The Americans 3.05
Feb. 27th, 2015 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThis show. This show. It really has become one of the most complex things on tv right now, and why it doesn't get all the awards in the world, I can't understand.
And an acting goldmine. And a continuity treasure, because a new watcher would not understand the scenes between, say, Oleg and Stan at all. Mind you, nothing ever is perfect, and so we also get a continuity glitch - last episode Philip told Stan he was single now and to go dating again, this episode Philip says to Stan "but wasn't the whole point of going to EST to get Sandra back?", so I suspect some lack of coordination between the scriptwriters of last week and this week. But it's only a minor, minor point it what otherwise is a continuity feast. Stan's confession re: Nina to Sandra - and her reaction - seems to have acted as a catalyst; he accepts now that Sandra has moved on, this whole getting-her-back-idea won't work, and when Henry brings up Sandra at dinner (btw, love that Single!Stan has taken to have dinner with the Jennings), he doesn't fall into an angst fest but reacts well. Also, I love that he has a conversation with Philip about Matthew, which I was hoping would happen at some point, but more about this when I get to investigation of parenthood in the episode. Most amazingly and fascinatingly though: Stan approaches Oleg as a way to find out whether his hunch about Zinaida being a plant is real - and I can't tell whether Stan's "confirm Zinaida is a double to me and we'll trade her for Nina, thereby saving Nina" is sincere or whether he's doing to Oleg precisely what the KGB did to him last season. Stan, have you started Operation Turning Oleg? Either way, Oleg's angry monologue and stunt with the gun two episodes ago must have made him realise not only that Oleg loved/loves Nina (which is not what the cover story was that Nina told him in s2, where Oleg was presented as a greedy blackmailer) but also what exactly Oleg was doing (i.e. that it was an attempt to turn him with Nina as leverage from the start). I could believe both - that Stan still loves Nina enough to want to save her and now he's found a way that could work, and that Stan, having figured it out, is mainly after the truth about Zinaida and has realised Oleg is the one KGB official whom he can have emotional leverage on.
(Sidenote: I had wondered in the first episode where Zinaida appeared whether Stan would trade her for Nina, but then I assumed Zinaida was genuine and Stan would do it in a fool for love way, not that he would do it as a smart counterintellegence move. Stan, you're back in the game, and how.)
As Gabriel - who is really a great handler in that scene, with the mixture of professional flattery, emotional reassurance, emotional pressure and gentle firmness - summarizes, Philip currently has to juggle Martha wanting a child with Clark, the ongoing Paige crisis and Kimberley the teenager as an asset. And it all bleeds into each other. I assumed Philip-as-Clark was just humoring Martha by going with her to the children center to watch the toddlers, but then Philip tells Elizabeth that he is actually tempted to give in on the child front. (Elizabeth's facial expression to that one is great, and I don't think it's because of the insane logistics - there's no way Clark and Martha could foster a child without Clark's background being checked. But that's not why Elizabeth's face falls.) And you know, it makes some type of psychological sense. Which is why I love we get the Stan and Philip conversation about Matthew in this particular episode. Stan can't relate to current, teenage Matthew anymore. Matthew is an alien. He could to child!Matthew. Philip, engaging in a bout of nostalgia about Henry and Paige as small kids with Elizabeth, has always enjoyed being a father, and been good at it, but last season, teenage Paige turned into an alien he had arguments with, and that was before the ghastly news about the second generation program became known. This season, he's engaged in the schizophrenic task of on the one hand wanting to save his daughter from spydom (leaving aside for the moment of how unlikely Paige is to actually want to become an agent) and on the other making a teenage girl exactly her age (I don't think it's a coincidence we find out Kimberly is 15 the episode after Paige's 15th birthday) and in what looks increasingly like similar circumstances into an asset. The Philip/Jim (assistermagpie said, I don't think it's a coincidence Philip picked an alias that rhymes with Tim, as in Paige's Pastor) and Kimberley scenes manage to be both incredibly uncomfortable (though he hasn't done anything sexual yet) and riveting, because the show makes Kimberly into a real person. (Who is also not sexualized by the camera, or made to look Lolita-esque.) Who has a father working as a spy which she doesn't know, who is often absent, she doesn't know where, her lonely present clashes with her happy childhood memories. "If someone told me he has a second family elsewhere, I'd be, like, yeah, that eplains it", says Kimmie, and Philip who has indulged briefly in a fantasy of Clark adopting a small kid with Martha didn't even have to hear that to get the parallel point, but it underscores it. What "Jim" does with Kimberly so far is paternal more than anything else - listening to her, joking with her in the kitchen, foodfight, very much in the same playful way Philip did with Paige and Henry in the early episodes of the show. Except that when he finds the sleeping Kimberly on the sofa, she wakes up and kisses him, and if her parents hadn't come home, it's likely Philip this time would have gone through with the seduction routine.
