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

[katiac]

It's a way to be intimate with someone that they can't really get anywhere else--and considering how far they have to keep the rest of the world away--those relationships are all the more important. Like in the same way that no one but Philip and Elizabeth can ever get into that special space of how they feel about *their* kids and the love they have for *their* family, no one can really get exactly how it must feel to have gone through the KGB training, to do this or that, and Emmett and Leanne can exactly. They had the same training. The same missions. The same orders to have kids. The same fears for their kids. The same feelings the KGB maybe never wanted them to have (about their kids, their lives there, whatever.)