'The Americans': What Was the Karl Marx Book Pastor Tim Gave Paige?

(Some light spoilers ahead for the March 28 episode of “The Americans” on FX.)

This week on the FX original series “The Americans” we revisited one of the show’s most important conflicts: the uneasy alliance between the Jennings spy family and Pastor Tim.

Despite what Past Tim (Kelly AuCoin) and his wife Alice (Suzy Jane Hunt) know about the Jennings — namely, everything important — they’re once again playing nice, even going so far as to let Paige (Holly Taylor) babysit their new baby. It may not be the best idea ever, considering Paige ends up going through all their stuff and reading Pastor Tim’s diary while they’re out, but it doesn’t appear as though they know that Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) are bringing Paige into the Russian spy fold.

Pastor Tim, being the altruistic leftist that he is, decides to give Paige a gift that he says may help her understand her parents. It’s a Karl Marx book. Specifically, what Tim gives her is “Capital and Other Writings,” which contains abridged versions of various Marx manifestos, including “The Communist Manifesto,” as edited by Max Eastman and published in 1932 by the Modern Library.

Also Read: 21 'The Americans' Main Characters Ranked, From Worst to Best (Photos)

The edition Pastor Tim has is the Random Rouse republication from 1959. It looks like this:

The passage Pastor Tim quotes is from one of those “other writings” — specifically “Alienation. ” Here’s the full paragraph of that book he decided to quote from (with the specific quote Pastor Tim read in italics):

“First, the fact that labor is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his essential being; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home. His labor is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it’s forced labor. It is therefore not the satisfaction of a need; it is merely a means to satisfy needs external to it.”

Heavy stuff.

Pastor Tim’s edition is, notably, well worn and full of scribbles. He tells Paige he made all those notes himself in college — which is in keeping with his hardcore liberal characterization that led fans of “The Americans” to initially believe Pastor Tim was himself a Directorate S spy for the Soviets.

Also Read: 'The Americans': Oleg's New KGB Boss Perfectly Sums Up America's Problems in 2017 (Commentary)

That theory has long been abandoned by most fans because of the events of season 4 when a frantic Alice threatened to expose the Jennings after Pastor Tim went missing on a foreign mission trip. But it’s hard to watch him hand Paige a copy of a Karl Marx book and not think it’s still somehow a possibility that Pastor Tim is just another Directorate S agent. Especially after Paige digs through his journal and doesn’t find any mention of the Jennings themselves being spies. You’d probably expect a normal person to not worry so much about writing down incriminating information in his diary — but you know a Soviet agent wouldn’t.

That said, it’s still probably more narratively satisfying if Pastor Tim is just a natural born American commie, what with the whole “we’re really all the same” take on the Cold War that “The Americans” has always endorsed.

Still, handing Paige a copy of “Capital” is a big ole red flag. We’re gonna have to wait a bit longer to find out what it means, if anything, though.

23 'The Americans' Main Characters Ranked, From Worst to Best (Photos)

