The Americans on FX

Man oh man, that was a powerful episode.

I remember the build-up to "The Day After." (I was only 10, so my parents wouldn't let me watch it). It was all anyone was talking about for weeks.

Elizabeth's seduction of Don was just gut-wrenching. It's going to cost her the only friend she's got.

No mention of Able Archer 83, but Oleg did mention the Soviet nuclear false alarm in September of that year.

1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Also in September of that year was the downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007, which is ironic considering Russian Elizabeth is also taking down a Korean family.

 

So why couldn't Don just play it like this?

Liz: "We need access to Level 4. If you don't give it to us, I'll tell your wife we slept together."

Don: "I already told her. She's terribly hurt, but we'll get through this. You're not getting anything from us." Whether he actually is willing to do that or is bluffing, the ball's in his court. And once William "gets" Level 4 access, what's to prevent Don from finding some way to have him fired (while keeping his own hands clean)? It's pretty obvious William is "bad" if someone is trying to get him access that badly, no?

What's Elizabeth's play then?

I know they were hoping to find something truly tangible they could pin on Don but failed. But the whole infidelity thing just seems like a very narrow, desperate path that could just as easily blow up in their faces.

On an unrelated note, they seem to give William the best lines (and his snark is perfect, too): "I don't really trust the Americans, but at least their containers don't leak."

 

She's 3.1415 because no one says no to pie

 

Some predictions for next week based on the preview:

Pastor Tim really is missing for reasons that have nothing to do with the Jennings or even the Center. It's a metaphor for the Cold War. You've got a mutually assured destruction scenario where Tim and Alice can expose the Jennings, and the Jennings can straight up murder them. A situation or coincidence beyond either's control brings them to the brink and makes them appreciate how tenuous their situation is.

I liked a theory I saw on another part of the internet: Pastor Tim is arrested by Ethiopian authorities on suspicion of spying, not a particularly unheard-of problem facing American missionaries in Soviet-aligned countries in the 1980s. The Center actually has to step in and get Moscow to lean on the local government to let him go, to get Philip and Elizabeth out of the problems this causes with both Alice and Paige.

 

Agree with this 100 percent. Just about any coincidental incident that could be blamed on the other side WAS blamed on the other side. I know it made for historical hockey (and basketball ) games, but I do not miss the Cold War. At all.

 

Regardless of whether or not Pastor Tim gets out of whatever trouble he is in, this upcoming episode is going to show that Alice is a problem that needs to be dealth with. I could see a situation where they have to kidnap/restrain her only to have Pastor Tim come home safely. At that point, Phillip and Elizabeth will truly face the dilemma of whether or not to kill them.

 

Alice being pregnant probably complicates what they would do to her, I would think.

 

Agreed. This show would piss off a good number of people of they bumped off a woman and her unborn baby. I gotta believe in real life, the KGB would actually make her disappear regardless of pregnancy if they needed to protect their assets, but I don't believe the show will cross that line.

What they could do, depending on how exactly they want to pull it off, is have Paige babysit for Alice and Tim and the parents have an "accident." If they need to move the family because they're compromised, they could play it that Elizabeth and Phillip are the parents of the child or even claim Paige is the mother. This depends on whether they need to tell Henry who they actually are.

Dealing with Henry is going to be the crazy part of this whole mess if they have to relocate. If they have to move cities and change their names, there's going to be a lot of questions they'll have to answer for Henry. So they may try to find the tape and then bump off Tim and Alice and hope everything works out to avoid bringing Henry into the fold.

 

I think Alice being pregnant, along with Paige's relationship to them, can only could only stall Phillip or Elizabeth from pulling the trigger but not stop them completely. It would definitely be a large line to cross, but I think it is one they could cross and work it into the show. Much of this season has been about Phillip and Elizabeth doing things that they carry with them and never quite get over. It happened in the last episode with Elizabeth losing one of her only friends for the sake of the job. Killing a pregnant woman, or standing by as the Center does it for them, would definitely top everything else before that, but it would also push the two toward where it seems like they are ultimatley going - further disillusionment of their jobs that could ultimatley end in them resigning/fleeing.

I think TV audiences are a little more used to that kind of heavy, tragic stuff these days, as long as it serves the plot and the characters around it act appropriately. Game of Thrones does it on a weekly basis.

Also, Henry is my favorite character on the show, probably because he's so unaware and is just a kid playing video games. I can identify with that. When he finds out and is brought into this world, it is going to be heartbreaking.

 

And remember Henry is close with Stan.

 

Yeah, I definitely think that is a long set up for when Henry does find out and will be tempted to reveal it to his second dad.

 

What do you think I am? You think I'd kill two kids and a woman? Fuck that! I don't need that shit in my life. What you think, I'm a fucking worm like you? I told you, man, I told you! Don't fuck with me! I told you, no fucking kids! No, but you wouldn't listen, why, you stupid fuck, look at you now.

I kind of always thought Henry's reaction would be, "Wow! So cool!"