The Americans sixth and final season approaches...

Wait...If Philp confesses, wouldn't that hijack the modicum of goodwill that Gorbachev brings to the summit, thus undermining everything that Philip is fighting for right now?

It seems like it, so why would Philip do that? That doesn't make sense.

Even if Philip tells Beeman, how does Beeman make it out alive? I'm still seeing a spanner in the works, either Henry or Beeman's girlfriend being Soviet or Soviet sympathizers.

Now, Philip passed on a message to Oleg, which probably tells Oleg about Liz's plan, but it could contain any number of things. Oleg must be under constant servalence now due to the FBI fingering a Russain spy, so either he gets caught or he can't do anything about it.

Anyway, killing off Philip would be a ballsy move. I wouldn't like it, but I would respect it, because I despise Hollywood endings. It certainly would be an artistic payoff.

 

I am getting that same feeling I had when Breaking Bad was entering its final episodes- Looking forward to, yet dreading what's coming.

 

love this series, and this season is a nail-biter. big questions for me are:

1--Claudia--i get a bad vibe from her. think she's going to do something horrible.
2--Stan's wife/girlfriend. someone else made a good point, if she was born in the USSR, she wouldn't make it through an FBI security clearance. so what's her deal?
3--Henry--has he already been recruited? I hope not, cos (1) they already sort of did that storyline w/ the other spy family, and I didn't buy it that time (so this teenage boy gets recruited, and gets so upset w/ his parents he kills them both, and his younger sister, and has the presence of mind to cover his tracks so effectively that no one suspects? doesn't sound very plausible), and (2), there was a lot of Henry in the most recent episode, and given the way he's written, I just don't buy him as a spy. if he turns out to be a spy after that episode, it's going to come off as a cheap surprise without much story logic behind it (although there are some elements in past seasons that would suggest it, such as all the time he spent away from home, his abrupt change from goof-off to star student, etc)

as far as elizabeth goes, she's basically ted bundy as far as I'm concerned, so i'm fine w/ her getting killed off. philip's morally compromised too with all the innocent people he's killed, although i sort of feel sorry for him. hoping stan and oleg don't get killed, but not keeping my fingers crossed. and then there's paige, who i sort of feel sorry for, but she's really gone off the rails this season. she's not cut out to be a spy, and her idealism's not exactly pure--there's some vanity mixed in with it. fascinating series.

 

Does anyone think we'll see Martha pop up again, soon? I think we'll see her on the last episode.

 

Yeah, but the Russians have already proved that having Komrades in high-ish places isn't difficult to do, especially using their expertise in taking the identities of dead American babies and constructing lives around them. She doesn't even have to be from Russia as we've already seen several American-born collaborators join The Cause and operate just as they would had they been born in the Soviet Union. Of course she could just be a girlfriend, after all; yet hasn't she subtly asked Stan some questions that seemed probing?

To me, it's looking less like my theory of Henry being a spy will play out; however, some of what you wrote kind of supports the point. With these Russians, one failed experiment would certainly prompt them try it again, for precisely that reason. Even with one failed experiment, Claudia intimated that recruiting these children was an ongoing project, that this boy wasn't the only one. The last thing that Philip and Elizabeth would suspect is Henry being the spy, with Paige already being tapped as the heir. Paige would be a smokescreen, because the The Center, in their wisdom, already saw that Philip and Elizabeth needed some sort of watchdog, given Philip's proclivity to kick against the pricks. Henry, also, mind you, became good friends with Stan, which is exactly what The Center would instruct Henry to do. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.

That kid who killed his folks had some hardcore training before he offed them, and would do exactly as a good spy would when covering his tracks.

(Let's also keep in mind that the showrunners said that they knew how the story would end up from the very beginning, so it's possible that Stan's whole divorce was setup so that he could run across this woman for The Center's use. It's also possible that the boy spy storyline had little do with them, but more so setting the stage for Henry. Of course it's all just theory, but I stand by assertion that either Henry or Renee (Stan's girlfriend will throw a monkey wrench into the end of this story.)

 

Thank you. this story line has me talking to myself(almost) . On top of all of this Phillip has to have money problems? How about in last weeks episode where he is looking through a box in the basement and sees a few bundles of cash. I would have grabbed those and ran. At the very least, I think the "center" could have bonused these poor bastards for all the wet work !

 

Been waiting so long for Stan’s “Hank on the can” moment, I really hope it doesn’t disappoint.

 

What a moment. I look forward to rewatching the whole thing in a few years!

 

As far as Henry, or Renee, or Stavos, or anyone else being a secret spy, I really hope the show does not go there. It violates the concept of the show.

We always knew Phillip and Elizabeth were spies. Stan does not, Paige did not initially but found out. I'm assuming, given what we saw with Paige, if anything relevant happened with Henry, we would have seen it. So it didn't happen.

It's fiction, the writers can do as they like. But some big reveal that another character is a spy would be lousy writing for this show.

 

i agree. it wouldn't bother me that much in regard to Renee, but outing Henry or Stavos as spies just doesn't jibe w/ too many things we've seen.

one thing i would love to see is Elizabeth walking down the street in one of her disguises, and someone who knows her recognizes her and asks "Elizabeth? Why are you wearing that wig?"

 

It's more of an Alias-level twist.

 

This show has always been about twists, and some of you are saying let's forgo a twist right at the end?

The unimaginative writer might play it safe and kill off some characters. Fade to black.

I'm not saying that my theories are necessary good ones; howbeit nobody else is coming up with much, save a safe ending.

 

I'm not worried about the writers here pulling an Alias plot twist out of their wig after all these years.

