A thread for The Americans on FX

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.

i can't read this yet as i'm 3 years behind, but MZS is disappointed

http://www.vulture.com/2017/06/the-americans-season-five-review-the-messiest-year.html

Good; he's an idiot.

MZS is probably TV's best critic, and he's not wrong to say this season was not quite up to the show's high standards.

Nothing happened! Lotta furrowed brows.

Missed what Philip heard on the recording. And was it implied he chucked the tape recorder?

I know the show runners said this would be a slow season, and they were right, but ... why? Clearly they have something in mind, but it seems like they could have found a faster way to get there. Unless they really wanted to hit the depressing "everyone might die and even if they don't they're dead inside" motif again and again.

Kimmies dad was going to be promoted to... something very high in the CIA from what I could work out? And I assume Phillip realised that if Moscow found this out when he reported it in, they'd insist he stayed in the US, and hanging round her, for the ultra-close contact it'd garner.

He presumably didnt want that getting in the way and thus was going to turf the tape (did he though? I didnt see if he did)

My bf's theory on what could happen next:
- they intend to leave the US but really only want to get away from the *job*, not the country itself
- they defect instead, and use Stan as their protection/contact
- BUT! Stan's gf is a Ruskie illegal! What is going to happen now!?
- ... or maybe Henry will become a hacker/join the FBI?

This show is so dark and depressing, I can totally see Philip and Elizabeth deciding to stay, and Stan's (clearly? or is she?) Russian girlfriend killing them. Then again, don't forget the early season with the Russian/American kid snapping and killing his whole family in that hotel room ...

No Oleg this final ep. Bummer.

Christ, I'd forgot all about that kid killing his family!

Actually maybe what'll happen is they'll all try to leave and it'll be *Henry* who refuses, and goes to Stan for asylum/help.

not a good season, not a good final episode. Plot points waved around then shelved for no reason. Aimless and uncompelling.
i'm hopeful this is a "justified" case where they have a shitty penultimate season and then have something to say at the end.

The more I think about it, the more I think "Justified" could be one of the best series finales ever.

I didn't like the agriculture subplot at the top of the season, and I'm mad about how much time was wasted on it over all. If that was just to have Philip kill an innocent in vain one last time, they could've at least built a more compelling scenario.

I think the show did get better about half way through, even if it was still slow. I have a better sense of Henry and Paige now, for sure, and I can empathize with Stan wanting to ground his life after years of doing what he's been doing (though we'll see how that works out). Philip just seems beaten down and the only glimmer of hope he had was just extinguished by a) new information and b) Elizabeth's insistence on pursuing it (he didn't pitch the recorder, btw...he told Elizabeth he'd almost done it, but didn't). Oleg's life in Russia was definitely the most compelling avenue the show went down this year, but I'm still not certain what the stakes are for him.

Wish the dressing down of Tuan would've been more vicious, but that's not what this show is.

So whats the thoughts on Stan's gf trying to talk him out of quitting? She's doing that on purpose right?

Oh yeah, they couldn't have been clearer in saying she's a Russian agent without putting a red neon flashing hammer & sickle over her head.

Poor, stupid Stan.

I wonder if the Centre is going to assign Philip and/or Elizabeth to the Russian woman that Stan and his partner are targeting, which would put them on a direct collision course with him.

I think this season had a few too many plates spinning but "aimless" is complete nonsense.

Pretty divisive season huh? My bf hated it too, along the "nothing's happened" lines, but I think - especially in the last three episodes - they really pulled out some emotionally devastating scenes.

The great thing about this show is that it's always, always felt character-driven rather than plot-driven, and in the cases it hasn't that's jarred a bit (suspension of disbelief required to get us to think telling Paige would be a good idea, for instance). S5 was maybe character-driven to a fault - sometimes people do things that don't go anywhere dramatic, that sputter out or end in brick walls. I feel this is really ties into the themes of all the characters feeling powerless and trapped by larger systems they can't get out of, whether that's Oleg in the KGB or Stan in the FBI or Mischa reaching the US but hitting a brick wall or Paige's secrets or Philip and Elizabeth themselves. I mean, powerlessness and impotence is all about stasis, to an extent. Maybe it's character-driven to a fault now? I thought it was tremendously effective, if not exciting.

Actually maybe what'll happen is they'll all try to leave and it'll be *Henry* who refuses, and goes to Stan for asylum/help.

― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Friday, 2 June 2017 03:39 (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel defection might be a little dramatic for The Americans but I can 100% see Henry running away to Stan over the boarding school issue, with no spy stuff involved. I think it's basically clear they won't be going back to Russia for S6 now anyway, it's the "one last job" final act.

Renee's "oh no you must stay in the FBI" speech was almost too obvious and I think even might have given the game away to Stan. Not a normal way to react to a "my job makes me feel like shit every day" confession.

