Episode discussion post: "Yousaf"
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theamericansAired:
30 April 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
4 May 2014 in Israel
17 May 2014 in the UK
This is a discussion post for episode 210 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 ten.)
Original promo trailer
Episode recaps
From the Wall Street Journal
From the Washington Post
From the AV Club
From Hitfix
From the Huffington Post
From Collider
From IGN
From Sound on Sight
From Vulture
From Screenrant
From GAMbIT Magazine
From showratings.tv
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Unreality Primetime (UK)
30 April 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
4 May 2014 in Israel
17 May 2014 in the UK
This is a discussion post for episode 210 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 ten.)
Original promo trailer
Episode recaps
From the Wall Street Journal
From the Washington Post
From the AV Club
From Hitfix
From the Huffington Post
From Collider
From IGN
From Sound on Sight
From Vulture
From Screenrant
From GAMbIT Magazine
From showratings.tv
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Unreality Primetime (UK)
Katia's random thoughts
Date: 2014-05-01 03:18 am (UTC)The Paige stuff is great. Love Philip feeling bad and trying to fix it, but then not necessarily having the right impulse in doing it. He's parenting out of guilt. It's nice to see Elizabeth being the steadier one at times and him not the perfect parent. Not that either of them are perfect, or bad parents, but I like those humanizing touches in contrast to the utter competence in spy work.
The whole Leggo my eggo and immediately giving up because you found out Elizabeth made them could really get you in a lot of trouble there, Philip...
Love the Young Pioneer stuff with Nina and the parallel with the summer camp with Paige (and amusingly it touched on some of the same notes as my chapter in progress, which is always a hoot). I really like what they're doing with Oleg and Nina. I hope they don't kill either of them off. Oleg actually intrigues me and though I never really am sure about Nina's motivations, I'm always interested.
Philip and Elizabeth switched sides of the bed. Does anyone really do that?
Love that Elizabeth would rather take her chances with drinking and drugs than church.
Annelise was a lot less annoying the second time. Just like with Charles Duluth it did a better job of filling out her character beyond just "likes sex and Scott Berkmann."
Paige is about to get herself in big trouble... yikes...
Was never expecting Larrick to go after George, or Stan to interview Jared. Oh the possibilities for where that will go.
Elizabeth looks so unintimidating walking up to a pool.
What kind of pill was that she took? A hold your breath longer pill? There seemed to be some sort of teasing to it, but it flew right over my head...
Kinda have to wonder why Annelise would ever agree to go along with it. Loved Philip admitting the pseudo-truth of how he never liked seeing Elizabeth have to do it, which seemed a likely motivation all along, and tied nicely back to the whole "you think this is easy for me?" He may not acknowledge it in the moment, but he's listening.
Philip managed to go an episode without killing anyone!
Ha, she is a secret smoker.
Oh wow, Larrick is close. Can't wait to see where this goes.
Love the little "They'll smell it" because it's just so sweetly delivered, as is the way she promptly inhales again in response. They have such a great easiness to them that just flows.
Re: Katia's random thoughts
Date: 2014-05-01 04:01 am (UTC)I thought of it again in the Nina/Oleg scene, the way the two of them can talk about their pasts that made them who they are in ways that Elizabeth and Philip can't, and it can be important. And then of course, yeah, the parallel to the scene with Paige's camp. I can't figure out if Paige is just trying to be secretive about the Christian focus, if she herself tries to ignore it because she's not into that part, or if she's really clueless enough to miss that the whole camp is about being Christian rather than teaching good values.
Was it to protect her against the stuff she sprayed?
Also loved the subtle way Elizabeth was still being careful of Philip's state in this ep the way he was to her earlier in the season. She gets why he doesn't want her to do the job and allows it.
Everybody has secrets and that's okay!
They did?! Because nobody has ever done that. It is not done. A cemetery worker told me married couples always got graves based on their side of the bed too.
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Date: 2014-05-01 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-01 06:50 pm (UTC)QR's Rambliew
Date: 2014-05-01 04:07 am (UTC)- I think Elizabeth's Soviet parenting style is going to cause problems between Philip and Elizabeth down the road. He flew off the handle at her and that's legit not cool. His apologizing to her wouldn't mean it was all right for her to not check in before going "Hey, gonna blow $600 nao kthx! ^_^ "
- Yeah even Philip's like WAT.
- But aww! ALL THE FEELS at that hug scene! Philip really needed that.
- WHOA THAT'S KINDA DARING. Don't let Paige see you two. *snerk*
- OMINOUS LARRICK IS OMINOUS: "There are some things in life you can only handle yourself".
- HA! They must be watching this here comm because they have, in addition to transliterating Keidrich's name properly, now also transliterated Annet's :)
- And we get our first look at the "back end" of the codes that P & E exchange with The Center. :)
- HAAAAAA @ Leggo my Eggo! Damn, I'd forgotten that bit of 80s trivia.
- Henry is back in the groove with the 'rents, it looks like, but Paige, less so.
- Ah, the Centre is pleased with P & E and the pics are gonna get leaked.
- "The important thing is, you're safe." And P&E are looking at each other like ... IDK, the best way to put it is they're all like "LOL PLZ STAHP AMUSING US" in the expressions on their faces.
I get the distinct feeling that as much as they didn't like Claudia, they at least respected her enough to take praise from her for what it was, rather than acting patronizingly, as they do towards Kate.
- SPY TIME. ISI is meeting with the CIA. The KGB wants an inside pipeline to finding out where arms shipments to Mujahedeen are going. This is bread and butter for P&E. :P
- HA FUCK YEAH ARKADY SAYS HELLO TO GAAD AGAIN. "Hey brah, I'm still cool. Remember me?" Gaad's all like "Yep I'm totes cool too, brah."
- THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD.
- "I'd give you a tour, but I'm due back at work". OMFG DED THAT WAS SUCH AN AWESOMELY FUNNY ONE-LINER.
