Episode discussion post: "The Clock"

[treonb]

Aired:
6 February 2013 in the U.S. and Canada
3 June 2013 in Australia
6 June 2013 in Ireland
8 June 2013 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode #2 of The Americans, intended for viewers who are watching the show on the Australian/Irish/UK schedule. Please do dive in even if you've seen subsequent episodes, but take care to keep comments spoiler-free of anything after season one, episode one.



FX's original promo trailer:

FX's official three-minute recap:

FX's official "Go Undercover" replay with commentary from the actors and producers:

New reviews/recaps
From The Guardian (UK)

Reviews/recaps from first airing
From The AV Club
From Vulture
From Hitflix
From Think Progress
From Television Without Pity
From We Love TV More
From jessenigma at dreamwidth

Comments

[jae]

I didn't like this episode as much as the pilot, and I've definitely rewatched it fewer times. Still, I was kind of blown away by the way the show made these characters we were starting to fall in love with so very willing to commit acts of violence against innocent people. I remember thinking that this was something different from "anti-heroes" like Tony Soprano or the lead guy from Breaking Bad because while those shows makes you interested in their violent characters, they don't really try to make you love them. Here I was, starting to love Philip and Elizabeth, and watching them do terrible, terrible things.

What sticks with me of this episode in retrospect is the parts of the work they had no trouble doing and the parts of the work that seemed horrible even to them. It showed me that their moral line was in a different place from what we're used to, but they did still have one.

-J

[lovingboth]

One surprise was that there was indeed an antidote, which would work at a late stage. I was expecting this to be a lie.

I don't expect many US viewers to know or care, but I am sure that John Nott sounded nothing like that. Some clips of him at the time of the Falklands are doubtless on YouTube if anyone wants to check. Ah, they have the classic 'walk out' incident: youtube.com/watch?v=ln3SpXXYTHY