(Spoilers ahead, obviously)
The fifth season of FX's "The Americans" is upon us, and we're celebrating by ranking all the main characters. Plus Annalese.
FX
23. Matthew Beeman (Danny Flaherty)
I don't know what Paige sees in this dorkus.
FX
22. Henry (Keidrich Sellati)
He's grown up a lot over the years, but only physically. He hasn't grown into being a cool person or anything.
FX
21. Renee (Laurie Holden)
We're still waiting to find out what Laurie's deal is. She seems like she's way too much fun for super-square Stan, with her interests in skydiving and karaoke. That Philip suspects he's a spy goes to how weird it is she wants to hang out with Stan.
FX
20. Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich)
One of those guys who's really good at his job but otherwise completely sucks as a person. Just a dopey suburban dad who cheats on his wife.
FX
19. Frank Gaad (Richard Thomas)
Martha was a spy right under his nose pretty much for the entire run of the show, and then he got accidentally assassinated while on vacation in Thailand when some Soviets tried to turn him. Hard not to feel bad for the guy.
FX
18. Sandra Beeman (Susan Misner)
The victim of a classic storytelling trope: being the woman who is mad at her husband for working too much. But "The Americans" is a good enough show, at least, to add plenty more layers to Sandra's character as time went on. Becoming best friends with Philip for a while was pretty good.
FX
17. Annelise (Gillian Alexy)
She only appeared in four episodes, but earns a spot here for her part in the most insane scene on the entire show: when Philip has to kill her and then he and Elizabeth break all her bones so they can fit the corpse in a suitcase.
FX
16. Arkady (Lev Gorn)
Much cooler dude than Frank Gaad but got similarly duped. The spy boss getting outspied. Come on, man.
FX
15. Claudia (Margo Martindale)
The Spy Mom of "The Americans" is maybe a bit too stern for her own good. Maybe try being nice sometimes? Sheesh.
FX
14. Tatiana (Vera Cherny)
Great at doing spy stuff and climbing the Career Spy Ladder, but she broke Oleg's heart. We can't let that slide.

FX
13. Tuan (Ivan Mok)

The possible outcome of starting page down the spy path, Tuan certainly seems diabolical and capable. This kid comes off like a young supervillain. He may even be running a job on the spies, which proves how good he is.
FX
12. Pastor Tim (Kelly AuCoin)
Really novel character, being a Christian preacher who accidentally ended up being a Soviet collaborator, sort of. That hits pretty close to home in 2017!
FX
11. Paige (Holly Taylor)
It's easy to hate on Paige for being a dumb teenager, but she has started to put forth a good faith effort at becoming a Russian spy given she definitely never wanted any of this drama.
FX
10. Nina (Annet Mahendru)
Did the best she could with every conceivable deck stacked hard against her. She was always going to get shot in the face eventually.

FX
9. Hans (Peter Mark Kendall)
Sweet Hans. Not somebody who should have spent his life doing international espionage. But he's an idealist, and there's something to be said for that, but his split-second execution shows what it earns you.
FX
8. William (Dylan Baker)
This dude infected himself with the Worst. Virus. Ever. once he realized he was about to get captured by the FBI. Easily the bravest thing anybody's done on "The Americans."
FX
7. Chris Amador (Maximiliano Hernandez)
The man who was fridged in Season 1 so that Stan would get really mad and start his personal vendetta against Soviet spies. And his jealous paranoia about the new guy Martha was dating proved exactly correct. He was ahead of his time.
FX
6. Philip (Matthew Rhys)
He's toyed with betraying Mother Russia like a coward, but his endless supply of corny wigs and fake mustaches is too much to leave behind.
FX
5. Elizabeth (Keri Russell)
Loves Mother Russia so much that she'd probably murder her kids for it even though she might feel bad about it. Gotta admire that level of patriotism.
FX
4. Dennis Aderholt (Brandon J Dirden)
The absolute coolest and most '80s character on the show -- it's always a good time when he's in a scene. You just know he and Stan are gonna have some kind of faceoff eventually.
FX
3. Gabriel (Frank Langella)
Spy Dad, unlike Spy Mom, knows when to take his foot off the gas. If you have to have a spy dad, Gabriel is about as good as it gets.
FX
2. Oleg (Costa Ronin)
We like Oleg because he's one of the only characters who's pretty up front about what he's doing at all time instead of playing games like everybody else does. It's refreshing.
FX
1. Martha (Alison Wright)
You may be tempted to knock Martha for freaking out when she found out she had accidentally been spying for the Russians for years. But, look, you'd react the same damn way (some Trump voters excepted). Martha is a great person.
FX

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They’re not all Americans, but they’re all “The Americans,” if you know what I mean

(Spoilers ahead, obviously)
The fifth season of FX's "The Americans" is upon us, and we're celebrating by ranking all the main characters. Plus Annalese.

View In Gallery

23 'The Americans' Main Characters Ranked, From Worst to Best (Photos)

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