Episode discussion post: "Urban Transport Planning"

[jae]

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.)

Original promo trailer

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Comments

Re: Needless murder?

[shapinglight]

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.

Re: Needless murder?

[sistermagpie]

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.

Re: Needless murder?

[shapinglight]

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.

Re: Needless murder?

[sistermagpie]

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.

Re: Needless murder?

[andy73]

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

Re: Needless murder?

[treonb]

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.