- That whole scene between the two spymasters was brilliant as hell. You actually get the vibe that under other circumstances, they might've been friends. But even so there's a respect between them, and that will inform the future doings of the FBI and the KGB.
- Elizabeth meets Yousaf! At first I thought she was Annelise the blondie. And she totes bends over right in front of him and shows him that ass. Dude's gone, hook, line and sinker - calling it now.
- "I think we should use Annelise." Elizabeth's all like "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?"
- "When was the last time you spoke to her?" "Six weeks ago." What'd you say to her, Phil? "Jeg elske-- wrong language" ? :P
- HEY STAN. LOOKIN' SRS AT THE BIG BOARD.
- Gaad's back and he is reasonably happy to see Stan. As opposed to being all "HEY FUCK YOU YOU GOT ME INTO THIS PILE OF DEEP SHIT I HAD TO THREATEN THE REZIDENT OVER."
- And now Stan is analyzing connections! And Gaad gets interested in the briefcase! DUN DUN DUN.
- NGL Annelise is fucking hot.
- And that wasn't too hard, getting her to go to the shindig. For all her protesting about trying to actually stay married, she certainly falls off the wagon easily. Good for Philip, bad for Mr. Undersecretary.
- Paige and Philip in the kitchen! ANXIOUS VIBES. And yep, Paige wants to go to a Christian camp. "I know it's not your thing, But it's not all preachy and everything. It's just -- it's normal. Swimming and hiking, and they teach you teamwork and social values."
I wonder if Philip is remarking on the irony of her wanting to go on the equivalent of a Komsomol trip.
But three months :O Whoa. On the one hand it'll give Paige some experience in being independent in a controlled setting. On the other, it's a long time to be away from the 'rents when you're not even out of high school yet.
- Oleg and Nina! I wonder why he thinks he can say "he couldn't wait to get out", considering how that could look to the KGB.
- HAAAAA Nina snarks at him!
- Oleg doesn't answer her directly about his motives but I think it's implied that he does want to try and show he's more than just a daddy's boy.
Unfortunately, calling up dear old dad to get some security clearances doesn't really help.
- Oleg's thoughts about stealth technology are very reflective of the mood of the 1980s, I think. Knowing what we know now, Brezhnev and Andropov were actually - I don't want to say frightened, necessarily, but I think a better word is full of trepidation, about whether or not Reagan would force a confrontation that might plunge the USSR into another war.
- BWHAHAAHHAHA OMFG NINA'S SNARKING. She cracks me up so hard in this scene.
- "I'm an idealist", MY ASS. You and your subversive American music just want the goodies you can snag stateside, so let's not strain credibility too hard, Oleg Igorevich.
- Young Pioneer! Nina was one. And it's rather oddly strange for Oleg to mention holidaying in the Crimea given current world affairs, but from the '50s to the '80s it was apparently a rather nice holiday spot for Soviets who had a little money and could afford to travel.
- Meanwhile, Nina's camp was in Camp Bumfuck, Nowhere, USSR. :P
- Hm. an interesting motif in this series for the Soviets is how Oleg is such an odd contrast to Philip, Elizabeth, Nina and Arkady. They all grew up with very little and in some cases under harsh conditions. And now here they are in important jobs serving their country in ways only the most ideologically dedicated are expected to thrive.
And then here's Oleg, son of a guy who worked the nomenklatura system and being a bit of an annoyance his first few months in the Rezidentura.
- I wonder why Nina has self-doubts about her capabilities to work under the kind of pressure she's facing.
- P & E argue over Paige's religious camp thing! She doesn't seem to want to consider Philip's relatively more nuanced strategy of giving her a little latitude to see if she really wants to be immersed in a religious faith 24/7, and the fact that she switches subjects to Annelise so quickly is telling.
- Holy cleavage, Annelise. :O
- Philip's not totally crazy about the Yousaf mission and says so!
- Kate finally bridles at the way Philip patronizes her a bit.
- Hmm! What's Larrick doing pretending to be a cop and with a fake warrant for a phone number?
- And now the KGB wants P & E to bump off Javid. GUYS I KNOW YOU'RE ANXIOUS BUT THIS DOES NOT SEEM VERY SMART. What if the ISI thinks Yousaf happens to be a little too eager for his boss's job?
- Elizabeth's confidence in laying out the plan seems to border a bit on arrogance. Does she think thing won't go pear-shaped? Because there's always that possibility. :O
- Philip is still not sure about Annelise.
- And now Nina and Stan. I've already said my thoughts on how not-cool this whole thing is so I won't beat a dead horse.
But the interesting thing here is that Stan's on the warpath and he's actually being the intelligence master that his job requires, and Nina's now lying to his face.
And now Stan needs a sympathetic person to talk to about his marital troubles.
- I like Paige's happy-face garbage can. :D
- OH HOLY SHITBALLS WTF? Paige was practicing forging her mom's signature :O
... and walks into the room :O
Elizabeth snarks about the forgery, and Paige is all like YOU WENT THROUGH MY GARBAGE?
C'mon, Paige, it's kind of hard to expect privacy when YOUR MOM EMPTIES YOUR GARBAGE FOR YOU. Use some matches and burn your incriminating documents, Paige!
And now world war three breaks out in the Jennings house :O
(PS. Am surprised Paige didn't get an ass-tanning over the "bullshit" usage)
- That said, she raises a very salient point: Henry's also done wrong, and it's been overlooked, while Paige has, nominally, not yet committed what would be a wrong (forging her mother's signature over an application, because she never sent it in) but because of the religion aspect, is being dumped on.
- Creepy Larrick is creepy! :O
- Is Elizabeth taking The Pill, or an antidote to a poison? :O I suspect the latter, given the reference to a heart attack.
- Ah, that's why Creepy Larrick is being Creepy. He wants to find the guy who handles all the coded messages for P & E! :O
- Hello, Jared! Meet Stan Beeman, benevolent inquisitor.
"We all have secrets, right?" Ironic echo there.
