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

Re: Approving of characters

[saraqael]

I always keep Stan's undercover history in mind when he's in the story. Stan knows what it takes to create and inhabit a false identity. He knows how hard it can be to keep a false identity consistent and he'd be constantly alert for slip-ups. His first instinct was to suspect the Jennings. All it would take would be one tiny slip-up and Stan would realize the truth.

Re: Approving of characters

[sistermagpie]

I honestly can't think of a single moment on the show that was about Stan knowing exactly what goes into creating and inhabiting a false identity. I also can't think of a single moment that shows his own lingering. He spent years as a white supremacist but there's no moments where that behavior accidentally comes out. Even his relationship with Aderholdt seems completely consistent with an ordinary white middle aged guy in the 80s rather than an ex-neo Nazi. He's sometimes been violent, but it never seems to cross a line that fits with the FBI guy.

I see plenty of scenes that show Stan having been away in a stressful job for years, but it seems more consistent to someone who was fighting a war or something rather than a guy who was undercover, much less specifically being a Nazi. Even the times when he's got a hunch it doesn't seem to need the undercover past to explain it.

His original suspicion of the Jennings to me seems best explained by paranoia and their car because otherwise it's too much like him being a psychic detective.

This isn't a problem for me with Stan at all--like I said I find him as a character totally consistent. I just mentally usually change "deep undercover" with "away on a hard assignment."

Re: Approving of characters

[saraqael]

I honestly can't think of a single moment on the show that was about Stan knowing exactly what goes into creating and inhabiting a false identity.
I agree that they haven't shown this through his actions on the show to date. We saw his hyper sensitivity to the Jennings in the first episode but nothing since. He was merely presented with this as a fact about his background.