Episode discussion post: "Jennings, Elizabeth"

[jae]

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

This is a discussion post for episode 609 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 nine.)

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Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

Yowza.

Possible Dostoevsky nod in CGI!Elizabeth's flashback to the dying horse?

Excellent episode overall, with just the Paige scene feeling a bit forced (her boyfriend just happened to run into Elizabeth's cast-off while he just happened to be talking about her, how big is this town anyway?).

So the surveillance photos of Philip and Saint Andrei The Clueless aren't in yet, huh? Probably won't be a sharp image, but... anyone watched Barry? "If you knew him, you'd know who whe was."

I completely buy Claudia's reaction, btw. For all she knew, Elizabeth was there to kill her; any quick move would just have ended with her growing a third eye.

I've been thinking all season about what Elizabeth is fighting for now. I like that she finds something, here at the end of all things. The idea that there isn't one mother country, indivisible, to fight for, but that she has to pick a side even there. Much like Oleg; loved his scene with Stan of the Thick Skull Tribe.

No pop music montage in the second-to-last episode, are they saving up to license a Zeppelin tune in the finale or what?

"Topsy turvy." Have we had any mention of that as a code word previously in the series?

Also, a forgotten arc: We get another mention of Stan's girlfriend, about whom we STILL don't know if she's part of this, and if so, on which side...

Stan's girlfriend

[theplatonicnonyeah]

I so want Renée to be another KGB agent in hiding, who has basically just successfully honey-trapped both an FBI agent and managed to get employed by them. I mean, if Stan dies, I want her to somehow have revealed herself to him first or have him realise it in the last moments of his life.

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[beer_good_foamy]

Yeah. I mean, I could see one ending being Stan having P&E cornered, only for Renee to step in and, ahem, "defuse" the situation - leaving P&E to go home to Russia without their children and with Stan's death as their last memory of the US.

Hey, I don't think they're going for a happy ending, might as well go all out...

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[theplatonicnonyeah]

I definitely don't see a happy ending. The question is for whom.

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[beer_good_foamy]

And whether they want to go with the classic "Aw, our heroes died, that's sad" ending, or the "Jesus Christ that's horrible, what is WRONG with you?" ending.

I'm reminded of something David Chase said when the last season of The Sopranos was about to air, about how everyone told him they knew the season would end with Tony Soprano either killed or in jail. And his reaction was basically "No way. You don't get to cheer for the bad guy for six seasons and then pat yourself on the back with a 'See, crime doesn't pay, I knew it' ending."

And they've been telegraphing Elizabeth dying so hard all season that I wouldn't be surprised if she's the only survivor on the entire eastern seaboard a week from now.

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Yes, I'm inclined to think Philip is more likely to end up dead, along with Stan. Or that Stan will be framed as a traitor somehow.

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[lovingboth]

At least after this episode he will be able to say 'I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen..'

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[maidenjedi]

This is my preferred ending for that relationship for sure, because they have teased us with Renee so much. It seems so unlikely that Stan, in the position he's in, the work he's done, hasn't ended up a target for someone. And we know the KGB know him well - didn't P&E or their handlers think at one point about trying to turn him?

Turning Stan

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Yes, I vaguely remember there being talk about turning Stan quite early on. That conversation could have triggered a response somewhere else within the KGB. Perhaps the organisation thought P&E were too busy or it would be too risky for them, living next doors. So they sent Renée from "nowhere".

Re: Turning Stan

[sistermagpie]

That conversation was about Nina turning him. It was the whole arc of season 2 and ended with Stan refusing and Nina being sent to Russia.

Re: Turning Stan

[theplatonicnonyeah]

Yes, I know. But I also vaguely remember Claudia or someone else mentioning the idea to P&E also. Or them talking about it. I'm really unsure about this.

Re: Turning Stan

[sistermagpie]

I don't think there was ever any such conversation with the Jennings about it. They were never meant to work him that way.

Re: Turning Stan

[jae]

They did get (and send back to the Centre) information from Stan once, back in the first season, and cited him as an FBI source. But it was definitely incidental, and they never got any orders to work that contact further.

-J

Re: Stan's girlfriend

[sistermagpie]

But Stan's been a target for EVERYONE! For me this would seem like maybe the USSR lost the Cold War because they concentrated so many people on this one guy who isn't even in counterintel anymore. He's been targeted by Nina, Oleg, Philip, Elizabeth and now some whole new agent who's been so dedicated to him that she's married to him? Why isn't anyone covering Aderholt--frankly, he's the better agent. (Albeit one less vulnerable to possible flipping--though even Stan eventually proved he'd stand firm.)

Re: Claudia's reaction to Elizabeth

[saraqael]

[EDIT because I just read this and realized I left out the word 'not' and ended up typing the opposite of what I meant.]

I thought that Claudia's reaction to Elizabeth was quite in character. She was NOT in a panic. Unless Elizabeth marched in to kill her (which Elizabeth wouldn't do under those circumstances as much as I wanted her to), Claudia is safe for the time being. She hasn't personally been exposed to the Feds. There's still time for her to reach out to her superiors to get extracted out of the US, or to make her own alternate plans for escape if she learns that her superiors have been caught in the crossfire of any higher-level power plays within the KGB. She's survived this long because she's shrewd and careful.

At that moment, Claudia was right and Elizabeth was the one who was now the most at risk. Elizabeth burned her entire KGB support system at home, and she was in the US illegally. Claudia cautioned her that if she didn't want to participate in the coop by killing Nesterenko, she should just keep quiet about it. The KGB couldn't force Elizabeth to kill Nesterenko, but they could ask her to follow orders and stay quiet about it.

[saraqael]

Your comment reminded me that I've never actually read all of Crime and Punishment. I am remiss. I really must read it. I've only seen the film version starring Peter Lorre. I don't know what this says about the weird stew of popular culture that's tucked away in my brain, but whenever I hear the name Raskolnikov, I think of the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show. Boris (the villain) used to say "Raskolnikov!" as a faux-swear word. When I was a kid this went entirely over my head. When I rewatched some of those old cartoons as an adult, it cracked me up.

I listened to the Slate podcast yesterday. Amongst other things, they said the scene with the horse was set up because it was just cheaper than trying to find two vintage Soviet cars and smashing them to stage the accident scene.

Stan's wife

[sistermagpie]

She's his wife, guys!

I was rewatching the scenes with Stan and Aderholt and here's my thoughts on Renee. I want her to be just a real person and not a spy so I tend to interpret her in that way.

Just as Philip and Elizabeth have been building different lives for 3 years that don't really work, so has Stan. He's been good husband guy who has a job with more reasonable hours because he doesn't care about it as much.

But what's he been like lately? Looking out the window and saying he's watching the moon instead of the neighbors' house. In this ep he was starting to get apprehensive about Renee working with him, sharing every meal together--Aderholdt suggested he tell Renee he's busy a lot.

Also when he asks Aderholdt to go for a beer after work he says he'll be working to the wee hours and Stan says he will too. Iow, he's back to his old counterintel hours after not wanting to get pulled back in. He's back to the old Stan who had hunches, worked long hours, didn't talk to his wife and was obsessed with the Illegals.

I think this is paralleling P&E. In fact, maybe everyone here is waking up from 3 years of being someone else.