The Americans is Delightful.
- Thread starter Guy Gardener
- Start date
Outstanding season opener. Looking forward to tonight's.
My question was: why didn't the (actual) Americans incinerate William's body? The only thing I can think of is that perhaps they'll want to dig it up for some data later, at which point they'll discover Hans's body.
Poor Hans! He was a true believer, but that wasn't the first time he slipped up.
Gabriel, their handler, pulled out a map and told them about "Area B," so I concluded that the Soviets have a spy who found out.
My question was: why didn't the (actual) Americans incinerate William's body? The only thing I can think of is that perhaps they'll want to dig it up for some data later, at which point they'll discover Hans's body.
Poor Hans! He was a true believer, but that wasn't the first time he slipped up.
Yeah exactly, burying? BURN.
Rather hilairious if they DO dig him up and oh look an extra.
Rather hilairious if they DO dig him up and oh look an extra.
Paige's tension and deep stress is almost unbearable to watch.. poor kid. Actor is amazing.
It was a rather quiet episode. Setting the board, I guess. Though I wonder what they're really doing at that farm. Using bugs to kill large portions of Soviet grain is a pretty convoluted thing.
Poor Paige. She told Pastor Tim under extreme stress, so I think it's only a matter of time before she struggles to not tell Matthew. It's going to get worse for her once her parents start telling her more and more stuff about what they do.
Also, poor Stan. I like Stan and I like his bromance with Philip. This is gonna kill him once he finally finds out the Jennings' real identity. Hopefully his new girlfriend works out. I love those scenes...I don't know why. Stan seems genuinely happy when he's away from work, having beers, trying to make meals from a box, talking with Philip. And he genuinely likes both Paige and Henry.
Poor Oleg. Y'know, I hated him when he first came along. Now I like him, and the stupid CIA is going to lie to him and use him.
I miss Nina.
And when are they going to bring Henry into all this? Right now all he does is sleep and play video games. I half wonder if they're just saving the reveal to be something hilarious, and his mind is going to be totally blown because he hasn't been paying attention at all.
Poor Paige. She told Pastor Tim under extreme stress, so I think it's only a matter of time before she struggles to not tell Matthew. It's going to get worse for her once her parents start telling her more and more stuff about what they do.
Also, poor Stan. I like Stan and I like his bromance with Philip. This is gonna kill him once he finally finds out the Jennings' real identity. Hopefully his new girlfriend works out. I love those scenes...I don't know why. Stan seems genuinely happy when he's away from work, having beers, trying to make meals from a box, talking with Philip. And he genuinely likes both Paige and Henry.
Poor Oleg. Y'know, I hated him when he first came along. Now I like him, and the stupid CIA is going to lie to him and use him.
I miss Nina.
And when are they going to bring Henry into all this? Right now all he does is sleep and play video games. I half wonder if they're just saving the reveal to be something hilarious, and his mind is going to be totally blown because he hasn't been paying attention at all.
I'm assuming that the new girlfriend is going to be a big deal, since she's played by Laurie Holden from THE WALKING DEAD. She only had a few lines last night, but they surely have bigger plans for her. I doubt if she's a spy, but maybe she'll pick up on something about the Jennings that Stan is blind to?
Another solid, quiet episode. Once again, the best stuff are the scenes with Paige. Holly Taylor is right up there in acting with Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys and I hope she'll get the recognition she deserves by the show's end. If she continues to act after this show, I think she'll have a great career ahead of her.
I wonder how Stan will find out the truth the Jennings (assuming he does). Will he actually figure it out and have a Hank Schrader moment or will one (or both) Jennings defect to him?
I wonder how Stan will find out the truth the Jennings (assuming he does). Will he actually figure it out and have a Hank Schrader moment or will one (or both) Jennings defect to him?
I hated Oleg at the beginnibg, too, but I hate what the CIA is planning to do, especially how they have already lied to him about Stan.
I'm thinking the same because of the casting of Holden (although I didn't even know she was in Walking the Dead since I've never watched it; I know her from The X-Files and The Shield) and I think she'll be more than just a girlfriend. We didn't find out what her occupation is, although that might be a red herring.
