Episode discussion post: "The Summit"

[jae]

Aired:
16 May 2018 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 608 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 eight.)

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Comments

Re: Philip's funeral suit

[sistermagpie]

Yes, I heard that and sorry, they're just wrong. I know it sounds silly to say writers are wrong about what they wrote, but come on. "Americans" do not react to stress by buying things. Some do, some don't. You can't just show someone buying something when stressed in the US and expect it to be understood as retail therapy. Obviously, since I haven't seen a single person in the American audience who even thought of it!

Characters who do retail therapy either have a habit of it or it's established that's what they're doing in some way. Having Philip getting fitted for a suit while looking grim-faced can't read as retail therapy any more than Philip stuffing his face at a diner would have read as stress eating just because Americans do that. (That probably would have read as a last meal.)

That's especially true when the scene's surrounded by Philip trying to talk to his son who he's let down, Philip begging forgiveness of someone he wronged and Philip deciding to just rent a Russian movie to watch at home...dude, it's a funeral suit.

Honestly, I think when they saw so many people spontaneously interpret it as Philip buying a funeral suit they should have just taken credit for it instead of admitting they wrote what was essentially shallow "stress" filler and a joke only they got.

Also Elizabeth's still got a far more extensive designer wardrobe than her husband.

Showrunners/Writers and Interview Questions

[quantumreality]

That's another thing - when writers or showrunners will deliberately give out misleading information to obscure future plot points, or give absurdly pat answers to questions. That's an insult to the audience's intelligence. As well, I think in some cases (not wanting to stir a huge meta-pot of debate, though) this kind of misdirection has profound ethical implications.

It won't kill anybody if they ask for an interview to be embargoed until Day X, or if they say, "Unfortunately, at this time answering that question could unintentionally spoil major plot points in upcoming episodes, so we'll decline to answer."

That would be way more respectful of the audience's intelligence.

Re: Philip's funeral suit

[jae]

They might literally be wrong. They don't have main writing credit on that episode (plus, you'd have to ask Katie Irish what her intentions were on the designs of the suit). They're the big bosses, but they don't know the intentions of absolutely everyone involved in the show at all times.

I'm personally not convinced that Philip would care what his corpse wore after his death, though.

-J

Re: Philip's funeral suit

[sistermagpie]

Oh, I don't think anybody considered it, like, a fashion issue. More just a way of acting rather than just being acted upon. There's a dignity in preparation, no matter what preparing is going on. (And as Betty Draper knows, that is something that's going to have to be decided by somebody!)

Also, in my mind even if this interpretation is correct I don't think Philip would have literally thought of himself as doing it. Just like I don't think he'd have literally been thinking, "Well, I'm going to die so I'll break the rules watch a Russian movie in my living room. I'll never see the place again in person." But it's obviously a huge thing to do.

That reminds me something from another ep that I don't know if i ever mentioned, but it's when Philip is with Tuan and he's thinking of his father and the song "Cranes" is playing. I originally assumed the song was from the 40s so it was one he'd associate with childhood. It's a song about WWII. But I only recently discovered the song's from the late 60s--so after Philip left. He probably wouldn't even ever have heard it. Yet they used it--the only Russian song ever--for him. A song about soldiers dying on a foreign battlefield and never going home.