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

Re: William 'doing the right thing'

[saraqael]

William knows that absolutely no possible good can come from either side having something as horrifying as weaponized Lassa. The 'right thing' is to stop. That was the point behind making and airing The Day After. Everyone knew that stockpiling enough nuclear weapons to kill all life on earth 5 times over was insane...and yet there we were escalating our weapons program and saber-rattling in West Germany towards the Russians like insane people. Even Ronald Reagan supposedly was effected so much by that movie that he amended his stance and starting focusing more on detente.

William provides the equivalent look inside the insane biological weapons program. And of course, the sane right thing to do is to stop making these nightmare weapons, not continue to be part of the machine that is making them, especially since the Glanders accident proved that the Soviet side wasn't technically equipped to deal with them safely (as was proved with real world lethal bio-weaponry accidents in the Soviet Union).

Gabriel presented William as someone who complained all the time but still 'did the right thing' (meaning he followed orders). Will he continue to do so? He provided the Glanders sample. Will he get them the Lassa sample or will he finally find his courage and refuse somehow? I don't know.

Reagan's reaction to The Day After

[lovingboth]

Was to continue with deployment of the Pershing II nuclear missile system - because of their short range, these had to be based in West Germany much to the annoyance of many Germans* and would inevitably be 'first use' weapons, six or seven minutes flight time from Moscow. First ones were declared operational in December 1983, the month after TDA, with all of them ready to go in 1986.

He also continued with the Strategic Defence Initiative, aka Star Wars, he'd announced in March. That was also widely seen as enabling 'first use' because it attempted to remove the ability of the Soviet Union to retaliate.

* 'The shorter the range, the deader the Germans' and they'd inevitably have been immediate targets for strikes in the event of a war.

Re: Reagan's reaction to The Day After

[saraqael]

No lie, Reagan's belligerence combined with the US military's unwavering believe that the US could bankrupt the Soviets via an arms race terrified me. The Soviet economy was a mess but it didn't fall apart because of US military build-up or the Star Wars initiative. The Soviet Union ultimately came unglued for a host of internal reasons that had nothing to do with the US. Personally I give Gorbachev more credit than Reagan for reaching out to end the Cold War. Still, Reagan did ultimately soften his view on the military build up.