- "I believe I can carry on". XD *sporfle*
- And now Elizabeth is in the hizzouse! Rock 'em sock 'em, lady.
- The intercutting between the sex scene and the murder is really an interesting juxtaposition.
- And Annelise delivers with the honey trap! Unfortunately, she does not take well to having been one and makes that known to Philip! :O
- Hmm! "It is not something I take lightly - ever." Is he talking about Elizabeth? I wonder about that, as other commenters have noted how Philip and Elizabeth mix truths with lies in their speeches to others but for different reasons and I wonder what Philip's is here. Is he just manipulating Annelise or does he actually get to say what he wants to say, just not to Elizabeth?
- He actually legit looks kind of sniffly here.
- OH CRAP LARRICK HAS KATE'S HOME NUMBER. :O
- Interesting symmetry between Annelise smoking after sex and Elizabeth smoking after an assassination, especially as both were intercut so the "climax" scenes looked similar.
And cut to black as P&E quietly stand in the kitchen.
Re: QR's Rambliew
Date: 2014-05-02 04:29 am (UTC)While watching thoughts
Date: 2014-05-01 11:18 am (UTC).. and there he is sitting in the kitchen in the middle of the night. Elizabeth is being sympathetic, and disagreeing in a nice way, isn't she? Ah, she's using sex.
(Oh, I forgot to say last week that isn't it interesting that they don't hit the kids? You can bet that their parents hit them. What was the attitude to hitting children at this point in the US? Cynical Ian thinks that it's just to avoid them looking nasty to 2014 eyes.)
Ha, "Oxford educated, former professional cricket, dated European women" describes Imran Khan, and he looks a lot more handsome than this one!
"He wanted to be a doctor." "He should have been a doctor." Ow.
Ha at Philip failing to conceal that he has an agenda beyond the best outcome for the mission.
Imran Khan did have women throwing themselves at him in hotel bars.
"I'm here serving my country..." well not 'here', 'here', but...
This is why they showed the phone service at the start - Larrick is going to turn up there.
Nina and Stan - the reflection of Philip and Elizabeth earlier is deliberate.
If you're going to practice forging someone's signature, don't put it in the bin they empty...
Ha, I was right. Hmm, an illegal being the phone service? Seems a bit of a waste of one. Good self-destruct set up though.
Where would have a significant (up to 10' deep!) pool but no lifeguard?
Analise doesn't seem very happy after that encounter, despite being fine about going into it.
Given the self-destruct was so good, why wasn't there a 'we've been compromised' signal part of it?
We haven't seen Elizabeth smoke like that in a long while. And Philip's coming back 'down' too. What's his last line? 'Can you smell it?'
Hmm, a good episode rather than a great one, I think.
Last line
Date: 2014-05-01 11:24 am (UTC)Spanking
Date: 2014-05-01 11:31 am (UTC)I think it was very commonplace still to spank at that point. I find it odd that we've never seen them do it, although I'm sure there were some families who didn't. My guess is it's like you're saying... in the 80's it was normal. In 2014, it's no longer really accepted in the same broad way.
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Date: 2014-05-01 01:31 pm (UTC)Corporal punishment was generally considered acceptable even up to the mid-1980s. We still underappreciate how much Reagan's entrance into the White House heralded a resurgence of social attitudes that were more acceptable in the 1950s - a quasi-puritanical, back-to-basics worldview that pooh-poohed a lot of social advances made during the 1960s and 1970s, but one quick assessment of how sea the sea change was is that Playboy seriously considered shutting down by the mid 1980s due to a massive loss of subscribers.
Some hotel pools I've been at when I was a kid did not have a lifeguard.
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Date: 2014-05-01 04:12 pm (UTC)Using it?
I'm Paige's age and speaking for myself, it meant child abuse. I'm sure there were people then as always who might have certain physical things they would do, but it never came up in my house--and my parents were older. I don't think it's at all anachronistic or just an attempt to make them seem okay in 2014.
"They'll smell it" meaning the kids.
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From:Alison’s First Watch Thoughts
Date: 2014-05-01 03:02 pm (UTC)• The beautiful understatement of the opening and closing scenes were so layered with their inherent closeness and how comfortable they really are with each other after so many years of marriage. I actively recognised it as the first time they’ve had sex on-screen since BTRD. I remember in our discussion of BTRD many of us were hoping and expecting them to discuss or reference what happened. Also, I really do love their signature pattern of “hair stroke, long lingering look, kiss, another look, continuing kissing,” like they’re soaking each other up but also checking how the other one’s doing. Wonder if that’s something Matt and Keri came up with. TBH now I’m just reminiscing about the brilliance of the Pilot and the drums of “In the Air Tonight.” I still get a flood of emotions whenever that song comes on shuffle. That song used to be associated in my mind with the gorilla ad for Cadbury.
• Speaking of music, how’d y’all find the new Pete Townsend song? The first time I watched, I thought it went well, but upon rewatch, it was kinda jarring, at least with the first part of the sex scene. Did anybody else think the directing was a bit strange when Elizabeth walks to the pool with all the lower-body shots, not in a bad way, but it wasn’t tradition shot making right? I do love scenes edited like that with the short cuts between each other, always work well. Two gruesome unenjoyable jobs for the sake of the cause.
• I’m particularly impressed how well they reinforced the message that all of them are sexual abuse survivors and sometimes with so many honeypots, you can overlook that fact but they’ve really made sure the audience understands this season how their sexual experiences have impacted them. I did feel really sorry for Annelise, with the camera staying on her face. Philip’s reflexes are just too quick for her.
• I too loved the parallels between Church Camp and Nina’s Young Pioneers. This idea of taking them when they’re young and indoctrinating them with certain beliefs, preying on the susceptibility of young minds. To be honest, one of the most curious things I find is how not disenfranchised and how disenchanted they are with their cause. How P+E when considering how the Church is taking advantage of Paige, don’t really seem to have much internal doubt on what they’re fighting for. Whereas you hear stories of war, and most soldiers have forgotten about that initial patriotism or cause of war and instead are just fighting for the comrade on the battlefield beside them. P+E, despite the death and destruction they’ve seen and how scarred they are in their soul, don’t seem to have gotten to that stage at all, in fact their resolve is strengthened in many ways.