Where I did think S5 fell down wasn't in the lack of Plot Happening or the pace, it was in the disconnected stories - Oleg and Stan and P&E were basically in separate shows throughout. There was a degree of interconnectedness in the past seasons that made it really, really tense even when the show slowed it down.

Yeah I agree with that last point - the show itself suffered a lot from moving huge, compelling characters like Nina and Martha out of the centre of the action and then not really replacing them, so the US scenes had relatively few character rattling around a huge dramatic space. Granted, it created space for Paige in particular to really shine, but when I watched the scene with Philip and Kimmy I remember thinking "I wish we'd seen more of this".

I suspect a dour season soaked in emotional paralysis and creeping dread was what they were going for all along but I wish they'd ignited the touchpaper at the very end, as a cliffhanger if nothing else.

I was trying to work out a way where Stan's girlfriend pulls the old switcheroo on us all and turns out to be a US agent - that they've suspected Stan of being the leaky pipe for a long time and want to find out who he's leaking to, exactly. But I can't make that work, and I think she must be a Soviet agent, especially given the questioning of Oleg.

This show has done such a good job of skirting the obvious, that I almost think she can't be a Russian agent. But if she's *not* a Russian agent ... I dunno, that's yet another dead end. The downside of dragging things out is, unless they have an airtight plan, the reveal (if there is one!) is bound to be pretty disappointing.

This show has been beautifully, brilliantly character driven, but we really didn't learn anything new or see any new facets of anyone save a) Henry, who had been so MIA he might as well have been written off the show; the promise/threat of sending him to boarding school played like a sly in-joke and b) Gabriel, who essentially *was* written off the show (at least for now). Anything else new was new: the hippie stud in Kansas, the Russians in America being recruited, heck, Oleg's life in Russia. If those plots are going anywhere - and given what happened wth the super plants, maybe they're not - I wish we hadn't spent so much time on them. If they *are* going somewhere, I wish for drama/suspense sake we knew a bit more. Because it's going to be, what, a year or more until the show comes back? That's a long wait to follow a season that was in essence a long wait.

Someone should assemble a supercut of Philip swallowing.

Here's a whole show where he does just that.

I'm still sticking by my initial theory which is that they'll end up in some situation (maybe just a weekend away or a chummy lake swim or something) in which Stan notices Elizabeth's gunshot scar and the penny will suddenly drop.

Talk about a slow build.

Maybe the show will just end in 1989 and the fall of the USSR, and Philip and Elizabeth will just shrug and say "now what?" Or kill themselves.

it's not so much "nothing happened" as "what happened didn't move the plot forward or introduce anything to forward the story"

as a for instance, the shooting of the old woman and her husband in their house was a scene that show has done numerous times and done better... it was generally poorly directed, occasionally unclear and put the main characters through a wringer that culminated in A MAJOR DECISION that had little dramatic heft. Everything was off.

show is not as compelling to me post-Nina, I have to say, but still enjoying this season (only about half way through it)

Have just learned that the file we d/l had the last few mins cut off, which explains my confusion at the sudden ending. Will need to rewatch it.

Ha, us too!

yeah just rewatched it... our copy ended with phillips talk to paige about having a dog and boyfriend ... it did seem odd ! now i'm like ohhhhh ok.

Just caught up with the finale too. It didn't disappoint, and I think we're set-up for quite a final season. Despite all their efforts it seems because Isaac Breeland will be head of the Soviet div, they have to stay. If I was Philip, seeing how tortured he is, I'd still say: 'fuck this shit, I'll rather defect', but it's a clever plot-twist. Though they could've done better with the most important 'news' of the episode being buried in a murky recording tbh.

Not sure what staying means for Henry: will he be allowed to go now anyway? (good suggestion up here that he might seek refuge/help from Stan). I think Stan's last season will be way more interesting than this one, too. Something tells me he and Oleg will cross paths again, either to do with his new 'girlfriend' or not. Not sure if they are to help each other or confront each other though. Or both.

One thing I'm still not clear on: If the Center wanted Alexei and his family back to Russia, why will he be locked up should he return? I must have missed something as I'm still not very clear about this whole story line. Is he going to be sad and alone in America next season? (will we even see them again?)

They don't want Alexei back in Russia, just Evgheniya, because she's having an affair with the CIA's new head of its Moscow office. So they want her to go back there and continue the affair. That's why they sent someone to tell her that she won't be punished if she goes back.

Ahhh you right, I blanked on that last night, thanks.

I'm delighted that Martha's going to be allowed to adopt a child. It's a good ending for her, unless someone figures out a way to use the child as leverage to get her to do something unpleasant.

Yeah, though I'm not at all sure this is the 'end' for her. They didn't invest in her story all season, but they keep bringing her up every now and again.