Episode discussion post: "Echo"

[jae]

Aired:
21 May 2014 in the U.S. and Canada
25 May 2014 in Israel
7 June 2014 in the UK

This is a discussion post for episode 213 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 thirteen.)

Original promo trailer

"The Americans Season 2 Episode 13 Promo - Echo [HD] The Americans 2x13 Promo" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From Grantland
From Time
From the Washington Post
From Rolling Stone
From the AV Club
From Hitfix
From IGN
From the Huffington Post: Karen Fratti, Maureen Ryan
From Vulture
From Variety
From the Tampa Bay Times
From Sound on Sight
From Collider
From Paste Magazine
From Gawker
From the Cloture Club
From tv.com
From tvrage.com
From Headline Planet
From spoilertv.com (in French)
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From GAMbIT Magazine
From showratings.tv
From Comments Enabled
From Boob Tube Dude
From Unreality Primetime (UK)

Comments

Re: Second generation illegals

[alisonx]

See, when they covered it up to make it look like a normal murder, we assumed it was just so no suspicion would be drawn. And even more so this would be applicable if Jared was the killer. The problem is JARED WAS THE KILLER. A highly unstable kid who killed his own parents who were loyal illegals but the KGB still thinks he will be a valuable asset further down the track? They can't possibly think this scenario was a "good outcome" or one that could be salvaged, so why promote Kate? Why leave Jared susceptible and vulnerable. I guess they really did trust him as a second generation illegal and they saw he had shown his loyalty (by killing his parents) ....so really the moral of this story is, if Paige killers her parents and becomes a valuable 2nd Gen Illegal, she will have been the Jared that never was.

Re: Second generation illegals

[sistermagpie]

It almost seems like the only reason Kate was sent to P&E was so that we would know the character. Maybe the only reason she was sent to them was that the KGB didn't hold her responsible for what happened with Jared and P&E really did need a handler since they didn't like Claudia so they sent her Kate because she's an available handler in the area.

It kind of works for me in that I can imagine Kate running her scheme with Jared and feeling like she's awesome at her job (even if ultimately that went badly) and then she meets two experienced Illegals who see her flaws as glaring. That she tended to react to those criticisms by being a bit defensive just underlines that they're right and she didn't see things through. So by the end of the season it feels like Claudia's their real handler because they need someone on their level.

I just can't believe they saw Jared as a valuable Illegal when he proved himself so profoundly psychologically unstable. Not to mention, he was still only being strung along by being duped into thinking he was in a grand love affair. The kid brought nothing valuable to them, proved fairly easily manipulated and duped and killed two of their best agents. He was a menace.

Re: Second generation illegals

[alisonx]

I completely agree with the last paragraph he was a menace and yeah!! If he was so easily honeytrapped himself how could they possibly think he was a good agent. What is with this plan they concocted anyway? To honeytrap someone into working for their cause? That's rocky ground - which is why it does make sense for them to think that the parents laying the groundwork and doing all the manipulating is the better option (though the harder one for me to imagine in reality).

But if they didn't see Jared as potentially valuable down the track, why not off him straight away. But why wouldn't they hold Kate responsible though? We assume that either a) the KGB are in agreement that this plan became a fiasco or b) they think they can salvage the situation if Jared actually manages to become a CIA/FBI agent one day.

In scenario a), they've got to blame someone. They wouldn't blame themselves for the idea, they haven't blamed Jared and haven't blamed Kate so I guess the blame falls on Emmett and Leanne. But that makes no sense to any logical person...

In scenario b) they would be kidding themselves. I know Kate did do her job of honeytrapping well, but she really didn't do her job of recruiting very competently, and as such why risk her again with two valuable agents and their daughter.

Re: Second generation illegals

[jae]

Of course he was easily honeytrapped himself--he was a teenage boy being approached by a beautiful woman! He doesn't have to be psychologically unstable for that, he just has to be manipulable, and I think you'd have a hard time finding any sixteen-seventeen-eighteen-year-old boys who aren't vulnerable on that front.

I'm guessing the theory was that Kate could mould him over the years and shape him ideologically that way. It's not that farfetched, either--it was actually working when it all went wrong.

-J

Re: Second generation illegals

[alisonx]

I meant that in a way that like it would be scary for the KGB to have such an easily manipulated person as an agent. Like who's not to say he's not going to be easily manipulated by someone else a few years down the track and spill the beans?

it was actually working when it all went wrong.
So the KGB is to hate the player and not the game. Do they think if it had been a child more stable than Jared, this whole thing would've been note perfect? I guess it really was working out till it wasn't.

Re: Second generation illegals

[jae]

I meant that in a way that like it would be scary for the KGB to have such an easily manipulated person as an agent.

ALL of their agents have been manipulated--the ones who don't know exactly the extent to which they're working for the KGB and the ones who do. Philip and Elizabeth included. It's part of the package--it's how intelligence organizations operate, especially the KGB. (That's reflective of reality, too, by the way.)

Do they think if it had been a child more stable than Jared, this whole thing would've been note perfect?

My guess is still what I ventured at the start of this conversation: that the forces within Directorate S who want this new programme to continue at all costs have to be blaming Kate. Not the programme itself, not the methods used to recruit Jared, not even Jared, but Kate. It's the only way to explain why they're not stopping to evaluate, but pushing full steam ahead.

I really, really like the notion that there are elements within Directorate S who disagree with this approach, though. I hope they go that way. :)

-J

Re: Second generation illegals

[alisonx]

Yeah that's true that was a stupid thing for me to say/think.

the forces within Directorate S who want this new programme to continue at all costs have to be blaming Kate.
I still don't understand how Kate escapes punishment in all this, because I agree she would be the person most automatically blamed.

