The Americans on FX

For the Soviets, there is no reason to keep Msrtha alive other than it's the right thing to do. She threatens them and that's gone. But having her turn herself in to the FBI would create a lot of drama.

 

Gabrieles going to kill her under Phillips nose and itll cause a rift....I dont know which side Elizabeth will be on. This is great TV.

 

Chance Gabriel will get Elizabeth to do it?

 

I'd say pretty good. Probably wouldn't take much prodding after the jealousy she seemed to be showing when they were in the same room together.

 

I think the Soviets *were* going to exfiltrate her before she ran off. Arkady has a bit of a soft spot. But now that's toast. It fits into one of the themes of the show: Sometimes you can act on the information you have in the most logical way, but it's utterly the wrong choice and fucks you over.

The problem for the Soviets is, they are a severe underdog to actually catch her. The FBI and KGB are both looking for her, but the FBI has a large advantage in manpower and can act in the open.

All that said, and I think they're doing a fantastic job of making all the possibilities seem possible, I think this has to end the way it's been foreshadowed to end all along: With Martha dead by her own hand. The showrunners have been talking openly since season 1 how they like to follow historical precedents, and that suicide was the usual result when women found out their husbands were illegal spies. They've been cloaking Martha in suicidal imagery forever, right up to last night when Philip walks in on her sprawled on the bed, unresponsive, and checks the pill bottle. And the teaser for next week could have easily been her calling in her own suicide note to her answering machine. If they aren't going to go that way after all that foreshadowing, then it's one *hell* of a red herring bait and switch (which is fine, shows are allowed to do that sometimes).

I can metagame two reasons why she might survive that aren't directly in the show, but make sense. First, it'd be awkward to kill two female main characters so close together. Second, the show is going either 5 or 6 seasons allegedly, and putting the screws on the Jennings from the FBI is the logical third act. Martha in FBI custody turns up the heat on that storyline, even though we're already going to see that with Clark's fingerprints and phony background in their hands.

Philip and Gabriel are already going to have a huge problem. Gabriel is fully and completely burned. She said the words KGB in public outside his house, where a nosy neighbor might have been listening behind an open window. She will be on the loose for an unknown amount of time, with knowledge of where he lives and what he looks like. Even if they get to her, they have to wonder if the FBI got her first and it's a trap. This all happened because (well, because they refused to listen to Philip when he was right about everything because they were obsessed with getting the bioweapon, but they won't see it that way) Philip went outside operational parameters.

An asset as valuable and productive as Philip gets a certain number of "screw the rules, do it my way" chips, but he's already cashed a few in the past and this certainly uses up the rest and then some. And he's not exactly in a contrite mood about the whole thing regardless.

But what makes this so great is that unlike Nina, who learned the basic fact of intelligence work all of two seconds before she died, Philip knows and Gabriel knows and they know each other know: There is no exfiltration for agents. Maybe for a baby or a secretary once in awhile if Moscow is feeling generous. But agents? They are either useful and get used, or they can't be handled and they get eliminated. Philip has always known that his career ends in death or defection (which itself frequently leads to death, as he personally saw to in the series opener.)

As we're seeing with Amador's death becoming a key point in Stan putting the pieces together, the show hasn't forgotten a thing and it all ties together into a coherent arc. Philip has had defection in the back of his mind ever since the very first episode. He's growing more and more tired of this shit. Something is going to come of it. Not next episode, but soon. Shot in the dark season finale prediction: Philip walks over to Stan's house. Serious face. "We need to talk." Cut to black, wait till next year.

 

Would Arkady have authority over Gabriel? I don't get that impression Gabriel reports to him.

Also, that wasn't Gabriel's house. It was Philip's fake apartment.

 

That wasn't Philip's fake apartment. That was abandoned, stripped of all identifying objects, and we saw it being searched by the FBI this week. They followed Martha there last week. That was Gabriel's place, either a second place he's always had or a new one he picked up after he lost the old one to Glanders.

Gabriel does not report to Arkady. The Rezidentura and the illegals have as little to do with each other as possible for both's protection. The FBI follows the Rezidentura more or less 24/7, and it would be a huge compromise to the illegals program to have any contact. That's why Philip seeking out Arkady to say "stop trying to recruit my kids" was a big deal. They all report to Moscow.

 

This would be bitching to see. I don't think that's where it will go until at least Paige is brought into the fold a little more. Martha will probably kill herself (as you said) or Elizabeth will happily do it out of jealousy. Then Paige will be brought in more and given an assignment (Pastor Tim, his wife?) and at that time Phill probably says fuck this shit and we see a fade to black with Philip at Stan's house.

 

Why couldn't Phillip have left a note for Martha? And why was it necessary for Phillip to take Martha's gun? As spooked as she was to find him gone when she woke up, having the gun missing threw her into full-blown panic mode. Probably figured she was now defenseless and would be killed by Gabriel.

 

Like Spartan, I finally caught up on this show this week. It sucks I now have to wait a week between episodes instead of just watching three at a time when I wanted.

I think Phillip took the gun to protect Martha (from herself) and/or Gabriel (from Martha). But I didn't think Martha went full panic because the gun was gone. I thought she flipped out because she suddenly found herself in a strange house with a man she didn't know and her husband nowhere to be found. I thought she thought they had killed Phillip and were going to do her next.

Either way, Martha has to die. I've been saying it for the past season (which spanned like two weeks for me). She ran out of usefulness and became a liability pretty damn quick.

Also, Pastor Tim has to die, but I don't think there is any way Paige does it. I think Elizabeth either does it or helps orchestrate it and that will be the crossroads for Paige - either join the family business or go across the street and talk with Stan.

 

Also (and I know this is like two weeks behind but I need to say it) Nina's death was one of the more shocking moments in TV I've ever seen. As they were walking her through that empty hallway, I had a bad feeling, but I still was blown away by how quickly it happened.

 

Best show on TV.

Phillip took the gun to protect Martha from doing anything rash.

Now the gun can be used to kill Martha and make it look like a suicide. Nobody at the FBI's going to buy that, though.

Kerri Russell was fantastic in that kitchen scene as she understands what Phillip has done - once reluctant to have real emotional connection to Phillip, the show has done a great job of bringing her along gradually to the point where she has a deep emotional connection to him, woman-to-man. His compassion for an asset has made her jealous and question whether his love for her has been transferred to Martha. Plus he has put their family at risk and their operation at risk as a result of that compassion. And you could read all of that on her face. Really great.