Episode discussion post: "The Walk In"

[jae]

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!

Comments

[wendelah1]

I haven't seen "Trust Me" since last year so I have no idea what you're referring to or why FBI agents would know Philip's true age if he's an illegal. Anyway I'm only up to episode four in my rewatch so, yeah, totally confused.

We don't know yet if anything Philip said to Paige about his father is true so it's kind of a moot point. And I don't have an opinion about their ages being the same--or not the same. They might have had different experiences of the war. I have no idea at this juncture.

If his father is dead, the man could have died from war injuries or from natural causes or been murdered or suffered an accident. It's all speculation and I wouldn't rule anything out or in.

[sistermagpie]

Sorry, I just meant that in the scene where the fake FBI agents talk about Philip Jennings they say he's 39. Which is not the literal age of the real guy since Philip is a fake identity, but at the time that was taken as a sign of his actual age just as the death of his father at 6 was. Iirc, Elizabeth saying her father died at Stalingrad gave her an age that people felt was contradicted by what she said about her age later on.

I can't rule anything out or in either, but I was surprised that I found I actually cared about the issue for reasons I couldn't quite understand. But the thread made me think about it--I think I now have some ideas about why that was, but they're more about me than anything factual on the show.