finale predictions/wishes
Anything left you want? I'm just glad we're finally going to see the Jennings on the run. Shame it's only for one episode, I'd previously guessed and hoped that'd be the majority of this season.
shareWell I was happy with it. A few brief thoughts in a nutshell because I'm tired. They could almost do a 5-episode seventh season or something to really wrap up the State-side storylines. I wonder what Paige will do. I feel like her plausible deniability will only get her so far, even if Stan covers for her, which I assume he will. Sure, she can just say her mom taught her self-defense, but they might start checking into her whereabouts on particular dates, and so on. Could be a bit of a coin toss for her. But goodness when they went to get her, I'm thinking "Of course Paige, one last time, hold us up with stammering questions at the worst possible of all times ever." The parking garage scene should count as a workout for all the stomach and fist clenching I did. Possibly the best use of "With or Without You." I like that they left Renee's story as they did. In a show where anyone could be a spy, it's fitting to leave us with lingering questions about at least one character. My feelings are that she is a Russian spy. But she's still in the glory days of her career, no kids or marriage that she views as real, enjoying herself essentially. She's like a more carefree Jennings from an earlier season, and just starting to have the realization that she's in deep and it'll one day crash around her, seeing the first big cracks in her cover. Was half-expecting Stan to shake her awake for answers. Surprised no major deaths. Was happy Aderholt made it, he's my favorite. Could've done with a touch of Claudia, but they gave her good closure last week, and I'd say given that her apartment was clean and organized and looked empty of personal effects, things went how she wanted. Loved Elizabeth's dream scene. And how they kept up the tension, even at the last border check. Good final scene.
Gosh, I know beggars can't be choosers since the imdb boards shut down, but I keep hoping it'll liven up on here more, sometimes it's like I'm talking to myself ;)
In the real world Paige and Henry are SOL, as they are not Americans. Both of their parents are considered Russian diplomats even if they are unregistered. The born in the USA makes you a citizen does not apply to them.
Paige would face five to ten years just knowing her parents were spies and not turning them in. If they linked her to their work she would face life. If they linked her to the death of the general she would face death.
The US Federal government would never let it go. They would dedicate investigators to researching the Jennings for years. They would link them to Chicago and the deaths of agents.
The Feds would try to use a long sentence for Paige to force the parents to return. The Russians would deal with the loose ends by locking down or killing the parents.
Paige could probably handle being waterboarded. Henry would just tell them to get on with it because he needs to get back to the ping pong tournament.
shareThat seemed like a strange creative choice to me, because for the most part, this show erred on the side of realism. Even ex Soviet spy Jack Barsky called the show very realistic, with the exception of killing, the frequency of missions and missions being orders (in reality he said they were always requests.) And the show did stay true to the historical reality of politics. So its easy to deduce that Stan did see to it that Philips message did get to Gorbachov's people, since Gorbachov survived his tenure as president. But Paige and Henry would both be deported if they were suspected of knowing anything or their parents were charged with espionage. And P&E would know that. So I can only surmise that it was their hope that Henry could stay and I suppose something like that could be weighed as a special consideration. But the likeliest outcome would be deportation.
share> Paige would face five to ten years just knowing her parents were spies and not turning them in.
I think she'd get off pretty easily, in fact, she might not have any problems at all.
First -- being a mandated reporter only applies to certain individuals. For example, a physician who sees signs of physical abuse on a ten year old patient is obligated to contact the authorities. But ordinary citizens who come by knowledge that other individuals are involved in crimes have no legal duty to act on that knowledge. So no problem there.
Second -- the legal system acts on certain unstated presumptions regarding society. Regarding families, there's a misconception about "spousal immunity." It's not as broad as the average layperson believes it to be. But the legal system recognizes that if defendants' spouses were involuntarily compelled to testify, the effect in larger society would be that ordinary married couples could never be certain that confiding in each other was a prudent thing to do. Seriously -- imagine being married to someone, knowing that anything you said to him/her could be used against you in a court of law.
That's for spouses. Adults. And as for kids? Fuhgeddaboudit. Yeah, Paige is an adult now ... technically. But no sane thirty year old really believes that a twenty year old is truly a mature human being. And she certainly was not an adult when she got mixed up in all of this.
To be continued ...
Third -- as a practical matter, prosecuting her would be a nightmare. How's a jury going to react to the spectacle of the US government trying to hammer a late adolescent into the dirt?[*] And as for the general public ... all it would take would be one nationally televised news story, sympathetically portraying a weeping Paige saying, "I didn't know everything they were up to!" -- then every member of the House of Representatives gets phone calls from voters demanding, "lay off!"
Finally -- there's the whole Gorbachev thing. Whether one agrees with the idea or not (and I think The Americans fell into the "Saint Gorby" trap), the perception among the general US public at the time, as well as among some in the US government, was that at long last, here was a USSR leader who was actually a decent guy who could be reasoned with, and there was a real possibility of something like a peaceful coexistence between the US and USSR without fears of flying nukes. Nobody wanted to screw that up if it was possible. If Paige could be proved to have taken part in her family's nastier deeds - a big if - might be better to let her walk, especially since P&E are beyond the reach of US law anyway.
I think Paige's best option might be to get a sharp attorney -- plenty around who would do it for free, for the publicity -- bargain her problems down (if she had any problems at all) to a guilty plea on a couple of misdemeanors with sentence to be served entirely on probation, then just get on with her life.
[*]I'll add that I've personally seen one court case where an attorney - a real moron - tried to twist a kid's arm into testifying against a parent. The defendant's daughter, when compelled to testify, committed perjury to protect her father. Blatant, obvious perjury. All that happened was that (a) the girl didn't get into any trouble at all; and (b) the jury hated the attorney's guts. Well, just proves that half of law school graduates were in the bottom halves of their classes.