BingeyKohan

We now have Paige applying to the State Department around the same time Renee is applying to the FBI. I'm starting to be concerned this is merely pipe the writers are laying to flow off past the end point of the finale, meaning the cycle of distrust and duplicity will continue. It could be that Stan will be gone but Renee will be at the Bureau (and will remain suspicious but with no clarity around her), and Paige will be getting situated in Foggy Bottom. Although if the hammer comes down on her mother I can't imagine she'd actually make it past the State Department background checks. ETA: I don't know how I managed to put this in the Rififi episode thread. I meant it for the Predictions for the Final Season one. I won't be offended if it gets deleted.

No Renee this week. Though I’m convinced that they made one of the cars in the Harvest traffic jam resemble Renee’s to mess with us, the way they put a Martha lookalike on a bench outside the sad Russian supermarket that one time, as if to prepare us subliminally to see the real Martha inside. (Cars and car descriptions are getting to be so important!) Next week I’d love to see Elizabeth having to play both of Erica’s nurses to cover for the dead Marilyn/Colleen (RIP headless Marileen. Good luck throwing shade at Julie with no hands!) She ends one shift in her frizzy-wigged artist’s protege persona and comes back in as Colleen the foot masseuse. Maybe that’s why she told Philip she’d see him the next day ‘if I’m lucky.’ Seriously, though, I am literally hanging on every word they say these days. Even though the words they said this episode didn’t get us that far down the road. I think the most important ones were Stan recalling the failed Philly operation to Dennis, dying Harvest mentioning the whereabouts of the sensor schematic, and Paige resolving to apply at State.

I agree - I don't want Stan to die but neither if I'm being honest do I want Elizabeth to. She's done terrible things. But it's almost like a meritocracy, or judging them like it's America's Next Top Model for spies and spy-catchers. Two agents stand before me... Who has been better at their job, Stan or Elizabeth? Until very recently, I would say Elizabeth. So, absent any moral judgement, she deserves to win!

Right good point - what you're saying (in part) is that the 'Jennings, Elizabeth' episode title could refer to Stan finding the death record of a real Elizabeth Jennings who died young and whose identity our Elizabeth assumed...

Ohh I'd forgotten about the William deathbed part. Do you remember the episode? There's really no takedown scenario where Stan would go it so alone (meaning he hasn't shared evidence findings with Aderholt, he has no back-up) that P or E could take him out and be able to walk away having aroused no other suspicions within the FBI. I don't think Stan would, say, confront P & E first and give them a chance to explain themselves or surrender to him before sharing evidence with others. Right? That would be idiotic. I guess I can imagine (especially because of his days embedding himself in hostile territory) him finding out then operating around them like he doesn't know, although there's not really enough time left in the season for him to do that very compellingly, unless it literally starts this week. ETA: I found the William deathbed quote: "Couple kids/American dream...you'd never suspect them. She's pretty/he's lucky" (sounds like song lyrics when typed out) I bet we will see this in a "Previously on.." in the next week or two!

Re: Stan and his discovery it occurs to me he could discover one of them is an illegal and assume the other doesn’t know, so he takes the one aside to tell them and keep them safe, not knowing he’s in danger from both. For example Stan finds out E is an illegal but thinks P is innocent and being duped. He stages an intervention with P to tell him and P suddenly has to decide whether to kill Stan right there in the moment.

I was so underwhelmed by this show, although the lead actress is very appealing. I think the whole sequence with Mrs. Neely and the sherry was a big mistake for the first episode - I wish we'd been thrown into an exciting and disorienting environment (even the city itself seemed relatively calm and quiet and easy for her to settle into, it all seemed like a summer holiday weekend version of New York when no one is in the city) Instead we're shown a dim, empty restaurant where the only patron is literally asleep. And we're supposed to think this is the best of the best and a sink-or-swim environment? I've also never been able to get on the Caitlin Fitzgerald train. Here she seemed like a pretentious camp counselor, not some exotic entree into New York sophistication (which I understand is how she's written? I also haven't read the book but always thought it to be much sharper-edged than this.) The show's Twitter account is already making me want to say 'stop trying to make baby monster happen.' Sorry for the negativity, I just had such medium hopes for this! I signed up for the Starz 7-day trial for this and Howard's End but I'm not sure I'll finish it.

