Question of the week #9

[treonb]

In the pilot, Philip proposes that he and Elizabeth defect to the United States with their family. Nina, too, toys with the idea of defecting to escape persecution for her crimes. We never see inside their heads, though, so it's hard to know what exactly they're thinking over the course of the season.

This week's question: What do you think is going on with that--how do you think the Russian characters' (those two or any others') thoughts on defection change over time?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first season 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

[soupytwist]

I think Philip was serious about it, but that it was an absolutely pragmatic thing - I think he was weighing up, and he thought that if Elizabeth and the kids were coming with him, then the risks of defection would be less than the risks of staying in the KGB (and, presumably, the benefits would outweigh the benefits of staying). But as soon as it's clear Elizabeth's not agreeing with him on that, he doesn't seem to see it as something he should argue - he basically accepts that that's how it is, at least for now. He doesn't seem to have any attachment to America in the philosophical sense - not as an allegiance, is probably a better way of putting it, even though he does like some of the stuff that's available.

I feel really bad for Elizabeth because she's a true believer who seems to have been approaching their time in America very much like a soldier in enemy territory, and she's got less than a decade before the whole thing crashes and burns and I occasionally think about how she might deal with that and go 'eeek'.

Nina I think is someone who's only just started to realise she's got options, and power. Obviously that's partly because she's only recently been promoted, but I think she genuinely didn't really think about any of the more, er, radical options at all until she found herself in the deep end and had to figure out how to swim, quickly. And I am THRILLED for her that she DID - I was completely expecting her to die any minute! But nope. Nina I think has an excellent brain and is excellent at keeping calm in a crisis, and she's just going through trying to work out exactly what her best options are at any given minute. I think she was probably right to doubt the protecting of the FBI at this point, but it wouldn't surprise me if she somehow ended up finding a way to get out all of her own.

The other person who comes to mind here is Martha. I think that Martha is sooner or later going to be faced with a more direct choice, probably of either confessing everything to the FBI or working explicitly for the Soviets with threat of exposure hanging over her head, and I think that's going to be pivotal. (I love Martha, so I really want that to end as happily as possible for her even though she's obviously going to have her heart broken whatever happens. GO MARTHA GO.)

[treonb]

I was actually surprised when Philip was going to pack the kids and go to Canada. If something happened to Elizabeth, and especially if she was being held by the Feds, he could have offered to defect as a way of freeing her. A sort of prisoner transfer. And actually thinking of taking the kids to Russia.. I have no idea how that would have worked. I can see Paige escaping on the way.

Anyways.. I think that shows he completely changed his mind. Though not for ideological reasons. Maybe he feels he can't let Elizabeth down?