• Oh Stan man! Telling your mistress you’re sad because your wife is having an affair. This is the first time I’ve thought of Stan as particularly pathetic :(
• [Side note]: Summer camps are for 3 months? I don’t think we even have summer camps in Australia, I’ve never heard of anyone being on camp for more than a month at most. Are these summer camps in the US really popular? I know The Parent Trap was set in a summer camp and everyone always references them but wow a whole three months.
Re: Alison’s First Watch Thoughts
Date: 2014-05-01 04:27 pm (UTC)I always think exactly the same thing. It's definitely intentional. I love how it has a double meaning of the way they check in with each other like partners and also it almost seems like they're reminding themselves that this is a truthful encounter.
I originally thought Elizabeth was exaggerating until Paige seemed to back her up on the date because...no. Summer camp is not three months. It's two months--July and August--if we assume that as a CIT Paige would be there the whole time. Summer camps are pretty common in the US--I went for one month, some kids went for 6 weeks and the longest you could go was all 2 months. But I have never heard of three months. If nothing else, school usually ends towards the end of June. Summer vacation is not three months. How could anyone expect kids in elementary school to even be out of school by June?
So yeah, I don't know why they put in something so strange. After the $600.00 it almost seems like they're establishing a pattern of this church being curiously and unprofessionally greedy and entitled when it comes to children.
Re: Alison’s First Watch Thoughts
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Date: 2014-05-01 04:50 pm (UTC)If my kid wanted to go to a three-month camp, especially if it was run by a religious organization, I would be concerned about indoctrination. I think Elizabeth was right to deny this for Paige. Two weeks might be OK. Three months is out of the question.
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Date: 2014-05-01 05:46 pm (UTC)The opening scene was like shipping catnip. I don't really feel shippy about this show most of the time, but now and then they do a scene between Elizabeth and Philip that hits every shipper nerve I have. Which still impresses me given that they're a married couple.
I also thought it was really nice -- and nicely understated -- that they had these mutual moments where one of them tries to spare the other an unpleasant task. It was probably more needed for Philip, and not having him have to kill again so shortly after that last mission, but I still liked the symmetry (and that it went without comment in both cases, though they both knew what the other one was doing).
I'm ambivalent about the scene where Philip comforts Annalies post-assignment, and whether it helps him that it wasn't Elizabeth going on the mission or whether that was a case of him wondering if that's what it's like for Elizabeth on the inside only she doesn't show it, which clearly wouldn't help.
I'm very much over the gloomy violins, I have to say. I was wondering last week if the show was getting too relentlessly dour for me, but this week the balance worked for me again. However, I find the slit-your-wrists music so OTT by now that I'm starting to have a sarcastic reaction to them...
Gloomy violins
Date: 2014-05-01 09:38 pm (UTC)I have to say, I don't even notice them consciously. Weren't you all over the music on Borgen too? :)
-J
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Date: 2014-05-01 07:21 pm (UTC)That Elizabeth/Philip scene at the beginning... goddamn. I love that she literally gets him to take off the black and reveal the white underneath, before comforting him. And the way we follow him as he's looking up at her.... that was where I went, oh, shit, he's investing her with a whole lot of metaphorical baggage right now. It was practically a Madonna-and-child moment. I wasn't at all surprised when he took her off the mission later, because of course: he wants to protect her, to keep HER away from the bad things in their lives too. Which is so understandable and so doomed to failure (especially since it doesn't seem they've actually talked about his breakdown last episode) and gaaaah.
I loved his little "hey counsellor" moment with Paige, because I really felt like that almost WAS an apology, and that Paige understood it as such.
(Also, does anyone else think Philip's doing the thing where you have a horrible day where everything's awful, and then you sleep and the next day is better, so in comparison it seems AMAZING and you convince yourself it's all sorted and the badness is in the past... only to realise that actually, despite that "omg it's so much better" feeling, the stuff is still there to be dealt with? Or perhaps that's just me.)
I love that Gaad figured out the briefcase and what it meant! that's why they pay him the big bucks.
Stan telling Nina about Sandra just made me feel bad for him. (Dear Stan, dude, do you even realise how deeply screwed you are? I really don't think you do.) I think Stan is very, very close to falling over some stuff that he is not equipped for, and I don't even know what to do because gaaaah.
I was THRILLED we got Nina backstory! NINA DARLING GIRL OH HONEY. I can just imagine her with her hair all plaited and massive big eyes, being all proud of her badge. And I love the comment that being able to be anything is what she's afraid of. I think that's really telling. It reminded me of the way the show deals with any skill, like Philip's ability to "be" his characters: it's a double-edged sword. There is no power that doesn't have a cost, a difficulty, associated with its use. Power always, always works both ways in The Americans.
I...don't know what I think about the summer camp thing except that Americans always seemed to get ridiculously long summer holidays and I would be concerned about letting my kid go off with an organisation that let her give them all her money too, even if it really is just a fun kid's camping adventure thing.
And omg the Larrick stuff, I have NO clue what I think is going to happen with that except that he's a scary, scary guy and it can't be anything good. COME ON KATE, WE SHARE AN ENGLISH NAME, PLS TO BE GETTING ON THE BALL NOW.
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Date: 2014-05-01 07:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, I thought that was about as close to one as she'd get. Hopefully Elizabeth slamming the gates shut on that won't screw things up between them down the road (especially with her ranting at Philip about how "she walks all over him", etc.)
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From:Young Pioneers
Date: 2014-05-01 08:15 pm (UTC)I didn't hate the episode overall, and I promise that I will have some good things to say about the rest upon rewatch, but that complete clunker of a scene is what stuck in my mind overnight, so I had to get this out. They should have just cut it--it wasn't even necessary. And honestly, I'm completely bewildered by the fact that the actor who plays Oleg didn't get them to fix the problems with it--there's no way he doesn't know this stuff himself (the actor who plays Nina may be young enough that she didn't know better, but the actor who plays Oleg isn't).
