theamericans | Episode discussion post: "Baggage"

jae posting in

Aired:
4 February 2015 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 302 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 three, episode two.)

Original promo trailer

"The Americans 3x02 Promo "Baggage" / This Season on The Americans" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From Hitfix
From The AV Club
From The Atlantic
From the LA Times
From Slant Magazine
From IGN
From TV.com
From Sound on Sight
From Geeks of Doom
From TVEquals
From examiner.com
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From the International Business Times
From Uproxx
From MovieNewsGuide
From MStarz
From Starpulse
From Romance at Random
From SpoilerTV

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

lovingboth

Ha, yes. American chocolate is 'brown stuff'.

From:

lovingboth

Yep.

From:

lovingboth

There's no heating either, but she's not wrapped up - not even gloves.

From:

lovingboth

Yep, one of the problems with going for 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' as your policy is that some of them will be your enemies too.

From:

quantumreality

Two of them on this job, note. (How good are the driving scenes in terms of not having anything since the 80s visible?)

Fairly good I think. The cars are definitely period-boxy, and the storefronts don't look jarringly anachronistic. It helps that they purposely put the camera in near focus on the people so it tends to blur out the outside of the car anyway. Incidentally, even that little Honda station wagon the CIA guy drove is period-appropriate; it was a common style for Japanese cars in the 1970s, who actually shared body designs in that era (which is why Nissan/Datsun cars from that era look like Toyota and a bit like Hondas as well).

It's really the little things like non-period maglocks on hotel doors (which now take cards instead of keys) and whatnot.

Edited Date: 2015-02-05 05:17 pm (UTC)

From:

lovingboth

There was the guy who was snatched in S2, of course, but hasn't there been at least one men's urinal scene?

From:

lovingboth

I'm sure it does happen, but they already have more than enough on Nina to have her executed.

From:

sistermagpie

The introduction of the Zenaida character was interesting in all its somewhat overbearing symbolism. The chocolate, to show how deprived Russians were of luxurious items like that.

I don't know whether it was supposed to be a luxury item, exactly, but the fact that it was a Milky Way, rather than just straight chocolate, makes it easy for me to believe that she really loved it. It's a combination of tastes she's never had before. I've eaten food in other countries that isn't that interesting to the locals that knocks me out not because I've been deprived of anything of comparable luxury at home but just because it's different. Like the first time I went to England they didn't have Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Not a luxury, no shortage of great chocolate, but that doesn't make Reese's any less fantastic! :-)

I did think it was a little odd for Philip to offer Elizabeth the option of going home to see her mother. Or to get her mother to the US? It was like a parallel to the Zenaida story. How many people were actually willing to travel back to the USSR, regardless of how patriotic they were? After all, the West offered a lot more choices and luxuries.

Bringing her to the US wasn't on the table, I don't think. What would they do with a random Russian woman dumped into a foreign country for the last months of her life? Philip's idea was that she should get to go back and visit her--which wasn't unreasonable at all. I thought the fact that Elizabeth immediately said no was a sign for just how she's thinking about family these days. She's all about making herself hard again so she's not going to demand anything sissy like actually spending quality time with the woman she loves rather than doing her duty to her country for her.

I get that he now finally (?) understands how deeply Elizabeth believes turning Paige into a KGB agent is potentially a good thing.

I didn't get that from that scene (not that there's any one interpretation since the scene's by definition ambigious!). She had just handed him a big ole' matzoh ball of psychological stuff about the issue and I didn't think he could have just one reaction to it. I think he already knew how important it was to her but he's now getting some hints about how twisted (from his pov) it might be.

Also totally agree on Stan. I love how even phone messages to his family baffle him and are stilted and formal. I don't know if he knows who he loves right now, but he's coming to realize that he has feelings for Sandra that are really deep. I thought he was telling the truth when he said she was the person he wanted to tell. Which is fascinating for Stan who never tells her anything. He's finally wanting to talk.

Edited Date: 2015-02-05 06:16 pm (UTC)

From:

sistermagpie

It's shocking to Elizabeth, since both she and Phlip see each other as looking out for their children first. Is it true? I'd say in a pinch P & E would choose the kids above each other, when it came to it, and of course their differing views on what's good for the kids are key to the season, but in terms of the every day life Paige is able to observe it's of course true that they cover for each other and share secrets they don't share with their children.

