The Americans is Delightful.

[E-DUB]

I think I nailed the garage scene back in post #539. And Stan didn't bring up Amadore because the FBI thinks that Gregory killed him.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Unsurprisingly, the online reviews have been very glowing. The reviews by Vox, A.V. Club, and NPR are all worth reading, and the comments section at A.V. Club is remarkably enlightening. Plus, A.V. Club published a short but engrossing interview with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, Gothamist published an equally engrossing interview with Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, and Vulture published an extensive interview with all of them and more. All three interviews talk about the finale extensively.

Stan has committed treason. If Renee is KGB, then she has something pretty major on him that might be used to turn him.

That's assuming he confided to her that he let the Jennings go. I'm not entirely sure he told Henry about the garage conversation, so I don't think he would tell Renee after Philip planted that worrying thought in his mind.

Paige drinking Vodka in the apartment where she, her mom, and Claudia talked about Russia suggests that she might be open to doing some work for the KGB in the future. Her life has been compromised severely, and it might well be up to Stan to try to take care of her as well as Henry. Pastor Tim fell in line to cover for her, and it looks like Stan will too. Although her chances of infiltrating the State Department have been shot, Stan can make it look like she and Henry were both innocent victims in the whole thing. So, she can still have a future with no criminal record, out of prison, and not under suspicion. I suspect it might go into Philip's and Elizabeth's reports to their superiors that Paige has been told of the possibility that Renee is KGB. So, if Renee is KGB, then they might make contact with Paige, if for no other reason than to keep tabs on her and make sure she doesn't blow Renee's cover. Ergo, and in any case, Paige could still be useful to the KGB in some capacity, and she might even elect to collaborate with them after digesting all the lies and half-truths she's been fed and the realities that she has to face.

I can see that being one possible road she might take. However, I wonder if Paige finally realized she wasn't cut out for spycraft, a combination of her terrible argument with her mother and her realization that she couldn't go to Russia. Does she truly believe in the cause? And if so, which side (pro- or anti-Gorbachev)?

I think even deeper down Paige may have stayed behind for Henry's sake ("I can't!" she weakly intoned during the Henry phone call) and I think a part that will come down to not doing the spycraft. Henry is innocent from that side of their family and she went back to help him deal with that. That said, she did, as you noted, return to the safe house and drank shots of Russian vodka, so who knows?

I was actually thinking that the Center was going to take out Philip and Elizabeth when they got back to Russia but I guess by then the plot against Gorbachev was foiled. The finale was surprisingly non violent. no gun shots or chases or anything like that.

I thought about this as well. I felt a real since of danger for them when they were crossing the Soviet border. How do they know they'll be welcomed back after what Elizabeth did? Which way would the political and espionage chips fall for them? It wasn't until they rendezvoused with Arkady that I knew they were relatively safe.

Speaking of Arkady, it's amazing that the these three main characters didn't meet each other until the second to last scene of the whole show. What other show can make that claim?

The Americans better rack up some Emmy wins for acting or i will freaking riot. Definitely one of the best series finales ever.

I will join in that rioting. Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell, Noah Emmerich, and Holly Taylor all deserve to awards for their extraordinary performances on this series. Margo Martindale has well-deservedly been rewarded for her work, but everyone else deserves some of that limelight. Same for the writers and the directors.

I want a follow up mini-series.

I'm not sure if a mini-series would work, unless they set in present day and relate to how things are going on today, but that would probably mean Holly Taylor wouldn't be in it because I don't think she could pass off as a fortysomething year-old.

However, I would be interested in reading a novel by Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields that documents the lives of these characters in a post-Cold War world.

And Stan didn't bring up Amadore because the FBI thinks that Gregory killed him.

Sure, that's what he thought in the intervening years, but I'm certain he would have reevaluated that moment after he began to suspect the truth about Philip and especially Elizabeth.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

That's assuming he confided to her that he let the Jennings go. I'm not entirely sure he told Henry about the garage conversation, so I don't think he would tell Renee after Philip planted that worrying thought in his mind.

