context of the “fake” marriage? It doesn’t seem to bother him. Maybe that’s actually a common misunderstanding of that line. People took it as Philip saying he didn’t know if he and Elizabeth could make this work when he really meant that of course they could, but he didn’t know if anything was real, because he maybe doesn’t know if anything can be real or what that means.
So again, at the center of this whole ep is Philip—in fact, there’s multiple Philip’s and lots of moments set up to show how he’s perceived by different people. (Not that this is limited to Philip in this ep—we also have Stan bemused by Sandra, Elizabeth by Paige, Elizabeth by Brad, Jennifer by Martha etc.) But it seems most intense with Philip. Kate fangirls him and he doesn’t even get why she’s talking about him. Then we’ve got Jennifer and Martha talking about Clark.
Martha specifically brings up how Clark is contradictory. I mean, let’s marvel for a second at the beautiful complexity of the scene, which is like a set of nesting dolls. Martha thinks she knows Clark. Elizabeth, who knows who Clark ‘really’ is shows up as Jennifer. Jennifer and Martha have a conversation where they both at different times claim superior knowledge of Clark—Jennifer as his sister knows how he’s “always been” and how he “is with everyone.” Martha as his wife knows how he is in bed which Jennifer of course “wouldn’t know.” If we stopped there the joke would be that of course Jennifer does know, because she's slept with Clark--the "real" Clark--Philip.
But instead Elizabeth’s thrown for a loop when Martha gives details. Suddenly Elizabeth’s having someone else tell her about her own husband in ways that surprise her. In some ways she’s just as in the dark as Martha!
Then we’ve got Anton who has his own view of Philip as a monster, someone with no humanity. We see that Philip does have humanity, but it’s unclear what Philip thinks about the actual charges here. We know he doesn’t like being cruel, but Anton’s line about “whoever you once were” is obviously chosen to echo the slightly different theme of a core identity/soul.
Most of all we’ve got Yossi who tackles this issue straight on. He continually compares himself to Philip as a spy: Yossi knows where his home is, he goes home for Passover, he knows where he’d want to be buried, he references his mother and his family history, he doesn’t hide who he is. Over and over he tries to draw Philip out about his “real” identity and hits a total brick wall—until, of course, we get this surprising statement from Philip that’s a) the most basic of personal preferences, b) specifically attached to the Soviet Union by context c) specifically tied to his early memories in later context and d) seemingly said more for himself than for Yossi. Sure one could argue that it’s in response to Yossi’s statement about the weather in the USSR, but Philip feels no need to say something similar about Soviet Communism. Plus the way it’s delivered and followed up (by Philip relapsing into his own silent thoughts and non-reaction to Yossi’s further taunts) and Yossi’s own somewhat startled reaction really marks it out as different for me. And that’s even before we add the show’s rare objective (imo) validation that something else is going on here (because with Phil we really need it) with the Russian flashback music. All of which leads up to Philip later offering up a unique memory about childhood.
In light of that, I feel like his “I remember” is really significant. Obviously it’s a rejection and a correction to his earlier “I don’t remember” regarding the exact same thing to Yossi. But in a larger context I feel like it’s not so much just something he can admit only to Elizabeth as his partner but almost the start of something new. Because for years “not remembering” has been his every day state—he’s Philip and Philip doesn’t have that past. But him saying the words now is like...well, it could be just revealing that even the person who avoids his true self actually has one, the end. Or (my preference) it could also be like Elizabeth’s confession to Brad that she’s trying to learn how to feel again, but she fears she’s too old. It’s a tentative step rather than just the “real” answer about who Philip is and what he remembers. Does that make sense?
Because given how clearly Philip seemed to be marked out in this ep as having lost touch with “whoever he once was” or “who he is,” coupled with how clearly he’s marked out as the one person who seems to be not asking himself that question, it seems like it would be more of an ongoing thing rather than Philip “discovering” himself or "revealing" his true self through a simple memory about icicles. It’s like what Philip discovers in the ep isn’t his “real self” but the idea that this could be something he could have—or that other people have that he could be missing. His sword fighting memory is less “this is who I am” than “I found a piece of something and I don’t really know what to do with it.” But he keeps it--with Elizabeth's blessing--and it means something, even as he starts another day as Philip. By sharing it he doesn’t just let it go again.
All of which is like the opposite of what I felt was the idea of Genevieve’s version, because that seemed to be saying that Philip totally knew who he was and had a true self, and he just knew that true self didn’t want to be in the KGB and felt more American. But I think it is in line with what you’re saying, that this goes to the heart of the type of person Philip is and the effect this kind of living would have on him (and why he’s so good at it). He would always have been like this, but this makes it even more extreme. It’s not just that Philip isn’t American because he’s Russian, it’s that any time you say anything too definitive about what Philip is you’re likely wrong.
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
they're neither of them in love with the Philip and Elizabeth that their neighbors know. They're in love with the person they know, who is a spy.
