Question of the week #59

[treonb]

If our characters could go back to any time in the show's run so far and change one thing, what do you think they'll change?

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]

I sort of feel that Elizabeth might regret the whole Clark sex fantasy thing...

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Actually, thinking yet another step, I wonder if Martha regrets getting involved with and eventually marrying "Clark". But this one is difficult to speculate on, since we don't know what her response to the de-wigging was.

[treonb]

It might be wishful thinking, but I think Stan might regret his fling with Nina. Sandra, on the other hand, is probably not regretting a thing.

[jae]

If presented with a question like this, I think Philip would break his brain over trying to figure out what one thing he could go back and change at the beginning of when things first started to go really bad, but he wouldn't be able to narrow himself down to just one thing.

I think Elizabeth never lets herself regret anything, so she would pass on this one.

-J

[treonb]

On Elizabeth's behalf, I'd regret pushing Paige into something she wasn't ready for. She opened a whole can of worms with that one.

[quantumreality]

mm-hmm. This. The whole "bring Paige to see her real grandmother" had 'bad idea' written all over it from a lot of standpoints, but most notably the fact that for Paige, her parents being spies was becoming so horribly real she grabbed the first lifeline she could think of, which was Pastor Tim.

[sistermagpie]

Like Jae, I imagined Philip trying to figure out one thing that would make a difference and not finding it. (And also I don't think he could really find things he could honestly say he'd do something differently if he had the chance because he always made what he thought was the best decision at the time.) Ditto Elizabeth not being capable of regret but for different reasons.

Though Elizabeth has regretted small things where she felt unfair to Philip. I don't think she regrets anything about Gregory, but she might regret accidentally setting up the situation where Gregory was able to hurt him with the affair. But I think she feels now like she made that okay by talking to him about it.

So basically Philip and Elizabeth I imagine are pretty fatalistic for different reasons.

Oh, but I do think Philip regrets sleeping with Irina that time. I think he didn't get anything out of it and just wishes he didn't do it, but doesn't obsess over it. That's a gimme.

With Stan, he's probably another one who would find it hard to figure out one thing that he would have done differently. I don't even think he can regret things with Nina because he needs to feel like that meant something. It's still motivating him.

Martha might occasionally regret not asking questions earlier. I suspect she does think there were ways she could have had a better marriage. But again, I don't know if she truly regrets things.

I don't think Paige regrets asking for the truth. She's just angry at her parents for ruining it by not telling her something that she wanted to hear. The point of hearing the truth was to reassure Paige that her parents were just forgivably messed up, slightly inferior people.

Henry regrets getting the idea to break into that house, probably.

Oleg may come to regret trusting Stan. ETA: Well, not really trusting him. Thinking he was outsmarting him.

Oh, and I think Philip might honestly come to regret not taking out Pastor Tim that night. He'll feel guilty about it, but he'll have those feelings.

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Pastor Tim is in so much trouble.
Quite possibly Pastor Tim will regret telling Paige she could come to him with any problems she had...

[sistermagpie]

I think Paige might regret telling him. Not 100%, but I can't help but think that as things go along she'll begin to see that the relief she felt at being able to talk to him in that moment might become a burden as she comes to understand the danger.

I mean, she told him as a teenager who feels like her parents just don't understand her and are trying to get her to do something she doesn't want to do. But the situation's a lot more complicated and as her feelings about her parents evolves she might regret bringing this other person into it for various reasons. There would just be a lot of times when she wouldn't want him to know, imo.

Maybe it's just me, but that's kind of how I relate to secrets in general. There's pleasure in the moment of telling, but often that's followed by wishing it wasn't told.

[jae]

I hope this is how the show deals with all that! This sounds delicious.

-J

[sistermagpie]

It's literally the only way I can accept right now. Everything else seems so fake and so not the way the show deals with things on so many levels. Not just the way it deals with secrets but with the fact that despite what some viewers seem to think, the Jennings are a close family. Paige isn't some neglected kid who's now part of someone else's family. All of this happened because she actually wants to be close to her parents and part of growing up is her understanding them on her own terms, beyond just how they relate to her and how they fail her.

Right now she feels like they're strangers, but there's other examples where she obviously is curious about who they are as people. One thing that comes to mind is when Elizabeth first starts telling Paige about Gregory and Paige immediately cuts in with "Did Dad know him?"

[jae]

I'm trying to imagine how Philip would realistically have refused to sleep with Irina that one time, though, and failing. It was a direct order, as part of a mission!

-J

[sistermagpie]

Ah, but I should clarify, it wouldn't be the refusal he was regretting, but the fact that he slept with her "as himself" on some level. Like, if he'd had to sleep with her for the mission I think he would have defended himself by saying that. It's complicated, but since Elizabeth is fine with Philip sleeping with people as part of the mission and Philip seemed to feel like he did wrong, I feel like that's got to be the real issue. If he'd tried to defend himself by saying it was for the mission he would have been lying again so he didn't do that, if that makes sense.

It's just the only way I can read that sequence because otherwise surely he would have said that. Even Claudia telling Elizabeth they slept together could still work--she could just be telling Elizabeth that this was something they did for the mission and maybe she should ask him about that...

[jae]

Ah, okay, gotcha. That makes sense.

-J

[theplatonicnonyeah]

How about Gabriel? Do you think he regrets anything?

I think there is also different ways of regretting the past. You can either wish certain things had not happened at all, or you can wish they had happened in a different way.

[sistermagpie]

Ooh. There's an interesting question. Gabriel and Claudia are fascinating in how they keep their own feelings so close to the chest. I don't think either of them much likes this Illegals 2 program and it's possible that Gabriel hates some of the ways he's been manipulating the two of them.

In my head, I like playing with the idea that Gabriel actually adores Philip--like Philip's a favorite and he hates manipulating him via Mischa Jr. etc. I have no idea how he really feels about him, though. And if he did really care about him I don't think Philip knows it.

[lovingboth]

The surviving ones, you mean? I suspect most of the dead ones would like to have changed something...

For Elizabeth, something that could have saved Gregory.

[treonb]

Most of them, probably, but I don't think Gregory would have changed anything. Not his relationship with Elizabeth, and not going out the way he did.

[theplatonicnonyeah]

I agree with this. His character was written in a way that seemed a bit fatalistic, but also very loyal. Possibly he would regret not having fought more for Elizabeth, but I don't think he would have been ready for family life. And quite honestly, the combination of a black man and a white woman at that time would have made living under cover more difficult.

[quantumreality]

I think Nina would totally shut herself up and not admit to Arkady she was acting as a double agent. Then she'd become the next Rezident when Arkady gets promoted back to Moscow, and she'd tell Stan to sod off.