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

Re: sistermagpie Second Watch

[sistermagpie]

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.

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

[jae]

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

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

[sistermagpie]

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...

'You know'

[jae]

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

Like totally!

[lovingboth]

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.