The Americans 4.09
May. 12th, 2016 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhich was one long "I remember the 80s!" sensation for me, I mean, more than usual on this show. Not surprisingly, the title of this one was The Day After.
Most of all I remember what it was like to live at a time where we - meaning I and most people around me - thought that the two superpowerls blowing the world to kingdom come was a very real possibility. To have this ongoing fear. It wasn't a "sudden panic" sensation, more of a constant awareness thing. Onen of the reason why everyone was so giddy about Gorbachev and glasnost way before the Wall fell already was that it eased that constant mental pressure and suddenly, WWWII and nuclear armageddon wasn't so much in the cards anymore.
I don't think I saw The Day After on tv until a few years later, but I read a novel dealing with the same theme, and, yeah. What I didn't know at the time and only learned rather recently about (I think there was some type of a birthday anniversary of the man in question?) was the incident Oleg tells Tatiana about. Surely, if one single person ever saved the world, that Soviet officer who (correctly) guessed it was a computer malfunction, not US nuclear missiles approaching, was it. The Oleg and Tatiana scene had other things to convey as well - that they're lovers now, and that, like Nina, Tatiana has a way poorer background than privileged Oleg, son of a politbureau member - but Oleg confiding that story was to me the core of it. Tatiana is disturbed but doesn't refute Oleg's conclusion that Russian tech is way behind; she says that it's his job (as head of the Science department at the Rezidentura, lest we forget) to help with that. Meanwhile, in another subplot, William tells Philip in reply to the question whether William trusts the Americans over the Russians re: the use of biological weapons, no, he doesn't, but he trusts their containers actually work. It made me wonder whether the show will carry us as far as Chernobyl. The flawed-due-to-lack-of-money tech (and the inflexible bureaucracy) are about to ensure the end of the Soviet Union as much as anything else.
The officer in Oleg's story made a brave choice. "It's a big decision to make for one single person" says William to Philip when asked why he informed them at all about the latest possible bio weapon if he doesn't want them to report to the Centre. William wants to share the responsibility for not reporting. Philip can see his point, but Elizabeth's reaction to The Day After on tv was to recall the only country to have actually used nuclear bombs (twice) was the US and that therefore they need to share this intel with the centre. And yet's it's not her biggest decision of the episode; that, because it's incredibly personal, is to go through with the reason she originally befriended Young Hee for, which is now officially revealed. As a lot of people guessed, it's because Young Hee's husband Don is a position to get William that level 4 access. Which means the KGB needs leverage to blackmail Don with. Which means that Elizabeth-as-Patty, after searching Young Hee's house in vain for something to use against Don, proceeds to set him up the way the Polish dissident leader in s1 was (minus the "rape and battery" look): she drugs Don and makes it look as if he had sex with Patty.
Earlier, Philip advises Elizabeth not to go through with the plan, "not because of me, because of you", because he can sense she doesn't want to do this to her friend. But Elizabeth being Elizabeth, she does go through with it. Note that in this episode, too, as in the one two eps ago, the show repeatedly has Elizabeth looking in a mirror, which it used to do with Philip during his various crisis moments in s2 and s3. And while Elizabeth does go through with it (and Don, waking up, believes what she wants him to believe), she doesn't return home relieved but shattered. If Elizabeth is steering towards to a crisis of conscience, I think it's very fitting that hers isn't about to kill or not to kill, or to have sex with someone, but about betraying a personal relationship that's real for the state. It connects with Gabriel having brought up the Purge (and having taken part) twice now, and Elizabeth as the hardcore believer in the Cause, holding to that ideal as her justification. Earlier in the episode, Young Hee and Elizabeth talk about their mothers, and Elizabeth, in what is a slip of persona, tells Young Hee after hearing about Young Hee's tough mother that hers was hard, too. (Patty's mother walked out on her children and husband in the backstory Elizabeth told Young Hee a couple of episodes ago, as far as I recall; it's Nadeshda's mother who was hard and imprinted her with the "sacrifice for the Cause above all" ethic.) Elizabeth allowed herself to relate to Young Hee as herself, which means she's just not gone through yet another mission but did something devastating to her friend. We'll see what this will result in.