I don't think it's necessarily true or that they believe that. There's a default idea that many people have that you're supposed to immediately be about your children above everything else, which always seems totally not practical to be because the whole point with your kids is to have them for a limited period and then they start their own lives. So to me it seems like the relationship is different, but not necessarily stronger. In a pinch presumably both of them would be more protective of the children because that's their job, but Philip and Elizabeth are such a team I do think they naturally look out for each other more. That's their job.

From:

sistermagpie

I was shocked when Philip-as-Scott actually came right out and told Yousaf that he was KGB-affiliated. He must have done a quick calculation and figured he had a better chance of getting what he needed out of Yousaf if he told the truth on that front?

Though I love that he doesn't do it directly. "My people are dying in Afghanistan. I'll give you a moment to process what I'm actually saying."

First, the fact that she doesn't tell him about the memory she had of her mother referring to her father as a deserter.

That particular one I think she wouldn't have told him about anyway. She knew he was a deserter back in the pilot, yet she basically told him he was a hero. I think this is just something that Elizabeth's ashamed about and doesn't tell people. But also I like the idea that even though Elizabeth was remembering that scene which to us was obviously about her father's desertion, in her mind she really was remembering the blue dress, because that's what she was focusing on. Memories do tend to work that way, and Elizabeth, we've been told, is less than self-aware.

From:

sistermagpie

But there's a difference between scaring her and admitting FBI incompetence, maybe. So he wants her to know people will be trying to kill her, but also make her trust in the security they have.

From:

sistermagpie

The past! But is it real or a mixture of reality and fantasy? English shows up in the dream, so I suspect maybe part fantasy. It is true that Elizabeth grew up with her mother without a father, though.

Where was there English in the dream?

From:

sistermagpie

From memory, there were of course a lot of things that stood out. I'll leave my first biggest moment till last, because it tied together the beginning and end of the ep.

Love the horror movie touches of not only the body disposal but Zanaida's fantastic first appearance in the gas mask. She might as well have been one of those eggs the corporate guy wanted to bring back home in Aliens.

Loved Stan in this ep, and his instinctively going to Sandra even if he wasn't sure why. His phone message was incredibly sad (he's calling for Matthew Beeman, not any of the other Matthews in the house). We didn't see a lot of Nina, but I'm interested in everything going on there and love seeing Oleg's father telling him one thing, but doing something else out of sight. Which fits him into the themes about parents and kids--Oleg's dad might tell him the party line for various reasons, but he doesn't like his son to be unhappy.

I so far love Zanaida and Tatiana. The actress who's Zanaida, especially, brings a quirkiness that isn't annoying to scenes like the one with the Milky Way bar. Like I said above, I didn't take it as saying life in the Soviet Union was candy-less, but that she had never tried the specific combination that makes up a Milky Way and she loves it. And can have as much as she wants.

Loved Philip's "We should do this more often."

Okay, most importantly, the Paige story. At this point, in ep 2, Elizabeth is just waaaaaay too cocky and has to be heading for a fall--by which I mean a change. She's back to not trusting Philip's judgment completely and focused on everything that seems obviously right from her pov without thinking much about the personal angle (she'll take risks with the CIA people because SHE lost the list, she's got a mountain of personal baggage pushing her to turn Paige). She's disappointed that Philip is being ridiculous about this, but I think shyly confident and proud with Gabriel about her ability to turn Paige into the daughter she wants easily enough, cozying up to her and encouraging her 14-year-old snark about the evils of corporate America.

The road ahead is just sooooo clear to Elizabeth.

Philip, at the moment, seems completely lost. Elizabeth's right that this isn't going away, and Elizabeth is obviously barely keeping herself back from making the pronouncement we've seen her making in previews about what's going to happen here. Philip, of course, is right about asking Elizabeth what she thinks is going to happen with Paige, but Elizabeth is also right in wondering wtf Philip thinks is going to happen if he continues to sulk, since sulking is pretty much all he can do.

