Episode discussion post: "The Great Patriotic War"

[jae]

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

This is a discussion post for episode 605 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 five.)

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Comments

Re: While watching thoughts

[sistermagpie]

Iirc, Philip stabs Amador in self defense and it's only when Amador himself *tells* them that there's a plan to capture Arkady that they know anything about it. And he waits until the plan would have already happened before he says anything for that reason. So there's not really much reason to torture him. Not that it would have worked, probably, since he's already dying.

Philip would be told to get her over the border willingly or unwillingly.

Elizabeth didn't say anything about Philip kidnapping Kimmy by force--that would require a plan beyond just telling Philip to do it. She wanted to send him so that Kimmy would go to Bulgaria willingly. She didn't give him any instructions about how he's supposed to smuggle her across borders on his own--that's hard to do and probably not something he could have done himself.

Philip himself seems to be going on that idea when he tells Kimmy not to go to Bulgaria with anybody. Once she's in Bulgaria there's police ready to arrest her and plant drugs. There was no kidnap plot in case in Greece.

Re: While watching thoughts

[lovingboth]

Philip was just leaving Martha, having been told about the assassination plot, when Amador confronted him. So they knew about it, and who Amador was, before they kidnapped him.

Philip getting into Bulgaria with Kimmy in the boot / trunk would be easy. You got checked entering the East, not leaving the West, and obviously they're on board.

Re: While watching thoughts

[sistermagpie]

Philip hears they're planning to kill some KGB agent. They question Amador the whole time they have him. He tells them Arkady is the target when the time has past. They tell Claudia. Not sure what they're supposed to be doing wrong. He's in pain and dying and they're questioning him. Torture wouldn't make much difference.

If anybody can just throw Kimmy in a trunk and drive her to a Communist coutry then Philip's warning to her becomes meaningless. He would have warned her not to go to Greece at all.