The Americans on FX

OK, that's more like it. Game on!

 

Nice subtle reminder that even though Phillip is different, don’t forget he’s a trained machine, dangerous and just as good at this stuff as his wife.

Are Oleg/Tatiana supposed to be some paralell for Phillip and Elizabeth? Will she be able to “send that cable” when she finds out he bombed her operation with kimmy?

 

Hard to tell whom the traitors are here.

Philip and Oleg are working on behalf of the legitimate Soviet government. Elizabeth is working on behalf of a hardline faction trying to undermine the policy of the legitimate Soviet government.

Deep State, Soviet style.

When Elizabeth confronts Philip about not doing his job, he should just say, "I'm working for the government of my country, something I dedicated my life to. Who are YOU working for?" They may be his last words, but . . .

Tatiana doesn't have any idea what Oleg is doing here now. She's pissed at him for ratting to Stan about William Crandell (the biological weapon guy from Season 4), an operation she was in charge of that blew up. Her career has stalled as a result of that.

 

I mean, she's right to be pissed about that. It wasn't some professional squabble. He burned a sleeper agent.

 

Thank you, Simone.

 

I think the writers went as far as they could go with Elizabeth being a sympathetic character, and now they've thrown her overboard, and she's entrenched as the series' villain. Hell, I'm disgusted by her.

Oleg and Philip are being set up as the "Russians you can root for" as they are behind Gorbachev (and we love Gorby!), as it's too early to see how weak and ineffectual he turned out to be. From the Soviet point of view, Elizabeth is on the right side of history, because if she wins the USSR likely doesn't break up, Yeltsin never comes to power and the misery of the 90s is probably avoided.

But Oleg and Philip succeeding and Elizabeth dying is the obvious conclusion (and the START talks did succeed, so we know beforehand that it won't be sabotaged). But it's too damn obvious. There has to be a punch to the gut coming somewhere.

 

It's kinda funny that this week seemed to be a tipping point for fans' opinions of Elizabeth. It was hard to watch, but after all the innocent people who they've killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, I'm surprised how much it bothers people that she killed two defectors.

 

Holy shit. An amazing thing just happened. I thought I was responding in the Trump thread about the Russian agent in the Trump thread and I was reading BTE Express' post as if he was discussing A REAL THING in a gossipy tone.

I know nothing about The Americans.

And I owe you an apology, @BTExpress , for that snarky Bueller reference.

 

No problem whatsoever.

 

It ain't the murders. It's those damn cigarettes.

 

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember when they played cigarettes up as glamorous. But every scene when she's smoking it is like "damn, you used to be so sexy."

 

I don't think Elizabeth has turned into the series' villain. This is one of the great tricks of the show - she's *always* been the villain (and Philip, although less so know). I mean, they are Russian spies looking to take down the U.S. It's always been amazing to me how they are both protagonist and antagonist. But more to your point - she's working on her own now, barely sleeping, taking shortcuts -- so yes, bad things (innocent people being killed) are going to happen. I'm not sure how she was ever sympathetic, to be honest, but love how the show has been going with direction of both characters. It's all going to implode (explode?) soon. Although, well, I guess it has to since there's only a few episodes left (sniff, sniff).