theamericans | Episode discussion post: "The Walk In"

Aired:
12 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
16 March 2014 in Israel
29 March 2014 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode 203 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 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 two, episode three.)

Original promo trailers

"Next On: The Walk In" (Watch on YouTube)

"The Americans: Exclusive Scene from Episode 3" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From the Washington Post
From Vulture
From Hitfix
From the AV Club
From the Huffington Post
From IGN
From Collider
From Television Without Pity
From Sound on Sight
From tv.com
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From the Houston Chronicle
From spoilertv.com
From showratings.tv
From The Cloture Club

More to come once they're available!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

More than one person has claimed that Leanne and Elizabeth have accents in this scene, just a little, and I'm not hearing a trace of any Russian accent anywhere. I think they just mean Leanne speaks a little weirdly on a few lines. Weird, but not Russian weird, imo.

Yeah, I'm not hearing a foreign accent, either (and I don't mean to get all "I know better" on folks but I would hear it if it were there--this sort of thing is my real-life job). Also, it just doesn't make sense. They wouldn't have been sent over if they still had noticeable Russian accents, you know? I mean, okay, there were real-life illegals with detectable accents, but their covers were always that they were foreigners from some other country; they weren't trying to play American anyway. And in this a-little-bit-fantasy version of the KGB, clearly we're meant to understand that their training does manage to get all of them completely to native-level.

*"Totally awesome" is used in Fast Times in Ridgemont High, which came out in 1982.

Noted! :) (For what it's worth, my partner also said that it was definitely used in the early 80s, not just later.)

My new little beef is that Paige uses 'like' more frequently than was common back then (it did exist, and her age group would have been the ones to use it, but probably not yet in suburban D.C., and not as many times in one conversational turn). But I'm more noticing than complaining, I swear--I actually think this show does a very, very good job with the 80s setting.

They're talking about everything...except their biggest current problem: Paige.

This will totally change next week. It kind of has to, after Paige's latest maneuver. They've been distracted, but Philip's eyes are trained right on her now, and he knows the danger she is.

The previews tried so hard to make us think the guy with the gun was Philip because he had wavy hair.

Yeah, that was just dumb. A throwback to the stupid!previews of early season one.

-J

I'm not an expert on this, but I have a very clear memory of being in grade school--this would have been in the late 70s. And we had some person come in who was lecturing on using the word. She literally had students try to talk on a subject without "liking" through the whole thing because we already used it so much. Maybe we were using it in a slightly different way that you mean? But it was definitely already so common we couldn't not say it.

I almost feel disappointed that we won't see Philip actually delivering the report on Paige because OMG, what a giant thing for them to go over. I would just love to see her face: so here's what we missed.

Oh, god, I really didn't mean to start a conversation about 'like'. But okay. :) *Jae puts on her work hat*

It is true that there are different ways of using 'like' (one is what we call a 'discourse marker', that's in the sense of "that was like four years ago", and one is what we call a 'quotative', that's in the sense of "and he was like 'oh my god!'"). The latter version grew out of the former version and is much newer. That's not really what I was talking about, though--if Paige were using 'like' as a quotative, it would definitely be too soon for the time period--but I haven't heard the quotative from either of the kids yet, just the discourse marker. So my niggling concern really is just about frequency, and in part the region ('like' started in California, so the changes in its use would have been more advanced there than other parts of the U.S.).

All of which is to say that I completely believe you when you say that people were bugging you and your classmates about using too much 'like' back when you were a kid, but what you have to keep in mind is that what counts as "too much" changes over time, especially during a language change that's happening as quickly as this one is (for what it's worth, we're talking about the fastest language change I've ever heard of). There is measurably more 'like' usage now than there was back then, so when people complain about frequency now, what they're complaining about is still more frequent than what they were complaining about then. Basically, people register "that person says 'like' too much" whenever people (usually people younger than they are) use it more than they themselves do, however much that is.

Not that ANY of this has ANYTHING to do with The Americans, really. Ahem. Sorry for the digression...! *Jae takes off her work hat*

-J

Don't worry about the digression--you know I was basically just hoping you'd explain exactly that. Thinking about it, of course my first thought was the whole Val-speak thing, which clearly originated in California, so I figured that's what you meant when you talked about the region of the country, that they weren't in California. But particularly if you're talking about the frequency of it, it would make sense as a mistake from somebody who remembered it was said by then, but now has a different idea about how much is too much.

Feel free to now write a post about the use of "you know" in a similar vein...

The only interesting thing I can tell you about 'you know' is that men and women use it equally frequently, but there are two functions of it and men tend to favour the one function and women tend to favour the other. :)

(And now I really WILL stop. Bad host, going all off-topic...)

-J

I thought that the Lynda character in the (proper) Halloween (1978) said 'Like, totally!' a couple of times, but watching it again.. she just says 'totally' a lot.

Still, any excuse to see it again.

Episode discussion post: "The Walk In"

Re: sistermagpie Second Watch

Re: sistermagpie Second Watch

'Like' (in the sense of 'that was like four years ago')

Re: 'Like' (in the sense of 'that was like four years ago')

'You know'

Like totally!