This would be REALLY cool, though I think Paige will probably take on the cause.****
I have to tell you Octarine, I agree with you, setting up that confrontation would make the series REALLY interesting. While I don’t root for P and E, if I had to choose between the two, Phillip gets my vote. The guy seems to have at least a semblance of a conscience…it’s increasingly obvious his qualms about his job are growing and whatever respect he has for his superiors in dwindling. I have always wanted him to defect.
Predicting what happens with Paige is almost impossible, and I keep going back and forth on that. My logical mind tells me Paige won’t flip. One reason is that wouldn’t this kind of show need some kind of confrontational aspect to keep it going? If The Americans turns into the KGB version of Family Affair (I’m dating myself on that one)…I just don’t think it works. For me personally, it would be a shark jumping moment, and I probably would stop watching.
Conversely, having Phillip and Paige on the opposite side of E, Gabriel and the motherland, and you have all sorts of possibilities.
Plan B would be to have Henry find out somehow, have a “Holy S***” moment, and blab to his new buddy Stan.
I also echo your thoughts on Martha…and I can do without Gabriel…as I saw on some other blog about the show…the guy’s a snake.
Qualms about the job? I really don’t see it. He does not like its unpleasant aspects and at times it gets to him, but he does them anyway. He had no problem with killing the South African spy kid, it was Elizabeth who convinced him and the Black commie not to do it. He told Elizabeth that the woman in the previous episode had to die, when she was unsure about it.He is far more cold than Elizabeth in pretty much everything, Frankly, most people are projecting their patriotism onto him.
I anything Elizabeth has handled the Paige issue a lot better, by engaging with her and keeping her on the straight and narrow, which with a teen like that is no small deal. Philip has had one angry outburst over “Jesus” and exasperated sighs.
I am surprised that the KGB with all its uberprepardness does not have a “so you kid found out you are a spy” manual.
One thing I keep noticing about creepy-or-not (we need a poll!) Pastor Tim is that in certain shots, the actor who plays him, Kelly AuCoin, bears a resemblance to our own Philip, Matthey Rhys. There’s one wig Philip wears that’s a ringer for Pastor Tim’s hairdo, too.
I would be surprised if this were accidental. There’s almost certainly a confrontation between Tim and Philip ahead–and Paige will be there, to choose between her “fathers.”
Paige’s religious conversion has been presented fairly straightforwardly. The writers haven’t been hitting us over the head with “Jesus is the Way” dialogue from Paige, but it does seem likely that she will have a bad reaction to the USSR’s aggressive atheism (and we know that Paige likes to do her research, so she will surely be running across articles about Soviet persecution of religious minorities).
Paige will find it irresistible to confide in Pastor Tim–the full story, as opposed to what she’s told him so far. Possibly she’ll be shown rationalizing this to herself as ‘you’re my religious counselor so you have an obligation to keep this confidential.’ That would let her free herself from guilt over what she’s actually doing to her parents.
A further guess: P&E will learn of this before Tim can go to the authorities, and, perhaps, Philip will kill him right in front of Paige. That will bode ill for Paige’s relationship with her parents. P&E may even be faced with the ultimate choice: Paige will be adamant about turning them in, and the only way to prevent that will be to have her spirited away to a Soviet gulag.
Glad you echoed my thoughts…there just has to be some push and pull for the show to work, and what better way to have that play out than a struggle for the heart, soul and political ideology of one Paige Jennings? I mean, where could the show really go if the Jennings’–minus Henry-- were all on the same…do I dare say it…“page”? (Ha!)
No one else commented on this, so just correcting something here. The actual phone call goes like this:
PAIGE: Hi, Sophie. It’s Paige Jennings. Can I talk to Pastor Tim, please?
[pause]
PAIGE: I, um… I-I talked to them last night.
You obv. haven’t read my blog Fwiw, I’m far from sure she will tell Pastor Tim.
I think for anyone who thinks about the show this is the absolute central issue now: by far, the most important – and intriguing - arc in this season is Paige’s journey from now to the “evil empire” speech in the final epi.