This is likely an experiment to find pest RESISTANT grain. There isn't enough growth in those buildings to be a large-scale production deployment to feed millions in the USSR and elsewhere. This is a small subset of the kind of seeds they use. The burnt-out brown dead growth is not intentional sabotage of the harvest, but merely a failed segment of the experiment. The green growth that was in the same area and seemed to be risen to the same height as the dead stuff (implying simultaneous seeding between the two strains) appeared to be more robust to pest attacks. I'm certainly not a bio-chemist, but is a theory that fits the visual facts. This really feels like an experiment to BENEFIT grain recipients to me, not poison them.
If she was smart (which she usually is), she would have clipped off sample pieces of live and dead growth, as well as captured some of the bugs she washed off in the shower, put them all in a couple lunch bags and sent them to Gabriel, up the chain to find out what was REALLY going on there.
My gut instinct tells me that they're really proceeding to a false assumption on this grain business.
Oh, cool. Thanks for that.
Yeah it would make sense if they proceeded on a false assumption on the whole thing, and ended up killing the grain guy because of it, putting MORE pressure on the Jennings and deepening their crisis of resolve. After last year when Elizabeth lost her Mary Kay friend because of "work," and that other woman died randomly, this could be the final straw for her to get off the bandwagon, so to speak. If they get closer to this guy's family, and she talks more to his wife and gets sympathetic, and they kill the husband based on a false assumption....
I think Elizabeth will survive any faux friendship fails, she has her magic finger rubbing technique to pull her through.
I need to try that sometime to see if it works.
A psychiatrist told me about that technique when I was younger, to help manage anxiety. The way he said it, I was to touch my thumb and forefinger nails together and picture a peaceful meadow....
Never worked. But I guess if you work on it every day, all the time, it starts to have an effect.
Never worked. But I guess if you work on it every day, all the time, it starts to have an effect.
I'm thinking that maybe she's a Soviet spy sent to honey trap and/or get a handle on Stan.
Was thinking the same thing. If it were not for his post-divorce awkwardness, I think he would have gotten entangled with her much sooner. She definitely seems like a honeypot. Also, back then, it was not unheard of for certain agencies to send out "test" honeypots - other American counter-intelligence agents, posing as fake foreign citizens to engage known American agents in relationships to see if they report said relationships (as they should). If they don't report the interaction, they get in trouble.
Ah, the good old bad old days of the Cold War. How I miss them. Things were so much simpler back then.
Ah, the good old bad old days of the Cold War. How I miss them. Things were so much simpler back then.
I bet you never thought you would say that.Ah, the good old bad old days of the Cold War. How I miss them. Things were so much simpler back then.
Meanwhile, I've been taking comfort in John le Carré novels.
That's a good idea. Given Stan's history, he'd be a candidate for that sort of "testing," I'd think. That could also set up a couple vs couple scenario.
The theory that pest-resistant grain is being developed in the greenhouse, as opposed to a pest, is also intriguing. Indeed, it was established in the season opener that the Soviets already have a serious food shortage.
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Yeah, seriously...back then? Couldn't wait for the CW to end. When the wall fell everyone was ecstatic and thought we could finally live without the threat of global annihilation. And we did, for a short while. Now? We have all these little rouge states running around and cause all kinds of havoc with relative impunity with small 1-to-5 person attack/sleeper cells AND the threat of global annihilation has returned, not only from Putin's Russia, but also from China! Many pundits now believe the next war is going to spark in the South China Sea now.I bet you never thought you would say that.
Meanwhile, I've been taking comfort in John le Carré novels.
Yeah. The 80's were comparatively far more peaceful then than things are today. And fun. I watch the CNN series "The 80's" and realize somewhere along the way I find that, in every episode, I've developed an absurdly stupid and nostalgia-inspired smile on my face. Loving their show on the history of comedy, too, and I'm kind-of looking forward to Duane Johnson's music soundtrack series, when it premiers.
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This is one of my favorite shows to watch every week. It is so underrated and just when I feel a lull coming on they crank up the intensity. I'm intrigued to see what they are doing with Laurie Holden's character this season. Also, you just know that this whole Paige and Matthew thing is going to blow up, but I think that's a slow burn leading up to a series finale i.e. Stan v Phillip and Elizabeth confrontation.
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