And no one said she’s chosen a side, at least not me. In fact, I specifically said that.
Maybe the Centre’s ever more limited resources are part of the reason why Philip has beenbeen allowed to go inactive and focus on the travel agency. It might have always been used for money laundering, but now it’s expected to actually make a profit for the Centre to help fund its operations.
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That’s a bit left field for me - you mean in some Iran-Contra sense?
Just when Paige started asking about sex Elizabeth has to explain about death to her. Doesn’t like things at the travel agency are going quite as well as they appeared. Also what was up with Hockey Player in the airport mens room?
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I think we may have come to the show’s Jump The Shark moment: making Paige an active operative. It’s impossible to take her seriously in that role…when she dresses in those undercover spy clothes, she looks completely out of place.
Not to mention, since they’ve been angling for her to work at the FBI or CIA, wouldn’t they just be pushing the academic angle right now? Make sure she gets all of the right degrees, etc so she can land the right job? Instead, by making her an active, in the field operative, they risk exposing her. After all, she’s nearly blown her identity once already.
As someone wrote on another board–regardless of what Elizabeth thinks, Paige is a terrible spy.
This was explained in an earlier episode. He’s supposed to hang the courier bag in a specific spot so an X-ray machine in the next stall can scan the contents.
She’s not really a terrible spy per se—she has the requisite caution and is developing a sense of testing the truthfulness of peoples’ statements, including that of her mother—but she has never received the training or discipline that the Centre imposed on Philip and Elizabeth. And how could she, without being informed about the real purpose of the program? This was always an ill-advised ‘recruitment’, and the SDI issue looks like it is going to be the divider that schisms the Jennings.
Stan is still useless.
Stranger
Well, Elizabeth already did that the first time she killed a guy in front of Paige.
When the idea of second generation illegals came up I assumed a different role for Paige. Maybe this is part of some spycraft foundation course.
She’s doing okay; she could have chosen a better place to park when not on shift (so as to not be hit on) but someone had to check out the result of the park shooting. Also the sex questions were open ended; Paige obv. didn’t believe E’s first response so she had to come up with something more believable. I don’t think the wardrobe choices are hers.
Fwiw, it took me a while to accept E literally has Gorbachov’s fate in her hands but I guess that’s how things work in this business.
I’m very much warming to the idea Philip will likely spy on E.
Yeah, I think the second-generation deal was intended to be about simply getting her into a high-placed position in the CIA or somewhere and then using her as a mole. It doesn’t make sense to then risk her in more ordinary spycraft. But the mole scenario doesn’t make for as exciting television and wouldn’t really bear fruit until after the Soviet Union’s dissolution anyway.
I thought the shift on the fly to saying that some operatives might cross the line over time was brilliant on E’s part, which means it was brilliant writing, well acted. One of the best scenes of TV I’ve seen, which sounds weird since it was just a walk and talk.
I think the spy fieldcraft stuff is to acclimate her and indoctrinate her. She’ll never be given a dangerous job - she’s just going to do some observing and other low risk positions - but in the process she feels like she’s part of the team and working towards the cause. That way when she’s eventually placed in the CIA or state department or whatever, she won’t have a sudden crisis of conscience to decide if she’s really into this spy stuff or not - because she’s been slowly ramping up her spywork for years.
I buy it–well done!
Interesting to read all your posts. This season has reminded me of how superficially I enjoy my TV. This is one of my wife’s and my favorite series. But we do not rewatch and “study” even our favorite shows. So when a show gets as involved as this one, we almost lose interest. I mean, we still enjoy watching it, but we get tired of saying, “Who is THAT guy?” or “When did we hear of THIS before?” So we watch it in an even more superficial manner. Hopefully, the point at which we lose interest entirely coincides with the series’ end! 
My fear is that Stan is going to discover previously unrealized insight and abilities, and be the major motivator at the end. :rolleyes:
Funny how so many of us can enjoy a show so much, when so many of the major characters - Paige, Henry, Stan, the other agent - are such duds!