And on that grumpy note, onward to the rewatch! :)
-J
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From:Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
Date: 2014-05-01 09:20 pm (UTC)It was interesting that the most narrative-propelling scenes weren't the Philip and Elizabeth ones this episode, but the ones with Stan and/or Gaad on the one hand, and the ones with Larrick on the other. I'm delighted that the FBI are finally on the trail of the illegals (though reassured that they're not our illegals), and freaked out by how close Larrick came to them in this episode (that was Kate's home, oh my god--and also, man, is he ruthless!). It's interesting that both the Stan-Gaad team and Larrick are basically using radically different methods to do precisely the same work here--tracking down KGB illegals on U.S. soil--and they each have no idea the other is out there. They kind of have to connect at some point, right?
On the specifics: I loved the scene with Arkady and Gaad in the snow, and want so much more of those two in scenes together in the future. :) I also adored the scene with Stan and Gaad finding the secret compartment in the briefcase--yay competence, and yay for the two of them being a team again! I'm not sure that Philip and Elizabeth's cover could be overtly threatened if the FBI knows about a couple of illegals who are already dead (especially since the existence of illegals isn't exactly news to them), but the fact that the FBI have access to so many of their belongings and so many insights into their life can't be a good development for the KGB side overall. And Stan with Jared, oh my god. The actor who plays Jared is just so good, isn't he? It's not clear to me whether Stan is probing about the "have you seen these two people" bit because he thinks the couple in the sketches were Emmett and Leanne, or because he thought Emmett and Leanne knew them, though--anybody have any thoughts on that?
By contrast, Philip and Elizabeth's mission seemed kind of spy-story-of-the-week, to the point where there's not a whole lot to say about it. One little observation: the person I watched with and I both noticed that Philip was trying to make sure Elizabeth didn't have to have sex with anyone for a mission and Elizabeth was trying to make sure Philip didn't have to kill anyone for a mission, which was some nice narrative symmetry (although I'm really not convinced those two actions are equally difficult for them respectively, so the symmetry ends on the narrative level, I think). Also: I loved seeing the continuity with Anneliese, but that was an early casting spoiler, so I wasn't surprised by it. Is it going to be an issue that Anneliese saw Philip half out of his Scott disguise at the end, though? That can't have been intentional on his part.
I'll comment on the Paige-Philip-Elizabeth/Christian camp plotline and the shippy opening scene in the already existing threads about those.
-J
Larrick and Stan have to connect at some point
Date: 2014-05-01 10:34 pm (UTC)Probably as the season end cliffhanger, cutting at the sound of the shot so that it's unclear who fired at who and with what effect.
Re: Larrick and Stan have to connect at some point
From:Showing Jared the sketches
From:Re: Showing Jared the sketches
From:Re: Showing Jared the sketches
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Scott disguise?
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Scott and Clark disguises
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Arkady and his agents
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From:Re: Jae's other thoughts upon second viewing
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2014-05-03 01:48 pm (UTC) - ExpandScott's glasses
From:Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
Date: 2014-05-02 01:37 am (UTC)* Elizabeth says Paige will be fine. The internet disagrees—emotional abuse! (I haven’t seen that for this ep, but it seems to usually be the consensus.)
* Arkady just pops up everywhere now. I love it.
* “He could light up a room” is so Gaad.
* As was noted above, love that Elizabeth is sparing Philip the killing just as Philip is trying to spare her the honeypot. Though again as was said, Philip needs the break and Elizabeth’s okay with it. She’s really giving it to him here.
* I love how Stan’s made Oleg much more powerful than he actually is. Part of it is of course the way he’s blackmailing Stan and threatening Nina, but it plays as if Stan knows he’s in a love triangle.
* Good to have you back, Gaad. I like how Stan’s always first a cop and Gaad brings his intelligence background to the table.
* I love how Anneleise is yet another example of how people constantly play other people. Last season she was a big nutcase wanting to run away with Scott even knowing it wasn’t real. This year a lot of reviews seemed to take her at her word that she and her husband were trying to make things work but to me it still seems like she’s playing some angle with Scott. Why meet with him at all if you think he’s calling you for sex? Or agree to sleep with Yousef? I feel honestly like a lot of what goes on with her in this ep is a variation on the romantic fantasy she was playing out before. I don’t mean she’s delusional, just that she’s still driven by the same needs.
* Philip so much more domestic this season. Now he’s shopping for groceries and putting them away.
* Philip’s eager spin when Paige asks to speak with him is great.
* I love how Philip can’t actually say “Is this from church?” without adding an ominous note to his voice.
* This ep was apparently written by the camp-impaired. Not only do they get Young Pioneers wrong, they think American summer camps are three months and start on June 5th when every elementary school I knew at that time was still in session. Is it a camp strictly for the homeschooled?
* Honestly, I just don’t get how Paige could stand spending 3 months at this place if she’s not totally Christian. It’s incredibly central to everything at a place like that. All those teenagers would be sitting around talking about Christianity all the time.
* I love Oleg in this ep with his poor-little-rich-boy in Crimea stories. I’m still trying to fanwank this scene. Oleg does at least already know everything she’s telling him about, and his first answer is as if she asked him strictly about the camp rather than what she actually says, if he was ever a YP. I can at least try to imagine it’s just a clunky case of them trying to exposition for the audience by having the characters have an “as you know, Bob” conversation.
* I do still in general like how Oleg and Nina can talk about who they are by talking about their childhoods while the Jennings are still so timid about that if they do it at all.
* Isn’t Philip on the same side of the bed he was in in the pilot when they talk about the rape? Yet I remember him letting Elizabeth sleep in that ep last season and I think she was on this side. I’m obsessed with the bed switching!
* I love Scott’s little signal to Anneleise to shut up. His eyes look a little weird in those contacts.
