theamericans | Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

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Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

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

This is a discussion post for episode 603 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 three.)

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Just watched the episode and am still shaking a bit. Nothing is going right for Elizabeth, is it, in this quest for the lithium battery? That's two potential sources she's had to kill, which in itself is a huge clue for anyone paying attention. Felt so sorry for the poor warehouse guy. Not so sorry for Elizabeth herself, though I do feel for her. The cooking scene with Claudia and the conversation with Philip after she's had to throw the food away, in which she makes it so clear that she doesn't want the USSR to 'modernize' not only sets her up to be left behind by history but also is the final straw for Philip, sending him back to Oleg.

The Oleg/Stan conversation was my favourite scene of the episode. So much in it I can't really begin to unpack it. I am afraid, though, that the FBI are going to add two and two with these related murders (the general and the warehouse guy) and figure that it all began when Oleg arrived in town so he has to be responsible in some way.

Great use of the Leonard Cohen song at the end.

I really liked that "I don't WANT to be like them" part. It resonates in a way that's clear in hindsight, 30 years later. Both Philip and Elizabeth are right - yes, the Soviet Union did need to change, but not by combining all the worst traits of Russian corruption and unregulated capitalism, which is what happened after the USSR fell apart and Yeltsin took the helm. If it had been anyone but him, Russia might have saved itself a lot of pain and agony and Putin never would've gotten a foothold.

I really liked that "I don't WANT to be like them" part.

That was a great speech. Of course, Elizabeth has always been more hard line but working alone for the last three years seems to have made her worse, which is ironic given that she herself told Philip to quit because she could see he couldn't take any more.

The way they filmed the scene of Elizabeth throwing the Russian food into the sink really provoked a visceral reaction in me. They shot it in close-up and the wet plop noise it made when it hit the sink seemed extra loud.

How symbolic that Elizabeth ground up her Russian comfort food with an American garbage disposal.

I agree about the Leonard Cohen song. It seemed to take on a foreboding air. Dance Me to the End of Love Love me to the bitter end.

It reminded me of a shot in Ordinary People where Mary Tyler Moore gets a similar hostile shot with a breakfast she made that her kid doesn't want to eat.

What really surprised me was how paranoid P&E both got about the food. Wouldn't any visitor have just assumed it was an ordinary beef stew of some kind?

IKR? I get why they're like that psychologically but only Claudia would think a meal like that was uniquely Russian.

Even if people would have immediately recognized it as Russia, Elizabeth could have put it in the refrigerator just for the night.

I agree about the Leonard Cohen song. It seemed to take on a foreboding air. Dance Me to the End of Love Love me to the bitter end.

Yes, there's an awful lot of 'this is not going to end well' signalling going on.

That's two potential sources she's had to kill, which in itself is a huge clue for anyone paying attention.

I don't think she really needed to kill him. She could have told him that she didn't interview his girlfriend yet and that she'll let him know once she does. That would give her at least a week to pull off the theft. Once that's done, it becomes public knowledge anyway.

Are we meant to assume she panicked then? Otherwise - unless she comes up with a plausible reason next week - the murder seems entirely plot-related, as in, it's a mistake that will come back to bite her by the end of the season.

I don't think she panicked at all. The guy basically told her he was going to go straight to security and find out this was a lie, so she killed him.

Well, that's how I saw it at the time. It never occurred to me that she had other options, though as

treonb says above, she actually did.

Or maybe not. She's on the clock. There's very limited time till the arms summit.

I don't think she really did. That guy was going to go straight to his girlfriend. She wasn't supposedly interviewing her. The girlfriend was Walter Taffet to Elizabeth's Clark.

I don't think she really did. That guy was going to go straight to his girlfriend. She wasn't supposedly interviewing her. The girlfriend was Walter Taffet to Elizabeth's Clark.

I agree

I don't think she panicked. I think this is the mirror image of "we're Soviets, we know how to keep secrets". Elizabeth could have taken a calculated risk, but she didn't trust him not to blab to his girlfriend and now she's risking somebody putting 2 and 2 together.

On the other hand, that guard should have been extremely aware and not be blabbing his mouth off to some stranger who flashed an ID at him. I realize we're a few decades later, but we are constantly told at work to never believe such things and always check with company security if we're ever approached to divulge any info, including the most trivial, non-sensitive sounding things like somebody's phone number.

Why was it so important to throw the food away so quickly ?

Same reason they never speak Russian at home. They just don't want anything from their Russian life casually having a place in the house. Since Elizabeth made that stuff at a "training session" for Paige, it couldn't stay.

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Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

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Garbage Disposal

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Stew

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Needless murder?

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cooking with Claudia

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