The Americans in the Media

[Umbelina]

Except for Oleg and Stan, my favorite scene of the episode.
 

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There’s a lot to unpack about the pre-credits scene at the Jennings home, when Philip and Elizabeth take vastly different approaches to handling their daughter. And we’ll get to those in a moment. But the irony that’s slipped into the scene, almost imperceptibly, is that the true compromise is happening at home: Philip has started spying on his wife in earnest. Elizabeth is so worried about Paige’s actions compromising the mission that she’s unaware of how much the mission is being compromised just by spilling into her own home. Until now, she’s been guarded about how much she’s willing to tell her husband about the job, mainly because it’s not his business to know about it anymore. But her fury over the evening’s events leads to a frank post-mortem over not only what happened, but to who and very, very closely to why.

Because Philip is out of the game — and line-dancing and begging for payment extensions at Henry’s school and awkwardly leading his travel agency team in a sales motivation session — we’re tempted to see him as weak, especially as he’s comforting Paige with talk of EST and self-help bromides about “letting yourself feel bad or scared” rather than pushing those feelings away. But we forget that Philip was a spy until very recently, and he’s exceptionally crafty in leading Elizabeth to make sensitive disclosures that she’s been told explicitly to keep from her husband. The script, credited to Tracey Scott Wilson, is so seamless in transitioning from Philip and Elizabeth arguing over how to handle Paige to Philip quietly pumping her for more details about what happened. Old intimacies yield a new betrayal: He gets the identity of the victim. He gets the name of the device she was seeking. And he gets close to finding out for what such a device might be used. For someone who’s been out of the spy game as long as he has, Philip’s muscle memory is intact.

 

The Americans Recap: The War at Home By Scott Tobias

[Umbelina]

The Americans begins its long plunge toward the end in a riveting episode “Urban Transport Planning” pulls off the sorts of scenes and plot points that would only be possible in a final season. By Todd VanDerWerff@tvotitodd@vox.com
 

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Oleg, see, is in the states on the pretense of attending a class in the titular subject, but Stan suspects something more is up. So he goes to see his old colleague, the man with whom he helped ease tensions both directly and indirectly. (Remember how Stan protected Oleg from being recruited by US intelligence in season five, without the two men sharing the screen? Remember how season five was a bunch of interesting ideas executed oddly?) Stan wants to feel out Oleg, wants to know why he’s really in DC. But Oleg will only admit to the class.

And then the two men talk about Nina, and an immense sadness suffuses everything that’s happening.

 

So much well earned history here, and I love Oleg with anyone on screen, I can't think of a single scene he's ever been in that didn't completely hold my interest, and elevate my interest in the people acting the scenes with him. 

Beep  Beeeeep  Beeeeeeeeep!

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So when Philip suggests that maybe she doesn’t know what their “home” is like after 20 years away, it’s unsurprising that it stings Elizabeth so hard. If she doesn’t know what the Soviet Union is actually like, if she doesn’t have a sense of what “home” even means anymore, what is she even fighting for? As Philip well knows, the times when Elizabeth can’t stop herself from lashing out are clear signs that she’s feeling especially stressed and vulnerable — and given the hints Oleg gave him about what she’s possibly working on these days, that worries him to death.

This is so true, the limited scenes we've had with Rhys and Russell have been so very very good.  It's too bad they are so limited.
 

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And this idea is deeply tied in to the season’s central conflict. Philip and Elizabeth are fighting for the future of a place neither of them knows anymore, and where he thinks it needs to change, based on everything that’s happened since he left, she thinks it’s probably just fine the way it is, based on those nostalgic memories.

The truth probably lies in the middle, as it always does. The Soviet Union was choking on corruption at this point, and its people were in dire straits. But it also wasn’t as though everything Elizabeth remembered about it was dead and buried. The home she loves is still there, and it’s not hard to tap into why she might be so worried about change sweeping across it.

 

[Umbelina]

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The Best Part of 'The Americans' Is Its Brutally Strong Women

An ode to the women of this show, by Kara Weisenstein from VICE.

I dunno about this one, but if you are into this kind of thing?  The article is well done.  The Liz and Paige praise might be a little over the top, but she eventually gets to Martha, Nina, and others, and does remind me that this has been a wonderful show for female characters.

[Umbelina]

From last month, but new to me.

[J-Man]

Noah Emmerich Won’t Miss Playing Stan, But ‘It’s Really Hard to Say Good-bye’ to The Americans

[SunnyBeBe]

It was quite a treat, but, not much about The Americans.

I did like how Matthew said that he'd rather be rich and sad, than poor and happy.  lol 

Edited April 16, 2018 by SunnyBeBe

[Bannon]

On 4/12/2018 at 8:50 PM, J-Man said:

Noah Emmerich Won’t Miss Playing Stan, But ‘It’s Really Hard to Say Good-bye’ to The Americans

Man, that was illuminating. Emmerich thinks a guy who chose to seperate himself from his family, nearly completely, for several years, has a a happy marriage? He thinks the audience basically sees Elizabeth as a good person? 

The people making this show fundamentally don't understand it in some pretty important ways.

[Umbelina]

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Second digression. Two questions for Elizabeth haters: Is she less admirable than the husband who stepped away from his duties, giving her the entire espionage workload, and is now informing on her? And if you watch a thriller in which a fictional American, most likely male, operative routinely murders Russians or Latin Americans or Arabs, do you react with the same kind of visceral moral repugnance?

That's really not a bad question, everyone seems to love the Bourne Identity movies...

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The Jenningses’ domestic war slowly heated up. First seen wearily eyeing each other from opposite sides of the kitchen, they later openly clashed in front of a highly uncomfortable Paige. Philip complained about the peril in which Paige is being placed, and Elizabeth reminded him that they had a deal — Paige is hers and Henry is his, with the private school and the hockey glory. But that’s just another in Philip’s own basket of worries, and in a painful scene he had to tell Henry that his senior year might not be at St. Edward’s. (This was balanced by Stan’s relatively carefree discussion of Matthew’s post-college plans, and his financial insouciance. In the soulless capitalist snake pit, having a government job gives him security.)

So, they divvied up the kids, and somehow the KGB decided Paige was enough spy for them?  WTF?