* Kate asks for respect and then reminds Philip that she actually is kind of a dolt. The woman who cries telling Philip about the sub disaster of course also scolds him by saying that if missions go pear-shaped she’s the one who suffers. It’s like when Elizabeth said to Claudia “It looks like your job is dangerous too!” because she has to fill out forms.
* The Centre doesn’t want to let this one go. As opposed to all the other missions the Center has let go when it seemed so impossible for Philip and Elizabeth.
* Love how Elizabeth repeats Philip’s “It’s the best move.”
* Nina’s hair is so 80s in this scene with Stan.
* I like how the show gives us basically two ways for the news about Stan’s discovery to get out. He tells Nina and he talks about it with the bug present.
* Heh. Stan says Oleg won’t have time to buckle his pants and we earlier saw him taking his time buckling his pants.
* Stan’s announcement about Sandra is so hilarious. He should really be telling this to Philip rather than Nina.
* The fact that Paige was thinking of forging a permission slip does make it seem like this isn’t about being a good person by her own standards. That said, it was a stupid plan anyway. It’s not like if you forge your mother’s signature on a permission slip you’re any closer to being allowed to go to camp. Of course your mother can stop you going to summer camp, Paige, that’s silly.
* Elizabeth spoke to Pastor Tim. Surprisingly, this is the least threatening convo he’s had with one of Paige’s parents!
* Because on this show the antagonist isn’t a villain, it’s a nice, if obvious, jab at army protocol that the whole reason this super competent badass has been compromised is because of homophobia.
* I love Elizabeth’s speech to Philip about getting walked all over. Not that I necessarily agree with her, I just see a battle over Dad for Elizabeth and Paige.
* What’s his face is great when he presses that button to destroy the phones.
* Jared is great. Such great casting.
* This is another one of those scenes that are on the nose, but only because the situation makes it impossible not to be. We are all spies, Jared! Everyone has secrets and that’s part of being an adult!
* This, btw, is one of the things that kind of interests me about Paige. As an adolescent she tends to be in between wanting to be an adult but wanting the security of childhood. Like when she wants to know what’s going on she says she just wants to know, like as an adult she’s entitled to know what’s going on in her house. But otoh she’s assuming she’d be able to handle whatever is going on because she’s mature. It’s the same thing as last week that Elizabeth was saying about adulthood, and that I think Philip unintentionally showed her about adulthood, that you take the good with the bad when you’re on that level.
* I can’t help but connect it, maybe wrongly, to her preferring to be in church since she’s seeing her parent as so flawed and also, to put it bluntly, really earthy and adult. The first successful investigation she had, when she actually did just find out what was going on, her parents were having sex and she couldn’t watch her mom eat bacon.
* See, getting back to what I thought about Anneleise, while she in part lives out the spy fantasy and then discovers it makes her feel terrible in some way, I also feel like part of her expected/hoped that Scott would come running in to rescue her, that realizing that she really isn’t the important thing to him is the biggest hurt.
* The mirroring of positioning between the two “couples” in the assassination/sex scene is nice.
* No peepholes in hotel doors in the 80s? Wow.
* I mentioned somewhere last week how annoying it was how often I saw people completely genderize Philip and Elizabeth’s jobs, saying that she did the honeytrapping and he did the killing, when they obviously both do both and in fact we’ve even seen Philip doing more sex. What makes me think of it now is that there’s obvious parallels between Elizabeth and Anneleise here, about how Philip is really talking about his feelings about Elizabeth doing this and also substituting Elizabeth with Anneleise on the job. But Philip himself has also been tricked out...to Anneleise. So even though he himself seems to not be consciously thinking it, he’s not the protector of sex workers here, and his apologies to Anneleise are more about him knowing how she feels than just an apology from a pimp, surely. I think it’s the play Damages, maybe, that says that damaged people are the most dangerous because they’re damaged themselves so don’t see why other people shouldn’t be too.
* The fact that this is yet another scene where Philip’s looking in the mirror does underline that, though. The blocking is also a callback to the earlier ep where Elizabeth is putting the cream on her bullet wound and Philip comes up behind her.
* Kate looks as if she assumes wrong numbers are just wrong numbers. Again, can’t help but feel like this is one of those ways where her lower level of spycraft would be a contrast to the Jennings, who would check to see where the call came from.
* I love how Philip looks like an intruder assassin even when walking into his own house, slowly materializing out of the dark.
* Elizabeth sucking on that cigarette is adorable. One more little secret they’ll keep between themselves.
Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
Date: 2014-05-02 02:31 am (UTC)That's actually a good food for thought question! Homeschooling, ISTR, wasn't a huge thing in the 1970s, I think because at the time "Unschooling" was seen as a thing championed by the Left as a reaction to what they saw as a dogmatic and stifling educational system teaching rote learning.
But I do know that by the 1980s there was a right-wing backlash against the successful introduction of teaching concepts that were seen as airy-fairy and illogical among conservative families and organizations. One vivid example I remember from my childhood was people dumping all over "New Math" as not actually teaching even basics of addition and subtraction, or people pooh-poohing "look-and-say" in favor of Phonics.
So it could be that the church in Paige's area is an early responder to the rise of the Religious Right and a homeschooling trend, using summer camps as a way to (a) take kids off parental hands for a while and (b) further the indoctrination. (EDIT: I just Googled and apparently Virginia was an early hotbed of home-schooling becaise of Amish communities wanting to educate their children at home)
Still, three months does kind of make me wonder if there wasn't a research failure somewhere. I tried handwaving it, but even so you can only do so much within the broad mainstream guidelines of the non-homeschooling system.
* The mirroring of positioning between the two “couples” in the assassination/sex scene is nice.
I caught that symmetry too. Well-crafted intercutting there.
* Nina’s hair is so 80s in this scene with Stan.
HA YES IT WAS SO FLOOFY. :D
Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Poor Little Rich Oleg
From:Re: Poor Little Rich Oleg
From:Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Re: Sistermagpie's Thoughts on Rewatch: Yousaf
From:Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
Date: 2014-05-02 02:06 am (UTC)* I think I have that lamp!
