shows what I know.

I don't really get why Philip flat out refuses to have kids with Martha. Can't he just say that maybe it's an option when he gets closer to retirement, or just pretend that he'll be up for it in a few more years or w/e. By then he can have some other excuse or she might have exhausted her usefulness already.

I get the feeling that Phillip thinks she is nearing the end of her usefulness and this will be a nice out for him.

thought the finale was amazing. in hindsight the Jared twist was obvious but I didn't guess it so...yeah. the reveal he killed his parents was WTF (and I think I missed the exact reason why he did that?) but the Paige thing is crazy as well. in hindsight he plot line makes so much more sense now.

I was so torn on Beamon, in the end I didn't think he would do it b/c he knows that would be the end for him.

b/c once you say yes that becomes the conversation for them and something he has to deal with from that point forward. Martha looks pretty old and would want kids soon I think

I thought the finale was the best episode in the series, but the Larick stuff paid of in Bond villain-esque ridiculousness, and that Philip and Elizabeth nailed another one outer on the river was also eyeroll worthy. The moment the kid got shot and needed to say something to Kate I knew he had killed his parents. Zod, he killed them because they wouldn't let him be a second generation illegal (the exact set up the show will be going with in season 3 with Paige). He killed his sister because she was hysterical and would rat him out.

Next season appears it's mainly going to be about whether the KGB gets Paige, which now makes it very obvious why Paige's relentlessly painful storyline was there in the first place. We were supposed to get used to her. I have no clue what they're going to do with Stan. If the Russians played him, I guess he could go after them really hard.

Was it really clear that Stan did not give the info? I could easily see the Russians typing a fake note, and the note wasn't balled up into the tiny package the guy picked up (upon re-watching the pick up, it was actually impossible to see the package's size, but the drop off looked exactly like what he recorded the code on with no room for a note like that to be perfectly folded). Still, I'm pretty unsure as to whether Stan did give up the info (I think he did). Is there a smoking gun that says he didn't? Regardless, Stan needs to get turned by the Russians, because he's like a treason machine. I really despise his character, and his reasoning for why he even got that far, if he didn't actually go all the way.

LOL@this show getting awards nominations over Hannibal.

I'm so apathetic when it comes to this show I didn't even catch that the kid killed his family. I feel like after ep 4 or 5 the show went downhill. There was a glimmer of a really good show early in the season.

agree there is some chance Stan handed over the info. I guess that scenario is

- once Stan hands over Echo the Russians 100% have him for life, that is hardcore treason they will hang over his head regardless of what happens
- if they let Nina go run off with Stan, Stan might leave the FBI and they lose him as a valuable source?

so I think there is a healthy chance Beamon did turn, and while watching we were debating if the Russians were playing him or not

In regards to the son's reveal, I was only annoyed by the length of his confession. That was a ridiculously long speech. The rest was great.

It's a show with a good premise, good characters, decent cast, but they struggle to tell a good story with it.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. The fact that they spent so much time trying to talk Paige down from Jesus really shows its issues. With the developments of the finale, it makes more sense to have spent so much time on her, but it still didn't work for me.

If there were illegals as shown in show, probably 90%+ of the time they were doing nothing other than observing, like frequenting bars were state/defense department types hung out. Certainly not so operational as shown, but that wouldn't make good TV. Its the same problem with any of these episodic spy genre shows. This show requires some suspension of disbelief, particulary the narrow misses and some understanding that certain things are overemphasized for their narrative value. They do a good job, somethings great (Nina), some misses (Paige so far).

Bottom line, at some point each is going to have to choose between love/family and country in some fashion--i enjoy the ride and look forward to those points that are the whole eventual focus of the story.

Do you think there was a good enough set up that Philip and Elizabeth don't want the Center touching their kids? It seems awfully foolish for them to think that the Russians don't own their kids, as well. For such smart people, they sure seem very short sighted about a lot of stuff. If the Russians told them to have kids, that should have made it even more obvious to them. I doubt anyone watching the show saw second generation illegals coming, so I guess that's good.

