The Americans 4.11.
May. 26th, 2016 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which more revelations happen, and not always those I expected.
To start with the most obvious: I was relieved that the KGB’s plan for Don turned out to be something other than a simple “clear William for level 4, or your wife finds out about your supposed one night stand!”, because as stated in previous reviews, that just didn’t seem to be good enough leverage, and by confessing the truth (or rather, what he thought was the truth) to Young Hee, Don could have rendered in null and void at any given point. Otoh Patty supposedly being pregnant and committing suicide was certainly believable enough to guilt trip Don into letting her family (the carefully previously mentioned brother and father) into his office, thus giving Gabriel & colleague the opportunity to copy all the codes while Philip distracted Don with the money claim.
It’s both more clever and more vile than a simple blackmail operation. And more inherently destructive to Don and Young Hee. Young Hee probably could have forgiven a one night stand, even with a friend, though it would have been hard. But pregnancy-suicide? And how likely is it Don won’t break down and tell her now? That’s what Elizabeth meant last week when she told Gabriel that it was this step, not the fake one night stand, that would destroy Young Hee and Don.
That the Centre didn’t go for her request, btw, was no surprise. Otoh what was a surprise that Stan, in the same episode, chooses not to blackmail Oleg. I fully expected him to, roaring rampage of revenge and all, and kept wondering whether this was meant to be reverse psychology during his conversation with Oleg, but no, so far, at least, Stan seems to actually mean what he said. Which in turn means he did learn something from the Amador events in season 1. (And note he calls his own murder “just as bad” as Amador’s – as he doesn’t know how Amador actually died.) I like it when the show overturns my expectations like that, especially if it means we won’t get into a repeat storyline as I feared when Gaad died in the last episode. Otoh I can’t believe we’re actually done with Oleg and Stan, and so I wonder whether my other guess about Oleg’s growing issues leading him to offer becoming a double may still come true.
Another surprise: the titular “dinner for 7” being less awkward than I had expected. I mean, there was awkwardness, but come on. Given the circumstances, it went amazingly well. (My comparisons for awkward cast dinners – in a glorious entertainment for the viewers kind of way – are the ones with Arvin Sloane as host and the Bristows as guests in seasons 1 and 4 of Alias, and more recently the awkwardly starting yet then touching dinner in Bates Motel season 3.) I mean, Pastor Tim was startled to find out the neighbor next door and friend of the family was an FBI agent, but he didn’t display his surprise in a way that made Stan suspicious, and Alice didn’t, either.
On a note of “is this real or not?” Elizabeth throughout the episode getting in conversation with Pastor Tim. During the second time this happened, I thought I had figured it out, that she was after the tape (if it exists, and wasn’t just a bluff) Alice made and wanted to lead him into handing it over to her. And during the next encounter, when she evidently had Young Hee on her mind, I wondered whether what was happening was similar to Elizabeth’s season 2 conversations with Brad and Lisa, where she talked to her assets about something that was truly troubling her at the time, i.e. used a professional circumstance (and Tim is an asset now, whether or not he’s aware of that, they’re working him) for some emotional relief . Or: the fact that Tim shows up early in the episode to apologize actually made Elizabeth warm up to him a bit. Or it could be all of the above. I guess we’ll see.
Of course, in the episode’s final scene with Paige, Elizabeth cooly analyzes the situation – i.e. that Alice and Tim feel guilty being of advantage – and that in addition to being true also gives Paige the impression of being trusted; in fact, she can see the emotional mechanics at work here herself and has another spy-in-training moment when telling her mother what Matthew told her – right before witnessing, for the first time, an undisguised truth her parents have kept carefully hidden from her so far, i.e. just how lethally dangerous they are. I knew what was coming as soon as the two men intent on mugging (and potentially raping?) showed up, but that didn’t stop me from holding my breath. And to her credit, Elizabeth at first tries to defuse the situation by handing over her wallet, not for the muggers’ sakes but because she knows what this will mean to Paige. But when it doesn’t work, Paige witnesses her mother being a trained killer in action, and there’s no way to unsee that, ever again. No matter how much or little Paige at this point bought into her parents’ insistence that what they do doesn’t involve hurting people, there is a difference between speculation and knowing. Of course here her mother was protecting her. But Paige is too smart not to realize the full implication. And now she’s witnessed death for the first time.
Something tells me it won’t be the last.