NY TIMES ‘The Americans’ Season 6, Episode 4 Recap: The Birth of a Honey Pot  The Americans  By MIKE HALE

[Umbelina]

[Umbelina]

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Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are failing. It’s a reality often acknowledged by The Americans: Not every objective in the Jennings’ spy games is achieved, not every mission is successful. But those defeats feel particularly pointed in “Mr. And Mrs. Teacup,” becuase it’s not just that the characters are failing—they’re failing on their own. When they meet in the kitchen at the beginning of the episode, the camera is placed so as to make the gulf between Philip and Elizabeth look especially wide. They’re unable to rely on the partnership and the collaboration that has carried them through choppy waters so many times before. The Americans never looked like it was going to have a happy ending, but the unhappiest endings it’s shown us belonged to people who tried to do this type of work alone: William Crandall, suffering in isolation in a government lab. Or Jared Connors, who killed his own family for objecting to his KGB activities, and died avenging the death of the woman who seduced and recruited him.

This whole review is very good, worth a read, I could happily quote the whole thing. by Eric Adams, AV/TV Club

Next up, Alan Sepinwall is back for Uproxx this week
 

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It can be a funny thing, watching The Americans. Not only is it a show where we’re conditioned to root against the main characters on a fundamental level, but one where we already know that they’re going to lose. Obviously, the specific endings for Philip and Elizabeth have yet to be revealed, but their overall mission will be an utter failure(*), and we know it. Many dramas — particularly in the post-Sopranos age of TV — have dark conclusions for their protagonists, and maybe even foreshadow them along the way, but this is a rare one where you knew the broadest outline of what would happen before you saw a single episode.

(*) Before you make your jokes about the 2016 election being a stealth Americans sequel, think about how much Elizabeth would despise a man like Vladimir Putin, even if they shared a common enemy.

 

Alan does a good job here, going on to detail all of the failures in this episode dovetailing with the ultimate failure we've known would happen from the beginning.

He has an interesting take on why Philip might not ask the KGB for help bailing out the Travel Agency.  The cost they ask might very well be Henry.

[Umbelina]

Vulture's Scott Tobias

Writes a poetic and beautiful recap as the show nears it's end, and It holds together so well, it's a shame to take a small paragraph out of the middle of it, this is the end of it though, after the complete waste and failures of Philip and Elizabeth on so many levels, he ends it on Oleg.  It's a well done point, especially because of the rest of the beautifully structured review.

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In the end, it might be Oleg who has something to show for his efforts. And the difference is that he consistently chooses his conscience over the dictates of the state. That’s what led him to start talking to Stan, which nearly got him killed back home, and that’s what’s leading him back to the States, where he feels he can do his part to promote an agreement between the two countries. “One thing I learned here is [Americans] are not crazy,” he tells Philip. “We can make peace with them.” With a wife and newborn back home, he’s risking his life for his convictions. That’s a legacy.

Vox's triple reviewer's  Todd VanDerWerff, Genevieve Koski, and Caroline Framke
 

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The Americans threatens its most important character: Philip and Elizabeth’s marriage

Plus: Who’s going to die this season? We make our early predictions.

 

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Communism might be crumbling in the Soviet Union, but capitalism isn’t a bulletproof solution either, as Philip has found.

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This episode is such a sad one for Philip, who started off this season as the buoyant counterpart to Elizabeth’s slow but steady deflation and has now joined her in the despondent muck. He feels like a bystander to Paige’s life now that she’s joined Elizabeth in the field he left behind; he can’t pay Henry’s tuition; his business is suddenly hanging on by a thread.

And as underlined by that stark flashback at the end, Philip’s angst surrounding his money troubles is rooted in a very real fear. He knows what it’s like to be truly, horrifically hungry, to be in poverty so bleak that there appears to be no way out. As he feels his family sinking around him, his depleted funds are another reminder that he may not be able to keep them afloat. Philip might not like or understand capitalism, but he definitely likes and understands the comfortable life it offers.

 

[Umbelina]

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Current-Affairs/Slate-Magazine-Daily-Podcast-p352726/?topicid=120991017

Costa Ronin is on the Podcast!  Also Joel and Joe.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Umbelina

[crgirl412]

Can I watch the 4/24 episode on Amazon Prime again after it airs soon afterwards?

[Umbelina]

It's a few hours after it finishes for me.

[crgirl412]

8 minutes ago, Umbelina said:

It's a few hours after it finishes for me.

Thank you!!  I can't stay up to watch it again tonight due to work.  

[Umbelina]

17 minutes ago, crgirl412 said:

Thank you!!  I can't stay up to watch it again tonight due to work.  

I usually wait until the next day.

[Umbelina]

VOX

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Paige, meanwhile, is an upper-middle-class American kid who remains, despite learning the traumatizing truth about her parents, very sheltered. Her most stunning display of naiveté wasn’t letting her friends leave her behind while a strange guy bought her a drink, or the crowd-pleasing (at least for this crowd) but unwise choice to go beyond self-defense and annihilate a creep who was trying to stop her from leaving. It was her astonished, half-laughing reaction to the revelation that Claudia had once been so hungry that she traded sex for food.

Elizabeth’s trajectory makes clear that a life of clandestine secrets and lies can destroy even true believers who were conditioned to kill. What does Paige think she’s doing there in the first place?

 

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In that moment, I remembered him trying to guide Paige toward the truth of what happened in the park with the general — and the kind of blood Elizabeth has on her hands. Ever since that disastrous night, Philip has clearly been itching to tell Paige the ugly truth of the job, hoping it might disgust her as it finally did him. As he told Elizabeth, it’s not that he thought Paige couldn’t be a spy, but that she shouldn’t, because it’s a job that will grind whatever morals she’s got into dust.

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But here, as Libby said, is where Paige’s naiveté — or at least inability to grasp the gravity of the stakes around her — truly reveals itself. The thing is, for as smart as Paige is, I’m not sure she quite appreciates why Claudia and Elizabeth are so devoted to their cause. (At the very least, Holly Taylor sure played the moment after Claudia tells her how many Russians died in World War II as more of a “yikes” shrug than a real moment of truth.)

And as much fun as I’m having watching Paige blossom into a tiny powerhouse, I’m with her parents in being concerned that she’s currently seeing espionage as a thrilling kind of game. She didn’t grow up fueled by desperation and patriotic outrage; she grew up in an America that loves itself a black-and-white, good-versus-bad story. Now she gets to be the good guy, and she’s going in with (figurative) guns a-blazin’. But as Elizabeth tries to tell her when Paige comes clean about the bar fight, her inattention to subtlety won’t fly for long.

