Question of the week #53

[treonb]

What are three things that you're hoping to see happen in Season 4?

You can expect spoilers for the entire first three 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

[theplatonicnonyeah]

1. Martha kicks ass.
2. Martha is smarter than you think.
3. Er...pastor Tim dies.

[jae]

I like those Martha ones, but I'm going with "Martha (or Philip and Martha) surprises us in some way." Basically I'm looking for Martha to continue defying everybody's expectation that she's not long for this world, which is kind of in the same vein of what you're after, I think.

Followed by "another bit of information about Philip's early life" (since I know by now that they're not about to give us some huge backstory in one go) and "the start of the reveal of what happened while Stan was undercover."

-J

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Yes, I think that's really what I meant about Martha. She's already surprised us quite a lot, I can't see how the show can continue with giving her a "regular" TV show ending now.

Oooh, more about Philip would be a dream. Or perhaps a nightmare...?

[sistermagpie]

1. Some more backstory on Philip! Hopefully illuminating his whole "no snitching on your people" orientation.

2. Surprising develops in Paige's relationship with her parents and some regrets about telling Pastor Tim. Because to me that seems like a big part of secrets and telling secrets. However good it feels in the moment, now this other person has something on you. Paige wanted someone to talk to, but now she's got a little less freedom to maneuver. That's a side of secrets we're only starting to see now with P&E.

3. some Stan psychological backstory. He's just been handed A LOT of power and freedom, but there's a dark side to being a maverick.

[saraqael]

1. I'd like to see more details about Philip's past, possibly dredged up because of his dawning (EST-induced?) psychological self-awareness.

2. I figure that there will be a continued focus on Paige in S4, but I'd like to see something about what Henry's doing during all of this.

3. I hope the show stays in 1983 for the entire season and touches on at least one or two of the significant real life political events that happened that year. 1983 was a crazy year.

[sistermagpie]

I can't remember where I read this, but I swear there was some interview where one of the J's said they were working on S4 now and he mentioned that they were in 1983, I think because he said he was realizing that that's the year they showed The Day After.

Up until now the breaks have always made sense in the story--Elizabeth coming home after convalescing for 2, and then in S3 they needed time to establish Elizabeth working on Paige and Philip digging in his heels long enough that they had to send Gabriel to step things up. So it seems unlikely there could be a lot of time between S3 and 4 with that kind of cliffhanger. Maybe we'll pick up with Paige and Pastor Tim talking for a while without P&E knowing, but how long can they have her lying to her parents without there being some story they want to show about it?

Really hoping Henry comes out more next year. If Pastor Tim and Paige are talking about the terrible lie they might think they should have their own plans for Henry.

[saraqael]

I wondered if they timed the seasons so that they would end up in 1983 at this point in the story because it just works so well. 1983 was a momentous year in the cold war. I think the heightened tensions and events of that year are a perfect background for the emotional space they left the Jennings in at the end of S3.

[treonb]

1. Pastor Tim goes to the FBI - though I can't figure out how he can do it without this being game over.

2. Philip's and Elizabeth's differences erupt somehow.

3. Martha turns on Philip.

And, on the other hand, I'd like to see more humor.

[lovingboth]

1. He goes... but suffers a fatal 'accident' en route.

[treonb]

The problem is that it's the getting there I'm more interested in... But if Pastor Tim gets killed off, I wonder how that would affect Paige. She could end up going completely crazy.

[saraqael]

I really, really, REALLY want to see Martha turn on Philip. A lot of those women in real life ended up killing themselves. If Martha's going to die, I'd rather that she go out with some self respect.

Besides, she has that gun for a reason. She's got to shoot somebody with it. Maybe Clark, maybe someone else.

I can barely wait to see how they resolve the situation with Pastor Tim. I think he'd want to talk to Elizabeth and Philip himself before he'd call the FBI. They know that he's vain and anti-nuke so perhaps they could end up convincing him that they're working to prevent a nuclear war and end up getting him to be on their side. Paige would not know what to do. Or they could just kill him. Again, I don't think that Paige would know what to do.

