The Americans on FX

Arkady had previously threatened if Stan didn't turn over Echo information he'd reveal that Stan gave surveillance information to the Soviets. Did they address this last night and I missed it? Or did Stan basically call their bluff?

Also, I could see Oleg spying for the U.S. in the future.

 

Stan called their bluff. He's gonna be in some shit.

 

A little too expository, IMO, and not really consistent with the pace the show has shown. As if someone looked at the clock and said, "Hit the fast-forward button; we've only got 23 minutes left to wrap it all up!!!"

And Larrick, who has shown no hesitation to leave innocent dead bodies in his wake, all of a sudden is fine and dandy with just turning his targets over to the FBI?

 

Jared's death scene was not well done. Like you said, to exposition-y *and* awkward to watch at the same time. Could have at least had him dying of a gutshot or something rather than make us watch his face talking while he's bleeding out the neck (and taking an inexplicably long time to do it).

The rest of the episode was perfect.

 

Yeah, there being an awful lot to explain . . . none of which could have been addressed when he and Elizabeth were driving to the train station?

Everyone was asking, "Why was Jared meeting with Kate?" Except no one asked Jared.

 

I think it was AV Club who said they were trying to get the audience to settle in, thinking that everything was settled and we'd hit the climax, so that we'd be hit even harder by the closing scenes with them being asked to recruit Paige and Stan failing Nina.

 

I knew Stan wouldn't go through with it.

the other twist was unexpected.

 

Final musings from a great season:

--- A lot of people seemed to think Beeman might commit suicide during the scene walking across the bridge. I simply thought it was a way --- much like the hanging of the Reagan portrait --- to give Beeman an image of what side he was going to go with (hence the Washington Monument in the background during the bridge scene).

--- How did Susan Misner ever earn the No. 4 listing in the credits this season?

--- Great line by Elizabeth, "To be like us?" in response to Philip's prediction about Paige ("It would destroy her."). But Philip should have responded, "Yes, because I want something BETTER for her than what we do, like all parents want for their kids."

--- Things wrapped up nicely this season, which makes me wonder whether the "Yousaf" (Pakistani delegation) storyline from a few weeks ago was just throwaway filler or something that will rear its head again next season. Mighty strange to title an episode off of something that proves to be just a throwaway.

--- It takes a certain kind of person to be a KGB operative. "Belief in the cause" is the central theme that justifies human beings acting in horrible ways sometimes. WHAT ON EARTH would make the KGB believe that offspring of operatives --- who have lived their entire lives with a love of the USA and its perks --- could turn on a dime and devote their lives to a cause that has no meaning to them? Psychologists say the most difficult damage to repair is that done to people who have been lied to their entire lives because it makes them clueless to who they really are. And that's basically what every "second-generation" recruit by definition will become: psychologically damaged people, trusting of no one.

--- It took 26 episodes for Philip and Arkady to meet. I know we're dealing with "legals" and "illegals", but this wall between the two seems mighty inconvenient. It obviously can be scaled --- and was --- but there was an awful lot of "waiting on a signal from the Centre" that could have been avoided when people (i.e. Kate) go missing and you've got plenty of operatives living in the area who just might be able to provide some answers.

--- Thank God for a show about Russians that manages to avoid the "Moose and Squirrel" stereotypes we've seen for a half-century.

 

Philip meeting Arkady was awesome from a TV point of view, but ZOMGWTF horrific from a spycraft point of view. You just can't do that.

 

I think the idea was that Larrick was going to turn himself in as well.

 

Probably completely unrelated, but one of the things I truly enjoy and appreciate about FX is that they allow their shows to run at the length they need to in order to tell that particular week's story. Several shows run over the 60 min. mark and vary in time week to week.

 

Was a little surprised the finale came in at 1:07. Figured they might go 1:15 or so to tie everything up.