 

These guys are great.  I always enjoy Vox.

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In the short term, Elizabeth will lose. The 1987 summit will succeed. The US and USSR will agree on the first-ever reduction of their nuclear arsenals. Reagan and Gorbachev will engage in high-profile bonhomie; the Russian leader will even ditch his motorcade to spontaneously mingle in downtown DC. The Stan-Oleg model of international relations — mutual respect and shared interests overcoming a lot of complicated history — will carry the day. The Doomsday Clock, which measures how close humanity is to destroying itself, will even move its hands back.

But in the long term, Philip won’t exactly win either. There will be a McDonald’s in Moscow, but the sudden transition to capitalism will replace apparatchiks with oligarchs and leave ordinary Russians adrift in a country they no longer recognize. The New York Times article on Gorbachev’s spontaneous 1987 meet-and-greet in DC concludes with (really) a quote from one Donald J. Babbling Idiot about the ultimate promise of Russian capitalism: a Babbling Idiot hotel in Moscow.

 

Well worth a read.

The comments about the underuse of Stan and him not even noticing he was being tailed are spot on too.

Edited April 26, 2018 by Umbelina
Stan

[Umbelina]

Podcast

This week with Rhys and Russell as well as the show runners.

PASTE

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The unifying factor here, of course, is sex—the ultimate connection, the ultimate weapon, the ultimate revelation, the ultimate disguise. It’s the long, lingering silence and the flirty little laugh by which Elizabeth cushions her husband against the prospective mission in Greece, on which director Thomas Schlamme holds for several dozen exquisite seconds. It’s the subject of Paige’s argument with Elizabeth as their sparring match comes to an abrupt end, which writer Hilary Bettis conveys through the petulant remark (“get off my ass”) of any college sophomore. It’s the unacknowledged current running through Oleg’s (Costa Ronin) surprise run-in with his former flame, Tatiana (Vera Cherny), and her pungent instruction to the rezident to send a cable that labels Burov disloyal. It blinds Stan (Noah Emmerich) to the niggling possibility that Renee (Laurie Holden) is a plant; it binds Claudia (Margo Martindale), Elizabeth and Paige closer together, trading war stories from the battle of the sexes as they throw back shots of vodka. It is, as “The Great Patriotic War” reiterates again and again with such unforgettable ardor, the ultimate challenger of simple binaries, if only because it is so fundamental to our shared experience: If you have never used sex to avoid an argument, or indeed to start one, have never manipulated with it or been manipulated by it, if it has never consumed you, pursued you, bowled you over, then you may be above The Americans’ fray, but as it happens I am not.

Interesting take on the unifying factor here, and I completely missed it.

Den of Geeks

This review also has a fascinating take, it's all about the children being the victims of the past, and the author weaves his tale VERY well.

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“The Great Patriotic War” is one of the best episodes of The Americansever. It’s among the best because it understands something intrinsic to all wars. War is little else than adults trying to rectify the mistakes of the past by cannibalizing their future. “The Great Patriotic War” is filled with children being punished by circumstances that arose long before they were born. 

Paige is the most obvious example. The sole reason that Paige is living the life of a spy and not the life of a Moscow-teen is because 50 years ago, some asshole with a mustache thought it would be a good idea to invade Russia in the winter and now all of a sudden this is her fucking problem. 

 

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And Philip thoroughly dominates his daughter. He gets her into positions in which he could kill her no fewer than five times. He chokes her until she nearly loses consciousness. He sounds unhinged…wild. And when it’s all over he just leaves.

All that pain, all those things Philip has seen, all of that stupid bullshit is unleashed on his own daughter. It’s a lesson in his mind. But it’s an uncomfortably human one. Human in the sense that it’s flawed, destructive, and unfair 

 

His tale culminates in this:
 

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It’s just one more instance of the complete and utter destruction of a child in an episode full of them. Then something truly amazing happens. Philip breaks the cycle. Everyone has their limit and Philip has reached his. He’s usually the first one to experience things like “limits.” Perhaps it’s his confrontation with Paige or perhaps it’s hearing Stan dispassionately talk about Sophia and Gennadi’s deaths and Ilia’s abandonment. 

But he quits. Again and in a braver fashion than ever before. 

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by Umbelina

[Umbelina]

Sepinwall UPROXX

Yet another take on things.  It's fascinating how much people loved this show, and at times, their take-aways are quite different.  Looks like Speinwall finally put his back into an American's review again.

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Time and again, he has backed down to Elizabeth’s desires about their family, and about the mission. She thinks he’s not as strong as she is, doesn’t have the stomach to do what’s necessary for the cause of Mother Russia, and he has spent much of this season looking every bit as impotent and weak as his wife takes him for, flailing about in civilian business and wrestling with the question of what to do about Oleg’s requests. So I spent much of the episode screaming at the television for Philip to stand up and do something, rather than letting both these young women be emotionally ruined in service to a country he barely knows anymore — screaming as much because I feared he wouldn’t do something as because I needed him to.

But Philip Jennings isn’t weak. He just believes differently from Elizabeth, can see nuance where she’s never been able to, can understand the human cost of what they do. The weak thing here would be to stay silent and let the plans proceed, especially at a time when things are finally starting to look up in the marriage, when husband and wife share their first tender moment together in quite some time when he puts his calculator aside to have sex with her. Just buy into Elizabeth’s argument that Kimmy will only be locked up for a few days, and will be unaffected by the experience, and continue to do and say nothing about Paige’s training. That’s what the weak man would do.

 

This part is exactly how I feel about Kimmy and her dad.
 

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No, he’s not, and the way he ends the Kimmy call by overtly warning her to avoid going to any Communist country is perhaps the moment when the Jennings marriage becomes irreparable. Without that, he might be able to sell Elizabeth on the idea that he just failed: “Kimmy changed her mind, she didn’t want to see me. I guess I’m not as charming as I thought.” But when you very specifically tell a CIA division chief’s daughter to avoid going to a Communist country on a trip, you’re all but asking her to tell her father about the call, and to raise alarm bells so loud they can eventually be heard back in Moscow. We’ll see what’s coming, but Philip has finally decided to stand up for what he believes in — family over country, most of all — and if he has to pay a price for that, he’s strong enough to accept the consequences.

Again, thank God.

 

[Umbelina]

E.W.

