AliShibaz

On Youtube there are a few interviews with 4 or 5 cast members. The actor who plays Ramsay is in one of them. I'm very sorry I can't find the link offhand. But if you look how he is dressed (very much like Austin Powers) and how he talks, you get the feeling that he is just an incredible weird-o IRL. Sorry to be so judgemental - especially since I could easily be wrong. But, if I'm correct, it's interesting insofar as that is exactly the kind of person you would want to portray Ramsay - and he is really superb - much, much better than the actor who portrayed Joffrey. However, I'm guessing he is now typecast for the rest of his life. I would guess that never again will he play any other kinds of parts except for psycho evil-doers. I get a very strong feeling that he is definitely not a well-rounded character actor. If he is typecast, it will be for a very good reason. I sure do hope that someone finds that interview and can post the link. Alfie Alllen is also in it and so is Liam Cunningham (he plays Davos and he is in almost every interview I've ever seen that involves a group of male actors from this show). Damn! I just spent about 30 minutes searching and can't find it at all. The disappointing thing is that I doubt anyone will ever find another youtube interview in which Iwan Rheon (the actor) is wearing an outfit that looks like it comes from the 60s. But my recollection is there are about six male actors from the show sitting in a row and they are interviewed by some host. I sure hope someone can find it.

One of the biggest and best LOL moments I've had in a very long time. Thank you so much! Mod Note: Please ask spoilery questions in the Ask A BookWalker Topic or request that spoilery answers are sent via a PM.

She can never go back into the main action. She is no one now.

I was expecting Ramsey to say, "Feed his body to the dogs" after he killed his father. It would have been a good LOL moment. I fully expect Ramsey to cry like a baby saying, "Oh, please don't hurt me." whenever he is brought to justice. The most viscous bullies always act like little babies when they are about to get payback.

I've been looking to see if anyone else has suggested that Mel was feeling bad because she thought her magic let her down when she saw Jon Snow winning some big battle at Winterfell. I expected Davos to tell her, "Well, if you can resurrect him, then he can indeed go on to fight some big battle. So maybe the problem is just that you have lost faith prematurely. Bring him back and then we'll see."

There must be some important meaning to all those dramatic glances between Oleg and Tatiana. But what could they be? What could be the importance of Tatiana hesitating before sending her message to Moscow? What else was she considering saying? I'm thinking that if only we knew that, we might just find the answer to the questions about Martha's future. I sure would love to know what will be happening to Martha and I'm guessing those answers have something to do with Tatiana and her hesitation and dramatic glances. What do you think? Does anyone here have any gueses? It's just driving me crazy. What does she know? I'm just guessing. But, I'm guessing it's something very important. What do you think?

I think many of us may be forgetting certain details about Martha's indoctrination and seduction. It's easy to sit back at this point and see that she is obviously guilty of treason and clearly deserves to spend a long time in a penitentiary. But remember how this started? Clarke began by telling her he had feelings for her but in his role as a "watchdog" of the FBI, it would be wrong, wrong, wrong for them to cross any boundaries. She understood and agreed. Then slowly he began by telling her that even though it would be wrong, he would still like to spend some time seeing her "socially". She told him, "I agree". Then, step by step, Clarke ratcheted up the pressure. First they became casual friends. Then serious friends. Then Martha suggested that maybe Clarke could arrange to have "someone else" from his office handle her. Remember that? She did that because she was looking for a way to have a love relationship with Clark without doing anything wrong. Then they became lovers. Martha knew that when she became his lover she was doing something wrong. She accepted that she was doing something wrong. But it was a very minor kind of wrong - and it was Clark's wrong - not hers. Then slowly but surely - step by step - Clark turned her into a full blown traitor. All in all, it was a really brilliant attack - sublimely clever. The KGB did a masterful job of studying many, many cases. Martha had virtually no chance. My heart goes out to her. Yes. She is a traitor and she does deserve prison time. But there is so much more to this story. It's so easy to forget how her story started and how it developed. Is there no mercy for Martha? No understanding? P.S. If you haven't ever gone back and watched some of the early episodes (even as early as Season One), it's like seeing a completely new show. It's really worth doing that. I learn so much and see so much as if I was seeing it for the first time when I watch older episodes.

Does the name "Joyce Mitchell" ring a bell? She worked in a very large penetentiary as a seamstress. She was described as a wonderful, kind and caring woman who cared about people and lived to help them. Long story short ... she helped two murderers escape from the pen and made national headlines and news magazine shows. They did an hour on her on 20/20 or some other show like that. I think it was the NBC version. Here is a news link with her picture. It was said she did this out of "love". http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/woman-who-helped-united-states-jailbreak-gets-up-to-seven-years-prison-1224036 Very hard story to swallow.