But Paige’s awkwardness as a spy is, I think, an important plot point. Even Elizabeth’s other operative commented on the fact that “Julie” may be too young (and inexperienced) to be taking on missions. The way I see it, this is more of Elizabeth’s stress leaking through into the job. Without Philip as her partner in crime, Liz feels a void that wasn’t there and is increasingly isolated. So she’s pushing Paige, who really isn’t ready, into the picture in an attempt to fill that void she now feels.
I also suspect it may have tragic consequences for Paige, ultimately, as Elizabeth - who can be reckless and doesn’t always think things through like Philip does - may push her into a dangerous situation she can’t handle and she pays a terrible price. (I hope not, as I like Paige, but I can see it happening.)
Elizabeth even mentioned “State or CIA” to Claudia. That’s where Elizabeth thinks Paige will end up.
Paige also will need to know things like “how to make sure you’re not being tailed,” “how to do a dead drop,” and “how to get people to like and trust you” (She might also actually need to follow someone from time to time - though not the level of surveillance that Elizabeth, Philip, and co. do)
The stuff she’s doing (sitting in a car, away from the scene, and paying attention) is good training for that.
Senor Beef has it nailed. They’d probably also want her to marry someone in government service.
That’s my reading of it as well. In the ideal (from E’s perspective) future, Paige has a 9-to-5 job at CIA or state, and never goes around doing the kind of missions that her parents did, but she does have to meet with her handlers from time to time, which means being comfortable with basic street-level spycraft.
(I wonder how much of that kind of basic information passing would be done purely via heavily encrypted internet traffic these days…)
This still doesn’t make sense, so we shouldn’t really bother trying to figure it out. Just suspend disbelief.
Why do I say that? Because State and CIA would never hire someone whose parent was found to be a spy. If Elizabeth is still operating, thus risking getting caught, it jeopardizes all their future plans for Paige.
I guess now we’re at October 1987 - is this a two or three year jump? - there is a different dynamic to last season. Maybe after the summit the Centre will ask E to step back.
Regardless of Gorbachov, Moscow would surely have been planning for this since before Philip retired. Perhaps the question is will E get out alive. That pill is a little ominous now …
By the time Paige is ready to move into a government position, presumably after graduate school to give her a better chance of advancing up the career ladder to a significant position where she would have better access to secure information, the Centre may be ready to retire Elizabeth into a supervisory/handler position where she would be less exposed. There still remains the problem that anything other than a cursory background check of Paige is going to show that her parents have no living relatives or contacts prior to their being emplaced in the United States, so it seems like a dubious plan but quite frankly the Centre’s priorities often seem to be driven by political agendas with little thought as to the long term consequences and a willingness to risk their agents on desperate missions.
In practice, the real “Illegals” program focused on embedding agents within American society and using them to identify potential recruits which would then be approached by “legal” agents (those with diplomatic cover), with no active wetwork or other attempts at subterfuge. There are rumors that agents may have created weapon stockpiles on American and Western European soil in preparation for domestic attacks in the case of war but there is no solid evidence that this has actually occurred and it would seem to be a risky endeavor for relatively little payoff. In general, the espionage business is far less exciting than even the most realistic spy fiction (even le Carré) would indicate, and in the case of the real Illegals program, the Soviets actually had little clue about or control over their agents. Jack Barsky is the most famous of the uncovered Illegals, and he is quite open about how almost completely ineffectual he (and presumably other Illegals) actually were. He actually consulted on The Americans and while he generally praised the presentation of spycraft he noted that Philip and Elizabeth would not have lasted long in the active wetwork without being caught, and also talks about how laughable their disguises actually are. Here is an interview with him (part 1 of 2).
So, while The Americans is great drama with a lot of tension, it really is necessary to accept some of the essential conceits with a willingness to suspend disbelief.
Stranger