This one is a straight up recap, this happened, then that happened, but I'm including it ONLY because of this:
 

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Let’s pause the recap for a moment to note that her character has been around for a long time now and has done absolutely nothing. What is the point of Renee? Is this going somewhere? Why hasn’t it gotten there yet? Why does this character exist — and why did they cast such an impressive actress in The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden only to give her nothing whatsoever to do?

We’ve been waiting so long for this role to develop into something that it’s no longer suspenseful or intriguing — it’s just annoying.

 

Because Hell Yeah!  I'm so glad a recapper finally said this, I wish this writer had included more "pause the recap" moments in this.

Vulture--By Jen Chaney

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Even the framing of an earlier scene in which Paige and Elizabeth spar in the garage, where Philip peeks around corners and eavesdrops on their conversation while they ignore him, suggests that in this parent-child relationship, he’s been pushed out and forced to (irony alert!) spy to know what’s really going on with his daughter. So when he gets to Paige’s apartment and has to listen to her say, “I know you’re not into what me and Mom do,” as if she and her mother were the original spy duo and he has zero spy credits on his résumé, it triggers him. His initial response should be instantly recognizable to anyone who’s ever been a parent or mentored young adults: It’s that wave of outrage that washes over you when they act like they know better than you do.

Matthew Rhys is so, so good in this scene, specifically the way Philip cocks his head after hearing Paige’s comment. (It screams, “What did you just say to me?!” without him ever needing to utter those words.)

 

Vulture--By Scott Tobias

He also notices the common thread of the children paying for adult choices, and back again, all the way to the Great Patriotic War and beyond.

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Let us remember that Sofia did all of this for her child. That was her primary reason for cooperating with the FBI, because to her it was worth the risk to give her boy a firm footing and a better life in America. The very last time she speaks to Stan, she again frets over their impending move to Oklahoma and what that might mean for her son’s future. Last week’s episode was all about operations that yield nothing, and its title, “Mr. and Mrs. Teacup,” referred to Sofia and Gennadi, who were a source of constant frustration for Stan and the FBI, which had committed significant resources in the vain hope of getting useful information from them. Now we see the result of Sofia’s sacrifice: Her boy gets to find his parents stabbed to death. In our last glimpse of him, he’s being shuttled off into the night, careening toward destinations unknown.

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The cost that children have to bear for their parents’ decisions is a common thread in this devastating episode. All parents want the best for their child, but life has a way of intervening and compromising that goal.

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Elizabeth dragging Paige into an ideological war, if only to justify her own continued participation in it. When Philip was cradling his first-born daughter as an infant, surely he never imagined that 20 years later, he’d be wrapping that same arm around her neck. It’s an extreme example of a universal theme: You start with the best intentions, but things don’t always go as planned.

[Umbelina]

OK, one last one, at least I think it's the last.  A completely different take, asking the question "Can people change?"

Decider

This particular paragraph isn't the best in this review, but it points out something I haven't seen any posters or recappers mention.  What do you think of this one?

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And the killings, unbearable as they are to watch, aren’t the half of it. Even as she continues to deny to her daughter Paige that sex is a weapon in her arsenal, she uses it against Philip, fucking him for, apparently, the first time in a long time the night before asking him, hat in hand, to seduce and betray a young woman he’s known since she was a literal child. And in an even more profound violation, she uses it against Paige as well. When her daughter twice blurs the lines between what she’s been trained to do with men and what she feels appropriate in the moment — sleeping with a source despite being ordered not to, then assaulting first the aggressive and loutish wingman of a prospective hook-up and then the hook-up himself — Elizabeth and her handler Claudia…well, they get Paige drunk and start to talk about fucking. In light of what went on with Philip earlier in the episode, I can’t see this as bonding between a mother and her adult daughter. It’s a psychological honeytrap.

[SusanSunflower]

It's one of those modern sex issues wrt "hook up culture" and "using your assets to your advantage (your body, your choice)", once sex becomes more associated with quid-pro-quo transaction, in which you have string-free sex to both get sexual gratification and be normal within your peer group, how do/can  you reclaim more mutually oriented romantic and satisfying sexual relations.   Before the 1960's and Masters and Johnson, etc. many women assumed that they needn't enjoy sex but it was "part of the bargain" in otherwise useful or advantageous relationships.  Men might not be happy that their wife was not in rapture in bed, but for that they could watch porno or hire a prostitute to play the enraptured sexual partner. 

It's a bit uncomfortable for me to see Paige, whose known romantic relationship experience was some not terribly enthusiastic couch fumbling, making out with Matthew, so eager to compartmentalize her sex life as personal/business with no particular regard for the differences.  Elizabeth has "honeypotted" Phillip from the beginning.  Phillip in his desire to be a "good husband" and in deference to Elizabeth's rape trauma has seemingly not or rarely insisted on "marital relations".   Again there was that window, we got to witness when what looked like "true love" blossomed (including mutual sex), and now -- times get tough -- they're back to Elizabeth doling out the favors.  yeechh. 

I find it pretty squick-worthy to see Elizabeth and Paige discuss such things, with Claudia chiming in.   Screwing for food to stay alive or a roof over your head is NOT REMOTELY the same as voluntarily screwing someone to get a look at their files or to get a promotion or other perks, yet the former is for millions of women the universal condition; the other a choice to prostitute yourself (no judgment; indeed your body, your decision) ...  

Phillip's revolt over Kimmie arguably began years ago, when he refused to screw his mark .... 

Edited April 26, 2018 by SusanSunflower

[sistermagpie]

1 hour ago, SusanSunflower said:

Phillip's revolt over Kimmie arguably began years ago, when he refused to screw his mark .... 

It occurs to me that Philip was really rebelling against what the women were talking about. That is, with Paige there's no problem with her screwing the guy, but for some reason she insists on using that to betray him for intel nobody's even asking her for. Elizabeth slept with Philip to try to recreate old intimacy and trust so that he'd go back to his old pattern of doing whatever she "needed" to keep her love etc. Claudia first had sex with her husband which was maybe just mutual, then the next guy she was having sex with for food.

Philip was told to sleep with Kimmy for the same reason Elizabeth appeared to sleep with him--to make her feel attached to him and want to see him in Greece and follow him to Bulgaria. And it worked like a charm. But then Philip had the opposite reaction. He wasn't refusing to help in that kidnapping *because* he slept with Kimmy. I assume they showed us the sex more to show he was absolutely going down that path of slipping back into his old patterns.