I fully expect Philip and Elizabeth's differences to blow up in their faces this season. They've been tiptoeing around those differences for the entire show. Now Philip is coming undone and no longer believes in anything except protecting his family but at the same time that Elizabeth has been galvanized by Reagan's evil empire speech. These two need each other more than ever but they want very different things. That's so dangerous for them.

[treonb]

Now Philip is coming undone and no longer believes in anything except protecting his family

The problem is, I don't want to see him cast adrift when he has nobody else to anchor him.

[lovingboth]

Finally acknowledging Aids - at the moment, the show is like President Reagan in ignoring it.

The gun to be at least pointed at someone.

Another 'we don't care that other shows would have left this until the season end cliff-hanger' moment.

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Yes! With all the sex they're having with strangers, the issue is bound to come up at some point. Not at the very least because Paige is coming of age...

And in relation to that I think I would actually like to see Philip honeytrapping a man and possibly him not being disgusted or hesitant, although I think that's too much to ask.

The gun HAS to feature. It just has.

[sistermagpie]

I was watching a documentary about the early AIDS crisis in San Francisco this weekend and I was thinking about this too. I would love to see even just a thing of them getting tested, but I think that wasn't available until 1984. I also wasn't sure how they'd have thought about it back then--like would P&E assume it was only a gay men thing? Because I was originally imagining Philip getting tested if he had to honeytrap a man. That would be something that I think he'd have to associate with AIDS even more than Elizabeth if they were in denial.

[quantumreality]

1. The evolving relationship among Paige, Pastor Tim, and her parents. I wonder if she'll have regrets, worries, etc and one rather terrible way to drive home to Paige that her actions have consequences she has to live with for her life is if her parents bump off Tim because of her confession to them that she told him.

2. How does Henry get brought into the loop?

3. What are the Jenningses' and the Rezidentura's reaction to Able Archer? We now know the Soviets were positively petrified at the possibility of an actual nuclear war and were seriously considering the likelihood that Able Archer was a cover leading up to that.

[(Anonymous)]

1) Paige being horrified at whatever the fallout is of her telling Pastor Tim.
(Who has tickets to Africa, which would be a perfect place for an unfortunate 'robbery gone bad' while leaving the Jennings at arm's length.)

btw, Does anyone else wonder whether the Soviets are tapping the Jennings' phones?
Why would they not?? The Rezidentura may know about Paige before P&E do.

2) Henry's reaction to whatever stress bubbles up between Paige and P&E will be interesting. He's both more trusting and devoted to them than Paige is, and seems to me to be very even keeled (as well as oblivious).

[sistermagpie]

You know, people immediately threw out ideas of Paige killing Pastor Tim (which seemed to have nothing to do with the reality of the show to me) but I found myself thinking that I could totally buy a story where Henry killed him.

I mean, this is pure fantasy since there's nothing about the show at this point that sets anything like that up. But Henry does seem very much like Philip and they set up that scene in S1 where he hits that guy with a beer bottle--which is *very* violent--to protect Paige, plus there's the Jared story where an adolescent in emotional distress lost it that way.

So, like, if God told Pastor Tim that he ought to steal the kids and he went and told Henry the truth assuring him that he'd take care of him or whatever? I could easily see that ending in Pastor Tim's death.

Like I said, that's pure fanfic fantasy but I thought of it because I agree, he does seem more devoted to them and despite his being more even-keeled, he seems sometimes more capable of decisive acts that he understands the significance of after, if that makes sense.

[treonb]

Does anyone else wonder whether the Soviets are tapping the Jennings' phones?

I didn't think about it, but you're right. In general P&E always act as though they assume somebody is listening in.

It's hard for me to see the show going this way, but this would put both Paige and Pastor Tim in danger.