Episode discussion post: "Tchaikovsky"

[jae]

Aired:
4 April 2018 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 602 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 six, episode two.)

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Comments

[sistermagpie]

Say what you want about Claudia but it's undeniably true that she's figured out how to manipulate Elizabeth very well.

I almost wonder why Elizabeth fought her early on.

Elizabeth's willingness to embrace death as her fate is completely opposite to the artist who actually is dying.

Yes, Elizabeth is really gearing up for yet another potential heroic death scene. Only this is the first one where when she thinks about Paige after her death she's passing her off to Claudia and the Centre rather than Philip, who seems to have become just a figure of terror for Elizabeth for everything he represents.

That's why I feel like she can't get that ending. She sees it as the solution to her problems too much.

My current crack speculation is that Oleg is going to manipulate Stan into sending intel back to Arkady in Russia, because there's no other easy way for Oleg to get updates back home without drawing attention to himself from the hardliner wing of the KGB. We'll see.

Ooh, I hadn't thought of that. Until Philip changes his mind Oleg doesn't have any other allies and Stan would be working against the KGB here. Or not. Not sure how Stan will relate to it all.

- Henry's brief phone call with Philip was quite endearing. That kid is the only one in the family who is actually succeeding to have a life of his own. Good for him. Being the overlooked, latch-key kid probably saved his life. At least for now.

I would actually give Henry more credit than that. That is, he wasn't overlooked so much as he was independent from the start. Paige was constantly jumping up and waving her arms to get her parents attention and get inside their relationship. Henry was simply more interested in the world from the very start.

Elizabeth's fatalism

[lovingboth]

To be fair, we haven't seen her wearing a suicide pill 24/7 before. That presumably does concentrate the mind somewhat.

[saraqael]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of that. Until Philip changes his mind Oleg doesn't have any other allies and Stan would be working against the KGB here. Or not. Not sure how Stan will relate to it all.

I was wondering why they brought Gennady the courier back into play as a character this season. If Oleg could get access to him somehow, he might be able to use Gennady to pass intel back to Arkady. The only way to get to Gennady is via Stan. That gives more justification for the scenes of Stan playing marriage counselor too. It won't have been just for comedic effect in this episode if it turns out that Oleg's plan relies on keeping Gennady in the game. This is just tenuous speculation on my part and it relies a lot on how much Oleg and Stan feel like they can trust each other 'for the greater good.' Of course, if Stan knows then Aderholt is bound to find out. Dennis doesn't have the same loyalty to Oleg that Stan does. And if Dennis finds out that there is a pair of embedded illegals right there in DC, I suspect that he'll just want to capture them immediately regardless of what else may be going on. We could end up with spy vs spy vs agent vs agent. That would be intense.

Gennady and Sophia

[sistermagpie]

I feel like wherever they go with those two it's going to be great. Their mess of a relationship is going to pull tons of people into it one way or another. The KGB is totally going to find out what he's doing.