At the moment, I don’t see it as a simple binary choice (spy or not). When they talk about ‘recruitment’ it’s not about learning a skill set but an education – seeing the world in more balanced, less propagandised terms. She is only 14.
On the one hand (pro Soviet) is Reagan’s commitment to nuclear proliferation. We know where Paige and the good Pastor are on that issue. On the other is religious freedom vs, as you put it, aggressive atheism (pro US).
The only other issue I can see is social justice, and she is sure interested in that.
It’s religion that seems the most interesting. I’m reminded of the earlier story strand that touched on Central America. Even now, at this considerable distance, it seems extraordinary that Reagan dared to wrap his policy of military aggression around the bible (especially in the ‘evil empire’ speech), especially given the thousands of Catholic priests he effectively murdered.
Given, we’re touched on it already – and it fits so well - I do wonder if Paige may find what Reagan did (by training and arming the Contras) an act of great evil. It could be the thing that causes her not so much to tip over, but to keep an open – and as yet firmly uncommitted - mind.
I’ve been trying to take a bit of a break from posting in this thread. I have to thank Ellis Dee for making it clear (without insulting me, thank you Ellis) that I’ve been posting way too much. One alternative I decided was for me to put my thoughts into a text document and then posting maybe a maximum of once or twice per day. So far, I’ve found that it helps me to clarify what I want to say and instead of babbling a “stream of consciousness”, it helps me to organize what I want to say and make it more conscise. I hope it will make for better posts.
I decided to post what I have now to thank Esseb for correcting my mistake about Paige’s phone call. Here are some of the other things I’ve been writing about:
Esseb: Thank you for that correction. I’m still wondering about that though. I’ve been trying to find out whether Pastor Tim has a wife or not. Does anyone know or can anyone suggest a good way I can find out? I don’t want to have to try and watch every episode in which he has appeared.
It was interesting what Stan was doing when Henry rang his doorbell to return the Tron movie. Did you notice? Stan was examining a pen. I thought that was funny.
Did anyone notice that Paige’s hair style seemed different in this episode? It seemed to change a few times. I don’t know the significance of that. But it seemed to me that in the “Reveal Scene” it made her look more like an adult. I thought that was interesting as it tied in with Pastor Tim saying she should be treated more like an adult.
In post #770 MsJinx referred to an “older lady” at the compound in USSR when Nina was schmoozing the scientist? Glaring at Nina, sidling away. In post #772 UTJ said, "Re Nina: I though the supervisor was just making her presence felt because it’s her job to make sure beardy guy keeps keyboarding.
Anyway, I discovered something I’d like to tell you about. If you take a look, that woman appears early in E10. Also, if you check S2E08 at the 3:10 time mark, you can see her again. She is kind of plump and has an Orphan Annie style hairdo. She may have some special job like she’s spying on those other spys. Anyway, it’s probably not very important, but see if you don’t think it’s interesting?
The following two points were still in “rough draft” kind of stage. But I decided to post them now wnaywy
As far as the story line focused on Paige, I thought that one likely way the story could proceed would be if P&E got real close to being discovered by Stan and imprisoned. Or maybe Stan does discover something and he is about to arrest P&E or turn them in and Paige finds out about it. She could then maybe find a way to trick Stan and save her parents from getting arrested. If she does that, she will have made the choice for her future herself. If she ever does anything to reveal the truth, then she will go to prison with her parents. So, her choice will have been made. She will have to keep her mouth shut from then on - or else! I hope I explained that OK as I was just writing about that when I saw Esseb posted about my mistake and so I figured I should post now to thank him.
An interesting alternative would be if P&E decide to run a scam on Paige and trick her into that same situation. Make her believe they are about to be arrested by using a phoney FBI person. Then, if Paige does something to save her parents, she will have made the choice herself and she will be forced to go along with them forever more. P won’t like that trick too much. But E will be real happy to do it. it’s a way they can keep Paige in line and trick her into becoming a second generation agent. What do you think?
The show has gone on fine without an objector so far
Phillip has objected to Paige’s recruitment since the end of season two. He’s starting to object to Gabriel’s handling of him right now…wouldn’t that qualify?