* The two kitchen scenes are so dark/light, with Philip in the dark in each one.
* Last week one of my favorite scenes was Elizabeth saying she wanted to show Philip could be there for him, and I thought she probably felt like she didn’t know how. And here she just nails it by asking him if he’s hungry. It’s a small thing, but I feel like she really hits on something important here maybe without knowing it, that she’s just accepting here and offering comfort and food.
* Philip looks so exhausted and vulnerable, which he doesn’t usually look. In the rewatch I went back once to watch the scene in Gregory to check my impression that Elizabeth looks vulnerable there and he doesn’t-he keeps looking into the middle distance and keeping his expressions as neutral as possible. Here he looks a lot more open the whole time.
* His answer to “are you hungry?” is the best, the way he doesn’t say yes, but looks kind of guilty/grateful. It just shows how it’s the perfect thing—he’s stepped out of the blackest place and yeah, he is a little hungry even if he knows he just kind of woke you up in the middle of the night he really would love an egg.
* As I was told in the other thread, I’d completely missed that Elizabeth says “no” when Elizabeth says he wants to talk to Paige. I totally didn’t hear it and thought she just said he wasn’t wrong, like she was saying to just remember that when he spoke to her. There’s a real consistency to Elizabeth in these two eps not just in her usual parenting where she wants to toughen Paige up and stand firm, but back Philip up. They’re both really starting to really cherish things about the other people—it’s a subtle difference, but I feel like it’s definitely there.
* Take this off—it really is the best! Soupy noted before how he’s taking off the black for the white, and it’s also just a whole nurturing thing where he needs to get comfortable and eat. In context of the monster he was making himself last week, this is really huge. It’s like the true version of Martha’s “I love all the sides of you.” And it’s a total contrast to what you’d think that monster persona would be about—she’s not showing that she’s tough and turned on by his badass self, she’s treating him like a tired almost-child. Even after he takes off the jacket he sinks back down again like he’s too tired to stand up.
* And the hug is pretty like the ultimate of that. I do think like I think soupy said, this probably really elevates her in his mind to an almost Madonna figure, and I think that plays into his desire to not have her be the honeypot in different ways. I love that despite the Madonna reference, I don’t think it’s about purity, but I think there is some possessiveness. He seems to be drawing new lines about what he’s going to try to control later, willing to throw Martha and Anneleise to the wolves in the service of protecting his family.
* I think it’s important, too, like I said earlier, that this scene is taking place at the beginning of this ep rather than at the end of the last. This is a whole new beat. It’s not like the reward or the outcome of what was going on in ME. Philip’s still carrying that himself and he struggled with that before coming home. This scene is about starting a new idea.
* I don’t actually agree that Elizabeth is just making a conscious decision to use sex to get him through this. I think she is honestly feeling affection for him and is showing it as well. I mean, I think she does hope the sex will help, but I think she also wants to show affection through it and so does want to have sex with him as well. It’s kind of a contrast to the scene with Clark/Martha last week where she was trying the same thing, but in her case it was much more about the mechanics of sex and here they’re just kissing that we see.
* So...the sex scene...on the surface it’s not wildly different from anything else, but I think in a tiny way it is and I feel like it kind of calls back especially to BTRD. The position they’re in calls back to two earlier scenes: the car in the pilot and the first sex scene in BTRD. In both those scenes, Elizabeth is in Philip’s lap and he’s looking up at her. The difference in this scene—and maybe I’m the only one seeing it but it seemed like a thing—is that I felt like in both those earlier scenes Philip was kind of holding back more than he is here. That is, he was being more passive, looking to Elizabeth to give her what she wanted/needed. In the pilot, obviously, the whole thing’s surprising to him so he’s almost just unclear how to proceed the whole time and is being careful. In BTRD they’re just enjoying each other, but if you remember, the scene cut, I think, with Elizabeth being a bit more...passionate? Aggressive? It was, I assumed, a set up to the later talk about Martha, like she was trying to get him to respond in an animal like way, or was just feeling more animal-like herself.
And in that scene I didn’t think she got the response. Everyone remembers her lying there naked afterwards while he’s totally clothed, plus I just felt like the choreography was uneven. I mean, uneven in that MR is being more passive. It’s not that Philip’s not into it, obviously, but he seems like he’s responding to her, whatever she wants, which is probably pretty standard, even if he started the sex part of the scene.
In this scene—I’d have to go back and pretty much watch every sex scene between them we’ve ever had before to know for sure—but I feel like he’s being more...passionate? (Not sure if that’s the right word) than he ever has been. Like this is the first time that if they’re not both being equal (like in In Control or Comrades) that he seems to be the taker rather than the giver? These words all sound like something I don’t mean, but you know what I mean? Like in the Pilot and BTRD those sex scenes play as Elizabeth needs something and Philip’s glad to give it to her, and here for the first time it seems a little like the opposite, and I feel like that’s partly because the earlier part of the scene, especially coming after the earlier events, opened up more trust in him to actually ask for what he needed.
In terms of that position of her on his lap, also, I can’t help but notice how it’s almost the opposite of the second scene in BTRD. In that scene Elizabeth was maybe trying to get at aspects of Philip she felt like she wasn’t getting and she thought Martha was giving her a clue to do it—he needed permission to be an animal, etc. He needed to be Clark. But that actually wasn’t what Philip wanted or needed—he has outlets for his anger and rage. He doesn’t want to indulge that any more. What he wants is more what he’s getting here.
Just look at the two main things about the two positions. When Elizabeth is on top she’s more in control of the movement and they’re face to face. In the from-behind position in BTRD Philip is in control of the movement and he can’t see her face. Yet when given a choice it seems like he prefers both the other things—being the more passive (maybe that frees him of fears of hurting her or doing what she doesn’t want or makes him feel more wanted) and being able to look into her face to see her reactions.
