Great opening episode. I was a bit taken aback by Oleg openly declaring the Soviets should get out of Afghanistan since the Soviet Union wasn’t known for their tolerance of criticism of superiors or “insufficient displays of patriotic fervor”.
I did love how the video display of the Mujahadeen with the Soviet hostages was clearly meant to evoke recent ISIS videos without being too preachy or having anvils crash through the ceiling and killing any actors.
Agreed. More likely they like the idea of her joining the FBI in ten years or something similar.
Hostage? I thought he was a POW.
Maybe the Afghani Mujahadeen did make videos like this in 1992 but, without proof, I have trouble believing they were that sophisticated.
I do wonder would happens to Phillip & Elizabeth if they’re still alive & uncompromised come the collapse of the USSR. Do they get recalled, or just left to their own devices? The SVR still has an Illegals Program (yes I know it never operated quite like it does on the show). I can see Phillip just saying “Fuck it” and wanting to disappear into the life a normal American, but Elizabeth is s true believer in Communism (not just a nomenklatura paying lip service). Is she patriotic enough as a Russian to want to back to a home that no longer exist and spend end her days as bitter old alcoholic pensioner who occasionally get’s trotted out to speak to younger spies?
Kind of interesting to think about loyalty to communism vs. to their nation.
Are you loyal to the USA or capitalism?
Phillip & Elizabeth are Russians, Paige obv. isn’t … you can see where that might go later on …
Ooh! She could be like Sophia Turner!
That is some mighty fine weed you have there.
So…you’re saying that the KGB is trying to actively create child prostitutes?
I’m… not sure what you’re saying. But the KGB wants her now so that when she graduates from college she can apply to join the FBI or the CIA, something that Philip and Elizabeth, who would never stand up to a background check, couldn’t do.
Paige is much more valuable to them because of her background and her ability to pass as American than because she might be able to honeytrap pedarests.
The CIA would probably check on an applicant’s parents as well, if only to verify their base biography.
They don’t want a 14-year-old. They want a natural born American with a bulletproof background who, in 10 years or so, get a job with the CIA or the FBI or the Secret Service or who could go to one of the military academies & start climbing her way through the military ranks (women started getting admitted in the late '70s). They don’t want her now - they want who she’s going to be.
Indeed. That premise was laid out in the penultimate episode of S2. The whole sleeper thing.
** Sherrerd** - Do you really think Philip and Elizabeth are arguing about whether Paige should fuck some potential informer because, if you do, I hope you’re watching a very different show to everyone else.
Yes, the program is about the future. A sensitive position applicant is gone over pretty thoroughly, the parents not so much. If, at some future point, Paige was applying for a CIA or FBI job, Phillip and Elizabeth might get the once-over and their covers could stand that. Ironically Paige, already participating in anti-nuke marches,might run into a little trouble herself.
Of course, part of the process that the “Center” might want Paige to undertake is identifying what guy in her college class has the most potential for government service and marrying him. Imagine a future Secretary of Defense with a mole for a wife! Unlikely, I know, but it’s the way spy agencies think.
The Soviet-Afghan War was from 1979-1989. VHS recorders were common in the 80s.
Indeed, rural 1980s Afghanistan was positivey awash in them.
Can’t tell you what a battle it was in Balkh province it was between VHS and Betamax.
It was an American proxy war. What makes you think they couldn’t score a video recorder from any number of sources, including journalists?
The fact you don’t have a cite for one.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. We’re done here.
Plenty of video is easily found with a Google search.
I wondered the same thing. I’ve spent a quarter century living in Russia, and I’ve never encountered a dish baked in a lasagna pan.
They do have this “traditional” thing where chunks of meat and potatoes are baked together in a kind of gravy, but it’s always in little earthenware pots (individual servings). An acquaintance of mine always referred to it as “Hunk-o-meat.”