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Apr. 23rd, 2006 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunshine_queenI watched the end of "Maternal Instincts" again.
I started 'cause I wanted to watch The Best Family Mission Ever again, but then I just kept watching so I could watch Irina's speech, 'cause I knew what I felt initially, but after reading other people's thoughts, I wanted to review.
When she said, oh, I never wanted a kid, I was forced, yadda yadda, and then when they handed her Sydney, she knew she'd made a horrible mistake? That's one of those sentences that you can interpret two ways, which is at once So Alias and So Irina it's brilliant. Because first, your knee-jerk reaction is FUCKING IRINA I HATE YOU DON'T BREAK SYD'S HEART YOU FIEND because, you know. How can you tell your baby she was a horrible mistake? But then she continues. She knew she was going to fail at one or both when it came to being a mother and an agent, and in a way she was right- she was going to be taken away, which, really, is failing by default. She couldn't afford to fail as an agent, because the KGB would take none to kindly to it. And, in my obvious to everyone but me realization, the horrible mistake was putting herself in that position, because how could she have this baby with someone she loved and not love it, and want it, and miss it? And this is evidenced by Irina's inability to walk away when Syd was in pain. Because. She. Loves. Her.
In her own messed up way.
But oh man. Is Jack ever going to be piiiiiiiiissed.
I started 'cause I wanted to watch The Best Family Mission Ever again, but then I just kept watching so I could watch Irina's speech, 'cause I knew what I felt initially, but after reading other people's thoughts, I wanted to review.
When she said, oh, I never wanted a kid, I was forced, yadda yadda, and then when they handed her Sydney, she knew she'd made a horrible mistake? That's one of those sentences that you can interpret two ways, which is at once So Alias and So Irina it's brilliant. Because first, your knee-jerk reaction is FUCKING IRINA I HATE YOU DON'T BREAK SYD'S HEART YOU FIEND because, you know. How can you tell your baby she was a horrible mistake? But then she continues. She knew she was going to fail at one or both when it came to being a mother and an agent, and in a way she was right- she was going to be taken away, which, really, is failing by default. She couldn't afford to fail as an agent, because the KGB would take none to kindly to it. And, in my obvious to everyone but me realization, the horrible mistake was putting herself in that position, because how could she have this baby with someone she loved and not love it, and want it, and miss it? And this is evidenced by Irina's inability to walk away when Syd was in pain. Because. She. Loves. Her.
In her own messed up way.
But oh man. Is Jack ever going to be piiiiiiiiissed.
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Date: 2006-04-24 01:34 am (UTC)Also, I have my SOS/Maternal Instincts tape in my VCR, paused at the start of the Vancouver mission. :D Just because I feel the need to watch it over. And over. And over. Just 'cause. Of course, I don't really have to explain this to you, of all people.
She couldn't afford to fail as an agent, because the KGB would take none to kindly to it. And, in my obvious to everyone but me realization, the horrible mistake was putting herself in that position, because how could she have this baby with someone she loved and not love it, and want it, and miss it? And this is evidenced by Irina's inability to walk away when Syd was in pain. Because. She. Loves. Her.
*tear* Awwww, exactly. I need to watch it again when I'm in a more rational state of mind, rather than just being all "EEEE IT'S IRINA" and incapable of coherent thought. Because really, it's just so ingenious how they did that -- how Irina tells Syd, blunt as all, that she chose to fail at being a mother, and then about two and a half seconds later, when a point comes at which she'd be able to illustrate that . . . she doesn't. She can't. Although I have a lot of trouble perceiving Irina in a vulnerable light, just because, well, she's SpyMommy, it almost seems like with Jack and Syd, she never anticipates how much they're going to mean to her until she's right there with them, face to face, and that's when she truly realizes how much she loves them and how she's kinda screwed herself over because of it.
Also, while rewatching The First Ever SpyRents Scene of NoWordsness, it finally hit me -- after seeing it like sixty times -- that when Irina says, "Looking at you now, I see that illusion is finally gone," it's not a total dis. Because I always took it before to pretty much mean, "I don't love you anymore, you miserable man" but, ya know, the illusion goes both ways! (This is quite the epiphany for me. Because I am dumb.) So she's kinda saying, 'Yeah, I'm so over you, mister, but you sure don't seem so keen on me anymore either. Stop with the homicidal glaring, please.'
But, er, yes. Anyway. I just need to ramble senselessly. :D
In conclusion, Irina is awesome. Yep. Word.
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Date: 2006-04-24 01:43 am (UTC)I watched the beginning of season two last weekend. Man oh man.
My whole thing was that... I didn't want to watch the whole episode again. They were amazing, both of them, don't get me wrong, but they were frustrating and nerve-wracking and I didn't feel up to it. But the mission needed to be watched again. It was completely necessary. And no, you need never explain to me. When they showed Mommy's high heels, I was speechless. And my sister was like, it's MOMMY, I beat you to it, I knew it first, and I was like, omg, I couldn't speak. Because, you know. And I know you do.
And you're right- when she's away, she convince herself that she's a badass and they're so yesterday and whatever, but when push comes to shove, it's like, dammit.
See, the people who write Irina? They're hardcore. They can get into her words and just... they're able to put such spins on them that you can get so much out of her lines. And Lena gets like, a thousand miles to the gallon on those babies. It's pretty much, the illusion is gone- everything that was left of Laura ran out when you got to see me, Irina, the murderer with her face, but also, I know you are no longer that man who loved his wife to distraction. And um, also, your glares make me slightly uncomfortable. But no more than a temperature rise of one degree.
And I can ramble too! Anything but community service projects. Woe.
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Date: 2006-04-24 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-24 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-25 03:59 am (UTC)Thanks for reading- it's too much fun, trying to understand Irina and her motives.
And think of it this way- you still have another year before Alias ends for good. :-(
And I'll get right on adding you ;-)