 

i'm fine with a twist ending, and there are some elements that point towards Henry being a spy, but on balance, i just don't think it makes sense. a twist for the sake of a twist is not good writing.

 

I've been suspicious of Renee ever since she joined the show and think she has an important role to play. Maybe not a communist agent but perhaps for another state, or even CIA?

 

sometimes it seems like the only one who isn't suspicious of Renee is Stan.

I also think she might be working for someone besides the USSR.

 

Can’t be CIA as they’re “forbidden” to work within the continental USA.

 

I am thinking of watching the series now that it is close to done. Seems like its worth while.

 

Renee has spent far more time with Stan than any agent would need or want to spend, and to no obvious end. You're going to blow a whole agent on convincing Stan to staying in the FBI? There are agents dedicated to preserving the status quo? Asking if she can become an agent when she should already know the answer, again risking exposure that isn't necessary? Given how we saw Phillip play Martha, Renee either went to Klown Kollege with a major in espionage, or she isn't an agent.

My guess is Renee will get an FBI job and ID Phillip, Paige, or Elizabeth based on pictures or drawings. On this show that would be a big development. What did Gaad, played by Richard Thomas ever do? Besides getting killed as a mistake? For all of P&E's body count, most of their missions don't really accomplish anything, and we all know it's for naught anyway.

 

Well said.

 

Damn. That does really fit the show narrative. All this screen time for the Renee character for what? It would be a well earned pay off and really fits the theme of the show of family and the battles between/within them. So Renee and Stan as a counter couple to Phillip and Elizabeth. Interesting comment about drawings...hmm.

All will be known soon...

 

"William Crandall" spent 25 years working in a US lab for the USSR, only to produce, "Virtually nothing of importance. 20 years of E.coli and Hepatitis," according the Gabriel, yet William's duty and service to the Reds was never in question. Gabriel also called William a hero, despite his shortcomings and his surly disposition.

I kind of don't see your point, so perhaps you can enlighten me. If it's a known that Phillip & Elizabeth have not accomplished much, then why would it be a counterpoint that other agents - maybe even Renee - is placed in a sit-and-wait position, much like William? What's more, if Renee was a spy, the difference between Renee trying to eke out a few crumbs of information from a dyed in the wool Hoover man, is night and day from Philip taking a fragile wallflower like Martha and turning her on a dime. The conditions of Renee helping to convince Beeman to stay in the FBI was a byproduct of her being close to him for a while, as he wasn't in crisis when they met. Only after they had been dating a while did the topic come up. If Renee was a spy, it would support her cause to have Beeman stay with the Feds; it wouldn't cause suspicion, because that's what mates talk about: their lives. If Renee was a spy, of course she knows the answer to becoming an agent is no, but a spy throws that out there so that you see what the right hand is doing, while the left hand just really wants to get inside the building, as a janitor, or whatever.

Note, that the hallmark of a great spy is to conduct their business right in front of your face without you knowing.

If the writing is true to the show, that's exactly what the showrunners are doing to us, too, i.e. working on the pieces in front of us, but using subterfuge to mask what they're building. Which leads me to...

...as to the bold text, if the showrunners are being truthful, that they've known the show's end from the beginning, then a twist for the sake of a twist isn't possible, given that the whole narrative up to this point was twisting its way to whatever twist awaits at the end of the show. It all lead to whatever precedes the last credits. All of that is assuming that there is a twist-ending at all. There might not be. Nonetheless, if there is a twist at the end, how would we even know if it was a twist written for the sake of a twist? We wouldn't. Short of having seen scripts of the last episode in draft form (comparing a draft to the final script), there's no way for the viewer to know. The viewer knows only whether they liked the end...or not.

Besides, in The Americans, a "twist" could be something as small as Pastor Tim deciding not to turn the Reds in, or as large as a young Red waxing his whole family while on vacation. @Jay_Z Now that was a sit-and-wait situation if I ever saw one - approved by The Center, no less - to let Pastor Tim live and wait to see what he'd do. Man, I thought for sure he was a goner. I was waiting for it! But maybe I'm just twisted that way.

 

Bit of a random musing but I felt it should maybe go in a spoiler tag for people who aren't up to date with the show.

Spoiler

The slaying of Gennadi and Sofia by Elizabeth strikes me as the final wedge between Phillip and Elizabeth. I think this has hit hit hard and, though they were both not too bright, he had genuine affection for both of them. Phillip must be weighing up his options here for "turning". I think he may confess to Stan. I think he wants to see justice for the two slain Russians. We also have only 2-3 years until the fall of the USSR and Phillip is more attuned to the rapid changes taking place than Elizabeth (alluded to earlier in the season). The problem is he potentially faces life in prison, or death from any number of sources, or perhaps working for the US as a double agent or consultant (could he be the one who brings down the spy operation?). He realises he is now an American and that is where he wants to live. Elizabeth will never accept that way of life. It's pretty impossible to predict where this will go but I suspect Elizabeth will pay the price.

 

From what we have seen on the show, the spies usually try to get their marks to change their behavior. Renee didn't do that. The opposite, in fact. Seems like a ton of resources to apply a spy to a worker merely to encourage the status quo, then do nothing with it.

Renee wanted to be an agent and can't anyway. Stan is of no use there. She needs to pass security clearance to get a different FBI job, which Stan can't help with either. So all of this contact with Stan, way more than Phillip ever had with Martha, for...?

Again, plus there's the fact that we the viewers have always known who the spies are. Writers can do what they want, but that has been the format of the show. You want to believe that the writers are going against that format for the sake of a twist.