But then he turns it around and after having sex with her refuses to manipulate her. Even though we know there was no real intimacy in his sex with Kimmy, there was for her and he didn't use that against her. Even though he had sex with her as first ordered, he still rebelled by setting her free afterwards. Kimmy wasn't Martha.

I would believe her actually never telling her father about his warning, actually. Just out of habit to not talk about Jim and also I think she might still have an instinct to protect him like Martha. Of course I'd also believe it if she did tell her father, but they have in the past shown that these sorts of relationship with Philip are often real on both sides.

Edited April 27, 2018 by sistermagpie

[Umbelina]

Vulture Interview with Miriam Shor

This is a really fun interview, about her time on The Americans and how much she's loving it.
 

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I got to spend a day on the set and I observed that, too. I was watching a lot of scenes where it was just Matthew and Keri. As is typical, they were very serious scenes. But then they would stop and start cracking jokes.
Like total goofballs.

Yeah.
She would make me break almost every time. In the scene where I’m vomiting at the party, right before action, she’d be like, “You ruin every party.” I just couldn’t stop laughing. And then Matthew directed the second episode, so he directed me, which was amazing because I actually just finished directing an episode of Younger. It was my first time directing. I was hanging with Matthew and I asked him, “What do I say to an actor while addressing this? Give me some tips. Share your knowledge.”

 

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But I think she wants to impart something before she leaves the earth. She wants to share [her art knowledge] with one more person before she goes, and Elizabeth is that person. Maybe she senses a challenge there. Like, “Oh, you think art doesn’t mean anything? I’m going to show you that it does mean something to you.” I think she gets frustrated with [Elizabeth] because she’s like, “You’re not trying hard enough, and I can’t try any harder and I won’t be here anymore, so you have to try harder.” There’s so many emotions that go through a person when their life is ending and I’m sure the idea that people waste time would just tear you apart.

[Erin9]

As usual, all the reviews are interesting- and interesting to read how we all see things. 

I didn’t really see it Philip putting family over country.  More like family over Elizabeth. He didn’t like the plan. NOTHING about that plan helped his real end goal with Oleg either. It’s not coincidental that hearing about Elizabeth’s latest kills turned him either.

But I didn’t really get that reviewers POV about Philip anyway. The reviewer acted like this was the first episode he did anything all season. Nope. He met Oleg regarding Elizabeth’s Summit mission at the end of episode 4 and gave him the info at the beginning of the next episode. 

Edited April 27, 2018 by Erin9

[Umbelina]

5 minutes ago, Erin9 said:

As usual, all the reviews are interesting- and interesting to read how we all see things. 

I didn’t really see it Philip putting family over country.  More like family over Elizabeth. He didn’t like the plan. NOTHING about that plan helped his real end goal with Oleg either. It’s not coincidental that hearing about Elizabeth’s latest kills turned him either.

But I didn’t really get that reviewers POV about Philip anyway. The reviewer acted like this was the first episode he did anything all season. Nope. He met Oleg regarding Elizabeth’s Summit mission at the end of episode 4 and gave him the info at the beginning of the next episode. 

Which review are you talking about?

Most of them are raving about Philip, and his decisions, and not just in this episode.

I don't know if I've ever even read Decider before, but that's one of the reviews that is REALLY sticking with me this week.

[hellmouse]

2 hours ago, Umbelina said:

...Elizabeth and her handler Claudia…well, they get Paige drunk and start to talk about fucking. In light of what went on with Philip earlier in the episode, I can’t see this as bonding between a mother and her adult daughter. It’s a psychological honeytrap.

I was really struck by the fact that Paige has just fought her father, out of the blue, and he's demonstrated that he literally could have killed her with his bare hands. The next time she shows up to see Elizabeth and Claudia, the experience with Philip isn't even discussed. I don't even think Paige is trying to protect Philip in any way by not bringing it up. It's just more fun to drink and talk about sex. And of course Paige is naive enough to believe everything Claudia and Elizabeth tell her, doesn't question whether they're manipulating her, and of course they are. But they are wasting their time, IMO. She's not really committed to the cause, not seriously. Do they realize that yet? IDK.

[Erin9]

This one. They rave about what he ultimately does, which I didn’t find any where near as surprising as they seemed to. IDK. I just hadn’t seen Philip as weak this season either.  Thoughtful. Not weak. He was already spying on Elizabeth and doing something that could get him killed. Not that you really get that from the review either.  

https://uproxx.com/sepinwall/the-americans-recap-the-great-patriotic-war-review-spoilers/

[Erin9]

The decider one where they talk about how they don’t see it as P/E bonding, but as manipulation was something I agreed with. But that’s how I feel about most of those so called bonding scenes. Elizabeth tells herself it’s bonding. Paige thinks this is bonding. But -really- it’s about making Paige be like her, making Paige understand her, and a way to turn her into a loyal spy. And it all ALWAYS comes back to spying, as Philip said. 

[Umbelina]

7 minutes ago, Erin9 said:

The decider one where they talk about how they don’t see it as P/E bonding, but as manipulation was something I agreed with. But that’s how I feel about most of those so called bonding scenes. Elizabeth tells herself it’s bonding. Paige thinks this is bonding. But -really- it’s about making Paige be like her, making Paige understand her, and a way to turn her into a loyal spy. And it all ALWAYS comes back to spying, as Philip said. 

It's about the children paying the price for all things the parents do, and back and back and back...it's beautifully done.

[sistermagpie]

4 minutes ago, Erin9 said:

The decider one where they talk about how they don’t see it as P/E bonding, but as manipulation was something I agreed with. But that’s how I feel about most of those so called bonding scenes. Elizabeth tells herself it’s bonding. Paige thinks this is bonding. But -really- it’s about making Paige be like her, making Paige understand her, and a way to turn her into a loyal spy. And it all ALWAYS comes back to spying, as Philip said. 

Yes, Elizabeth has made the decision to open her home to the Centre in every way. It used to be somewhat of a refuge with the wedding being the most obviously example of Philip and Elizabeth claiming a life for themselves with a secret wedding, Romeo and Juliet style. Now Henry, the only non-spy in the family, is gone, Paige comes and goes when she wants to talk about her life and "career" which are now the same, often with Philip shut out because he's not spying enough. And the only time Elizabeth has even touched Philip much less had sex with him was to manipulate him into doing something terrible. (And even in the moment she has to try to bond with him via the Great Patriotic War rather than anything going on in their own life.) Paige and Elizabeth are both condescending and dismissive of him and act like Henry doesn't even exist.

