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: General episode review

[alley_skywalker]

Yea, I don't know why they chose chocolate of all things. Russian chocolate candy is awesome, always has been, even during Soviet times. (When I was a kid, back in the 90s when Western products were still rare, one of the coolest food-related things was McDonald's hamburgers.)

Russian or US chocolate

[theplatonicnonyeah]

I just read an interview (Yahoo TV) with Joe and Joel where they talked about the choice of chocolate, Milky Way, and Joel said this:
"It's funny you should ask, because many hours of conversation went into that. We talked about all sorts of candy bars, and finally the idea that she could pull this away from her mouth and have the caramel kind of pull away with it was the visual that we wanted to go with… this woman sort of falling into this American luxury deliciousness that would be something that she couldn't ever even imagine having back in the Soviet Union."

So, either they didn't do their research properly on Russian chocolate or...I don't know. I remember loving Milky Way too, because it was different to other chocolate bars we had in Sweden. (I was born in 1970, so I remember most of the things happening on the show.)

Re: Russian or US chocolate

[sistermagpie]

According to at least former Soviet kid who posted about this, Zinaida's reaction was completely accurate and something they had lived themselves. Not because they didn't have chocolate in Russia--or even good chocolate or superior chocolate--but because they didn't have anything close to a Milky Way. (Even the finest chocolate=/=Milky Way, no matter which one they prefer.) They said when those things came in they flooded the market and they ate them every day.

Russian chocolate

[jae]

I never knew the Soviet Union, but I lived for a little while in a different Warsaw Pact country (just before everything went nuts there), and in that country at least Russian chocolate was definitely regarded as inferior to Western chocolate. Maybe that was because "Western chocolate" was usually West German chocolate rather than American chocolate?

-J

Re: Russian chocolate

[lovingboth]

Ha, yes. American chocolate is 'brown stuff'.

Re: Russian chocolate

[alley_skywalker]

I actually talked to my mom about it, and she was surprised that anyone would consider Halloween-type candy (including Milky Ways) to be better than some of the mainstream chocolate candy that was available in the Soviet Union. She said it was always one of those things which things, like other American products, which was interesting because it was so alien, but in no way amazing quality-woe.

Re: Russian chocolate

[cadma]

Zinaida came across as kind of eccentric to me so I read it as saying more about her personality as someone who might get really into a specific type of kids' chocolate than about the USSR. I don't know a lot about daily life there but should it be a default assumption that everyone was completely deprived -- wouldn't there be quite a difference between a young single mother in a provincial city in the forties and a high-up civil servant in Moscow in the eighties? I know Zinaida wouldn't've had as much as her US equivalents but without that interview quote above I would've assumed she'd've had small luxuries like chocolate.

Re: Russian chocolate

[sistermagpie]

Someone elsewhere who lived in the USSR (not sure where) said that they did indeed get chocolate but remembered it as something that wasn't readily available. She had a few times a year--so nothing like having a vending machine in the lobby, but she probably had it plenty of times.

The person also said they had a relative that would send them Russian chocolate made in the US because it had the same good recipe but with richer ingredients.

So basically I really agree that I think this is supposed to be a very specific character point about this woman and not a sweeping statement about US vs. USSR. Even in the US you'd probably get the same difference of opinions on Halloween candy vs. Russian chocolate--one person would consider Milky Ways their favorite indulgence, somebody else wouldn't think anyone would prefer it over the other.

The great thing about this show, after all, is that there are multiple Russian characters who have different interests. Nobody else has shown much interest in that kind of junk food. But Philip likes country music, Oleg is into new wave and gospel, Arkady likes the cigarettes etc. But Elizabeth still slips horseradish into food when she can, Philip appreciates caviar that Stan doesn't, Philip and Elizabeth and Gabriel probably eat Russian dishes for a treat.

Re: General episode review

[quantumreality]

I remember seeing a picture of the long line-up outside of the first McDonald's in Moscow. Did you ever go, and if so, how did it measure up to later burgers as the food became more available?

Re: General episode review

[alley_skywalker]

I was pretty young so I can't remember if we ever went when they first opened. Later on, though, we never went. We barely ever went in the States even. McDonalds is ridiculously cheap and the quality of the food is...well, what you would expect from something that cheap. McDonalds definitely fell out of favor quickly as better brands made their way in.