I think this is exactly right. I think they each think of the other as Philip Jennings/Elizabeth Jennings--which explains why they use those names even in private. But as you point out, it's not the same Philip/Elizabeth that everyone else in their American lives knows, it's one that's informed by knowledge of the hard and sometimes even cruel things each of them has done, the training they've each gone through, the ways in which they each think like a spy...and also by their respective pasts, and their mutual knowledge of not just one shared culture but two of them. That's not the same thing as a marriage between Misha and Nadya, but it's not quite a marriage between "Philip Jennings" and "Elizabeth Jennings", either. It's sort of a sum of both of those parts.
Or (my preference) it could also be like Elizabeth’s confession to Brad that she’s trying to learn how to feel again, but she fears she’s too old. It’s a tentative step rather than just the “real” answer about who Philip is and what he remembers. Does that make sense?
It totally makes sense--and in fact, it's in line with what I was already thinking about that bit, it just takes it another step further. I do think it's a real memory, but the fact of him bringing that memory into his current life and his relationship with his wife is hugely significant and a step toward bringing that past part of himself into who he is currently.
It’s not just that Philip isn’t American because he’s Russian, it’s that any time you say anything too definitive about what Philip is you’re likely wrong.
This is exactly right. It's not that there's NOT a core self there, but he's been too many other people since he left Misha behind, seen and experienced and learned too much to ever be him again. He contains multitudes, and all of the multitudes are equally accurate.
-J
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
:)
LOVE THIS!
I really like the way you put this. It's like we're watching both of them put the pieces back together, in one way, except that the pieces aren't the same as they used to be and there's no picture on the box. Like I don't think Philip himself even knows exactly what/who he is and I think thinking about it too long would probably be unnerving for him, which is as you mentioned, a reason Elizabeth would be a huge draw in her personality. She's so sure of who she is. And then the same thing is kind of going on from her end where she's having to figure out how to feel things, and Philip is kind of reassuring in that way. He's never really had a problem feeling and showing emotion, being warm around her and the kids, telling her he loves her. He can be hurt when he's hurt and get past it rather than having to push any feeling down until it explodes like in "Covert War." He's not threatened by the idea of her being "soft" and she doesn't have to hide that side of herself with him. For both of them, it kind of touches on the area that feels safe and secure to them to be reached out to in that way--Elizabeth for that connection to Russia and for the strength of her personality, and Philip for softness and an emotional connection he's always wanted with her.
That's an interesting question, and certainly in the moment it happened, Philip was in a pretty awful place (a little like this one) forced to question everything he thought to be true. Elizabeth betrayed him with the reporting. Irina betrayed him with a lie one way or another. He slipped back into Misha for a night out of having no other safe port, and had just been physically tortured. He definitely was put through hell, and once again that was kind of glossed over with all the focus on Elizabeth and how was *she* affected by it all. I could see it having both meanings, in a way, the deeper level ones you're saying, and the more basic ones because I do think it seems like Elizabeth's primary motivation in asking was for the sake of making the relationship official and defined, where it hadn't been before, rather than that she was necessarily thinking along the same lines he would've been at that point. I need to think about that some more because it's an interesting thought.
And I think this is the real crux of it--less about the sex itself and more the uncomfortable punch in the gut that she might not be on the innermost circle, which of course with Philip, might be something she's always going to feel. And maybe she's okay with never being completely at the level of knowing him *he* is as long as she's closer than any other person, but to think Martha might be getting to see something she's walled off from would be the real injury just as it was when it was revealed in reverse about Elizabeth last season.
Yes, I like the way you put this. He's kind of just as lost as Elizabeth is trying to figure out who she is beyond just "loyal to Moscow."
Love this!
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Ahahah that is a brilliant idea!
The things you said about the Duty and Honor scene is very thought provoking. It's like Philip has been so good at compartmentalising, but when he's not expecting it or lets his guard waver, bits of one compartment seeps into the other and its not necessarily good or bad, just more interesting to watch. Not to say everything was clear cut and unambiguous before, only that his fractured selves and multiple identities are kind of diluting each other. Katiac I like your puzzle metaphor!!
With the 'real or not real' (Omg it sounds like the hunger games now), when Elizabeth says she wants it to be real, are they both in the realisation that it will never be truly be but Elizabeth is content with the 'close enough' and Philip is saying he really doesn't know if anything will ever be real again so he can't promise her that it will be. So it's like Philip is in full realisation that nothing is real, and tries not to deal with it as much, whereas Elizabeth is more stubborn in that even though she it's not real, her reality with Philip is enough for her that she accepts as reality. I think I used to word 'real' in this paragraph 1234927394871 times.
I like what you say about every other character in this episode actively trying to fit the pieces of their identity together, or at least voice their self-confusion, whereas he is avoiding it, or wading through the by himself, at least until the final scene. The more we talk about this episode the more I love it.
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
I have to start bookmarking some of these comments man.
