The Americans sixth and final season approaches...

Paige isn't anywhere near ready for a kill, IMO, let alone her parents. That would be a Dexter Lumberjack ending...

 

But Renee... I'm sure she can take both of them out with one shot!

I'm amused at this point that so many are still dedicated to the concept of a big Renee reveal. There's two episodes left. This show does not do that sort of thing, if fact it takes pains to build plot points over many episodes and seasons. Anything going down with Renee will be based on what we've already seen.

 

I have a bad feeling about Phillip meeting with Oleg, especially now that Stan has Phillip on his radar (and Oleg is already being watched).

 

This latest episode was a showcase for Keri Russell as an actress. Not only does her character finally change her attitude, Russell put on an acting clinic in my opinion. The different personas, Nurse, yuppie business woman etc... The tremendous scene in the car with the kid,not knowing if she will kill him, just tremendous.

 

Does Philip have to meet with Oleg, or would a note suffice?

 

That's what Philip's been doing: making drops with his notes. That's what he told Elisabeth in Ep. 8. We've seen him make one drop already and Oleg picked it up.

 

Playing devil's advocate here, but wasn't the nurse persona the same as her usual self? I see your many-faces-of-Elizabeth point, and it's a good one, yet as an actress, to stay in Elizabeth's character, there's always that undertone of a coldblooded biznatch. At least that's the way that I see it. She's a bit one note, which I'm sure that's on purpose. She's not very personable.

I'll take a step back, though, because in recent memory her Mary Kay Saleswoman look was pretty jovial, but that's probably because she genuinely liked that nice Asian lady.

I agree, this past episode, at the very least, was showing Elizabeth's journey, which is surely a setup for her final destination. I didn't like the episode as much, because I don't care for Elizabeth, but I also agree that the scene in the car with the kid was very powerful. Note, that she surprised herself several times in this episode, not failing to mention that she was torn about destroying the painting, eventually relenting that she had to burn it.

From this episode, at least it seems that P&E won't be at odds, as some theories have suggested. Of course you never know. It was a tentative peace, at best, though Elizabeth really put herself out there by defying The Center.

Lastly, Stan noted when Elizabeth came home. I wonder if he was still watching when she left again, 5 minutes later.

 

The suit, seeing Stamkos, who was like a family to Phillip, calling Henry – all part of the same thing, he’s saying his goodbyes. And firing Stamkos first I think is an indication that Phillip tries to avoid him (Stamkos) being questioned by FBI later.

A movie, I don’t think Phillip is nostalgic watching the movie. Considering that the attention to details in this show is impeccable, Garage is not a good choice for nostalgia. Remember early on, I think episode 1 of this season, Elizabeth, Paige and Claudia were watching a movie? That was Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears”. That is an appropriate nostalgia kind of a movie. Garage is a social comedy/satire. And you can read subtitles, they actually show a funny scene, but Phillip is completely numb. Maybe this is to show his disconnect w/ society? He’s so far removed from that world, he doesn’t understand them anymore.

 

I think Claudia is going to have a pretty dumb look on her face when Elizabeth points a gun at it.

 

I thought Erica's killing was pretty brutal. I really liked most of her art work. Some of it reminded me of Francis Bacon. The name of the next episode is Jennings, Elizabeth. Her swan song? Does she get busted?

 

The nurse was submissive, which was different. It was appropriate since she wasn't doing a honeypot, wasn't trying to convince anyone of different behavior. So there was no reason to attract attention to herself.

I liked the Erica plot because it was so fish out of water. Elizabeth was forced into a role where she's terrible at everything. Plus Erica yelled at her a lot, and there was nothing Elizabeth could do about it. Well, Elizabeth killed her eventually, but Erica wanted that.

 

Last few episodes have been much better.

Down to the final two. I wounder who lives and who dies?

 

I've been watching bits of old episodes on Amazon this past week. A lot of the episodes I have only seen once, so I forgot some things, but it's amazing going back and seeing how well connected everything is and consistent... from Stan in the Jennings garage in the pilot episode, to the Center's interest in recruiting page (and the discussion of recruiting children in general and also the FBI's discussion of Soviet agents living among us). All of it.

Also, watch part of the season 2 finale again. The twist with the kid is still chilling and so well done.

 

There has to be some payoff to the build up with Renee. I had this thought about Renee: right after whatever denouement we have with the Jennings we see Claudia and Renee meet and Claudia informs her something along the lines of "You're on, you're well-placed, here's the deal. . . "

 

FX released screeners of the final two episodes for the media, so there may be spoilers out there. Proceed with caution.

 

Uh oh! I'll have to ask the Russians about this, as I'm sure they already have these up on torrents!

 

Thank you for the warning - much appreciated!

 

I hate this. In the past it was probably fine, but now there’s no chance somebody on Twitter won’t exploit their access to boost their follower count or likes or whatever. From Twitter it can filter out into the general consciousness. Do tv writers need two weeks to prepare their columns?

 

The only positive I can take away from this is that FX must be very confident that the showrunners have come up with a memorable series wrap, and are hoping/expecting writers to heap praise on the show in print/media for the final two weeks...

 

I've posted before, the ending was written before the first episode and they have stuck with it for the ending.

 

Aware of that, but I’m sure whatever core idea they had years ago has likely evolved over the years to some degree. They may have had a basic idea (Liz kills Phillip; Phillip kills Liz; whatever), but they never would’ve known how many episodes they’d get to do at the outset, nor how story arcs would develop.

I’m very confident that these guys are capable of delivering a series finale that ranks with the best ever - this series deserves that. If it weren’t for a bit of a misfire in season five, I think it would rank amongst the very best. It might still enter into that discussion, especially IF they nail the last two...

 

i was also thinking it might end up a philip vs. liz ending, but after the last episode, i'm thinking not....

 

Yeah that was a bit of a puzzler - the redemption of Elizabeth? Isn’t it wayyy too late for that?

 

I only know what Keri Russell said in an interview is that it was written and finished at the start and they are staying with it as written.

 

Well, if it's redemption, she's only redeemed to her husband. Philip got the okay to take a sabbatical from The Center. Elizabeth flat out told The Center no.

Still, as a viewer, she's not redeemed in my eyes. Philip had been wanting out since Season 1, and even at that, he doesn't get a pass simply because spies don't get passes. He's done some nasty stuff, as befitting a spy. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is cold blooded to the max.

Anyway, you can't really make heroes out of either of them, but Philp is certainly the lesser of the two evils.