Episode discussion post: "Clark's Place"

[jae]

Aired:
13 April 2016 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 405 of The Americans, intended for viewers who are watching the show on the U.S./Canadian schedule. (Feel free to dive in to the discussion even if you're coming in late--and you should also feel free to start a new thread if it seems too daunting to read through what's already been posted first. If you're reading this at a point where you've already seen subsequent episodes, though, please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season four, episode five.)

Original promo trailer

"The Americans 4x05 Promo "Clark's Place" (HD)" (Watch on YouTube)

Overnight reviews

From Vulture
From the AV Club
From Hitfix
From Vox
From Entertainment Weekly
From Slate (official podcast)
From the LA Times
From the New York Times
From the Wall Street Journal
From Slant
From IGN
From tv.com
From TV Fanatic
From Den of Geek
From Geeks of Doom
People's World
From Inverse
From For the Win
From Hidden Remote
From Mstarsnews
From Mashable
From The Young Folks
From TV Over Mind
From Celebrity Dirty Laundry

Comments

Re: Philip and Martha

[treonb]

Did she know about the log? Because it does sound weird that she just copied things and hoped nobody would notice.

It also sounds weird that the problems with the logs are only coming up now. Martha has been copying things for Philip already from S1 or S2, I think.

Re: Philip and Martha

[lovingboth]

I'm going 'of course she knew about the log': Gaad wouldn't have told the whole office off if they didn't know.

Presumably it's only recently that someone is bothering to look at it or care that it doesn't match the number the copier thinks it has done. Or that she, as Gaad's secretary, is no longer the one who's been checking it.

Re: Philip and Martha

[quantumreality]

If she's responsible for auditing that book wouldn't Gaad have personally called her into his office and asked her what she was doing? That would've pretty much blown the case open then and there because I can't see her holding up to a bunch of rather pissed-off muckity-mucks who know there's a leak and are already rattled over a computer technician's apparent suicide.