(BTW, it did occur to me that all around good guy Don might inadvertendly foil the KGB by immediately confessing to his wife that he slept with her best friend, thereby nixing the blackmail opportunity. In which case Elizabeth would have destroyed that friendship for nothing, but then again, I suspect whether or not William actually gets access to Level 4 as the result of her actions will be beside the point in terms of how this affects her personal development.)
Meanwhile, in another subplot: Paige has fun learning to drive (btw, that was another "I remember!" moment to me, because my driving lessons in the 80s from my father were similar) and not so joyfully keeps up her Pastor Tim Watch. Pastor Tim proves he didn't become a Youth Pastor without having real teenager reading skills and tells Philip Paige comes across as constantly worried and unhappy to him, instead of the cheerful facade she presents, and wants to have another chat with the entire Jennings family. (Well, not Henry.) Pastor Tim, you don't. Trust me, you don't.
Philip and Stan have taken up their squash matches again, with Stan noting that Philip these days is in far better condition. What with all the complaining Stan does about his new boss, I'm really curious about whom they've cast and what this guy will actually be like. (Stan isn't exactly an objective source.) During the long "Day After" watching sequence we see Stan and Matthew have joined the Jennings clan (minus Henry) for watching this, so I'm assuming Stan inviting himself over for dinners as much as Henry drops by at his place is back on, too. Given vacations are over for E & P with this episode, I'm curious whether or not Stan will notice Philip is looking more harrassed again, and if he does, whether he'll finally reciprocate in the "friend offering a shoulder" department.
Trivia: I know that song from the crosscutting between Paige's driving and Elizabeth's framing of Don, too. There's a German version, too, which I heard performed just the other day. "Völlig losgelöst von der Erde..."
Poor Young Hee. Even if Don immediately confesses and thus won't get turned into a KGB tool, her marriage has just taken a blow, and her friend whom she bonded so much with isn't her friend. (BTW, another reason for the seven months time jump; no matter how instantly Young Hee liked Patty, if she'd known her only a few weeks I doubt she'd have trusted her enough to leave her kids and house with her for the weekend.)
Most of all I remember what it was like to live at a time where we - meaning I and most people around me - thought that the two superpowerls blowing the world to kingdom come was a very real possibility. To have this ongoing fear. It wasn't a "sudden panic" sensation, more of a constant awareness thing. Onen of the reason why everyone was so giddy about Gorbachev and glasnost way before the Wall fell already was that it eased that constant mental pressure and suddenly, WWWII and nuclear armageddon wasn't so much in the cards anymore.
I don't think I saw The Day After on tv until a few years later, but I read a novel dealing with the same theme, and, yeah. What I didn't know at the time and only learned rather recently about (I think there was some type of a birthday anniversary of the man in question?) was the incident Oleg tells Tatiana about. Surely, if one single person ever saved the world, that Soviet officer who (correctly) guessed it was a computer malfunction, not US nuclear missiles approaching, was it. The Oleg and Tatiana scene had other things to convey as well - that they're lovers now, and that, like Nina, Tatiana has a way poorer background than privileged Oleg, son of a politbureau member - but Oleg confiding that story was to me the core of it. Tatiana is disturbed but doesn't refute Oleg's conclusion that Russian tech is way behind; she says that it's his job (as head of the Science department at the Rezidentura, lest we forget) to help with that. Meanwhile, in another subplot, William tells Philip in reply to the question whether William trusts the Americans over the Russians re: the use of biological weapons, no, he doesn't, but he trusts their containers actually work. It made me wonder whether the show will carry us as far as Chernobyl. The flawed-due-to-lack-of-money tech (and the inflexible bureaucracy) are about to ensure the end of the Soviet Union as much as anything else.
