Question of the week #32

[treonb]

Our question this week: Did you change your mind about any of the characters as the season progressed?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first two seasons in the comments.

(There's no expiration date on these questions, so if you're reading this post months later and feel like jumping in, please do.)

Comments

[jae]

Everyone and no one. I mean, we learned more about all of the characters, so each one of them deepened for me, but I didn't drastically have to change my mind about anyone from my first impression. But the one who gained the most layers for me over the course of the season was Oleg. I had the impression that he was going to end up being more complex than the first impression we got of him, but I wasn't sure which direction it was going to go in.

-J

[soupytwist]

Yeah, I am with Jae - I didn't do a 180 in my opinion of anybody, but Oleg was the one who made the greatest change from what I previously knew of him.

I worried the most for Philip, because I think he got very, very close to some very scary places, but I already thought he had that possibility - I just didn't think we'd see the show take it quite that close!

I think one of the coolest things about the show is that a lot of the time, it would be HARD to completely change opinion on any of them - just because the show demands a complicated, multifaceted feeling about all of them, not just "they're great!" or "they're awful!" :)

[treonb]

I changed my mind about quite a few ;-)

I was sure Kelli was a KGB agent, for example. And though I changed my mind, now I'm back on the fence until I see whether Pastor Tim is really who he says he is.

Oleg - I liked from the beginning, but the last two episodes made me realize he wasn't just playing around with Nina.

Larrick - At first I went with the flow of the show. He was dangerous and all that, but by the end (and even before he 'just' arrested P&E), I realized he was just getting back at the KGB for good reason.

I should also mention Claudia. I didn't like where she went at the end of S1, but I was willing to accept it. But her boyfriend story this season really threw me off.

I liked Stan in S1, but he turned really pathetic in S2. Martha was the exact opposite. I like her a lot better now.

Then there were the obvious ones like Jared, but I don't really count those.

[sistermagpie]

This is an interesting question to think about since this season of Mad Men, which happened at the same time, had a lot of people suddenly disliking a couple of main characters. I didn't share or really get the dislike, but that seems to be the kind of show where people like and dislike people, like they're on their team. With this show everybody's just so slippery, or else you know straight off you just have to accept them or not--basically they don't care if you like them or not!

There wasn't anybody I really switched on, but plenty of people went places I wouldn't have predicted. Oleg was a surprise (although as others said, obviously he had to go somewhere)--I like that he wasn't one of those hate/love romances. Nina was really surprising in that I really would never have expected her to wind up in a straightforward romance like that. Her life was so complicated I wouldn't have thought she could manage it!

Claudia slipped easily into somebody who seemed like a real natural ally of P&E despite all the problems they had with her last year. That was really nice.

I expected some bigger surprise from Kate, but in the end I wound up feeling like first impressions were correct with her.

Stan's story wasn't a complete surprise---but I guess I did change my mind in that I never would have believed I could think he might go as far as he did.

[katiac]

I felt the same way on a lot of these. I liked the way Oleg came around to a good place. Claudia too, came around in a way I hadn't expected could feel quite as natural as it wound up feeling.

Kate felt like a disappointment for me from start to finish. I kept waiting for them to have some awesome twist with her... and then... no. But then I guess not everyone can be an awesome character. Some are just duds as spies and as personalities. The twist with Jared was interesting in ways, but then it didn't really do much to lend to her sense of competence either.

[sistermagpie]

It is kind of funny that the one caper we know Kate was running was seducing a teenager who probably wasn't the most difficult target.

[quantumreality]

I'm inclined to agree that she was probably originally sent to see if she could pry loose Jared or Emmett and get them "with the program", and it turned out to work almost too well with Jared.

[lovingboth]

Yes, the only competent thing we saw Kate do was die without talking.

[quantumreality]

Same here Re: Kate. At first I thought her jittery fangirlishness was just nerves + the whole "illegals are rockstars" phenomenon someone on this comm mentioned, but it turned out that was the Peter principle in action, and it ended up costing her her life.

As I mention elsewhere her skills were probably more in honey-trapping, and either being able to seduce/persuade Emmett to mute his objections, or seduce Jared and make him even more willing to spy against his parents' objections, were desirable goals from the point of view of The Center.

[apolla_savre]

Kate - I liked her at first and was sad to see her die but at the end, I just felt there had been wasted potential, so I didn't like her as much.

Larrick - I did not buy his "big bad" factor until he killed Kate, but then it didn't stick around for the finale, so I kind of went full circle around his character for a week.

Arkady and Gaad - I liked Gaad in the first season, enough to respect him, but then he started trying to threaten Arkady and you know how Kevin (the bird from Up) reacted to threats? That was how I felt when they interacted. Just: no. Nope, nope. Back away from the Rezident, Gaad, I like him better than you.

Stan: Loved him in season one, was kind of bored with him in season two until the end. Glad to have sort of the old Stan back.

And lastly: Emmett and Jared. I had the feeling that something was off with the family but I thought Emmett was responsible and had either killed his wife and daughter and then himself or he'd faked it but ended up being Jared who was the off one. I didn't trust Emmett but he turned out to be decent.

[treonb]

Emmet being responsible is a very interesting idea. Too bad they didn't take it in that direction.

[sistermagpie]

It's funny how Elizabeth and Leanne both seemed to have specific povs in the story from their flashbacks and the letter etc., while Emmett remained an enigma (who nevertheless seemed to be subtly linked to Philip, it just wasn't clear how exactly).

[quantumreality]

I think mainly Stan and Oleg.

Stan because he turned into such a butt-monkey. I was kinda disappointed to see Mr. Counterintelligence get so pwned in S2.

Oleg turned from being an annoying little shit to being kind of halfway tolerable, especially given his willingness to go out on a limb for Nina to an extent that could've gotten him at least sent back to the Soviet Union.

[alley_skywalker]

Oleg - I was kinda meh about him at first, then kinda didn't like him for a while, but he really came through in the last few eps.

Nina - used to like, but she started to really annoy me in the later episodes. Although, looking back, there wasn't really any big shift in character or anything, it's just how things played out.

I feel like the writers did Stan a disservice this season rather unfairly, but he's still my fave.
Also Phillip, not in that there were any big changes but I just haven't been connecting very much with him lately.