theamericans | Episode discussion post: "START"

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episode discussion

Episode discussion post: "START"

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

This is a discussion post for episode 610 of The Americans (the season and series finale), 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.)

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't recall - were we ever told if she officially applied for that State Dept internship?

I can't remember, I'm afraid. However, if she did, it was as Paige Jennings and that person doesn't really exist any more. She even buried her US passport.

As far as the US is concerned, that person exists. Reporting a stolen/lost passport is not a major hassle.

Exactly. "My passport? I don't know, I haven't used it in years, I put it in a safe place somewhere ~~right after I came back from that trip to East Berlin to see my grandmother~~."

If she tries to pass herself off as anyone but Paige Jennings, and gets found out, she's probably looking at a very long prison sentence. Basically, her best chance right now is to put that bottle away, write down exactly what her story is, spend the night memorizing it until she believes it, and then show up next day believably shocked that her parents were Russian spies and a good innocent explanation for absolutely every decision she's made over the past few years.

Edited 2018-06-01 11:52 (UTC)

I guess, yes. However, if she carries on living as Paige Jennings, there's no way she'd ever be allowed to work in government, surely?

Why would she want to? I thought she was only doing that so she could be a spy

I guess that might be who she feels she is, though. After all, she's never been anyone else.

She just started college, she can choose to major in anything else. I actually have no idea what really interests her, but she can probably figure it out, now that she's not trying to impress her mother.

That's assuming she can continue studying, now that she needs to start paying her own way.

That's assuming she can continue studying, now that she needs to start paying her own way.

I guess I'd just assumed that wouldn't be possible. She'd be registered at college as Paige Jennings, wouldn't she, now wanted by the FBI? Would the college even take her back?

Assuming she's not going to be thrown into jail for the rest of her life, there's no reason she can't continue with college, even if that's a few years down the road.

Well, I'll just imagine that, then.

I know it won't happen, but a one-off The Americans coda, set post-collapse of the USSR, where Paige and Henry meet their parents in a neutral country would interest me a great deal.

However, I currently find it hard to imagine that Henry would ever want to see either of them again.

I don't. He might absolutely want to talk to them even if he was still angry. Especially with Paige to talk to before that.

In Henry's shoes, I would definitely want to talk to my parents at some point in the distant future. Even if I never forgave them, I'd have things I'd want to ask them.

-J

Seriously! I can't imagine just not wanting to talk to them at all under these circumstances.

I can see that happening, but I can also see them all getting together in a few years and Henry wanting to know. Right now, P&E feel like they're losing their children forever, but reality will change very soon.

Yes she herself never expressed any interest in government. She might work in that in general but she might be more suited to a nonprofit org for instance. That was her genuine interest in the church.

Probably not, but it beats a few decades in prison.

I think she totally exists. Paige doesn't know how to create a fake identity and she returned to DC without disguise. She's being herself 100%.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Episode discussion post: "START"

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