Which leads into the final scene with Elizabeth and Philip when he comes home, which is one of the show's richest so far, and that's saying something. We've known Philip was troubled by the idea of "using someone that young" from the start, but this conversation is the first time where it's made clear that so is Elizabeth (the mutual "I don't know", as opposed to Elizabeth repeating the party line that she said at the start of this, that Afghanistan is a hard target (with the implication this justifies everything)). And this is the first time we see them talk about the way they were trained to have sex with people as young (and we know they were very young, though not as young as Kimberly) agents. This s how has practically a patent on how to make sex an important part of characterisation instead of just doing sex scenes for viewing numbers. Elizabeth and Philp don't have sex in that conversation, but they're lying in their bed together, going from not looking to looking at each other, and it's both intimate and painful and tender. Meanwhile, we get Philip's flashbacks to his training, which is what tv tropes call fan disservice, as the women he has sex with except for the first are far heavier and older than anyone you usually see having sex on tv, and at the end of the sequence is a middle aged paunchy man removing his trousers. (Thereby, the show clears up something I've been wondering about - yes, the KGB in this universe acknowledges not all targets are going to be straight.) And then comes something that ties this scene to Behind the Red Room last season, when Elizabeth insisted to find out what "Clark" did with Martha, and even to her reaction in season 1 when she finds out Philip lied to her about Irina. "They told us to make it real for us", says Philip. "Is that what you do with Martha?" asks Elizabeth. "I guess." And then comes the unexpected and yet entirely character prepared question and answer: "Do you have to make it real with me?" And Philip, looking at her, stroking her cheek, says "Sometimes".
I can't think of another show who goes their with their main couple. But this show always took serious that Philip and Elizabeth are trained liars, day in, day out, in every area, and that the question of whether they can be truthful to each other was one of the big challenges. What bothered Elizabeth, whose personas often carry parts of herself, ever since Martha raved to "Jennifer" about how Clark was in bed was the idea of Philip showing a true part of himself there. What bothered her with Irina wasn't the sex per se but that he lied about it when she directly asked him, and that she couldn't tell until Claudia told her. Because how can you ever tell the difference, what's true and what's faked? Especially if it's someone like Philip who behind his easy going Philiip Jennings persona is far more private and walled against revealing truths about himself than Elizabeth?
The amazing thing is that this admission about lying in the most intimate way - when having sex with, making love to each other - "Sometimes" - works actually as the opposite of alienation. They've been arguing through much of the last episodes, but at this moment, they're with each other again in every sense. When he adds "not now", they keep looking at each other and she moves towards him, it's like a leap of faith on her part.
Speculation for future episodes: Gabriel says that the decision is Philip's but "I don't see how you can run her (as an asset) in the long term without it", i.e. without "Jim" having sex with Kimberly. Combined with the mutual "I don't know"s from Philip and Elizabeth later, it makes me wonder whether Philip will indeed figure out a way to not have sex with Kimberly while using her as an asset. (Jim could always declare he can't possibly because she's a minor, and that they'll have to wait until she's legal, or that he respects her too much not to wait or what not.) But while that would remove one squick for him and the audience, it still doesn't change he'd exploit Kimberly emotionally. Possibly destroy her emotionally, if she becomes attached to "Jim" as a second father figure instead of as a lover.
(...and while we're at the overlaping emotions and responsibilities, Gabriel as this season shows is a father figure for both Philip and Elizabeth. Who has to motivate them to do stuff just like this.)
Ongoing Afghanistan then and today parallels: are now enlarged to Afghanistan and Pakistan then and today, as this episode's installment has Yousef telling "Scott" of how the fundamentalists are everywhere now in Pakistan as well, people are growing beards and they now get asked how religious they are.
Lastly: Elizabeth's asset Lisa is extremely sympathetic, and now I'm afraid for her, too, because if someone finds out the truth her life will be ruined. Again: the genius of this show. The targets and marks are real people, instead of solely a series of dupes never getting characterisation, with the audience never feeling for them. This is how you do morally grey.
