Episode discussion post: "The Deal"

[jae]

Aired:
26 March 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
30 March 2014 in Israel
12 April 2014 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode 205 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 you should also 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 five.)

Original promo trailers

"Next On: The Deal" (Watch on YouTube)

"The Americans: Exclusive Scene from Episode 5" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From Grantland
From The New York Times
From Time
From Vulture
From The Washington Post
From Rolling Stone
From The AV Club
From Hitfix
From the Huffington Post
From Collider
From Sound on Sight
From IGN
From Television Without Pity
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From Geekbinge
From showratings.tv
From screenrant.com
From GAMbIT Magazine
From Crave Online
From spoilertv.com
From tv.com
From Unreality Primetime
From Newsmanone

Comments

First thoughts

[treonb]

I'm not as excited about this episode as everybody else.. I guess this goes back to the fact that the Anton story doesn't make sense to me, going back to the previous episode.

As for the deal itself, I'm very iffy about it. If Anton is such a prize, why give him up? On the other hand, Israel has a very strong 'leave nobody behind' tradition and having a Mossad agent in Russian hands is also very problematic, so there's certainly a lot of reason for the exchange. The only reason I can see for not saving the Mossad guy (Yossi, btw), would be to complete the mission, which obviously didn't happen. So why add those Refuseniks to the mix? It looked more like a way to keep everybody happy story-wise. If at all, I can see the Israelis demanding somebody of equal value. Like a very well-known Refusenik. The numbers game doesn't seem right to me.

Other than that:

1. Not for the first time - the promo had cut scenes. Grrrrr.

2. And the exclusive preview scene for some reason got into my head so much, that I could have sworn it was already aired in a previous ep. I had the weirdest deja-vu feeling watching it in the show. Maybe because it was picked from the middle of the ep.

3. The exchange in Hebrew, if anybody cares: "Are you OK, Yossi?" (said with the most Israeli intonation), "The best I've ever been" (the pronunciation's right, but something's off with the intonation of the sentence.. it's sort of like a question).

4. Shekels were very new at this stage, they were only introduced in 1980.

5. Brad - I think just gave up too easily. Unless it's so obvious that she just wanted the files and is not interested in him at all, in which case he should be getting suspicious as to why she wanted them to begin with.

6. Oleg and Arkady - love those two. I'm not sure which more. Though I don't get Oleg's deal (to be) with Stan. I'm assuming he's playing his own game here, and he's playing with fire.

As for Arkady's Russian-Israeli comparison: I don't buy that Arkady will do anything to save his men. I would assume, though, that if anybody killed off a Mossad family like what happened to Emmett's family, their friends won't rest until they got revenge.

7. Elizabeth and Martha - just wow. Martha is becoming much more human now. But to repeat a question already asked: who starts talking to somebody about her brother's sexual prowess? And which sister would actually want to know? Was Elizabeth asking because she wanted to know, or because she thought she should in-character? Anyway, the scene was done very well, and didn't seem as awkward as it could have been. "He just makes me his" - doesn't he?

8. The new handler - not what I expected, but there's a lot of potential there.

Re: First thoughts

[treonb]

The new handler - not what I expected

This was a question of the week, and so... turns out I did expect it :-)

who starts talking to somebody about her brother's sexual prowess

[lovingboth]

Someone who's drunk over a bottle of wine and doesn't have anyone else to talk to about this.

Re: who starts talking to somebody about her brother's sexual prowess

[lovingboth]

And Elizabeth didn't ask - Martha talks about Clark being uptight except when 'you know', Elizabeth laughs and goes 'Oh' and Martha goes into TMI mode. One of the reasons Elizabeth listens is because she's not his sister, and only later does she ask for more details.

No-one's mentioned the 'very big' bit of the 'your very big brother' yet :)

Re: who starts talking to somebody about her brother's sexual prowess

[sistermagpie]

But she does ask quickly after for details, so I think Martha was actually right to pick up on Jennifer not actually being grossed out by what she was saying.

Re: who starts talking to somebody about her brother's sexual prowess

[quantumreality]

*snerk!* I'm going to guess that Philip is probably not complaining about what his genes gave him. :P

Oleg and Stan

[lovingboth]

Part of it is Oleg's plan to get into Nina's pants (in the British sense!) but yes, he's playing with fire.

Did Stan know for sure that Nina is reporting back on their meetings? He does now.

Re: Oleg and Stan

[treonb]

Did Stan know for sure that Nina is reporting back on their meetings? He does now.

I don't know.. Oleg says he's the only one who knows Nina's working for the FBI, and it's not exactly clear HOW he knows.

In general, I suppose Stan has a LOT of questions for Nina right about now. I would also expect him to push for her ex-filtration immediately, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Re: Oleg and Stan

[lovingboth]

If she's not reporting back, how does Oleg know they're involved?

Possibly he's trailing her, but Stan knows he's a recent addition to the embassy.

Re: Oleg and Stan

[sistermagpie]

Why would he know that? Wasn't Oleg's whole point that only he had figured out that Stan had "turned" Nina? How would that be the case (assuming Stan believes him) if Nina was reporting back that she was working for Stan? That would mean Stan knows he's being played by her.

Nina's made it clear to Stan on numerous occasions that she's sneaking away to meet him. Oleg didn't tell Stan how he knew, but he definitely indicated that Nina wasn't telling anybody.

Re: First thoughts

[wendelah1]

I'm not as excited about this episode as everybody else.. I guess this goes back to the fact that the Anton story doesn't make sense to me, going back to the previous episode.

It didn't make sense to me either. The deal wasn't much of a deal at all--nearly the same number of Jews were permitted to leave in 1981.

