A thread for The Americans on FX

A little disappointed we're all the way up to 1984 now and they've not used any Minor Threat or Bad Brains, especially since the show is centered in DC.

The Bauhaus was very unexpected!

This was a good episode, but ... I'm not sure how much I care about Philip's moral vacillations at this point, after all we've seen him do. I keep flashing back to the random guy he murdered on the bus several episodes back. That his violent life is weighing on him now ... I dunno.

Not since "The Shield" have I seen a show where I could totally imagine half the characters killing themselves before it is all over.

Philip's been teetering since S1, but he's never not been a good soldier until last season and this one. Like Claudia said, when you begin to think it might be time, it's time.

The podcast (which hasn't been great this year, and more of like a second thought by all involved) actually brought up something today about how the relationship of Tuan and Elizabeth is similar to something one of the creators of Frasier told him about the relationship of Niles and Frasier—to normalize Frasier, Niles had to be an amplification of all Frasier's mannerisms and neuroses. I think Tuan is Elizabeth on overdrive and even she's shocked by it.

Yeah, but she sucks, too! The two of them have done such horrible things and been burned by their own country enough times that it really shouldn't be shocking anymore. Plus, as patriotic as she might be, she's been living in America for 20 years, surely she recognizes that it's not all bad. No secret police, no work camps, and so on. The flip side is, she has no idea how bad things are in the USSR, right? Does she know it is all grey or sickly yellow?

Anyway, Philip has been teetering for several seasons now, at least since they wanted him to seduce a teenager. But he's been doing this for decades, what's different now? Again, he killed a random dude on the airport shuttle bus! Total stranger.

I've always felt like one of the reasons Phillip keeps going is because he wants stay in America, and this is how he gets to do that. In S1, it was obvious that he was far happier with capitalism, consumerism, a happy life, than Elizabeth is. She seems to see all those things as tricks, and is brainwashed enough to regard those trappings as traps. She doesn't do any of the American stuff Phillip does: doesn't have friends, doesn't go jogging, or go to EST, or let herself go in any way at all.

But now Paige is watching and weighing and questioning everything they do, and it's become more and more clear even to him that "if I don't do this, someone else will" isn't really a moral justification any more.

That's how it seems to me, anyway.

And yet, he's seriously considering taking her to Russia? Or is he really?

I don't think he wants to go to Russia, but he might see it as the lesser of two evils.

I saw Paige slinging a rope up over the beams in the garage and just though oh shit.

Me too! Probably intentional, maybe foreshadowing...

Also the single stupidest thing is that they think they can tell Paige they're planning on moving to Russia and she's going to be just okay with that.

Tbf, if Paige watched the Oleg bits she'd totally kill herself.

So many things could happen as this plays out. I could totally see Paige and Henry going on the run and Philip and Elizabeth needing to decide whether to leave them behind or risk capture by seeking them out. Could also see Paige and particularly Henry turning on their parents. Still wonder how Oleg and Stan will reconnect, or if. And how is Gabriel doing? He has no real friends and family, and he clearly sees Russia is a corrupt, paranoid shithole. And what of Misha? There must be more there, but what? Maybe Gabriel will get word from Misha to Philip? Could totally see an ironic tying up, with Philip and his son reunited in shitty Russia, Paige and Henry somewhere in America, and Elizabeth dead.

The scene where Stan and his partner come face-to-face with their mole and her dorky partner and then he tries to shake them down for more money was almost unwatchable in how awkward it was.

Y'all are grim. I didn't think for a second that Paige was about to hang herself in that scene.

Small weird thing: I had been noticing that this season, Brandon Dirden's name (he plays Aderholt) is way higher in the opening credits than it had been before - like, his name comes before Holly Taylor's (who plays Paige) now. But I don't feel like his prominence in the credits corresponds to his prominence in the actual episodes. Are we gonna get a super-Aderholt-heavy season finale, or something?

Xpost Really? Troubled kid, who just in an earlier scene dropped her cross necklace into the garbage, alone in the garage, parents gone, throwing a rope over the rafters, even as that scene cross-cut with her parents literally dealing with a suicide crisis in there parallel family?

Their, whoops.

The show throws curves, but that would betray the entire character of Paige which has been delicately constructed over five years.

I didnt much care for this episode. Dragged tension with no real purpose. WTF is going on.

Who was the guy in the car in the last scene, an FBI agent?

That's the FBI guy covering the Morozovs.

I'm still confused about them. Do they have asylum or is it just sort of a professional tour of duty that will take them back to Russia eventually? He works in ... agriculture? Doing ... something? Why do the Russians want them back as opposed to here, where they can be mined for info, especially the wife, who is vulnerable and cultivating relationships with CIA spy recruits? Why is there an FBI guy watching their house? It's frustrating that both the Morozovs and the new recruit with her hockey husband to be, I have no idea who they are and what they do, really, or why they're on the show at all, for that matter.

Having trouble this season telling how much time has passed, too.

Mrs. Morozov and the new recruit woman are two sides of the same coin, I thought. The Jennings' are working one, the FBI are working the other, for mirrored purposes.

Why are any of these side stories necessary? Good question. They aren't so far, except maybe to establish Tuan. But they could've done that a variety of other ways.

But they are not trying to recruit the spouse I thought, they're trying to get her back to Russia. What good is she in Russia? Is it because they think she will keep seeing the CIA recruit she is having an affair with if he gets stationed overseas? It is unclear to me.

I started a post trying to explain what I thought had been all the twists in the Morozov family plan, but then I realized I'm lost too. I need to read up on this.

