Episode discussion post: "Baggage"

[jae]

Aired:
4 February 2015 in the U.S. and Canada

This is a discussion post for episode 302 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 three, episode two.)

Original promo trailer

"The Americans 3x02 Promo "Baggage" / This Season on The Americans" (Watch on YouTube)

Episode recaps

From Hitfix
From The AV Club
From The Atlantic
From the LA Times
From Slant Magazine
From IGN
From TV.com
From Sound on Sight
From Geeks of Doom
From TVEquals
From examiner.com
From TV Ate My Wardrobe
From the International Business Times
From Uproxx
From MovieNewsGuide
From MStarz
From Starpulse
From Romance at Random
From SpoilerTV

Comments

Re: Jae's thoughts on second watch

[treonb]

• So exciting to see Katja Herbers--my favourite thing about my second-favourite currently airing show--on my very favourite show! I loved her thicker accent (she actually has almost no trace of a Dutch accent in English in real life) and the Belgian particulars she added. I kind of want to hear her character speak Dutch now, though. :)

I didn't realize who the actress was - but if she's Dutch, I wonder why she's playing a French-speaking Belgian.

I also wondered why she spoke English to the guards and not French. Not the smartest move there.

Evi

[jae]

'Evi' could be either, I suppose, but I'm 99.9% positive that she's playing a Dutch-speaking Belgian, actually. That is very definitely the accent that Herbers is doing, and the casting call that sistermagpie posted last fall clearly conceived the character as a speaker of either Dutch or a Scandinavian language.

-J

Re: Evi

[treonb]

Hm... so why did she ask Nina if she speaks French? And if she speaks both languages, why not ask about Flemish/Dutch as well?

She might be assuming nobody else in the world knows Dutch, but if you want to connect to somebody you've just met at this dungeon, it's really not the time to start making such assumptions.

Re: Evi

[jae]

A Dutch speaker would never, ever, in a million years ask anyone in a foreign country whether they speak Dutch. (If you were trapped in a Chinese prison, talking to your Chinese-looking cellmate, but you didn't speak a word of Chinese, would you try addressing her in Hebrew first, or would you go straight to English?)

The real question is why she started with French rather than English, but I actually buy it--it's 1982, and English is just starting to become the international language it will eventually be, so English or French is six of one, half dozen of the other as a lingua franca. And her French is probably better than her English.

-J

Re: Evi

[treonb]

Hm... good question. I would like to think I'd cycle through every language I know, and especially with Hebrew, you never know who speaks the language. In China probably not, though in Russia, who knows.

Besides, I'm pretty sure Chinese don't really know English either, so if I ever get stuck in a Chinese prison, it's going to be very lonely :-(

Re: Evi

[jae]

That's a point, that there are always going to be surprising people who speak Hebrew. That's less likely with Dutch, though. :)

Seriously, it just wouldn't happen.

-J

Re: Evi

[treonb]

I was just writing my reply when yours came in... I was thinking about it, and your'e right. Putting it into a more actual context, I'd never think of asking a random person on the street in any other country if they knew Hebrew.

And in a Russian prison, I wouldn't dare.