The Americans 5/4/2016 "The Magic of David Copperfield V" S4Ep08

Yes. And agree that something needed to happen to ease the tension. Looking forward to the last episodes of the season. How many are left?

 

That jump was so unexpected but needed. I think, with what happened, now Paige is in a similar position to Martha. She's essentially a spy working for her parents. She's really not very happy about it. I wonder how long it takes for HER to reach her breaking point, and then what happens.

Who knew spys got stressed out? (obviously we knew). I wonder if they ever made it to Epcot?

 

Another thing I wanted to add based on last week's discussion. Is there ANY doubt now that Martha absolutely still loves "Clark"? And that Clark has some feelings for Martha. That kiss when she got on the plane, was pretty real. So, for anyone who thinks that what Martha did / has done, is not driven by her feelings for him, then they are watching a different show than I am. Is it stupid, romantic or whatever, that is what motivates her, and that is what makes her a victim and a sympathetic figure.

 

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Just a great show, great writing, acting and situations.

 

Phillip's is going to miss Martha and the relationship they had. It gave him the freedom to briefly experience the fantasy of what life would be like as a real person who doesn't have the burdens of espionage. At least he still has EST. Speaking of EST, could Elizabeth be any more cynical? One meeting and she's got their number, and that number comes prefixed with a dollar sign.

 

We've seen before where Elizabeth is the true believer of the two. You could see it in her attitude toward EST and you could see it in her attitude toward her daughter's spying. Country comes before self and before family. I always felt that Philip secretly would be real happy defecting to the US while Elizabeth would probably rat him out if he did.

 

That felt like a season finale. Had to remind myself that they're barely halfway through!

 

Good night, John Boy! I

 

They absolutely had feelings for each other. And I think there's no way Martha does what Clark says and even contemplates moving to Russia if she doesn't love him and trust that he's recommending what's in her best interest.

I was bummed about the seven-month time jump. Based on the movies Elizabeth went to, this episode took place in March or April of 1983. I've been really looking forward to seeing how the show would deal with the Cold War tensions that got strained nearly to their breaking point by the Korean Air Flight 007 incident on September 1, 1983. That was one of the seminal Cold War moments that I remember from my youth. Unfortunately, it looks like they've just completely skipped over that.

The other major Cold War moment that I remember was the TV movie "The Day After," which aired on November 20, 1983. Hopefully the time jump didn't skip over that as well. I'd really like to see what happens when Henry comes home from school talking about how horrible the Soviets are after all his friends see that movie and talk about it at school the next day.

 

That was just a fantastic hour of television. This show has elevated itself this season. To me this is the best season of this show yet, season 1 included.

There better be multiple emmys won as well- Keri Russell was phenomenal in this episode.

 

How quickly we forget how Martha violated the trust of people she has worked with for years and betrayed them by actively committing treason. I don't think we'd be feeling such sympathy for a man who betrayed his country for sexual favors.

Over and over this show demonstrates by on-screen action that Philip and Elizabeth are conscienceless monsters in the service of real evil; and then lures us back to sympathy with their point of view. This is a great show!

Yes, she got their number quickly and accurately. Back in the day I had friends who were EST-holes and I saw first-hand what it did to them.

 

I thought so too. It wasn't until upcoming previews of an all new Americans that I realized it wasn't. This was episode 8. How many are there?

I thought the 7 month jump was initially a little jarring, but a clever way for the writers to move on. It does seem like they really completed this arc. I couldn't remember Lisa's story, and I heard Phillip mention Kimmie, so it was starting the get irritating, thinking the pivot would be handled in this way. Now we have the daughter possibly getting inculcated.

Although I still wonder what's up with Oleg and the whole Nina story line. I guess the scene with Stan's canned boss means that this will come back into play.

Love this show!

 

13.

 

I thought it was a finale until they rolled previews for next week's episode.


Anyway... This was great. Elizabeth is hard core. She totally tore into her daughter about Pastor Tim. And whacked the lady that was supposed to be spying on the stealth bomber construction (at least, I think that is what she was doing)

Will we see Martha in Russia... err.. I mean the SOVIET UNION at some point?

 

I wasn't sure exactly what to make of that, either. I think you are right that Elizabeth killed her, but with the early cut away, it was strange. After Elizabeth cracked the bottle on her head, it seemed that the woman was still alive. Also, there was a quick shot of Elizabeth after she broke the bottle and I could see that there was no wound on her neck. Then they showed the shard of glass in Elizabeth's hand as they cut away from the scene. The implication is that Elizabeth used the glass to cut the woman's throat or something like that.

But in the next scene with Elizabeth, she has a wound on her neck and she says, "Lisa's done too". At first I thought it was just blood spatter on her neck, but then Philip came back and tried to clean and/or disinfect Elizabeth's neck, and she hissed like it hurt, so apparently a neck wound. Since she did not appear to get the wound when she first broke the bottle, I guess the most likely explanation is that the woman fought back while Elizabeth finished killing her (maybe scratched her deeply with her fingernails, or picked up a shard of glass and used it on Elizabeth).

 

I gauged the time with the David Copperfield stunt, which according to my research, was April 8, 1983.

So with the 7 month jump they are now in November 1983.

 

Duh!

Don't know why I didn't think to check the date of the Copperfield stunt.

 

Copperfield has the lights on Liberty turned off*, and the boat turns so it's not between the columns.

I wonder how they swore the people on the boat to secrecy, but may have all been cronies.

* Thus why he says he had to get permission.

 

The theory is that the platform was turned so slowly, with so much noise and light going on, that the people on the platform didn't notice (I think it was a platform on the island, not a boat).