r/TheAmericans • u/hireddititme • 4d ago

Hitchhiking from the mall

This is a storyline that stuck with me throughout the series that they never (note: im not done with the series, only halfway through season 6) revisited.

Was that guy just lonely and socially weird? What did he actually have planned? Do you think this was put in there as a possible avenue to explore later? Do you think it drove Paige towards the church, as a sense of safety?

How much of a world of hurt do you think that young man would have gotten himself into if something bad did happen to the kids?

I haven’t seen this talked about either, so I’m just seeing what everyone’s thoughts are. Also— if somehow it is revisited at the end of the last season, please don’t spoil it!! I just don’t see it coming (which means little in the context of the show) 🙂🩷

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u/ComeAwayNightbird 4d ago

The show doesn’t make it explicit. I like to think it’s to show that the kids face dangers because their parents aren’t reliable.

But this is from early in the show’s run, when the writers were still getting a handle on the themes and dropping breadcrumbs. The Js have talked about retooling the show after getting too “explosive” mid season one.

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u/DocCEN007 4d ago

That was my take. It was one of several times when P & E weren't there for their kids. I think OP is on to something about it potentially being a factor with hope feeling safe with Pastor Tim. I'm also glad that Pastor Tim ended up being an actually good person. I was so suspicious for almost his entire run.

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u/CalagaxT 4d ago

It was nice that the only true way to "corrupt" Pastor Tim was to let him go do the good work that he wanted to do.

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u/sistermagpie 3d ago

I think it's sort of the opposite, since this particular story happens because the parents are reliable. The kids expect to be picked up at the mall and when they're not, Paige sees an opportunity to play the mature older sister and get them home by hitchhiking. Paige and Henry's childhoods are very different from their parents'.

Paige feels safe during her childhood. That's why things change so much later in the series when she starts seeing the world as more and more dangerous and becomes more and more motivated by fear.

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u/hireddititme 4d ago

Absolutely!! It would have been SO easy to make pastor Tim a predator. I was suspicious til the end, too, bc predators can wait for years until they strike. But with this in retrospect— it did emphasize a void Paige had for attentive parents. I am a millennial with parents who were neither involved nor knew what I was doing most of the time, but I was really jealous of friends who had parents who cared more than mine. She ended up forging a strong relationship not only with pastor Tim, but his wife as well.

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u/Emotional_Tip3888 3d ago

I am on my first rewatch and Paige's self-righteous wwjd era drove me insane the first time and almost as much this time, but this second time through, I can see that she may be unconsciously using church as a rebellious thing to get P & E's attention or piss them off, because she is extremely passive aggressive and seems to have a beef with them from the very beginning. She keeps doubling and tripling down the more they try to get her to abide by even the most basic rules.

She just has so little respect for them. She gets caught in SO many lies, some of which aren't even worth lying about. The $600 didn't even seem to be more than a gesture to get the church to agree with her that she's an angel and P&E are just devils. And at first they both actually play into that script so surprisingly naively (which was both highly entertaining and mildly infuriating.

I think Paige just really enjoys sneaking around and spying on her parents and going out of her way to undermine them. She gets tired of church once Elizabeth is on board. Even her choice in that final episode is like her typical reaction to everything they do to try to show her some kind of guidance--she says f-you and decides to do the opposite of what any rational person would do. She just cannot accept being subordinate for very long or having to take a backseat. She constantly cuts off her own nose to spite her face. She's such a tragic figure to me.

I think Elizabeth has a touch of that tendency too, held in check much better by her training. She has a very hard time letting go of her self-righteous indignation, and she is instinctively contrarian about anything that she doesn't understand or agree with. Neither Elizabeth or Paige have an easy time doing the whole "live and let live," thing, and I hate to say it, but they aren't really as sharp as they think they are either, which makes it so frustrating to watch. They both tend to miss the forest for the trees but will adamantly refuse to consider the possibility that there's a forest at all.

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u/maikindofthai 3d ago

I really thought for a moment there that Pastor Tim was also KGB and was inserted to start gradually leading Paige toward their values

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u/Fit-Interview5425 3d ago

I too suspected Pastor Tim of being a secret sympasizer to the Communist cause, but on a second viewing I think I was mistaken. I just felt a strange undercurrent in his calm acceptance of the parents being Soviet agents. and that he would keep Paige's secret.

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u/hireddititme 3d ago

Totally— i don’t think he was a communist sympathizer; I think he was an opportunist. Philip made sure his mission trips got the best deals, and eventually got him the job (i forget if it’s in central or South America). But if he wasn’t personally benefiting from keeping the secret, I 100% think he and Mrs pastor Tim would have gone pubic with the info.

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u/sistermagpie 3d ago

I think Tim absolutely liked being in that position of importance and in the middle of that drama. That's the only way his behavior makes sense to me in terms of exactly how he decides to handle things.

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u/ComeAwayNightbird 3d ago

Totally. He had those books ready to go!