Recently, I've been watching some of Martha's earliest scenes back in Season One and comparing them to her performance in the recent two episodes. It's been really fascinating. In many cases, it's like watching her for the very first time. I'd like to recommend to everyone you might enjoy watching S1 E6 at around the two minute mark. That scene probably shows the truest representation as to how Martha really feels about Clarke. It would be as if Charlize Theron dropped in on me one day and asked me if I'd like to go out for a cup of coffee. After I peeled myself off the celing, I would probably know just how Martha feels about Clarke.

It's very difficult for me to disagree with hardly anyone here. It's very difficult to find fault with Martha. Part of the reason is when you examine "Clark", on the surface, it is just so very difficult to believe he could ever be KGB. I think most all of us have an idea of just what a KGB officer would be like. They would look a lot like Satan - with horns and bad breath and terrible manners and a very evil disposition. If you meet someone who is ostensibly kind and gentle, it's gonna be almost impossible to accept the fact they could ever be KGB. So, although I have to agree that Martha surely knew that what she was doing was wrong, it's just so hard to blame her for falling for Clark because he is just nothing like a typical view of a KGB officer. Martha was put into a terribly, terribly difficult position. I have nothing but sympathy for her. In other words, ... Poor Martha!

I would guess that Martha's story would have to be a fairly common occurrence in the history of secret KGB agents in America. There must be many people who have waited all their lives to meet that "special someone" who would love them forever and make them feel complete. The would get married and have children and grandchildren and then live happily ever after. Isn't that a part of the American dream after all? I'm guessing that it must be. How sad to think that many people can be exploited by having an agent lie to them and make them believe that true love has finally found a way into their hearts. When people keep referring to a "Poor Martha" episode, it just ain't for nothing. Sad to say. Very sad to say. but it's also very true. I do not believe it is much more applicable to one gender over the other. IMHO, both genders are equally vulnerable to this kind of con.

I never liked Martha and never understood why so many people thought she was attractive. I never understood why Agent Amadoor would pursue her when he was so active with so many other women. But, then INA1 posted the following link to a podcast where Alison Wright has a very nice conversation about Martha. It turns out that she has a strong English accent and I don't know why, but hearing Alison speak in her native accent really changed things for me. She seems like an entirely different person when heard speaking with her true accent. She seems very cute to me and yes ... very attractive too. I'm not sure how it is possible for someone's level of attractiveness to change so much because of their accent. But it really did in this case. The interview is fairly lengthy and I enjoyed all of it except whenever the host spoke. I thought he was just too long winded and I wish there was a way to just cut him out of the interview and listen to Alison. But if you didn't see the post where INA1 posted this link, I would urge you all to watch this interview. I'm quite certain you will enjoy it very much. I sure did. I love this show too. Here is the link: www.goldderby.com/article/2016/alison-wright-interview-the-americans-season-4-confirmation-video/

You write that in the past tense - as if you are certain they are no longer here. I would guess they still live among us. Do you have any reason for suspecting they are all gone now?

Wow! What a great podcast. Any fan of this show will love that. Thanks so much!

I've known a few people who have suicided and it's amazing how almost all of them have said something exactly like that the last time I saw them. One of them lived a very wild lifestyle and the last time I saw him, he told me, "I saw an old friend the other day and she looked at me and said, "I can't believe that you are still alive! Ha! Ha! Ha!" He laughed like he thought that was just hilarious. Two weeks later I heard he had killed himself. Very ominous.

I liked your post. Gaad's performance had to be the highlight of this episode. But I don't think they would fire him. That would be too dangerous. He could get angry and retaliate somehow. I think they would just move him to a nice office and give him a fairly meaningless job. When you said "a nice gut punch", it reminded me of the way Elizabeth chose to handle Martha and settle her down. After all the efforts made by Gabriel to get Martha back in the house, if only he would have known that "a nice gut punch" would have done it. Speaking of Gabriel, I had a thought about him. I usually don't quibble about realisim. But I have to ask whether Gabriel drives a car and if not, how did he get to the house? Because if he drove a car, wouldn't he have followed Martha (at a discreet distance of course) so that he would know where she is going? I have to wonder just how else would he travel between his home and the safe house?