So it’s like this scene is almost the actual discussion we never got verbally after BTRD. Elizabeth already knew Philip wasn’t mad at her, but whatever she wanted out of the sex, she didn’t get it. He asks her what she wants in that scene, but he’s defensive, and he’s putting it on what she wants in bed when she’s really flailing around for what she can give him and what he wants emotionally.
Here, I think she hits on what she actually wanted, the side to him nobody else gets to see but her that needs things she can give him. And it’s very fitting how much it’s informed by the early years of their marriage for both of them, in a way, since it’s all about her being willing to give before he asks. The hidden self isn’t animal, it’s just needy. Which makes sense. Just as Elizabeth projects a persona that’s strong and is vulnerable underneath, Philip’s spent a lot of time taking care of others and wants to be taken care of himself.
Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
Date: 2014-05-02 02:29 am (UTC)Really, I think this is what Philip has needed from her all along. It's kind of the core thing missing always for him that she care for him and adore him as much as he does her. She's been better about showing it in ways this season, and I think she's been feeling it too, but I think the hurts of 15 years of previous rejection would take something more intimate to heal, and that's what this feels like... just like she's completely there for him and loves him and is completely giving. I think Philip would have walls at times regardless, but I think her hot/cold rejection thing from the past would've exacerbated it too and I think her softness, as is showed so beautifully here, is really what has the power to get in near the real Philip.
I never really got that sense either. It felt very mutual to me. I think what felt different is that Elizabeth more often seems to enter sex scenes with a faster/rougher vibe or it goes that direction quickly, and this was a contrast... very loving, gentle, intimate.
I got the same sense, and I think that's one reason I enjoyed the scene so much. It felt like the two of them but with all the layers peeled back. Elizabeth was fully letting him see her soft side. No walls. Being so gentle with him. He wasn't putting on the dead face like he was being interrogated. He let her really see he was tired. He looked uncertain. Just naked Philip. And that didn't change later. It was really a great scene to watch between them.
Yes, this exactly. I think they both (particularly because of their history and the ongoing pressure of what they do) seek out ways they are intimate in forms they aren't with anyone else, then or ever. And I think seeing whatever is at the center of Philip underneath the layers is what she's wanted. Even beyond sex, that scene was just so intimate. They could've even not had sex, and it still would've seemed so just from the way they were being so soft both in words and understanding, the cuddling.
Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
From:Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
From:Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
From:Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
From:Re: Sistermagpie's thoughts on Yousaf: Just the first scene
From:two minor comments
Date: 2014-05-02 05:42 am (UTC)1) RAHUL KHANNA! (Yousuf). That's the best I've seen him look in um... years.
2) This episode felt like first season to me. It made me want to go rewatch the ep where they're in bed joking about Elizabeth's socks.
... I wonder what'll happen now that the switchboard operator has been shot.
Rahul Khanna
Date: 2014-05-02 09:53 am (UTC)I don't know Rahul Khanna from anything else, but he was absolutely darling on Twitter while they were shooting his episodes. He got all nervous about his nudity contract and posted a picture of himself with it looking all freaked out! :)
-J
Re: Rahul Khanna
From:Pen
Date: 2014-05-03 03:37 pm (UTC)So much to be worried about here. But is no-one concerned about the migration of that pen? From Gaad's bookshelf to Gaad's drawer? Does that bad boy write? or just record in other ways? Compared to the creepiness of Larrick or the intensity of Stan, this threat is subdued - but I think this is gonna blow sky high. We've just seen Gaad's strong intuition with regard to office supplies (Think he started out with a summer job at Grand and Toy?). Also, poor Martha.
Re: Pen
Date: 2014-05-03 09:11 pm (UTC)I think you're right that the pen has to be relevant in a future episode, though. I won't speculate here too much about what I think is going to happen (we try to reserve that sort of speculation for the spoilers and speculation posts that
-J
Re: Pen
From:Re: Pen
From:Treon's thoughts
Date: 2014-05-06 08:09 pm (UTC)1. Wow, it's snowy!
2. Funny that Stan is expecting Jared to recognize the illegals couple pic. He sees them EVERY DAY and he doesn't recognize them.
3. Larrick has found out more in one ep than the FBI has all season (and the promo was misleading, I feel cheated, again).
4. Elizabeth is handling Paige all wrong, and poor Philip has no say, apparently. (though he knows how to prepare Annelisse for the spying life, Elizabeth doesn't give him much credit on preparing his daughter)
5. Loved Arkady and Gaad.
6. I think Kate's going to get killed.
At least I don't have to wait so long for the next ep :-)
Stan telling Nina about the illegals
Date: 2014-05-06 10:34 pm (UTC)Then he broke down about Sandra, which made me think I was reading it all wrong and it's just wishful thinking.
Re: Stan telling Nina about the illegals
Date: 2014-05-08 10:20 pm (UTC)-J
Re: Stan telling Nina about the illegals
From:no subject
Date: 2014-05-16 02:55 pm (UTC)Who was that woman Larrick talked to on the phone? I have a feeling I should know, but I'm afraid I don't.
Also, the man in the cellar with all the phones - all this time I thought he was someone spying on P&E. I just hadn't connected the dots at all that he was a kind of KGB call centre for illegals.
That is what he is, right?
no subject
Date: 2014-05-16 03:02 pm (UTC)And yes, the man in the cellar (George) is a KGB operative who runs a call center.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 02:59 am (UTC)In reality, there would have been no way Oleg could have NOT been a Pioneer. It wasn't just about camp, it was an all-times-of-the-year thing. Besides, if you weren't a Pioneer you couldn't be a Komsomol which, practically, meant you couldn't get into college (or any decent one anyway). Also, kids WANTED to be a Pioneers, becoming one before your classmates was a mark of honor (the best students got "chosen" first). And with Oleg's parents obviously being important people, they would have to be in the party and they most likely couldn't afford having a son who wasn't a Pioneer just for political reasons.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-22 05:21 am (UTC)-J
(no subject)
From:Comm business
From: