A thread for The Americans on FX

Stan's line to Philip about having more things means dealing with more, good or bad, with the later childhood flashback where kids were scraping food out of a pot was relatively subtle. I liked how that played out.

re my earlier post, I'm happy to see Kimmy again!

Kimmy's the anti Henry, he looks 3 years older every season, she looks a year younger.

When Oleg told Philip this was the last time they could meet in person I groaned. I wanted a whole season of Philip and Oleg teaming up to battle Elizabeth (and Paige).

And Paige really is turning into her mom, I guess, sleeping with that dude to gain access to...his boss's office, I guess?

Like someone else suggested upthread, what I want is a spin-off season of Philip and Stan hitting the open road.

Oleg should come along, or at least be a regular guest

finally caught up this past week and man is the tension reaching unbearable levels this year. i'm thinking that their downfall stems from paige, who keeps making careless mistakes. would be tragic if she's the one caught, and then aderholt recognizes her from that dinner in the first episode, but i'm thinking that's how it might shake out.

I don't understand the weird thing that Elizabeth is doing where she's being super-harsh about training up Paige, and taking her on all of these missions, but then also trying to pretend that they never kill anyone. First of all, Paige is supposed to be this incredible deep-cover sleeper agent, angling for a job in the CIA or State Dept. Shouldn't she just stay out of all of this cloak-and-dagger stuff? Secondly, why is Elizabeth trying to shield her from the realities of the job? Seems like Paige is just going to be more disillusioned when she figures out how many people her mom has killed.

because she’s in denial, and also a mom

trying to slowly get Paige in, and pretending she can somehow indefinitely defer the day when Paige sees the worst part of the job seems very much like a thing someone with a family business who isn’t completely comfortable justifying it would do

Last night was such a packed episode I may need to watch it a second time.

they definitely made a point of showing what the stakes are for most of the main cast

Paige in the bar was fantastic. After last night--if that hadn't happened already--it's virtually impossible to have any good feelings about Elizabeth or Philip. (The Kimmy thing always creeped me out--for the obvious reason, and also the idea that this girl would take an interest in this reptilian polyester hustler.)

I mean, I know Philip subsequently warned her about Greece, but the deed had been done at that point.

The juxtaposition of the Philip/Paige stuff and the Philip/Kimmy stuff was...unsettling.

they broke Philip

the Philip/Paige stuff

Yeah, that too. Trying to warn your daughter away from the life is good; your chosen method, not so good.

the juxtaposition of Paige declaring that her mother can't decide who she can and can't have sex with and Philip furthering his spy work by pretty much feeling his orders and training told him exactly who to have sex with, followed by Paige pulling out the "you aren't like me and mom" card when he's done those exact things kind of blew up with him challenging her

the end-run of the little russian cultural sessions is probably to reveal more of this to Paige, but right now, it's putting a pretty veneer on what her parents are actually up to and Philip has absolutely no respect for that

xp: I thought there was some weird punishing subtext about her sexuality as well.

The grim expression on Philip's face when he was having sex with Kimmy was pretty hard to watch. But yeah, he's now actively betrayed the Service in a way I don't think he had before, and that's going to blow up big time.

Also when Elizabeth killed the Russian couple I thought she was going to take out the kid as well but that really would be the point at which her character is broken and can never be fixed.

Phillip knew instantly when Stan told him about the Russian couple that she'd done it. If he'd said she killed the kid too, I don't know what Phillip would've done.

yeah that phone call was a major moment for Philip. Kimmy will definitely tell her CIA dad that she was warned to stay in Greece during her trip. I imagine she will obscure some of the precise details with her relationship with Philip, which could buy them time, but that call was the beginning of the end of the Jennings' cover.

That episode was stunning. One of the best and most difficult-to-watch things I've ever seen.

just starting s6, love the opening montage and Oleg's dad beard

Oleg’s dad definitely an underrated character finally getting his due

I love @TheAmericansFX & have watched since its premiere, but there’s one thing that’s always bothered me - in my experience it’s impossible to fuck someone without them figuring out you’re wearing a wig

— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) May 1, 2018

Caught up now - I'm going to be sad when this is over but it seems to be going out strong. I have no idea how Chekov's Cyanide Capsule will wind up getting used.

latest episode my favorite of the season, which had felt pretty padded to me otherwise. maybe I am a lunk who needs action in his TV shows now though idk. I think Philip's phone call to Kimmy is absolutely a cross-the-bridge-blow-it-up-behind-you moment, that's outright betrayal.

found the murder of the two russians especially reprehensible, which was the idea I guess.

you must have found last season especially trying if you need action in your TV!

I was kind of glad they killed those two russians off because I was wondering why we were spending so much time revisiting them when they honestly weren't very interesting.

Will someone remind me what was going on with the courier thing? The x-ray in the bathroom? I lost track of the scheme.

I didn't really get that either but it was a hilarious image

Will be disappointed if it turns out there isn't another layer to Renee.

it would be hilarious if she turned out to be from some third, non-KGB/CIA intelligence service.

stealth agent of the census bureau trying to get an accurate count on the number of soviet agents in the country

tbh though I think she's gonna turn out to be a normie. everyone in stan's life who isn't a co-worker being an enemy spy would be a bit much

i think it would be interesting if she were IA or something investigating the FBI, kind of like what Philip said he was doing when he was Clark

Yeah but at least it would make sense since Philip/Elizabeth had been feeding info about him for years and I'm sure a divorced high-level FBI dude would be a likely target. Otherwise, any screen time on Renee/Stan is kind of a waste. Would also be happy to suspend disbelief and find out she's Mossad or Stasi or double-secret FBI quality control agent, lol just something other than Stan's sporty gf.

Would've happily traded the whole defector plotline for 2X on the nuclear talks or anything else really.

im totally fine with her just being stan's GF. stan is the third main character on the show and im happy to spend as much time with him as possible before the end.

I wonder if she's keeping an eye on Phillip? Making sure he's still around, that he doesn't blab to Stan, that kind of thing?

I liked the defectors and their domestic drama!

it would be hilarious if she turned out to be from some third, non-KGB/CIA intelligence service.

lol I had a thought that she might be German! 1987 is when efforts to tear down the Berlin Wall really begins right?

I had known in some abstract sense that all the threads of this show coming together would be exciting, but now that it's upon us I am so excited I can barely contain it.

Tense episode. Not much happened--looks like that's next week--but it always felt like something big was about to. I got home late from a movie, so just caught the end of the terse Philip-Elizabeth exchange that opened the episode. I want to catch that on repeat.

Stan's jingoistic speech kind of came out of left-field, but it did seem to be in character.

So many spies writing things on the top sheets of notepads this week. Haven't they ever seen the pencil trick?
Also, nice bit of fan service getting Maily into the elevator shot.

I don't know if anyone will agree, but one thing I haven't necessarily found convincing is Paige the dutiful KGB daughter. Dramatically, it makes sense; she was torn for a full season (two?), and you can't stretch that out forever. So they skipped forward in time, her acceptance largely took place off-screen, and they redirected the focus elsewhere.

But I'm not sure it fits her character based on previous seasons, that she would become such an unquestioning believer, and I definitely think it makes her character less interesting. She was a cipher in last night's episode; for the first time, Henry was much more interesting than her. (The kid who plays Henry is really good.)

that she would become such an unquestioning believe

Not sure you're wrong, but I do think they've tried to lay the groundwork for this. She's always been looking for the "right" belief system, always tacitly sought approval from both other adults and her parents. It's clear that Elizabeth is exactly the same.

I mean, it's not unlike the college freshman effect of whatever 101 course you're taking becoming your entire worldview briefly.

No, that's right--she's just replaced Pastor Tim with Mother Russia. I do think it's made her less interesting, though, reducing her to little more than supportive, concerned frowning. Or at least last night she was pretty bland--she was great pummeling those two yahoos the week before.

When Elizabeth came out of the cinema and was rolling her eyes about the long silent heist scene, that was the show cheekily referencing its own 15 minute hole dig, right?