And an acting goldmine. And a continuity treasure, because a new watcher would not understand the scenes between, say, Oleg and Stan at all. Mind you, nothing ever is perfect, and so we also get a continuity glitch - last episode Philip told Stan he was single now and to go dating again, this episode Philip says to Stan "but wasn't the whole point of going to EST to get Sandra back?", so I suspect some lack of coordination between the scriptwriters of last week and this week. But it's only a minor, minor point it what otherwise is a continuity feast. Stan's confession re: Nina to Sandra - and her reaction - seems to have acted as a catalyst; he accepts now that Sandra has moved on, this whole getting-her-back-idea won't work, and when Henry brings up Sandra at dinner (btw, love that Single!Stan has taken to have dinner with the Jennings), he doesn't fall into an angst fest but reacts well. Also, I love that he has a conversation with Philip about Matthew, which I was hoping would happen at some point, but more about this when I get to investigation of parenthood in the episode. Most amazingly and fascinatingly though: Stan approaches Oleg as a way to find out whether his hunch about Zinaida being a plant is real - and I can't tell whether Stan's "confirm Zinaida is a double to me and we'll trade her for Nina, thereby saving Nina" is sincere or whether he's doing to Oleg precisely what the KGB did to him last season. Stan, have you started Operation Turning Oleg? Either way, Oleg's angry monologue and stunt with the gun two episodes ago must have made him realise not only that Oleg loved/loves Nina (which is not what the cover story was that Nina told him in s2, where Oleg was presented as a greedy blackmailer) but also what exactly Oleg was doing (i.e. that it was an attempt to turn him with Nina as leverage from the start). I could believe both - that Stan still loves Nina enough to want to save her and now he's found a way that could work, and that Stan, having figured it out, is mainly after the truth about Zinaida and has realised Oleg is the one KGB official whom he can have emotional leverage on.
(Sidenote: I had wondered in the first episode where Zinaida appeared whether Stan would trade her for Nina, but then I assumed Zinaida was genuine and Stan would do it in a fool for love way, not that he would do it as a smart counterintellegence move. Stan, you're back in the game, and how.)
As Gabriel - who is really a great handler in that scene, with the mixture of professional flattery, emotional reassurance, emotional pressure and gentle firmness - summarizes, Philip currently has to juggle Martha wanting a child with Clark, the ongoing Paige crisis and Kimberley the teenager as an asset. And it all bleeds into each other. I assumed Philip-as-Clark was just humoring Martha by going with her to the children center to watch the toddlers, but then Philip tells Elizabeth that he is actually tempted to give in on the child front. (Elizabeth's facial expression to that one is great, and I don't think it's because of the insane logistics - there's no way Clark and Martha could foster a child without Clark's background being checked. But that's not why Elizabeth's face falls.) And you know, it makes some type of psychological sense. Which is why I love we get the Stan and Philip conversation about Matthew in this particular episode. Stan can't relate to current, teenage Matthew anymore. Matthew is an alien. He could to child!Matthew. Philip, engaging in a bout of nostalgia about Henry and Paige as small kids with Elizabeth, has always enjoyed being a father, and been good at it, but last season, teenage Paige turned into an alien he had arguments with, and that was before the ghastly news about the second generation program became known. This season, he's engaged in the schizophrenic task of on the one hand wanting to save his daughter from spydom (leaving aside for the moment of how unlikely Paige is to actually want to become an agent) and on the other making a teenage girl exactly her age (I don't think it's a coincidence we find out Kimberly is 15 the episode after Paige's 15th birthday) and in what looks increasingly like similar circumstances into an asset. The Philip/Jim (as
sistermagpie said, I don't think it's a coincidence Philip picked an alias that rhymes with Tim, as in Paige's Pastor) and Kimberley scenes manage to be both incredibly uncomfortable (though he hasn't done anything sexual yet) and riveting, because the show makes Kimberly into a real person. (Who is also not sexualized by the camera, or made to look Lolita-esque.) Who has a father working as a spy which she doesn't know, who is often absent, she doesn't know where, her lonely present clashes with her happy childhood memories. "If someone told me he has a second family elsewhere, I'd be, like, yeah, that eplains it", says Kimmie, and Philip who has indulged briefly in a fantasy of Clark adopting a small kid with Martha didn't even have to hear that to get the parallel point, but it underscores it. What "Jim" does with Kimberly so far is paternal more than anything else - listening to her, joking with her in the kitchen, foodfight, very much in the same playful way Philip did with Paige and Henry in the early