I don't think we have an HIV story on our hands. I think it's just an intentionally unmissable fake birthmark E applied in this disguise so that women without it (once she's removed it) will be dismissed as suspects. Or the kind of thing you focus on so that you forget other identifying features. As for the trap that's waiting P and E I think what's likely to happen is: -The big FBI chase in Chicago will present some danger (maybe Marilyn and/or "Harvest" won't get out alive) but maybe actually buy the Jennings some time, especially if they know they're looking for a woman but it's Marilyn who dies. But its purpose I think is really just to get P and E back in action together, almost more for the audience to see one last time than the story -The only reason the movie-loving Sam Nunn intern was introduced was to have one more mark E sidles up to in a questionable manner, so that when workers connected to the Summit are questioned about any odd strangers approaching them lately he will report her, and be available to the FBI to arrange a new meeting so she can be tailed, the same way they became tailing Harvest in Chicago -Meanwhile, the looking into Russian Orthodox priests may place P & E's under surveillance; maybe it will be Stan himself watching when P goes to see the priest, which could be a dramatic scene for the look on Stan's face (I think E wasn't even in a disguise when she saw the priest earlier this season so no reason P would be either.) -also meanwhile, Stan looking into cars is going to reignite his suspicion from the pilot episode, which we've seen in the opening moments of the Season 6 trailer, him looking out his window at E's car returning late at night. I think one or all of the above, post Chicago, will be the investigative steps that really close in on the Jennings.

Knowing that next week (Harvest) has to have the Chicago-set chase scenes between the FBI and P & E that were in the official season 6 trailer, I don't think they'd give us two big FBI chases within the span of 4 episodes. So you're probably right on some level. Also, knowing that all along this has been a show about a marriage and a family I think after next week's big chase sequence through the streets of Chicago the remaining confrontations will be much smaller and more interpersonal (even though likely still violent) - as in they'll happen in private homes, like Claudia's safe house, or the home of either the Jennings or the Beemans.

Just rewatched too. It looks like there are almost no scenes in the season trailer from any episodes beyond the next one, which means that the next episode is a major turning point (and/or the remaining episodes weren’t final by the time the trailer was cut) That also means we never see Elizabeth in any scenes in any preview beyond the Chicago mission, unless you count the trailer’s opening scene of Stan watching what looks like Elizabeth’s car coming home late at night - if that’s a new scene (meaning new to season 6) and it’s her driving the car then at least she makes it home from Chicago. Anyway if that’s Harvest he looks scary. I guess if he’s a male Elizabeth that shouldn’t be surprising but it makes me think he doesn’t want to be rescued. Or at least the trailer makes him seem oppositional to P and E.

There was a frame in the official season 6 trailer I still can’t figure out. It was a close up of a sinister looking man with blood splatters on his face who appeared to be holding a gun. I think he has to either be Harvest (from next week)or the man that Sofia exchanged looks with before she was led out of her place of work. Although we’ve never seen that man again (I believe he and Sofia were implied to be falling in love at least she believed that) so they’d have to do some ‘previously on’ gymnastics to reintroduce him. Any theories about who it is? Are there even worse illegals than P and E they don’t even know about?

I’m starting to think Claudia is playing Elizabeth, and she may be running her ‘secret’ mission rather than knowing next to nothing about it. I could see the outcome having something to do with Elizabeth finding out but having to operate around Claudia as if she doesn’t know, so that even going to the safe house she’s in peril. Perhaps Philip clues her in so in a way he becomes E’s ‘handler’ for the home stretch. I’m not sure how Paige would figure into that though.

I actually thought they were hearing Renee's big old lumberjack mobile when Paige pulled up in the driveway.

I like Stan and Noah Emmerich but unlike with Keri Russell I feel like a director could say to him, 'now do a take where you kind of sort of are intrigued by his reaction'..'now do one where you're totally oblivious'...'now do one where you bug out your eyes like gotcha Russkie!'...and they'd all look the same.

well, yes, totally, that's my only thought! And while it would be sort of cool to see her spring into action that way it would also be disappointing since this show (despite some home-stretch writing flaws) doesn't tend to withhold information that crucial from the audience. I can't decide if it would be more deflating for her to turn out to be nothing, or for her to suddenly be a major something.

