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.)

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Comments

Hans and Paige

[treonb]

Firing Hans seems dangerous. They wouldn't want somebody feeling jilted and getting upset at them and going to the FBI. If he was a really bad spy (like Paige), there's a lot they could give him to do. Same for Paige. Since Elizabeth sees her as a "9 to 5" spy, there's no real reason to drag her to all these operations. I think Elizabeth is trying to create a fantasy of her daughter going in her footsteps.

Re: Hans and Paige

[sistermagpie]

But she did fire Hans. She fired him when he was seen by the other guy. He got himself back in by taking care of the problem, but obviously Elizabeth felt perfectly comfortable saying they couldn't work with him anymore.

Re: Hans and Paige

[quantumreality]

Come to think of it, I remember now he screwed something up, ended up shooting a guy in like the worst place possible?

I don't remember how he bailed himself out of that :O

Re: Hans and Paige

[sistermagpie]

Yup. He shot thd guy in the eye iirc! That bailed him out because he killed the witness.

Re: Hans and Paige

[(Anonymous)]

But then, he did it in a library where anybody could've seen him do it which is total loose cannon territory.

I'm gonna have to rewatch from S4 on, I think, but the show is a real slog sometimes so 13 episodes feels like a lot more.

Re: Hans and Paige

[sistermagpie]

True, though I don't know if Elizabeth knew that. We saw that the murder was a messy nightmare, but Elizabeth maybe just knew he'd killed him.

Re: Hans and Paige

[treonb]

You're right, I completely forgot that. But she didn't fire him from helping the cause, just from doing field work with her. That is what she should be doing with Paige. Though in Paige's case, she can't just cut off connection anyway. Even if she fires her as a spy, she still comes home every once in a while.

Hans: You th-- you think he may have seen me?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Hans: You don't know for sure.
Elizabeth: I don't have to. Hans, it's over. Us. This.
Hans: You've trained me well. We've-- we've worked so hard.
Elizabeth: I can't take that risk.
Hans: I want to serve. I wa-- I want to be of use
to our cause.
Elizabeth: You will. You'll just serve in other ways.

Re: Hans and Paige

[sistermagpie]

Yes, she really could have used this as an excuse to get Paige out of this life and tell her to serve in other ways. Or at least try. She doesn't even make her prove herself to get back in. Everything continues as normal as if she didn't do anything earth-shattering.