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

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.