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
-J
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
http://www.etonline.com/awards/135190_Matthew_Rhys_The_Americans_Emmy_Interview/
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
It seems my memory of the exact line was a little inexact, and the real quote is "I tried to allow the moments with Elizabeth be Philip at his most vulnerable -- as close to the real man as we're ever going to see." That amounts to the same thing, though, I think.
-J
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Re: "I like the cold"/"I remember"
Elizabeth and Brad
(It's unclear to me whether her 'I'm ready' we saw in the first episode of this season, set a couple of years into their mission, was her being ready to have a cover-improving child or have sex with Philip or both.)
Doubtless people will tell me if I am wrong, but I think Brad is the first man we've seen who's had sex with Elizabeth dangled in front of him, but not happened... and he doesn't mind!! Yes, he'd like to, but he doesn't push it in any way. He is completely respectful of her wishes.
Yes, there's absolutely an element of her playing him and his weaknesses, but tell me that there isn't going to be part of her that wouldn't like to have a partner like that? (He'd need to be of the right political viewpoint, of course!)
Even Philip, who we've seen backing off (or positively being rejected) when Elizabeth doesn't want to be sexual with him, clearly - to me - resents not being sexual with Elizabeth as much as and in the ways that he'd like. Remember his reactions to her relationship with Gregory?
I think we can see him using that resentment. In the first episode of the series, Philip could have come bursting into the room with Emmett to disrupt the threesome a bit before Elizabeth was fucking Roy, the target, for example. It would still have had the same effect. On Roy, anyway.
Re: Elizabeth and Brad
I didn't get even the slightest hint that Philip resented Elizabeth for not getting the sex he'd like for its own sake. His hurt regarding Gregory seemed very specifically shown to be all about her sharing her feelings with him rather than having sex with the guy. Philip she treated as "a strange man."
Philip was just as respectful as Brad when it came to sex with Elizabeth. I mean, remember Brad had a very different interaction with her. She fooled around with him, then stopped. Then she gave him a hand job and said good-bye.
Philip was assigned to live with her as a married couple and lived with her for years not demanding any sex because with him because with him she could honestly say she didn't want to have sex and there was no reason for her to pretend she did. There was no explanation of trauma like she gave to Brad, it was just: no, don't want to (and there's no reason she was required to give anything more). Then when she decided she was ready for kids she just announced they were having sex now and he didn't get a particular say in that either, even though he didn't look to pleased about it.
So while there's obviously a connection between wanting someone sexually and emotionally, I think Philip's always felt the emotional rejection more than the sexual one. He does resent when she treats him like an intruder and like he's wrong to touch her etc., like in the pilot, but again that's after what seems to be years of a marriage. She seems to be treating him more like an intruder again there because of Timoshev. Brad at best should be compared to the Philip she met in Moscow and he's not any more demanding than Brad is.
I don't know what he'd get out of holding out on bursting in on the threesome. I don't know how much Emmett and Philip knew about exactly what positions everybody was in by that point. Philip might have been holding out on Leanne instead of Elizabeth, and he wouldn't have wanted to come in too soon.
Re: Elizabeth and Brad
They're often ambiguous about things or don't spell them completely out, which is kind of nice since it leaves multiple interpretations open. In this case, I lean towards it being both the first time for sex and attempted pregnancy simply because if they'd been having sex before, I don't think there'd be any reason for it to be awkward when she takes off her blouse and is there in her bra. The scene in the pilot where he's kissing her neck and she's not particularly surprised by it seems to indicate they had a sexual relationship outside of just having Henry and Paige, and I think eventually the weirdness would've worn off and it would've just been a thing she resents but has to do as "Elizabeth Jennings." But in that scene, there seems to still be awkwardness between them.
I would say the first man in her life like that was Philip. He was extremely respectful of her wishes in the hotel flashback in the pilot and from the two years after that he waited until she said "I'm ready," it's clear he didn't push in any way. Brad seems like a nice guy, but their relationship lasted what, a week or two at most and she did give him a hand job. Philip was pretty awesome in the respectfulness shown, it was just that Elizabeth because of the rape was always (no matter who they'd paired her with, even if it had been Gregory) going to reject a man "forced" on her sexually by order of the Center.
But... that's exactly what she does have in Philip.
I think Philip has been hugely non-resentful considering everything that's happened. And this doesn't mean he doesn't have justifiable resentments about some things--Elizabeth brings some problems to the table in a relationship just like he does--but considering the breadth of what he's been able to accept and deal with (a lengthy affair that was both sexual and emotional, reporting on him, the separation, everything being "her way", getting past feeling rejected and like an intruder in his own house and having ALL of that bear down on him for 15 years), I think Philip has really proven his level of devotion to her. That's a LOT to deal with, and even if some of it is due to their circumstances and some of it due to the emotional damage of the rape, we've seen him accept and find a way to live with things in a way Elizabeth just hasn't done or had to do in return for him. While I appreciate Brad was a nice guy, I just can't compare him not being pushy about sex after a week or two (not everyone jumps right into bed anyway!) of dating with Philip having bent over backwards to be understanding for decades.