BingeyKohan

There will be some skullduggery and suspense, of course, but I think all I really need out of the end are some honest, masks-off conversations - Elizabeth is already engaging in that with Claudia, and with herself. The scales need to fall from Paige's eyes about what her parents have really been up to. And I want to see the conversation between Stan and Philip and Elizabeth (I know Stan/Philip is the central relationship there, on either side of the law, but I want to see Elizabeth in the mix there, too, since Stan is bound to impugn their behavior as parents above all.) I think I'll only feel cheated if we don't get that. Who gets away with what is less interesting to me, and even who lives. Philip in a way has already died, and Elizabeth is ready to, so it's not that interesting if either of them actually do.

Agree - I am sure Elizabeth omitted that from her reporting the same way she was vague to Marilyn about dropping her off at a certain corner that night before she killed him. I don't think the previews for this week are misdirecting us so much that it's not Jackson they're talking about. Since we know Paige is a fixated on the sex-work part of the job I think Claudia tells Paige Elizabeth seduced a congressional intern as part of the mission, to poison the way Paige sees her mother. ETA: I'm beginning to think more and more of the Jennings in relation to the tradition of calling spies "spooks" - like they're always a little haunted, and not fully alive. We even heard that from Paige, a little, with her saying she had no friends and therefore could give her life over to the cause. So even whichever of the three of them live, they'll continue being "spooks."

I think in the next episode Claudia gets Paige off by herself and starts planting seeds of doubt in her mind about her mother, an echo of Claudia driving a wedge between Philip and Elizabeth in season 1. I wonder if we’ll see Tuan again while Elizabeth watches Nesterenko - I think Tuan would take pleasure in having to clean up a Philip/Elizabeth mess, as he would see it. Claudia’s doubt-planting will have worked and in a crucial moment where Paige needs to trust her mother she hesitates, and dies. Henry makes it clear to his father he does not want to leave the country. Philip and Elizabeth ride off into the sunset but shell-shocked and shattered because all they have is each other. Sort of like the last shot of The Graduate but hopeless.

I think "Jennings, Elizabeth" is going to turn out to be something totally benign and they're just messing with us, knowing how we'd speculate. Elizabeth realizes that even foiling a coup she can't skip her annual dental check-up. But she gets signaled in the waiting room to go meet Oleg, so she's already left by the time the nurse pokes her head out and calls "Jennings, Elizabeth?"

If I'm clear on the suspicious-seeming priest Dennis and co. were referring to in "Summit," it's not the Jennings' priest the FBI suspects, but his superior. So hopefully he's tipping Philip off that something shady is happening rather than unwittingly leading him into a trap. I think the same way Stan's spidey sense has been tingling and he's gathering threads, Philip's likely start to tingle around Stan next week and they'll start to back away from each other.

Now you have me interested in Americans merch. Frankly, I find this appalling, @FX: https://shop.fxnetworks.com/search?type=product&q=the*+americans*

And what would the trophy be? I personally would like a framed swatch of the Jennings kitchen wallpaper but maybe a miniature Mail Robot would be more appropriate, like a version of MTV's moon-man trophies.

You're right, good point about the support coming from Arkady. So the danger is from the official level (FBI) and the off-the-books, shadowy level (Claudia's secret society of the squirrel pin). Maybe the Centre could ride to the rescue in some way. I think someone noticed Tatiana returns in the one of the final episodes, though last we saw she and Oleg were at cross-purposes, weren't they? And on the subject of Renee, this is still speculation based on no intel so I feel ok mentioning it here: the s6 trailer shows a car like hers being stopped, and we haven't seen that scene yet so your framing her theory is interesting.

You'll often hear showrunners talk about the next-to-last episode being the finale in their mind, and the actual last episode is more just for true wrap-up and resolution. I almost felt like, except for a few moments we still need to see, this could have been the finale - seeing Elizabeth turn this corner. I'm definitely curious to watch the rest play out but I'm also satisfied.

My predictions have been wrong but that won’t stop me from speculating: -With the FBI and KGB after them and cut off from the Centre’s resources the Jennings will have to go to Stavos’ apartment as a safe house. He will take them in out of loyalty. And because he’s scared of Elizabeth (and confides he always has been, in the only bit of mirth we’ll get in the last episodes) -Elizabeth will force feed the cyanide pill to Claudia -We may never see Henry again

A little bit too much expositional monologuing for me, but I think we needed that to set up the final push. I think the plotting here is tremendous. It's the only way we could root for Elizabeth going into the end. Hat tip for bringing us another important Roy Rogers. They really are revisiting all the old ghosts. I always thought maybe Elizabeth gravitated to that painting because it reminded her of her mother. Her mother also died a wasting disease like Erika but without her daughter around to be a caregiver. Part of her wanted to hold onto it, her identity as a daughter (even a bad one) but part of her needed to burn it and leave it behind. So, there's her actual mother and the motherland she's having to unburden herself of there. Renee working in FBI personnel is perfect, for all the background checks she can fake to position double agents. If that's how she swings. I'm not sure we'll know and I'm not sure I care. The next two episodes are going to be killer.

And her mother throwing her in the swimming pool when she was young!