Trivia note: aaaand Aderholt is onto the mailbot! Methinks we will not see it again.
To start with the most obvious: I was relieved that the KGB’s plan for Don turned out to be something other than a simple “clear William for level 4, or your wife finds out about your supposed one night stand!”, because as stated in previous reviews, that just didn’t seem to be good enough leverage, and by confessing the truth (or rather, what he thought was the truth) to Young Hee, Don could have rendered in null and void at any given point. Otoh Patty supposedly being pregnant and committing suicide was certainly believable enough to guilt trip Don into letting her family (the carefully previously mentioned brother and father) into his office, thus giving Gabriel & colleague the opportunity to copy all the codes while Philip distracted Don with the money claim.
It’s both more clever and more vile than a simple blackmail operation. And more inherently destructive to Don and Young Hee. Young Hee probably could have forgiven a one night stand, even with a friend, though it would have been hard. But pregnancy-suicide? And how likely is it Don won’t break down and tell her now? That’s what Elizabeth meant last week when she told Gabriel that it was this step, not the fake one night stand, that would destroy Young Hee and Don.
That the Centre didn’t go for her request, btw, was no surprise. Otoh what was a surprise that Stan, in the same episode, chooses not to blackmail Oleg. I fully expected him to, roaring rampage of revenge and all, and kept wondering whether this was meant to be reverse psychology during his conversation with Oleg, but no, so far, at least, Stan seems to actually mean what he said. Which in turn means he did learn something from the Amador events in season 1. (And note he calls his own murder “just as bad” as Amador’s – as he doesn’t know how Amador actually died.) I like it when the show overturns my expectations like that, especially if it means we won’t get into a repeat storyline as I feared when Gaad died in the last episode. Otoh I can’t believe we’re actually done with Oleg and Stan, and so I wonder whether my other guess about Oleg’s growing issues leading him to offer becoming a double may still come true.
Another surprise: the titular “dinner for 7” being less awkward than I had expected. I mean, there was awkwardness, but come on. Given the circumstances, it went amazingly well. (My comparisons for awkward cast dinners – in a glorious entertainment for the viewers kind of way – are the ones with Arvin Sloane as host and the Bristows as guests in seasons 1 and 4 of Alias, and more recently the awkwardly starting yet then touching dinner in Bates Motel season 3.) I mean, Pastor Tim was startled to find out the neighbor next door and friend of the family was an FBI agent, but he didn’t display his surprise in a way that made Stan suspicious, and Alice didn’t, either.
On a note of “is this real or not?” Elizabeth throughout the episode getting in conversation with Pastor Tim. During the second time this happened, I thought I had figured it out, that she was after the tape (if it exists, and wasn’t just a bluff) Alice made and wanted to lead him into handing it over to her. And during the next encounter, when she evidently had Young Hee on her mind, I wondered whether what was happening was similar to Elizabeth’s season 2 conversations with Brad and Lisa, where she talked to her assets about something that was truly troubling her at the time, i.e. used a professional circumstance (and Tim is an asset now, whether or not he’s aware of that, they’re working him) for some emotional relief . Or: the fact that Tim shows up early in the episode to apologize actually made Elizabeth warm up to him a bit. Or it could be all of the above. I guess we’ll see.
Of course, in the episode’s final scene with Paige, Elizabeth cooly analyzes the situation – i.e. that Alice and Tim feel guilty being of advantage – and that in addition to being true also gives Paige the impression of being trusted; in fact, she can see the emotional mechanics at work here herself and has another spy-in-training moment when telling her mother what Matthew told her – right before witnessing, for the first time, an undisguised truth her parents have kept carefully hidden from her so far, i.e. just how lethally dangerous they are. I knew what was coming as soon as the two men intent on mugging (and potentially raping?) showed up, but that didn’t stop me from holding my breath. And to her credit, Elizabeth at first tries to defuse the situation by handing over her wallet, not for the muggers’ sakes but because she knows what this will mean to Paige. But when it doesn’t work, Paige witnesses her mother being a trained killer in action, and there’s no way to unsee that, ever again. No matter how much or little Paige at this point bought into her parents’ insistence that what they do doesn’t involve hurting people, there is a difference between speculation and knowing. Of course here her mother was protecting her. But Paige is too smart not to realize the full implication. And now she’s witnessed death for the first time.
Something tells me it won’t be the last.
Trivia note: aaaand Aderholt is onto the mailbot! Methinks we will not see it again.