episodes of the show. Except that when he finds the sleeping Kimberly on the sofa, she wakes up and kisses him, and if her parents hadn't come home, it's likely Philip this time would have gone through with the seduction routine. Which leads into the final scene with Elizabeth and Philip when he comes home, which is one of the show's richest so far, and that's saying something. We've known Philip was troubled by the idea of "using someone that young" from the start, but this conversation is the first time where it's made clear that so is Elizabeth (the mutual "I don't know", as opposed to Elizabeth repeating the party line that she said at the start of this, that Afghanistan is a hard target (with the implication this justifies everything)). And this is the first time we see them talk about the way they were trained to have sex with people as young (and we know they were very young, though not as young as Kimberly) agents. This s how has practically a patent on how to make sex an important part of characterisation instead of just doing sex scenes for viewing numbers. Elizabeth and Philp don't have sex in that conversation, but they're lying in their bed together, going from not looking to looking at each other, and it's both intimate and painful and tender. Meanwhile, we get Philip's flashbacks to his training, which is what tv tropes call fan disservice, as the women he has sex with except for the first are far heavier and older than anyone you usually see having sex on tv, and at the end of the sequence is a middle aged paunchy man removing his trousers. (Thereby, the show clears up something I've been wondering about - yes, the KGB in this universe acknowledges not all targets are going to be straight.) And then comes something that ties this scene to Behind the Red Room last season, when Elizabeth insisted to find out what "Clark" did with Martha, and even to her reaction in season 1 when she finds out Philip lied to her about Irina. "They told us to make it real for us", says Philip. "Is that what you do with Martha?" asks Elizabeth. "I guess." And then comes the unexpected and yet entirely character prepared question and answer: "Do you have to make it real with me?" And Philip, looking at her, stroking her cheek, says "Sometimes".
I can't think of another show who goes their with their main couple. But this show always took serious that Philip and Elizabeth are trained liars, day in, day out, in every area, and that the question of whether they can be truthful to each other was one of the big challenges. What bothered Elizabeth, whose personas often carry parts of herself, ever since Martha raved to "Jennifer" about how Clark was in bed was the idea of Philip showing a true part of himself there. What bothered her with Irina wasn't the sex per se but that he lied about it when she directly asked him, and that she couldn't tell until Claudia told her. Because how can you ever tell the difference, what's true and what's faked? Especially if it's someone like Philip who behind his easy going Philiip Jennings persona is far more private and walled against revealing truths about himself than Elizabeth?
The amazing thing is that this admission about lying in the most intimate way - when having sex with, making love to each other - "Sometimes" - works actually as the opposite of alienation. They've been arguing through much of the last episodes, but at this moment, they're with each other again in every sense. When he adds "not now", they keep looking at each other and she moves towards him, it's like a leap of faith on her part.
Speculation for future episodes: Gabriel says that the decision is Philip's but "I don't see how you can run her (as an asset) in the long term without it", i.e. without "Jim" having sex with Kimberly. Combined with the mutual "I don't know"s from Philip and Elizabeth later, it makes me wonder whether Philip will indeed figure out a way to not have sex with Kimberly while using her as an asset. (Jim could always declare he can't possibly because she's a minor, and that they'll have to wait until she's legal, or that he respects her too much not to wait or what not.) But while that would remove one squick for him and the audience, it still doesn't change he'd exploit Kimberly emotionally. Possibly destroy her emotionally, if she becomes attached to "Jim" as a second father figure instead of as a lover.
(...and while we're at the overlaping emotions and responsibilities, Gabriel as this season shows is a father figure for both Philip and Elizabeth. Who has to motivate them to do stuff just like this.)
Ongoing Afghanistan then and today parallels: are now enlarged to Afghanistan and Pakistan then and today, as this episode's installment has Yousef telling "Scott" of how the fundamentalists are everywhere now in Pakistan as well, people are growing beards and they now get asked how religious they are.
Lastly: Elizabeth's asset Lisa is extremely sympathetic, and now I'm afraid for her, too, because if someone finds out the truth her life will be ruined. Again: the genius of this show. The targets and marks are real people, instead of solely a series of dupes never getting characterisation, with the audience never feeling for them. This is how you do morally grey.