I was just assuming that the Jennings put it in their report. If Renee is KGB, then she gets that information from the KGB. I mean, why wouldn't they tell her that?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Joel Fields was on Larry Wilmore's Black on the Air (a terrific podcast and everyone should check it out) where they talked about the writing of the show in general as well as the finale specifically. Definitely worth listening to, especially since Larry such a huge fan of the show, too. One particular nugget that came out of the conversation is how the garage scene was the most worked on scene than any other throughout the show's whole history and for good reason. Fields acknowledges that the scene was the crux of the finale, of the season, of the entire show!

A few other cool things that stood out:

• Confirming a suspicion I've held since the beginning, Fields and Joe Weisberg put up a calender while writing each season, mapping out real life events during that season, ranging from news events to television programs, in order to achieve as much accuracy as possible.
• Some of the crazier elements of the show were based on fact, such as the Romeo agents (i.e. Philip getting involved with Martha and eventually marrying her) and the way Nina was executed.
• The EST storyline was created out of the desire to give Susan Misner more to work with and it became the gift that kept giving, even after Misner was long gone from the show.

I was just assuming that the Jennings put it in their report. If Renee is KGB, then she gets that information from the KGB. I mean, why wouldn't they tell her that?

Ah, okay, that makes sense. Still, I'm not sure if they would do that. Philip felt awfully protective of Stan and that's why he warned him about Renee. Perhaps he wouldn't want to give Renee that kind of leverage, especially if he didn't know where her loyalties lay regarding Gorbachev

 

[Enterprise is Great]

I think that Paige really won't get into legal trouble at all. She did admit to an FBI agent that she knew that her parents were foreign spies so maybe she could be charged as an accomplice but Stan can't say anything about that because he learned of it while committing a crime in letting the Jennings go. Unless there's independent evidence of her illegal activities she committed with her mother she should be in the clear.

Two words to describe the finale: bittersweet and sad. No one got out of this undamaged. I feel the worst for Henry because he was the lone innocent here.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I know I've been dumping a lot of interviews in this thread, but they've all been great and I promise this will be the last one (maybe): Matthew Rhys and Joel Fields & Joe Weisberg had separate interviews on Todd VanDerWerff's I Think You're Interesting podcast where the conversation was very much like Wilmore's interview with Fields. One interesting thing that came out of the Fields/Weisberg interview is how one part of the garage scene was rearranged after it was filmed (and was almost rearranged on the script level): Stan's accusation about Sofia and Gennadi's murders was originally a little earlier in the scene and it was Noah Emmerich who suggested the change.

 

[marillion]

How old is Paige supposed to be now? Is she still under 21? I would imagine a minor would get a light sentence, as a good lawyer would plead that she was under the influence of her parents, who subsequently abandoned her.. She'd probably get a slap on the wrist, especially since she is now responsible for Henry.

My question is now what happens to Phillip and Elizabeth? They are home and certainly are going to face a mountain of interrogation. I'd be surprised if the Center didn't just kill them off, despite the rising tide of Glasnost and Perestroika.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Let's do the math. Paige told Stan she found out when she was 16 in season 3, which was set in 1982/83, so she was born in 1966/67, which would make her 20/21 in 1987.

 

[E-DUB]

Speaking of Arkady, it's amazing that the these three main characters didn't meet each other until the second to last scene of the whole show. What other show can make that claim?

Actually Phillip had approached Arkady in public once and identified himself to tell him that he didn't want Paige involved in a 2nd generation illegals program. But no meeting with Elizabeth and Arkady ever took place.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Actually Phillip had approached Arkady in public once and identified himself to tell him that he didn't want Paige involved in a 2nd generation illegals program. But no meeting with Elizabeth and Arkady ever took place.

Yeah, I just realized that when I was researching Paige's age. It's a remarkable moment nonetheless.

 

[Borgminister]

Powerful, if anticlimactic. While a one-off to wrap up all those loose ends, maybe docu-style, would be nice, there's also something to be said for the old-school write your own ending (or continuation) approach. Fanfic delight!

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Honestly, I don't see any real loose ends. The finale is open-ended, yes, but in such a way that leaves the viewer wanting more and allowing them to fill in the blanks themselves. I don't want all of the answers handed out to me.

That said, I would be interested in reading a novel from Fields and Weisberg, set some time after "START" (perhaps present day because of current events) to explore how each of the main characters have grown in the intervening years. I think a novel would be the best format for such a case study.