I thought the scene where Philip asks about her going home was a nice juxtaposition to her story about her mother telling her to leave home. In both cases the actual personal relationship between her and mother is there primarily so it can be sacrificed so each one can prove how loyal they are to a cause. Her mother not only doesn't beg Elizabeth to stay or say she'll miss her but respects her decision, she tells her to go, whatever Elizabeth thinks. Likewise Elizabeth might be grieving over her mother but actually spending time with her is nothing important. Which I think subtly raises the question: what are you doing this for? The cause is supposed to make the world a better place, but sometimes loving "everyone" means loving no one. (To use LOTR for a reference: You need Frodo AND Sam!)

I think this is also reinforced subtly in Philip's "We should do this more often" when he's at the bar with Elizabeth. He likes spending time with his wife. Elizabeth's all about the mission they're on at that moment. Just as Elizabeth's bonding time with Paige is less about getting to know and enjoy her as a person and more about assessing her for future projects.

Which I think is also reinforced in the chilling scene with Gabriel where Elizabeth reveals that Paige thinks Philip is having an affair--i.e., she's reporting a crack in that relationship due to Philip's commitments to the KGB that Philip doesn't know about. And Gabriel seizes on it for his own agenda, brushing it aside and saying, "But she trusts YOU, though, right?" This isn't a chat about two people who happen to care about Paige, it's a strategy session, and if Philip is going to continue to be a problem maybe it's a good thing for Paige to lose faith in her father and put it in the mother who's manipulating her, ironically by pretending to respect her as an individual different from herself. (Also Pastor Tim since a) he's politically encouraging and b) that will probably make Philip hurt and angry enough to want to claim her for his own side.)

Gabriel has no problem destabilizing Paige's family to get what he wants and at the moment Elizabeth believes that she shouldn't either, except to tell herself that somehow them all being in it together will fix everything.

Again, think back to Gabriel asking Philip about Henry's hockey playing last week and Philip deflecting with "He's more into baseball now" with no elaboration. Elizabeth is willingly giving the KGB info on her family dynamics so they can use it against her daughter and her husband.

Meanwhile, Philip. Lost. And that ending scene. I was on the edge of my seat when Elizabeth told her story and it seemed like he might might might reply only because it was going on and on...and then we just got lots of silence. Ha! Many possible reasons for that. I think Philip needs time to digest that big matzoh ball Elizabeth just laid on him (if he'd known about the "traitor"-by which I assume her mother meant frightened--father he'd probably be even more silent about what to do because wow, no love in that family if you falter, huh?). But I also think Philip doesn't trust Elizabeth very much right now.

But as with most battles, I wouldn't count Philip out. He's just and stubborn as Elizabeth, he just picks and fights his battles differently, often in a sneakier way. Elizabeth might currently think she and the KGB can just roll right over him but then, that's what Napoleon thought too. And Philip likes the cold.

The end of last season was maybe the high point of Philip feeling trust when he started that story--his only story ever--about his childhood. But his normal mode is to deflect and I can, sadly, see him as just instinctively not wanting to give Elizabeth anything personal on this subject. He might not even be consciously thinking about it and just have retreated.

There could be other reasons for it too, of course. Because Philip has to have his own story about making exactly this choice, and he and Elizabeth are pretty much the same age. Did he not have anyone to care if he went or stayed? Did he not think it was best to say, "My mother cried for three days...I guess she liked having me around." No way to know, but there's no way that the show isn't intentionally lampshaded his silence about his past at this point.

Which brings me back to that first scene. Last season we had lots of Philip looking at himself in mirrors (and not like Elizabeth has been lately, to look at her jaw injury). We had the Mossad agent asking if his name was his name/face was his face/children were his children. We had Baklanov referring to "whoever he once was" (implying he's nobody now).

Now we start an ep with Yousef point-blank asking "Who are you?" Philip doesn't directly answer, he just tells him what he needs from him. He talks about "his people" and what are happening to them, removing himself from the equation except as a go-between. And then the ep ends with Elizabeth telling this story about the most important decision of her life, one that we know Philip also not only was faced with but made, we get a long pause where most people would answer, and instead he just lets it sit there. As someone interested in his backstory I know I was left thinking, "Who ARE you?" even before I remembered Yousef saying the same thing.

From:

cadma

This is keeping up the trend towards less self-contained episodes. I thought last week felt more like a long set-up than the previous two first episodes -- they had central plots about Timoshev and the Connors and that one didn't really.

