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The Americans on Fx

Pretty crappy ending to the last episode, IMO. That felt more like a set-up to a cliffhanger than a season finale.
 
Eh. I feel like I'm becoming an apologist here, but I loved it. That episode was filled with more tension than any other in the show's catalog, and that's saying something.

I guess maybe a release of all that tension would have been welcome, but I'm not upset with the direction they took. It was a pretty brilliant decision to hammer home how little each character knew about what everyone else knew, and thematically that reared its head in almost every scene. Even something as small as when P+E came home at the end, there was Henry calling the Redskins "we" once or twice, a word Phillip then echoed to Paige and Matthew minutes later. Little touches like that made the dramatic irony that filled the finale all the more crushing.

Also, I can't really decide how much William just gave Stan and Aderholt. The FBI already knew they were after a couple; now they just know that couple is married, right? I don't think William mentioned any kids, and I can't imagine the FBI would start looking into families of 4. It'd have to start with childless married couples, right?
 
And for all the talk over the last four seasons from Philip and Elizabeth about running away, I think it's interesting that one of them always balks when the other brings it up, and they both obviously look terrified at the reality of that idea when Gabriel brings it up here. I think both P+E want to "get out" (note how happy they were coming out of their break from work, and now Philip's EST speech), but that means two different things for them. Or maybe Elizabeth is realizing that she doesn't actually want to go "home" as badly as she says she does?

The Mischa stuff was a nice touch, too. It took me a while to figure out exactly what we were watching, and I think that was intentional on the show's part. The first scene with him came immediately after P+E's pillow talk about whether or not they think Smolensk has changed, and the only info we get from that is that the kid's name is Mischa. The line about Afghanistan threw me off, but for a second I was wondering if we were seeing a flashback. In that sense: no, Phillip, it doesn't seem like home has changed very much.
 
I think the issue isn't what William told them it's that he is only going to get sicker. Who knows what he will say then.
 
thought the finale was good but it was very clearly setting up the end game. two more seasons to finish it off.

this season was the first time that elizabeth began thinking about america vs russia.

the paige stuff was terrible when they began going down this road. however, at this point watching p + e realize they have been grooming her and how mixed the emotions are around that has been pretty good stuff.

e realizing she is more american that she lets on. more comfortable with her life. being concerned about uprooting the family to run "home" to russia. it's not the kids home and she is questioning whether or not it is even hers anymore.

think next season will be cat and mouse. usa vs "the couple" that hides in plain sight (stan closing in). p + e vs russia about bringing them in while doing the occasional work for them. then you'll have the continued "grooming" ,inadvertent or not of paige.

final season i'll go with p + e takes the family on the run trying to escape fbi and kgb to start a new life somewhere. or maybe they leave at the end of next season and spend the final season with stan having found them.
 
Agreed that the finale was meh - I'd be interested to know whether the show's renewal timeline of two more seasons affected the writing for this ep, or if this was the endgame all along for this season. Seemed like they were building to something with the biological warfare and then... one guy gets infected. Granted, that one guy could figuratively blow up the whole operation, but still.

Also the Oleg/Russian broad story needs to die. He was much more interesting as a snooty foil to Arkedy and a rival to Stan.
 
My wife was wondering aloud if William would "spill his guts?" Nice choice of words, sweetheart.
 
I was adding a comment, hadn't saved it, and lost it. Don't remember if all, but I wasn't going to say anything we don't already know anyway.
I'll be waiting for Season 4 of Rectify on Sundance.
 
It's not that the last episode was bad overall, it was just the way they ended it. I especially enjoy the surveillance/chase scenes, so the pre-credits scene had me hooked.

It's just that they could have easily ended it five minutes earlier and had a great, albeit ultimately inconsequential, cliffhanger. You have Elizabeth and Philip checking out Stan's place as he drives up, knowing that Paige is inside. Stan, having obviously just come from work where William was starting to talk, gets out of his car and looks at the Jennings' place with a neutral expression. Cut to credits. Elizabeth and Philip are left wondering what Stan knows, especially given that he "has" their daughter, and the audience is left wondering what William told the FBI. Even if it turns into nothing, which it obviously did, everybody gets a year to stew about it. Instead, we got a few extra minutes of espionage-style parent-teenager angst, which is fine, but it isn't anything that could not have be saved for next year's opener.

And I think the Mischa storyline is intriguing, but I question how they did it. They started to develop things, but just barely, and now we have to wait a whole year for anything else. Better to just introduce such a potentially pivotal character next season. Or, if you do it in the season finale, then just introduce him as a teaser, rather than spend 10 minutes on it. Again, they lengthened the episode for this stuff when it makes more sense to me to wait.
 
But it was not parent teen angst. At least not about dating. It was spy parent worried they have begun to turn their child into a spy and she might be trying things on her own e.g. Working the son of an fbi agent for the family.
 
I'm almost positive that William said that they had "a couple of beautiful kids" or something to that effect.

And William is dead. That's why Stan got to go home. He's not telling the FBI anything more.
 
I'm almost positive that William said that they had "a couple of beautiful kids" or something to that effect.

No, he said Elizabeth was beautiful and that Phillip was lucky. Pretty sure William has never even seen their kids.
 
He does say "like them...couple kids, American Dream, they'd never suspect that" or something like that anyway, before saying "she's pretty....he's lucky." Just went back and listened because I thought I remembered him saying something about kids, as well.
 
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But it was not parent teen angst. At least not about dating. It was spy parent worried they have begun to turn their child into a spy and she might be trying things on her own e.g. Working the son of an fbi agent for the family.

Never said it was about dating, but what you're saying doesn't make sense. If it were really about Paige becoming a spy, then Elizabeth and Philip wouldn't have given her the green light to be his friend in the penultimate episode. It seems clear to me that Philip's reversal about Paige and Matthew's relationship stems entirely from the events of the last episode, to wit, their impending decision to flee or not.

William is probably dead, or at least not able to communicate any longer, but he was talking the last time we saw him. William's scenes alone don't definitely tell us that he didn't give anyone up. We don't learn that until Stan comes home alone and Philip walks safely in and out of the Beeman's house, which is why I think excluding those parts would have made for a decent cliffhanger.
 
You said it was parent teen angst. It is so much more than normal parent teen angst. They gave her the "green light" and very clearly said several times not to be friends unless she wanted to. There have been quite a few moments this season that p and e are wondering if they are turning her into a spy. Center wanted it. P did not. E thought she wanted to but then had second thoughts and has struggled with that the entire season. Proud and scared P was dealing bettter than expected watching her mom killing someone and then ask for self defense lessons.

Just as E is starting to realize she might want out and stay in America she starts to wonder if she is turning her daughter into a spy. The entire season has built up to this.
 
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