This whole post was helpful but this part in particular brings up another point of confusion (or plot hole) for me. These henchmen who are the equivalent of Elizabeth out in the field but coming from a direction that would mean harm to either Elizabeth, Philip, Oleg, or some combination of these characters: Who would they actually be? When the time comes and there is some violent confrontation, will one person be a character we know and the other be a stranger we've never seen before? It's not going to be Tatiana (I don't think) sneaking up on Elizabeth in an alley, asking her for a light then garroting her. (Bad example since they are nominally on the same side.) I guess the most likely combat combinations are Stan against Elizabeth, Stan against Philip, Elizabeth against Oleg, or a never-been-seen-henchmen against any of the above, which obviously would not have the same narrative stakes. But we just don't know anybody who really does in-the-field dirty work except for Elizabeth, and formerly Philip.

I definitely think he knew Elizabeth did the killing. I thought that was specifically why he warned Kimmie away, because he knew if Elizabeth was capable of that he could not believe her assurances that Kimmie would be released after the Bulgaria scam and just go on with her life.

We're going to get in trouble for talking too much about mad men. To bring it back to The Americans, i can't decide if I want the last episode to feature any kind of montage showing where characters end up, set to some apt period song. Those are so fan-servicey. And yet...I do feel serviced by them. (especially if it would show Martha taking her daughter to the Moscow McDonald's for a fried apple pie)

Wasn't that development introduced in like the next to last episode of Mad Men?

I had the idea that Top Gun sort of popularized it. No?

Oddly I feel more strongly we will see Claudia's death than I do that we'll see Elizabeth's (maybe because the likeliest person to kill Claudia IS Elizabeth; I still wish they'd revisit the dynamic between them that led E to beat the crap out of Claudia that time) Maybe someone will kill Claudia at the safe house only because they want to lie in wait for Elizabeth? I could see her dying that way.

Wow this board has really turned on The Americans! The killings made it difficult to watch but I thought this was the best episode this season so far. If it feels like somewhat of a different show from prior seasons think it’s meant to. I can be bored by Paige, too, but I liked the fire she showed leaving the garage after the sparring session. And I loved Philip’s closing phone call with Kimmie. When he warned her not to go to a Communist country with anyone while traveling I had the same feeling as when he took ‘Clark’s’ wig off for Martha. It struck me that we’ve seen him get close to two marks and in some way reveal himself to them but that has happened zero times with Elizabeth. What we need next is a real sense of actual FBI investigation and dot connecting, not just a convo in the sound proof room where that’s all happened off-screen. That I would complain about. (And I do agree they should have established how E knew which apartment window to crawl through.)

At this point I’m starting to be afraid she won’t be revealed to be sinister until the very end, and then in some closing montage we’ll see her settling into her new job at the FBI, for a sense of the cycle continuing. The only other thought I had was that somehow she could be the ‘man on the inside’ Claudia and Elizabeth currently suspect is the guy Paige photographed and who went to the vomit party. (I think that is the same Russian, right?) But, while we have seen nothing of Renee’s job, it’d be very ‘Alias’ of the show to reveal it’s been a front all along for something that gives her access to the arms treaty negotiations.

You're right, it's odd to tease that she's the "suitress" when we know it's an All-Stars season with a different approach. In one of the interviews the showrunner has said there will be Survivor-like challenges, though there is a couple's element to it. (I would also argue that the term "suitress" did not catch on in such a way that people would automatically get that that means she's on-camera talent rather than being behind-the-scenes manipulator - although knowing Rachel she will be both.) Also since these are returning players they will know Rachel was a producer, so they can't 'trick' them into thinking she is a regular contestant, like on The Mole or something. Who knows. I see no reason for having Rachel actually be on Everlasting as a cast member unless they had used her instead of Serena.

Hm. I guess Lifetime is in somewhat of a tricky spot given this season's lack of buzz - and I assume lack of ratings, though I don't know that for a fact. (The only 'buzz' I've really seen around the show is Emily Nussbaum on twitter praising it for getting its season one groove back, a view that I think is far too charitable.) Summer used to be the time you 'burned off' episodes of a show you'd paid for but had given up on, but summer is actually good tv real estate now, plus it doesn't seem this season left viewers salivating for more so soon. I can't imagine they'd order a season 5, so hopefully season 4 can function as a series finale?