I won't believe it until she is actually in Russia. I was just about to blurt out some info from the preview of next week's episode but luckily, I stopped to think maybe that would be considered a spoiler. In fact, I'm guessing it must be. Oh gosh, I tried to see if I could put some info in a spoiler box. On other forums I use the word "spoiler" enclosed in square brackets. But I can't see any option here for "Preview Post". Also, for some reason, all the tags for things like "multi quote posts" appear to be in a language like Chinese or Japanese. I will try to search the site to try to find out what is happening. Oops. My mistake. They are not in a different language. They are just shown with little icons to indicate what they are. Unfortunately, I can see the English description for those icons when I hold my mouse over them. But only for about half of them. I'm guessing this may just be some "growing pains" for the new release? It seemed to me there was something going on with Tatiana getting that pilot that was hidden from the audience. There were several dramatic glances going on between Oleg & Tatiana about this. Does anyone have any guess as to what that could be about? Or would it be wrong to post that in this thread because it could be considered "speculation"? (Sorry - I'm very new to this forum). When Paige went to Agent Beeman's home, I got the idea that the reason she did that was to try and protect her family and prevent Henry from saying anything that could cause Matthew to become suspicious and maybe cause him to say something to his father. I took that as an indication that Paige has finally decided to side with her family and she won't be saying or doing anything more with Pastor Tim that can bring harm to her family.

Or parasites. Parasites are my biggest fear.

I read most of that article and stopped at a point that confused me. Am I correct insofar as the phrase "grieving father" is a mistake? I thought Oleg was a grieving brother. Am I somehow mistaken about that?

Nice observation. Sansa is obviously a survivor. She certainly doesn't give off any survivor airs. But she must be a great survivor to have made it so far deep into the story. I'm guessing that she will get pushed even further into a corner - kind of like being wound and wound like a clock spring - and then finally bursting forth with an incredible amount of vengence and I hope we will see her exact one whole Hell of a lot of vengence and retribution. Many people say that Sansa is their favorite character. I would just ask everyone to think of the answer to this question. "How could she possibly not be anyone's favorite character?"

AFAIK, we have no idea just what has transpired between Ellaria Sand and the palace guards. We also have no idea how any of the other citizens of Dorn feel about going to war. I have no more knowledge than anyone else, but in general, I would have to guess that like most people around the world, no one wants to go to war unless some leader has them scared of imprisonment if they fail to back the leader or they have been brainwashed somehow into thinking it's a good idea. Of course, given this show is a fantasy of sorts, we really don't know what the population of Dorn believes when it comes to avenging the death of Prince Oberyn. I would only hope they are half as smart as Doran Martell and want nothing to do with a war.

I think you are correct based on the maxim, "The devil that you know is better than the one you don't." Do you remember the incredible look of hatred on her face when she told Gabriel, "Everyone will know you are a KGB"! It was really extreme.

In browsing through this thread, I can't recall seeing anyone post anything about Alison Wright. I didn't read every post and so I could have missed it. I would guess someone must have already discussed the job she did playing Martha in this episode. But just in case no one has yet said so, I'd like to say she did an incredible job this episode. She truly just "knocked it out of the park". I don't know if she is eligible for any kind of award - maybe an Emmy or a Critic's Choice award? But I can't recall seeing any finer acting than she did during the last few scenes of this episode. She was truly amazing. I watched the episode a second time and was just speechless looking at the job she did. I was absolutely riveted to the TV watching her play Martha. "Trust you? I don't know you!. Get away from me or I'll scream. Then everyone will know what you are. You are a KGB!" It's hard to tell if she said, "You are KGB!" or "You are a KGB!". But in either case, the way she delivered that line was one of the most memorable performances I think I've ever seen. Applause! Applause!

FineWashables - Excellent observation! I knew when that apprentice kept calling Arya "blind girl" it reminded me of someone. It must seem awfully dumb that I didn't recognize that as Arya's dancing master. He was one of the greatest characters in the entire show. I would dearly love to see him again. Wouldn't it be magnificent if it turned out as you predicted? I am hoping above all hope that you are correct. Good on you.

JMO - But, if Dany was stuck in that home for the rest of this season, it would have to be an improvement over her current story line. I know many people will disagree with this - given that the CGI dragons are supposed to be so fabulous. But I can't find any reason to get excited about her story line. I find everything about it incredibly NOT entertaining - except perhaps for those parts that do not have her on screen. Her character is incredibly one-dimensional. After a short time, I just get extremely tired of her. I'm almost at the point where I just Fast-Forward through all her scenes. LOL! I'm so glad to see that I am not the only person who feels this way about "It is known". It is boring! It was boring after the third time it was said. It has been said far too many times and has never been entertaining.