As far as Paige goes, if she ever finds out her parents have murdered innocent people–especially a harmless old woman at the repair shop—I can’t see her ever approving of that…at least not if her character stays anywhere near consistent.
Phillip as an “objector” has existed to varying degrees since the series’ premiere, when he suggested taking $3 million and defecting. Later that season, E ratted him out as well.
As The Americans has progressed, the writers have chosen to make his dissatisfaction more prominent as the episodes go by.
If they want to continue to make his conflicted nature more and more central to the plot, then protecting Paige and fighting his superiors would be a logical progression.
There is no doubt the writers could find a way to have Paige go along, become a Russian spy protege, and move on…but I think the show would suffer as a result.
In drama terms I don’t know what you mean by ‘objector’. If you mean the central dramatic tension in the drama then it does lay between the two leads/parents. Has done since P proposed defection in the Pilot.
The show is also, essentially, about parenting - two parents with opposing ideas of what is best for their kids. Everything else - the deaths, daring-do, super-spy things - spins around that core theme. Even P’s suggestion of defection was rooted in the kids future.
Actually, the first mention of the word “objector” was by Ellis Dee in post #806, I believe, so I didn’t coin the term for use here.
I also don’t agree that the central (“central” being the key word) issue of the show is parenting. The idea of the show isn’t two parents who are spies, its two spies who happen to have kids as part of their cover. If parenting were the central issue, you’d have story lines such as “Paige’s dating troubles…or Henry’s grades are not what they should be…how do we handle that?” Instead, this show focuses on how P and E can keep doing their jobs while attempting to be parents at the same time.
It was in response to your assertion that the show can’t go on unless someone doesn’t buy into the ideology. My point is that the show hasn’t needed such a role through three seasons so far, so there’s no reason to think this is a necessary component in order to maintain dramatic tension going forward.
I pulled the specific word “objector” from the term “conscientious objector.”
Sahara Tea is accurate…the writers have stated the marriage is a focus of the show…I just don’t know that the show is about parenting, as UTJ opined.
Also, just to clarify, I didn’t say the show couldn’t go on without the tension…I stated that the writers could find a way to have all of the Jennings winds up as a KGB family. They can do anything they want, since this is fiction after all…I just don’t think the show would be as good.
Hahahahaa. I love this! They could have an accompanying “So you found out your parents are spies” brochure (or educational film/filmstrip!) for the kid as well.
Agreed. I don’t think there is something inherently less moral about rock stars and other male celebrities that leads them to be much more likely than the average Joe to cheat. They just keep having opportunities with young, gorgeous, sexually aggressive fans that Joe doesn’t. Few of us have the willpower to pass up all those opportunities (I myself don’t even pretend to have such willpower, even though the opportunities don’t often come my way).
I love this speculation. It reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask you guys. I don’t think any of us believe Paige is actually about to blab with Stan in the last scene we saw. But what if she did, and begged him to protect her? How would that have gone down? Let’s say Stan’s like “ha ha, very funny” but she is adamant. Does he have his gun with him? Can he escort her out of the house and/or arrest P & E, or at least save his own life? What does Henry do while all this is going on? (An alternate version: what if she maneuvers Stan to talk with her privately–P & E surely have their radar up and some serious shit will go down anyway, right?)
Good points, and this could definitely be a great angle to work!
(1) He does have a wife: she was introduced at the church.
(2) I didn’t notice that–good catch and kind of funny!
(5) I like this scenario, would totally work for me. We shall see.
Yep, as you intimate it’s not going to happen. Fwiw, I think Paige is only as close to Psstor Tim as she is at this moment because she knew her parents were lying and had no one else to trust. It sounds perverse but she can probably now trust her parents more, in parental terms (in which sense Pastor Tim was becoming a substitute).
Anyway, with gun or without, Stan wouldn’t have left the house alive. I guess the whole family would have gone to Canada overnight - with Paige maybe in the trunk. God knows what happens after that.
Fwiw, I’m far from sure she will tell Pastor Tim.