Y'all are grim. I didn't think for a second that Paige was about to hang herself in that scene.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Thursday, May 25, 2017 5:12 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

With Johnny here, that would've been insane. Not for a second thought she'd off herself. That's bonkers.

This was one of the better episodes of this season I think. Still a slow burner, seemingly, but Oleg and Paige and Henry and the Jennings all sharply set up for harsh decision time either way.

My understanding about the Morozov family is that he was an agricultural scientist who defected, started working for the US, and is very public about his disdain for the USSR. But the FBI still is suspicious of his motives so they keep surveilance on him.

This means that the USSR can't straight up kill him even if they wanted to, and they might not want to because his work might help Russia out of their perpetual food crises if they can get their hands on it. So they want to get him to return to Russia, because it would be a propaganda victory for them to have a very public dissident renounce America and return home, and/or if he returns they can kill him without the FBI caring anymore.

I have no idea how accurate any of this is.

That seems like a credible read.

From the real World Council of Churches wiki: Claims of infiltration and influence by the KGB

I forgot all about the agricultural angle with the wheat thing.

Yeah they did not push that angle all the way to finish line.

It's an odd season, this.

It is! It feels like a bunch of threads of plots flopped out and left dangling all over the place.

Absolutely. So so slow, so many threads simply abandoned or without a proper follow through (though hello there, Misha was back all of a sudden). Feels like the writers are really cashing in on the trust they gained from us viewers up to this far, but man are they testing my patience... And yet it is still great.

imo the most compelling stuff this year has been oleg

I agree. His

I agree. His challenges seem both more complicated and constantly evolving. The Jennings story seems to be going in circles a bit.

Thirded. He's really developed as a character, deepened, more than the Jennings have. I fear for Oleg.

He's the only character in play whose story could really end any number of ways, happy or sad, imo. He could escape, he could die, he could fool his investigators, he could ignomiously end like Nina. It helps that we know about his family and their tragedies, which are equally complex and what are directing his various impulses.

The Jennings, there is no way that situation ends well.

Yeah Oleg has come across in a lot of ways as the character with the most integrity in the show.

I probably would have forgotten about the wheat thing as well if I hadn't been behind on the show and watched the first half of the season off the DVR a couple weeks ago. It still seems like ages ago though.

Why are any of these side stories necessary? Good question. They aren't so far, except maybe to establish Tuan. But they could've done that a variety of other ways.

Tuan is a cool character but he's no more or less important than the Morozovs themselves really - these characters only matter because of how they advance Philip and Elizabeth's own arcs. If that story ends as I suspect it will then it's likely to be the thing that pushes at least one of them past breaking point - bringing back Kimmy a few episodes ago was a reminder that kids are one of his weak spots, and developing friendships (particularly with other women) is Elizabeth's. If the Morosov kid dies then that's probably it for them.

The FBI story doesn't seem to be going anywhere particularly interesting and seems to be an excuse to give Stan something do to, he's in a holding pattern in the same way Oleg was last year.

idk, one thing I definitely still trust the writers to do is to have every plot go somewhere interesting or necessary. Even if it's more anticlimax than explosion in terms of action, even if one or more of the protagonists doesn't realise it. (Philip and Kimmy, for instance.) What's important is that Stan feels incredibly protective of the very naïve, almost simple Sofia and what that emotional effect will mean for him, even if the actual info Sofia provides might not be relevant.

The killing of the collaborator was probably the season's most intense scene. All comes back to trust, Philip in particular demanding certainty but even when he gets it, it's in shades of grey and he can't trust it. (To what extent was Natalie trying to play them with the appeal to sympathy?)

I laughed extremely darkly when Elizabeth fished Paige's cross out of the bin and EVEN THAT WAS ONLY BECAUSE OF SPYING.

Oleg's end game is tied up in that secretary who isn't scared of the KGB, Lidiya Fomina, I think. That was some speech she gave them. There must be a reason that other grocer was so terrified of her/her people.

The podcast (which hasn't been great this year, and more of like a second thought by all involved) actually brought up something today about how the relationship of Tuan and Elizabeth is similar to something one of the creators of Frasier told him about the relationship of Niles and Frasier—to normalize Frasier, Niles had to be an amplification of all Frasier's mannerisms and neuroses. I think Tuan is Elizabeth on overdrive and even she's shocked by it.

I like this idea!

Strangely for such an ideologue, I don't think Elizabeth's arc is going to be about disillusionment or her beliefs as such - it'll be about choosing her family over her job. That's her biggest level of denial, not about America's comfort - she's so good at what she does that she thinks she can make it work for her children. Even with the always-doomed idea of bringing Paige into the fold, that hasn't actually been a disaster yet (apart from to Paige's mental health, but obviously Elizabeth believes in time as a healer there).

it'll be about choosing her family over her job

Good call. And tonight we found out what her choice would be.

! Must watch this when I get home from work.

Very satisfying, tense, and open ended finale imo.

Huh, Costa Ronin is russian-australian, I didnt know that.

OK so I dont feel like anything was really resolved there? We were left wondering if maybe next season they'll defect!

it felt pretty much "resolved" to me--Elizabeth can't let it go. Philip is utterly done. Feels like the conflict they've been setting up since the first season.

I can't work out if my version wasn't the full episode but it sort of just seemed to end, wondering if I missed the last five minutes or so.

it's a typical Americans-esque scene with lots of left unspoken in the silences, but if you saw P and E on the bench then you saw the ending.

I didn't, I saw Philip walking into the kitchen and looking serious.