The officer in Oleg's story made a brave choice. "It's a big decision to make for one single person" says William to Philip when asked why he informed them at all about the latest possible bio weapon if he doesn't want them to report to the Centre. William wants to share the responsibility for not reporting. Philip can see his point, but Elizabeth's reaction to The Day After on tv was to recall the only country to have actually used nuclear bombs (twice) was the US and that therefore they need to share this intel with the centre. And yet's it's not her biggest decision of the episode; that, because it's incredibly personal, is to go through with the reason she originally befriended Young Hee for, which is now officially revealed. As a lot of people guessed, it's because Young Hee's husband Don is a position to get William that level 4 access. Which means the KGB needs leverage to blackmail Don with. Which means that Elizabeth-as-Patty, after searching Young Hee's house in vain for something to use against Don, proceeds to set him up the way the Polish dissident leader in s1 was (minus the "rape and battery" look): she drugs Don and makes it look as if he had sex with Patty.
Earlier, Philip advises Elizabeth not to go through with the plan, "not because of me, because of you", because he can sense she doesn't want to do this to her friend. But Elizabeth being Elizabeth, she does go through with it. Note that in this episode, too, as in the one two eps ago, the show repeatedly has Elizabeth looking in a mirror, which it used to do with Philip during his various crisis moments in s2 and s3. And while Elizabeth does go through with it (and Don, waking up, believes what she wants him to believe), she doesn't return home relieved but shattered. If Elizabeth is steering towards to a crisis of conscience, I think it's very fitting that hers isn't about to kill or not to kill, or to have sex with someone, but about betraying a personal relationship that's real for the state. It connects with Gabriel having brought up the Purge (and having taken part) twice now, and Elizabeth as the hardcore believer in the Cause, holding to that ideal as her justification. Earlier in the episode, Young Hee and Elizabeth talk about their mothers, and Elizabeth, in what is a slip of persona, tells Young Hee after hearing about Young Hee's tough mother that hers was hard, too. (Patty's mother walked out on her children and husband in the backstory Elizabeth told Young Hee a couple of episodes ago, as far as I recall; it's Nadeshda's mother who was hard and imprinted her with the "sacrifice for the Cause above all" ethic.) Elizabeth allowed herself to relate to Young Hee as herself, which means she's just not gone through yet another mission but did something devastating to her friend. We'll see what this will result in.
(BTW, it did occur to me that all around good guy Don might inadvertendly foil the KGB by immediately confessing to his wife that he slept with her best friend, thereby nixing the blackmail opportunity. In which case Elizabeth would have destroyed that friendship for nothing, but then again, I suspect whether or not William actually gets access to Level 4 as the result of her actions will be beside the point in terms of how this affects her personal development.)
Meanwhile, in another subplot: Paige has fun learning to drive (btw, that was another "I remember!" moment to me, because my driving lessons in the 80s from my father were similar) and not so joyfully keeps up her Pastor Tim Watch. Pastor Tim proves he didn't become a Youth Pastor without having real teenager reading skills and tells Philip Paige comes across as constantly worried and unhappy to him, instead of the cheerful facade she presents, and wants to have another chat with the entire Jennings family. (Well, not Henry.) Pastor Tim, you don't. Trust me, you don't.
Philip and Stan have taken up their squash matches again, with Stan noting that Philip these days is in far better condition. What with all the complaining Stan does about his new boss, I'm really curious about whom they've cast and what this guy will actually be like. (Stan isn't exactly an objective source.) During the long "Day After" watching sequence we see Stan and Matthew have joined the Jennings clan (minus Henry) for watching this, so I'm assuming Stan inviting himself over for dinners as much as Henry drops by at his place is back on, too. Given vacations are over for E & P with this episode, I'm curious whether or not Stan will notice Philip is looking more harrassed again, and if he does, whether he'll finally reciprocate in the "friend offering a shoulder" department.
Trivia: I know that song from the crosscutting between Paige's driving and Elizabeth's framing of Don, too. There's a German version, too, which I heard performed just the other day. "Völlig losgelöst von der Erde..."
Poor Young Hee. Even if Don immediately confesses and thus won't get turned into a KGB tool, her marriage has just taken a blow, and her friend whom she bonded so much with isn't her friend. (BTW, another reason for the seven months time jump; no matter how instantly Young Hee liked Patty, if she'd known her only a few weeks I doubt she'd have trusted her enough to leave her kids and house with her for the weekend.)