I kind of hope Philip has some actual memories of the camp where he was born and gives Paige a lecture about it. But honestly there's probably nothing anybody could say that she wouldn't just dismiss the way Elizabeth does. None of this is real to her.

Elizabeth has made the choice she always thought she should make. What she can't give to the Centre she pushes away.

[Umbelina]

I don't think I've posted this, it's interesting.  Mathew Rhys "Does Paige change her name to Stormy Daniels?" 

[hellmouse]

Interview with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields about Season 6 from Collider. It's not spoilery but it did make me more anxious, which I guess is normal with this show!

The Americans Season 6 Interview with Joe Wiesberg and Joel Fields - Collider

A few snippets:

Quote

 

Q: You’ve said that you knew what the ending would be, but that you had a few variations of that ending to decide between. When did you finally decide on the variation of the endgame that you were going to commit to?

WEISBERG: That’s an interesting question, but it’s hard to answer. Quite a few months ago, we picked the variation, but even up until recently, we were figuring out how to get there. Part of this season has been about making a lot of changes and adjustments to how we get there. We made some changes that felt very significant, about how we’d get there. So, even though that ending has stayed in place, the adjustments really mattered.

Q: How does Paige feel about her role in this family?

FIELDS: She feels very much connected to her mother and connected to her mother’s passions, and commitment to the world. She, of course, doesn’t know the full scope of what her mother actually does, but it’s not exactly been a childhood of honesty, when it comes to her parents. It’s not surprising, even though she thinks she knows everything, that she doesn’t know the half of it yet.

Q: Was it hard to figure out how Henry fits into things? Can his parents keep him in the dark, forever?

FIELDS: Well, we’ll see how it goes. Generally, lying to their kids hasn’t worked out great for Philip and Elizabeth.

WEISBERG: It’s so interesting, all these years, audiences have asked about Henry and we’ve said, “Yeah, we’ve got a little bit more of a story for him, this season.” But in the closing season, I can’t wait to see what people think. For us, it all comes together. The role he’s always played and what he does this season will all come together. We’ve always talked about him as the undamaged one and the real American in this whole family. How that comes together, in this final season, and what he does and what happens to him, all comes together. 

 

Edited May 3, 2018 by hellmouse

[Umbelina]

I think the "adjustment" they made was to go ahead and make Paige a narcissistic idiot with no spy skills.

[Erin9]

That definitely increased my anxiety about the ending for the Jennings family. Sounded pretty ominous  about what Paige and Henry might do with the full truth. I’ve been so busy wondering about who would live or die lately - I haven’t focused on the emotional devastation  that could come first. There’s separation by death and/or emotional separation. The latter might be the most devastating. 

I just hope I don’t hate the end. I accept it won’t be happy. It’s the degree and manner of how sad it could be that I wonder about. 

[Dev F]

1 hour ago, Umbelina said:

I think the "adjustment" they made was to go ahead and make Paige a narcissistic idiot with no spy skills.

Eh, as I've mentioned a few times, I think the characters' roles this season follow pretty naturally from where they ended season 5. I suspect that the adjustments have more to do with the details of Elizabeth's mission and exactly how it ends up driving her and Philip apart. The logic and pacing of all that has hardly been a Swiss watch.

[Umbelina]

45 minutes ago, Dev F said:

Eh, as I've mentioned a few times, I think the characters' roles this season follow pretty naturally from where they ended season 5. I suspect that the adjustments have more to do with the details of Elizabeth's mission and exactly how it ends up driving her and Philip apart. The logic and pacing of all that has hardly been a Swiss watch.

I'm honestly not being sarcastic, though I was blunt. 

I think Paige is KEY to the ending of this show, and I have since the massive Paige focus early on, while ignoring the other kid in the house.  This is the first season that the writers are showing us how completely incapable she is of being a spy, and that, I don't care what they blather on about "Paige's Russian Soul" like her mothers?  Yeah.  No.  So I think the revision played to the actresses strengths (dumb, self centered, shallow, rah rah whoopie I get to be a spy!) and rather than a story where Paige's honorable but wrong actions bring about the ending?  We will get Paige the ditz, royally fucking up, as she's been doing all season long.

I think that is the "adjustment" they made in the story, same basic one, something Paige does and the fall out, but now, with more honesty and foolishness.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Umbelina

[hellmouse]

Good review from Matt Brennan at Paste.

The beginning and ending contain the most important developments, but it’s for the middle of “Rififi” that The Americans should be seen as a classic. After last week’s forbidding all-timer, one might’ve forgiven the series a comedown, and in terms of the narrative, I suppose it is: With their Russian defectors’ grisly demise, the FBI’s counterintelligence division springs into action, and though the “illegals” program is rounding into focus, the agency’s confrontation with Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) must wait another week. Yet in terms of structure, subject matter, setting, and tone, “Rififi” is the ambitious equal of “The Great Patriotic War,” a surprisingly funny, Henry-centric hour that doubles as a love letter to critics, triples as a Thanksgiving episode, and quadruples as a change-up pitch, which is another way of saying that there is no drama on TV right now firing on more cylinders than this one.

The Americans Throws a Brilliant Change-Up Pitch with Rififi

[Umbelina]

Quote

 

In part because he’s been such a minor part of the show for so long, it’s remarkable to see how mature and independent Henry’s become while we weren’t looking. He enjoys his parents’ love and support when it comes, but he doesn’t seem to crave it in the way that Paige does, perhaps because he was so often treated like he wasn’t there even before he went away to boarding school. He can offer Philip a contact with a friend’s wealthy parent who might be able to help the travel agency, but it’s clearly more out of self-interest than a concern for his dad’s business. (And Philip in turn feels defensive that his teenage son is both trying to play savior and referring to the agency as a failure.) As an outsider within his own family, Henry can also recognize just how tightly wound both his parents are — mom chain-smoking by the back door, dad throwing a tantrum at a slot car track — and though he’s obviously concerned, he’s also used to it. These are his parents, who have always been slipping in and out of the house in the middle of the night, so when Elizabeth has an out-of-town emergency come up on Thanksgiving itself, it’s old news to him.

The only puzzling thing to him is the phone call he gets from her, not realizing that she thinks it could be their last conversation and that she should therefore make an effort at a meaningful connection with him while she still can. She’s never shown this level of interest in him before, which is sad but also rings true, and only Philip realizes what the call really means. He had been spending the post-dinner period snooping around Elizabeth’s various spy caches and leaving a message for Oleg to decode (with the liquids in his shaving kit, no less), but as soon as Henry tells him about the phone call, Philip knows how bad things must be in the Windy City, and all of his qualms about Elizabeth’s mission and her dismissive attitude towards him melt away, replaced by concern for the woman he still loves.