Philip really sounds panicked when dealing with what happened with Yousef.

Interesting to see where Paige is with her parents. She seemed to see them as united in whatever they were up to last season but now is thinking Philip might be the guilty one. Her observations are kind of getting more accurate -- P&E do look out for each other, P is actually with someone else when he's away at night, and there's some discontent between them since the end of last season that Paige's probably picking up on as well, esp. since Elizabeth's started going to church with her and Philip hasn't.

On the other hand it doesn't seem to worry her as much, I guess because the situation is more stable (no one suddenly moving out) and the conflict over church has stopped.

The body disposal is the most horrifying thing I've ever seen on TV. Especially for Philip and Yousaf who knew her when she was alive.

Surely diplomatic immunity wouldn't actually cover murdering a law enforcement official? Oleg must really be pretty upset to reach this point. Although it seems quite in character for him to come up with something like this but not be able to follow through.

I get the feeling that knowing she 'can't go back' and that's final is a way of coping for so many years for Elizabeth, like if she started to entertain the possibility that she could it would prey on her mind or bring up a lot of doubts or conflicted feelings. Plus when her memories are so important to her part of her might not want to have them affected by seeing everything again but different.

Interesting also that Paige is reading the newspaper this week when she was switching away from the tv news last week. She's interested in the story about college that might affect her but still doesn't see what happens in the USSR as relevant to her.

What do people think is up with Tatiana? Apparently she's getting Oleg to talk to sources in the press? Maybe this means Charles Duluth will be back soon.

The revelation about Elizabeth's mother has to make a big impact on Philip. It's going to make it really hard for him to convince her that keeping your kid out of the intelligence service is what a good/loving parent would do, because what would that say about Elizabeth's mother? He'll have to convince her that her mother didn't understand what she would be getting into.

From:

jae

I don't really think the Belgian lady is, only because it's not really the type of fake-out trope this show does.

I also think it's important that Nina clearly thinks she's a plant, or thinks she could be a plant, at least, and figures it's easier just not to have anything to do with her.

-J

From:

jae

Rene Auberjonois as a guest!

Wait, really? How did I miss that? Who did he play?

-J

From:

jae

I'm just glad I watched with all the LIGHTS on. ;)

-J

From:

jae

I totally agree, the writing and acting were spot-on!

It really was that combination that made it work so well--this is a perfect example of that.

I'm just delighted to see so much praise for the FBI side of this show for once. The show has neglected them comparatively for so long, it's great to see Stan get some meaty material for a change.

-J

From:

jae

Possibly, but I couldn't point to where. That's less memorable, though--other shows have done that sort of thing.

-J

From:

jae

I love the interpretation in your last paragraph!

-J

From:

jae

Ooh, good point. He just wants her not to be reckless. So maybe it's not outright forbidden/classified to talk about Timoshev, but making the comparison wouldn't be prudent.

-J

From:

jae

Man, you are on fire this week! I love your interpretation of where Philip and Elizabeth each are with respect to Paige. You're totally right that Philip is lost and Elizabeth, even though she says she's not all the way convinced, is being kind of obnoxiously clear about how she's leaning.

Is it the next episode or the one after it that the scene we saw with Paige in it occurs--do you remember?

-J

From:

sistermagpie

Even if it started out as just something they hadn't dealt with yet, it's hard to believe it's not deliberate now. They've called attention to it.

That said, I wouldn't put it past Elizabeth to have filled in her own backstory to where she doesn't think it's necessary and almost feels, like some viewers, that she knows stuff she doesn't actually know.

From:

sistermagpie

Yes, it's impossible that somebody actually writing these scenes doesn't feel, just as we do, when Philip is completely breaking the rules of conversation by remaining silent instead of telling a story.

From:

jae

This is keeping up the trend towards less self-contained episodes. I thought last week felt more like a long set-up than the previous two first episodes -- they had central plots about Timoshev and the Connors and that one didn't really.

Interesting--I was actually thinking the opposite with respect to the comparison between season 2 and season 3, i.e. that in s2, too, it felt very much like the same sort of setting-up episodes. In both seasons the showrunners themselves were the ones who got the writing credit for the first two episodes, and I don't think that's an accident (and in season two they also got the credit for the final two, and it wouldn't surprise me to see that trend hold true this season).

-J