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

[sistermagpie]

Also on top of all this, Philip's already got the love child baby potentially back in Russia, as if every time he has a relationship of any duration the girl's just going to get pregnant.

A baby's just a drag in so many ways, yet it gives Philip a thing he would have to start caring about, splitting his attention from his family etc. I would just hope it's considered dealt with through birth control beforehand so it's a non-issue. But you'd think that would be something they'd discuss before marriage. It seems like Clark's leading Martha to believe there's nothing to discuss, that if she wants kids he'll want kids.

[katiac]

Also on top of all this, Philip's already got the love child baby potentially back in Russia, as if every time he has a relationship of any duration the girl's just going to get pregnant.

Right, like I feel like they just can't keep going to that same well without it starting to feel old or contrived. They already did the horror at the shock of it thing with Irina. How many times can they do that without Philip starting to look not very smart about the idea of where babies come from and how to prevent it? For it to happen way back when he was 18, understandable. Now when he's almost 40 and has been doing this for decades... it just annoys me to think about this even being an issue any more, like you said.

Yeah, there are pluses in what it brings up, but then the idea of it is a drag in so many ways, like you said. I can't think of any aspect of it I'd be excited to watch. I can see how they'd get out of having discussed it beforehand because the wedding was so impulsive, so I hope they can get all the issues in merely by having Martha propose the idea and keep pushing it rather than by actually having a pregnancy.