 

Alan Sepinwall

[hellmouse]

Nice article at Vulture about Keri Russell's acting, from Felicity to The Americans. 

The Delicate Fury of Keri Russell on The Americans

 

Quote

Russell is a performer who speaks volumes in the quietest, most fleeting moments. She is neither frustratingly opaque like the younger, new crop of actors including Rooney Mara, who read as inscrutable, forcing audiences to project onto them rather than let them in. Neither is she an actor like those who populate the Golden Age of Hollywood, privileging pleasure and persona with fierce brio like Bette Davis, or a charming yet uneasy edge of mystery like Cary Grant. She doesn’t fit neatly into the harsh strictures of Method acting, either. Her performances are beguiling, and difficult to pin down.

I hope she is nominated for an Emmy. Both she and Matthew Rhys deserve nominations for this season. 

[Umbelina]

https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/the-americans-insider-podcast-for-episode-606-rififi.html

The podcast. 

Last week's was really good by the way.

[duVerre]

A story in Maclean's, Canada's weekly newsmagazine, on new developments in one of the real-life cases that inspired "The Americans" -- specifically, as they affect the plight of the illegals' two sons, who were born in Canada but lost their citizenship when their parents were arrested. The piece contains a link to an even longer story on the case that Maclean's had run earlier as a cover. 

The boys watch "The Americans."

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/will-supreme-court-hear-case-of-sons-of-kgb-spies/

Edited May 6, 2018 by duVerre
clarity, as usual

[Umbelina]

57 minutes ago, duVerre said:

A story in Maclean's, Canada's weekly newsmagazine, on new developments in one of the real-life cases that inspired "The Americans" -- specifically, as they affect the plight of the illegals' two sons, who were born in Canada but lost their citizenship when their parents were arrested. The piece contains a link to an even longer story on the case that Maclean's had run earlier as a cover. 

The boys watch "The Americans."

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/will-supreme-court-hear-case-of-sons-of-kgb-spies/

 

Very cool!

Quote

Tim now works in Asia; he has never been charged, and adamantly denies any involvement. “I am aware that there have been some media reports that my parents were ‘grooming’ me for espionage,” he wrote in his affidavit, filed as part of the ongoing citizenship proceedings. “These allegations are not true. It has been stated by the FBI that for over 10 years my home was bugged, however no evidence of my involvement has ever been presented.”

Somehow I don't think we will get another flash forward 10 years on The Americans...

However, could you imagine Stan still having to be friends with Philip and Elizabeth that long?  Ha!
 

Quote

 

The brothers were born on Canadian soil. How can the government strip them of citizenship, a supposed birthright?

This is the key question. After the FBI operation triggered headlines around the world, the spies’ sons—now 27 and 23—were granted Russian citizenship; they also changed their last name to Vavilov. In the meantime, immigration officials in Ottawa concluded that both brothers were never Canadian to begin with, despite being born here, because their parents were “employees in Canada of a foreign government,” a rare exception to the birthright rule under the Citizenship Act. Like their mom and dad, they were suddenly banished from Canada.

 

Quote

 

Where are the former spies now?

Bezrukov is now a senior adviser at Rosneft, a major Russian oil company, and also a university professor who writes and lectures on U.S. public policy. He is still married to Vavilova, who works as an adviser at Moscow-based Norilsk Nickel. The couple is helping to pay their sons’ legal bills. “We have spent a substantial sum, but have no regrets,” Alex says.

 

Somehow I doubt that both Philip and Elizabeth make it back to Russia without their kids and stay married. 
 

Quote

 

Does the family watch The Americans, the hit series inspired by the same FBI bust that upended their former lives?

Yes. In a 2015 interview with a Russian reporter, Bezrukov said the show “looks pretty much like reality, but of course without the murders and the wigs…The creators of the series succeeded in showing both the atmosphere and the internal feelings of the illegals, as well as the difficulties, including the personal ones, that you have to deal with.” Alex said watching the show can be “very odd” at times. “In particular, during the calm everyday scenes, I start to reflect about my own childhood experiences and my parent’s reasons for choosing the career they did,” he said. “Of course, when they show murders and life and death circumstances, I am reminded again of Hollywood’s insatiable desire for action and suspense.”

 

Ha.  Very true.

I think the older kid is a spy, but in reading more in that article about the extreme technicality they are basing denying citizenship?  I think they will win, and be followed by Canadian Intelligence for the rest of their lives if so.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Umbelina

[duVerre]

7 minutes ago, Umbelina said:

 

I think the older kid is a spy, but in reading more in that article about the extreme technicality they are basing denying citizenship about?  I think they will win, and be followed by Canadian Intelligence for the rest of their lives if so.

I agree. So far, the Canadian government seems to be treating them like the children of non-Canadians who are connected to an embassy or consulate. I'm Canadian, and was raised partly in the U.S. while my dad worked for consulates in several cities. There were oceans of red tape regarding my status, my family's tax status, our citizenship and much else. Seems quite a stretch to apply that kind of open, documented relationship to spies. Instead, it feels like punishing the children for the sins of their parents.

But did the boys develop their own sins? I'm really not sure. But I I bet that CSIS is not just ready for their return, but keeping tabs on them right now. 

[Umbelina]

Well, according to the article it's to avoid granting both diplomatic immunity AND citizenship, which makes sense, but it's a stretch to think it would apply in this case. 

[duVerre]

Thanks, I stand corrected.  And yes, still a stretch.

[SunnyBeBe]

I saw a preview for Keri on a Bear Gryles episode! I was really amused. I don't normally watch the show, but, will to see Keri roughing it.  I'm not sure when it airs.

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/running-wild-bear-grylls-season-four-renewal-premiere-announced-nbc/

[Umbelina]

The Americans Recap: In Case of Emergency By Scott Tobias

Quote

Let’s just get it out here, finally: The travel agency was never a good cover for Philip and Elizabeth. It has had a few practical advantages, like the two of them working together and sharing an office where they could discreetly collaborate on their main business. There’s been a symbolic advantage, too, in the act of helping others escape to brighter destinations while remaining grounded by a life of unending danger, moral compromise, and existential despair. But the fundamental truth is that there’s no reason for a travel agent to leave on any emergency call, let alone one in the middle of the night, and there’s certainly no reason for two agents to fly to Houston on Thanksgiving to appease a client. Hearing Philip come up with excuses for Elizabeth’s absence — and, later, his own — sounds nearly as absurd as something you’d hear on a sitcom. It doesn’t pass the smell test.

