Episode discussion post: "The Day After"

[jae]

Aired:
11 May 2016 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 409 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 nine.)

Original promo trailer

"The Americans 4x09 Promo "The Day After" (HD)" (Watch on YouTube)

Overnight reviews

From Vulture
From the AV Club
From Hitfix
From Slant
From the New York Times
From the Washington Post
From the Wall Street Journal
From Entertainment Weekly
From Inverse
From Geeks of Doom
From People's World
From Mstars News
From the Young Folks
From Celebrity Dirty Laundry
From TV Fanatic
From tv.com

Comments

The Church and Kids

[maidenjedi]

Why is the Church expecting kids to show up in the mornings?

This has been bothering me quite a bit. I know there are plenty of American churches with super-active youth groups. But even my church's youth group only meets on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons; there aren't all these other extracurriculars going on. What Paige talks about sounds a lot more like Young Life or Campus Crusade for Christ, more like an experience at a university. So I wonder about this from lot of angles - Paige's experience seems unique to the 80s in some ways (fall out from the revivals of the 70s). Pastor Tim intrigues me, too - is he a youth pastor or pastor of the whole congregation (I've always assumed the latter, but I've seen people refer to him as the former, and that's a very different job in most churches)?

Re: The Church and Kids

[sistermagpie]

I feel like a lot of times we're just seeing many writers, most if not all of whom don't have any experience in this kind of church anyway, coming up with whatever they want for the moment. It's not that any one thing is wrong, but put it all together and it seems like Pastor Tim is both the main pastor of his church and the youth pastor, and he's running even more operations than Philip and Elizabeth. We never hear about a single other guy at the church.

So like Elizabeth mentioned Bible Study (something I know adults do, but here it seems like they have a class for kids), and Sunday services (presumably just going to church), then we've seen Elizabeth and Paige stay behind after Sunday church to stuff envelopes, we hear about random protests where kids pass out fliers, they join lots of other churches with kids to protest other places, and then there's the actual Youth Group, whenever that meets. Oh, and I think Elizabeth said Paige was going to the church in the morning to work on a food drive. Plus there's a lot of pot lucks that are presumably for all ages.

Oh, and the church also is very connected to a camp that meets for 3 months in the summer (more time than I ever had off in high school), and they do periodic mission trips led also by Pastor Tim. This one to Ethiopia it seems isn't a church trip but just Pastor Tim joining other people (I feel like he's trying to compete with Philip and Elizabeth's priest from El Salvador).

Re: The Church and Kids

[maidenjedi]

This does seem like the weak link on the show, in terms of authenticity; it makes total sense that a girl like Paige would eventually seek out community, and her passions would lead her to things that "make a difference," but I have always felt the writers landed on "church" only because it a) is so radically different from anything Paige's parents would approve of and b) it is the only thing that makes sense for a high schooler. A lot of the activity seems better suited to a university environment. It's fine, I just wish they'd do the research to sell it better.

Anyway, I was also thinking while watching this episode, that the Ethopia trip makes a ton of narrative sense, but its also the best they've sold the church thing in awhile. Last summer, my own pastor went on a two-week mission trip to the Dominican Republic. So I can buy Tim's going off to Ethopia, and since they took the time to make sure we understood Paige's anxiety over Alice knowing, I'm glad there will be payoff in that direction.