Re: Second generation illegals

[sistermagpie]

I think the psychologically unstable part refers to him blowing up and killing his parents, not being easily honeytrapped. There was nothing particularly bad about that part, but he hadn't gotten to the point where he was as reliably committed as the Jennings or the Connors if he was still at that stage, doing it for love. I feel like in the end it more *looked* like it was working more than it was, because it took very little to set Jared off against his own people.

In real Illegals training I presume there's a long time and many stages when people can flunk out before they're sent on assignment to their primary target. Jared hadn't reached that level when he massacred his family.

Re: Second generation illegals

[quantumreality]

I go along with the "mould the American kid into the perfect KGB agent" theory. Especially since the tragic-past angle of his parents and sister being dead would give him a lot of sympathy with an interviewer for a job he wants, especially if he worked the whole "But I want to find my parents' killer (;_;)" schtick.

Re: Second generation illegals

[katiac]

Right, and even Philip himself was honeytrapped by Irina, and that was after years of training, and more years in the field. It doesn't make Philip a bad agent, and especially given Jared's age and lack of training, I don't think it necessarily indicates anything about Jared's long term potential.

Re: Second generation illegals

[sistermagpie]

Well, there's really no indication that Kate was there to work with Paige at all. They'd already lost the Connors when she went to the Jennings, so I think she was just supposed to be their handler, like we saw.

On terminology

[jae]

One nitpicky correction: the kids of illegals who become spies aren't actually illegals themselves--illegals are spies who live under cover identities in foreign countries as nationalities not their own, and these kids wouldn't be doing that. On the show they're calling this sort of spy a "second-generation illegal", probably by analogy with the term "second-generation immigrant," but these kids wouldn't themselves be illegals any more than the children of immigrants are actually themselves immigrants. :) What they are is a kind of agent like Gregory or Fred--a special category that's probably more directly affiliated with Directorate S, but still just a regular spy.

-J

Re: On terminology

[sistermagpie]

Good point. I think I'll start saying 2ndGens. It was bugging me to use that term too because the whole point of these 2Gen kids is that they are NOT Illegal. That's why they can more easily work at the CIA.

Re: On terminology

[treonb]

Yes, but by calling them 2ndGens, you're just avoiding the problem. They're second generation what? Second generation illegals, second generation americans?

Re: On terminology

[sistermagpie]

Both. Or 2nd Gen spies. Because they're not Illegals in any sense of the word. They're American citizens in every way. They just have the advantage/disadvantage of having parents who are actually Russian Illegals. They're American citizens working for the Soviets--they just happen to be doing it because their parents are Russian citizens who are Illegals.

Re: On terminology

[treonb]

They're not illegals, but they do face problems and issues that are specific to them, as the kids of a parent generation of illegals.

So, if not 'second generation', what would you call them?

Re: On terminology

[jae]

"Second generation" isn't the issue--they are second-generation spies. It's calling them "illegals" that's technically incorrect.

I'm sure the show came up with that term by analogy with the term "second-generation immigrant" (who are called that even though they're not actually immigrants at all), so I don't really have a problem with it as such. The reason I jumped in with my terminology explanation was that a couple of people seemed to be assuming the second-generation group would end up being the same sort of spy that Philip and Elizabeth are because the show was using the term "illegal", but they're really much more like the sort of spy that Fred or Gregory is.

-J

Re: On terminology

[treonb]

But then we go back to the reason why the term 'second generation immigrant' is used. Because the second generation pulls in some of the qualities of the immigrants.

If the kids of illegals are just like any other American spy that the KGB could pull in, then why put such an emphasis on them? My assumption is that they expect family loyalty and connection to play an important role, and that therefore the 'illegal' part of their identity, is quite important.

That is, they are not themselves illegals, but just like immigrants, have some aspects in their personality (which, again, all supposition, is expected to be imparted from birth), that the sons of non-illegals wouldn't have.

Re: On terminology

[treonb]

All of which, btw, is based on how the KGB seems to see things.

I'm not fully convinced that Paige really has any advantage over Fred (for example).

Re: On terminology

[jae]

That's the idea. Whether or not that will actually be the case as it plays out on the show remains to be seen (as you point out yourself). :)

I was really talking about training and development, though. The training and development of this sort of spy would not really resemble illegals training very much at all, but there would be a lot more similarities to the way someone like Gregory or Fred would be trained and developed.

-J

Re: Second generation illegals

[katiac]

Yeah, sending Kate to P/E seems very random.

It's interesting with Jared because at the point he was at, he was just an all-around disaster, but then from the KGB's perspective they might've also looked at him and seen someone who would eventually come out of the instability and harden into a devoted KGB killer who would push everything else from their life--sort of like Elizabeth. I'm sure looking back they weren't thrilled with how it went down with the loss of Emmett and Leanne, but since that was done with and couldn't be fixed, salvaging Jared (if possible) was kind of the only move left.

Re: Second generation illegals

[sistermagpie]

To me, it seems like while they could very well have had this opinion of him before he killed his parents, after he did it he would have to be dropped. The KGB has proved able to make bad decisions, but that would just go beyond the pale for me. There's no second chance after you flip out and kill valuable agents in an adolescent rage because you can't see your girlfriend. Jared did more damage to the Illegals program than Larrick and Stan combined and he doesn't even really regret it because he's still clinging to the idea that he's the real agent here.