Episode discussion post: "Cardinal"

[jae]

Aired:
5 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
9 March 2014 in Israel
22 March 2014 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode 202 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 if you're reading this later and have already seen subsequent episodes, but please take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything that comes after season two, episode two.)

Original promo trailers

"Next On: Cardinal" (Watch on YouTube)

"The Americans: Exclusive Scene from Episode 2" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From Vulture
From Hitfix
From The AV Club
From The Huffington Post
From IGN
From Think Progress
From SpoilerTV
From Zap2it
From Television Without Pity
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Filmthrasher
From showratings.tv
From Newsmanone
From Screenrant
From the LA Times
From Geekbinge
From tvrage.com
From Unreality TV (UK)

Comments

[jae]

Never mind my last comment--I've deleted it. Here's my real comment! :)

I don't think this question is nitpicky or stupid at all, though I admit it hadn't occurred to me. Maybe Elizabeth was far enough away from them (and turned physically away from them) that she looked like she was just speaking quietly? She couldn't really pretend to have a whole conversation when she had to be listening for the stuff that was being said/transmitted. But I agree that it would have been more believable to have her at least say hello and goodbye. Another way she's off her game.

-J

[sistermagpie]

That's how I explained it to myself, that she was turned away and made it look like she was just writing stuff down so it wasn't a personal call or whatever. Like maybe she was talking to person just delivering flight information.

I also felt like it hooked into that simply being a TV convention. People on TV hardly ever say good-bye to each other. They just hang up.