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theamericans2014-08-06 12:18 pm
treonb) wrote in theamericans2014-08-06 12:18 pm
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Question of the week #41
The Church and Pastor Tim seem to serve as additional parental figures for Paige--parental figures that provide a more unambiguously black-and-white, worldview than her real parents can. We also know that Philip and Elizabeth will soon be asked to tell Paige the truth about their jobs and their lives in the U.S.
Do you think Paige might confide in her pastor if her parents try to bring her in? What do you think she would tell him?
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.)
Do you think Paige might confide in her pastor if her parents try to bring her in? What do you think she would tell him?
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.)
no subject
But personally I think that if her parents let her in on the truth, Paige would understand the seriousness of it and realize that telling Pastor Tim--or anybody--is too much of a risk. Paige might have problems with her parents right now, but I can't see how she'd feel so strongly about Pastor Tim that she'd trust him with that kind of family information. Not only would she be putting her whole family in danger, she'd be putting Pastor Tim in danger.
That said, I think that if Paige learns the truth the game will have slowly shifted by then. It wouldn't be like if they just told her at the end of Echo. It's like Elizabeth said--this is about her parents fulfilling the thing she feels she lacks in her life that she's now trying to fill with the church. It changes the whole dynamic. Right now her parents are the clueless suburbanites who never think beyond home repair and their travel business while Pastor Tim wants to make a difference in the world. The new dynamic is that her parents are even more committed to making a difference in the world than Pastor Tim and far from being clueless or never "helping anyone," their whole lives are dedicated to a higher cause. I think Paige would respect that even while she's confused and frightened by the cause in question. If Elizabeth can put it across like that--and she can, because it's the truth and she's just like Paige this way--I don't think Paige would see things the same way.
Right now, after all, she assumes that whatever her parents are up to is sordid and selfish. They're having affairs. If she suspected something illegal it would probably be something like drugs or some other ways they were illegally making money. Even that sort of thing would make it scary to tell Pastor Tim. But if they're committed to a higher cause I think she'd be more on their side even if she disagreed with the cause. This is in some ways central to her whole misunderstanding of her parents. The most important thing to know about them that she doesn't know now is not that they're Russian but that they're instruments of a higher cause by choice. One of her problems with her parents right now is that they appear so small to her--they don't understand, they're too caught up in petty things like whatever nonsense they've got going on. Finding out they were spies wouldn't just make them scary, they would make them bigger, imo.
no subject
That's true. But I'm wondering also about the personal aspects. That is, I can see Paige ignoring the ideological aspects and just focusing on the fact that her parents lied to her. It's a serious breach of trust.
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no subject