Yes, 'choice' seems like such a luxury in their position, but speaking as someone who wants them to get away I'm fine with that. Another interview with the showrunners had them leaning heavily into the idea that Henry is a thoroughly American kid. My guess is his choice is to stay behind while the rest of the family leaves. He has been pretty well weaned off of them.

I heartily applaud this kind of detective work! Adding to the 'make of it what you will,' as i've mentioned elsewhere P and E were described by Variety sharing a scene on a train in the finale. 'Water safety' makes me remember the Season 1 scene of Elizabeth dunking Claudia. Maybe she drags her to the safe house bathtub for old time's sake. And that's a series wrap on Margo Martindale!

A new scenario I considered: Elizabeth gets arrested but when she goes to take the cyanide pill she finds Philip has removed it. Philip mounts a retrieval plan like Harvest, for E during a prisoner transport. Paige is forbidden by Philip from helping but Claudia goes behind his back and lets her help as part of her final training. In the shootout Philip has to kill Stan. Paige does ok but the Jennings are so pissed at Claudia for endangering her that Elizabeth kills Claudia. I know this isn’t super-likely, just trying to imagine how they could efficiently bring to a head all the conflicts or confrontations we’d want to see.

There’s also a scene in the season 6 trailer that appears to be right after the intern has left the car. Elizabeth looks troubled, like some weighty realization is settling in. I think that’s the moment she realizes she’s been made.

I think the fire scene is new, too. I wonder if it’s after the scene we glimpse quickly, E in her nurse garb kneeling and opening a case. Maybe she’s raiding Erica’s sketch collection of any that are of her. She’s burning anything identifying. I do think E learns about P’s betrayal next episode. I was cheered somewhat by rereading a Variety interview at the start of this season that refers to a scene in the finale with P and E together on a train. I wasn’t sure they’d both make it to the finale.

Returning to my new obsession with the way this season is either echoing or reversing moments in the season 1 finale, I think it's significant that conversation prominently revisited the "Aunt Helen" construct. Aunt Helen was essentially an invention so Elizabeth could recuperate from the gunshot where they were almost captured by Stan and co. at a setup tape. The Jennings had been separated and on what could have been her deathbed Elizabeth says to Philip, in Russian, 'come home.' I think we're building to either an echo or reversal of that scene.

The more I think about the plane ride back from Chicago the more touching it becomes to me. Others have already commented on the scene presenting a view of the aging Jennings couple which may never happen, one reason I like it. And although we know that E meant Erica when she said ‘someone’s making me learn,’ to explain her sketching, I like how it applies to Philip, too. E has believed art-making to be sentimental and pointless. You could argue P going to Chicago, too, was sentimental and pointless. E knows he didn’t do it for Mother Russia. He did it for her. I commented on parallels this season has been building with the season 1 finale, which I mention in the Story Arc thread. In that finale P resolved to make the sacrifice for the family, against Elizabeth’s wishes. I think the writers are preparing to resolve that conflict once and for all.

For all the callbacks we’ve seen to the pilot I also think the season 1 finale is worth a close rewatch. There are some conversations between P and E about who should take the highest risk of capture and who should escape with the children that may be repeated in some form once they realize Stan is closing in. The scenes take on extra poignancy now, knowing they didn’t apply then but will soon. I’m trying to figure out how or whether the Jennings or Claudia could get tipped off. In the season 1 finale Stan inadvertently tipped off Nina who tipped off Arkady who got a signal to Claudia. This time it could only be Oleg, as the Nina surrogate. Or the priest maybe. I also noted another prominent view of Elizabeth in front a travel poster for Paris, different than the one in Paige’s bedroom. And now there’s a potential mission in France (though Cazaux is not really that near Paris.)

Maybe it will be a Sound of Music-esque getaway with the priest helping them escape their pursuers (here, FBI in place of Nazis)!

I'm not totally sure I understand the point of the pill, or the point of the editing purposefully cutting away and not showing him actually take it. Harvest was probably going to die yet he took the pill anyway (we think). Why? Just so we got to see somebody die by cyanide, since it was introduced, and we won't be seeing Elizabeth take one? But seeing it makes us really believe that out clause is very real and gruesome and right there around her neck? Why make an editing choice that leaves half your audience unsure of what happened? I liked the mechanics and ingenuity of how they got them from his car into the bus but otherwise I'm not sure what we got out of all of that. I guess we got something action-y and tragic that was able to remind Stan of Philly and of the man and woman who have been just beyond his grasp for 6 or 7 years.

i agree! She bakes brownies. She can kill a threat with her bare hands. (I wouldn't be a threat.) As herself, she has great style. Unless you're of use to her, she will take no interest in you whatsoever. (I would be of no use to her.) She can kind of draw, though that is neither here nor there.

So true. Since the Stan/Dennis 'it's going to happen fast' convo I've felt THAT should have been last season's finale. Or Harvest should have been. Then we'd have all this season to see the fallout.

You're right! Or a version of that suited to what they seem to have in mind for her - which would be: 'i hear you when you say you feel lonely and are looking forward to having a partner like your father. BUT working at the State Department you won't actually need a partner, and it's better if you don't have a civilian spouse you're lying to at home. So: spinsterhood for you, forever. Still in?'