Quote

Stan has less of an excuse, given the skepticism that’s supposed to come with his job, to the point where it could keep him from getting close to someone. But there’s no reason, as a counterintelligence agent, to believe that Russian spies are operating right under your nose. In “Harvest,” Stan confesses to Philip that he always wondered what work could keep the Jennings coming and going at all hours of the night, but he says it out of compassion rather than suspicion. His friend seems like he’s in terrible shape, perhaps for some extracurricular activity he feels uncomfortable disclosing, and Stan wants to help him out. Philip’s biggest mistake in that moment is limiting his exposure: Had he told Stan his marriage was in trouble, instead of just his business, then maybe his story would have seemed convincing. But since Henry knows about his dad’s crisis at work, Philip’s heart-to-heart starts to seem phony to Stan — and that thread, once pulled, finally undoes a very old sweater. Maybe.

Quote

• Our eclectic song choice of the week is Patti Smith’s “Broken Flag,” which plays over the post-job montage where Elizabeth tosses the duffel bag. The last lines of the song: “In the sky a broken flag, children wave and raise their arms / We’ll be gone but they’ll go on and on and on and on and on.”

[Umbelina]

The Americans builds and builds and builds that tension And it’s even worse than usual because we know the end is nigh. By Todd VanDerWerff, Caroline Framke, and Libby Nelson

Quote

 

Libby Nelson: They say there’s no zeal like a convert’s zeal, and Paige has now been a convert twice. But “Harvest” made it easy to see the line connecting her two lives. Paige wants to feel that she’s making a difference, but beyond that, she also wants to feel better than other people, privy to secret knowledge they don’t understand. She might have swapped out the Bible for Karl Marx, but she’s still able to feel like she’s been chosen to understand what’s really happening.

 

Quote

 

But what parent could really want this life for their child? How can Elizabeth see what’s happened to Philip and want Paige to go down the same path? Which brings me to the qualm I have with this otherwise stellar season so far: In a show that’s studiously avoided having us root for (or against!) any of its major protagonists, and that has simultaneously skirted the biggest clichés of the antihero genre, Elizabeth is starting to seem … well, like a villain.

There is seemingly no line Elizabeth won’t cross, no number of people she isn’t willing to kill, no collateral damage too large, if the mission is at stake. (Meanwhile, Philip has some understandable qualms about hacking up a dead co-worker with an ax.) When Stan told Philip he was his best friend, I wondered, if push came to shove, if one could really kill the other, or destroy his family. Elizabeth, for me, sparks no such doubt; she’d do it without a second thought.

Elizabeth’s devotion to her cause is so total that it appears to have stolen some of her character’s complexity. Her evolving relationship with Erica is, I think, meant to provide a counterweight, but Elizabeth’s portrayal is starting to seem a bit like the airplane window she drew: all black and white with few shades of gray.

 

Well said, and that has been an issue for me as well.

[Umbelina]

Quote

 

The Americans could never top Hank’s moment of discovery for both surprise and vulgar poetry, so “Harvest” takes a different but equally gobsmacking approach: Stan just figures it out, because he’s a trained investigator and Philip and Elizabeth’s abrupt travel agency emergency on a Thanksgiving weekend when Russian spies kill two FBI agents who were monitoring Harvest becomes one clue too many for him to ignore, no matter how much he cares about Philip and the rest of the family.

Noah Emmerich has long had a less glamorous job than his Emmy-nominated co-stars. No wigs, no mustaches, no fake accents, or other methods of disguise, and for the most part, he keeps his emotions buttoned down pretty tight. (He couldn’t seem calmer, for instance, when he murders Vlad.) But it’s a hugely important one to the series, not only to provide the Jenningses with a compelling opposite number, but as another object lesson in the toll this work takes on families, lives, and souls. Stan has done a lot, and been through a lot, and Emmerich has played all of it in a beautiful, understated way. While Stan isn’t an actor of a sort like his best buddy, listening is a hugely important part of both acting and police work. Time and again, Emmerich has shown what a good listener Stan Beeman is, which pays off amazingly in the opening sequence of “Harvest,” as Stan finally starts to hear what Philip has been unwittingly telling him since the day he moved in across the street.

That conversation, the one he has in the car with Henry, and the news from Chicago are enough to put Stan back on the Jennings’ scent — and breaking into their home — for the first time since 1981. He doesn’t find anything — not knowing the combination of switches he has to flip to open the compartment behind the fuse box, nor that there’s another cache behind the laundry machines — but he does flash on William’s description of his contacts (“She’s… pretty.”) while looking at a Jennings family photo, and he clearly sees a pattern in the things that Philip and especially Henry tell him, like discovering that Henry has never met the “aunt”

 

Quote

 

But it’s worth discussing exactly why Stan doesn’t go straight to Aderholt to tell him his suspicions, and whether this is smart or dumb thinking on both his part and on the show’s.

My fear is that Stan is keeping it to himself solely as a cheap plot device, perhaps with him blabbing to Renee, who then murderously outs herself as another sleeper agent. Stan doesn’t need to catch Philip and/or Elizabeth for the conclusion of the story to feel satisfying, but he needs to get some kind of moment with one (preferably Philip) or both where the cards are on the table. If he confronts Philip directly and gets killed for it, it will still be frustrating, but more for Stan being blinded by his emotions in a believable way that he has in the past, and we’ll still get some level of emotional closure. And there are reasonable excuses for him to keep it a secret just for a moment, particularly since he doesn’t have a shred of evidence to back up the theory. Whenever he walks into a superior’s office and announces that his best friend is a KGB agent will be a very tough day for Stan Beeman, but it’ll be even tougher if it’s just speculation, albeit speculation with a troubling circumstantial pattern behind it. He needs something more concrete first, which is why when he returns to work after the break-in, he goes back to the beginning and reopens the case file of Joyce, the widow of a fellow illegal whom Claudia’s people murdered (while delivering her baby to the father’s parents in Russia) in the series’ third episode ever.

 

Sepinwall UPROXX-- A In Depth Discussion of Stan

This is very well done, only a few clips above.