7. Elizabeth and Martha - just wow. Martha is becoming much more human now. But to repeat a question already asked: who starts talking to somebody about her brother's sexual prowess? And which sister would actually want to know? Was Elizabeth asking because she wanted to know, or because she thought she should in-character? Anyway, the scene was done very well, and didn't seem as awkward as it could have been. "He just makes me his" - doesn't he?

I thought that was way awkward myself. No one I know starts talking about their sex life with their in-laws--no matter how drunk they are. Actually, no one I know talks about their sex life period. I wasn't really buying that scene at all, unless Elizabeth slipped a little something extra into the wine.

Re: First thoughts

[katiac]

No one I know starts talking about their sex life with their in-laws--no matter how drunk they are. Actually, no one I know talks about their sex life period. I wasn't really buying that scene at all, unless Elizabeth slipped a little something extra into the wine.

I found it to be something of a stretch too--especially considering Martha seems to be from a fairly conservative family and she and "Jennifer" have only met the one time. But, I can forgive the stretch in credibility if it brings up interesting things in the P/E relationship. And it was one of the first scenes where I was rather okay with Martha.

Re: First thoughts

[treonb]

it was one of the first scenes where I was rather okay with Martha.

Yeah, me too :-) Either "Jennifer" brings out the more human side in her, or she's more natural without "Clark" around.

Re: First thoughts

[sistermagpie]

I think it's just that in her Clark relationship she's always kind of playing the same scene. And also, interestingly, she was kind of right in the way Clark's personality worked--which works really well for what Philip is trying to do here. Clark's always on guard controlling the information and it rules his whole personality--because Clark is supposed to be this very officious pencil pusher who has nonetheless broken a big rule. Like in a way Clark is like a regular person being a spy like Philip, but he's not good at it so he's stiff and careful about everything. And there's a formality that also seems to go alone with Clark trying really hard to be the best government hall monitor he can be.

Where as in this scene Elizabeth presented Jennifer as being the normal member of the family who doesn't have those constraints because she's just a girl visiting her sister in law, so Martha could speak from a different pov.

Refusenik visas

[treonb]

nearly the same number of Jews were permitted to leave in 1981.

According to wiki - over 9,000 Jews were allowed to leave in 1981. But as was mentioned earlier here, most preferred the West over Israel.

But it's also interesting that in those years, the number of Jews allowed to leave was dropping. That group didn't show any 'Russian change of heart' at all.

Re: Refusenik visas

[wendelah1]

Yes, sorry. I keep forgetting we're already in 1982 since the leaves are still on the trees and it looks like autumn rather than winter. I think I spotted a pumpkin at the amusement park in the season opener. This was a terrible time to be Jewish and trying to leave the USSR. 1982 was a bad year and it wasn't even the worst. (Everyone else may already be familiar with the politics. At least I won't lose the article if I add it here.) From a UCLA study:

The early 1980s marked a drastic decrease in the level of Jewish emigration, stemming from the break in Soviet-American relations after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The Carter administration strongly disapproved of the invasion due to perceived Soviet expansionism in the so-called ‘arc of crises’, a “region stretching from Angola and the Horn of Africa to Afghanistan.”

Any spread of communism came as a threat to American interests during the Cold War, so the Soviet expansionism in such a critical area frightened the Carter administration. In response to the Soviet invasion, the U.S. imposed trade sanctions against the USSR, upsetting Brezhnev. Only 2,688 Jewish emigrants left the Soviet Union in 1982, while a sixteen-year low figure of 896 Jews left the country in 1984.

Similar to Carter’s approach toward the Soviet Union’s treatment of Jewish emigrants, President Ronald Reagan took a strong and vocal stance against the Soviet Union in terms of human rights. In regard to Reagan’s plan toward Soviet Jewish emigration, Goldman writes, “in part his goal was to embarrass and undermine the Soviet regime in the international community.” Reagan had vocally expressed his strong disagreement with communism, so the issue of Jewish emigration allowed him to maintain his critical approach toward the Soviet Union. Although Reagan put much focus on the Jewish emigration problem, including on the continuous struggle of the refuseniks, the turning point in the effort for increased Jewish emigration came when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union.

Source: [x] The footnotes are in the article.

Maybe I'm getting this wrong, but reading between the lines, it sounds like the issue of Jewish emigration was being used by Reagan for his own political agenda.

Re: Refusenik visas

[treonb]

reading between the lines, it sounds like the issue of Jewish emigration was being used by Reagan for his own political agenda.

On the one hand, it's not that surprising.

On the other, it was a real issue. American Jews spent more than a decade promoting the right of Jewish emigration before US politicians took up the cause. And it took another decade before Jews were allowed out.

Exchange in Hebrew

[jae]

The exchange in Hebrew, if anybody cares: "Are you OK, Yossi?" (said with the most Israeli intonation), "The best I've ever been"

Wait, when was this? During the prisoner exchange?

-J

Re: Exchange in Hebrew

[treonb]

Yes, when they come in.

Re: Exchange in Hebrew

[apolla_savre]

Oh cool! So we know his name!

Re: Exchange in Hebrew

[treonb]

I only realized later that it's the only time it's mentioned.

Re: First thoughts

[apolla_savre]

Thank you for the name!

Re: First thoughts

[quantumreality]

I think every sibling has different comfort levels about that sort of thing and while, in the main, most probably don't want gory details of the other sibling's sex life, there are always the odd exceptions, as "Jennifer" appears to be an example of.

Yossi

[jae]

I strongly suspect that the "Yossi" part of the Hebrew was ad-libbed, because apparently that character's name in the script was just "Agent."

Of course, that means it's his name now! :)

-J

Re: Yossi

[treonb]

It's weird. I don't understand why they bothered if they didn't put it in the subtitles. I assume both actors know Hebrew, so maybe the whole thing was ad-libbed.