The funny part is we are still using stealth developed 30+ years ago, wonder what we have going on right now.

Do the Russians have stealth technology?

ECHO is a funny name for a program someone is trying to steal and copy.

I think they have some but it isn't as good as ours, the Chinese are also working on it as well. Plus we are selling F-35's to our allies.

So is our assumption that the Russians probably weren't ever after the stealth technology in that era?

ECHO was the real name of the program too

I wouldn't really know. I would imagine some of the Soviets wanted it some probably didn't think it was real. They were probably worried more about stealth subs and were probably more interested in having their own subs that would provide first strike capability.

agree

i didnt see the jared twist, but felt that paige was being set up for something big for a while.


good question

i mean, doesn't it make sense that the russiians own everything? isnt that what the greater good thing is all about?

great finale; looking forward to next season

Just got done watching the entire series. FX has been re-running it late at night.

Think the show is good, and I'll definitely be watching next season to see how things shake out, but it wouldn't break my heart if it ended right here. I was dissatisfied with the later episodes/finale, though, because:

-I don't buy that these super-smart highly-trained KGB types can get worked by a guy like Larrick the way they did. He easily finds George, kills him. Easily finds Kate, kills her. Tracks Jared to the train station, okay that maybe I can buy, figures out where Jared went, discovers that he was picked up by "a woman," and what do you know? There he is in the woods outside the super-sekret cabin when Elizabeth shows up. I mean, come on. Whoever it was that made the James Bond comparison was spot on. He makes the FBI guys look positively Mayberry-level incompetent by comparison.

-Maybe this gets explained later as others have alluded, but if Stan basically told the Russians to go **** themselves, doesn't that land him in prison? If they're being consistent, it absolutely should. The mere fact that the Rezidentura complaining about Vlad's death landed Gaad in front of a Congressional committee, earned him a de facto (temporary) demotion and nearly cost him his career suggests that things would go much worse for Stan in this spot. (I'll reserve further judgment on this point as there are many directions they could take with this storyline.)

-No one (other than Oleg obv) looks crosseyed at the Rezidentura for fear of winding up in some gulag, but Phillip has no problem telling him to go **** himself ("Leave our daughter alone or so help me WE WILL QUIT OUR JOBS!" just stop already). Elizabeth beating the **** out of Claudia tilted me for similar reasons. We're supposed to adhere to the parallel assumptions that a) not only does Mother Russia own you, she owns your American citizen kids as well while b) offenses like giving the finger to the Rezidentura or beating the crap out of your handler are just handwaived because agents will be agents! LOL @ the idea that the Soviets just let that go. Come on, man.

-Jared killing his parents was just a dumb direction in which to go, period. Wholly unbelievable.

-Oh and thanks for coming outside to help, Woman Who Runs The Safe House In The Woods. Was she drying her hair while all of that was going on outside?

-Whatever happened to the wad of cash Oleg gave Nina? What was the point of that at all?

I guess other than all of that I liked it okay. I am somewhat surprised it was renewed tbqh.

I've already almost completely forgotten what happened at the end of the season...lol. The Americans is another show that throws a bunch of stuff at the wall, hopes you forget about all the stuff they throw up, and hope you don't notice the bad stuff that doesn't work. The more you think about this show, the worse it is, but it's at least more entertaining than it was in season 1. Amazing that this show is ending up in people's top 5s for season 2.

yeah i just binge watched this season when they put it on amazon instant a week ago but this pretty much sums it up perfectly. honestly was expecting a lot from this season after greenwald was giving it so much praise on grantland

I still prefer this over the ridiculousness of Homeland

Homeland at its best is always better than The Americans, but at its normal it's usually way worse. They're the two most similar shows out there, just in different eras/ideas. Both are essentially soap dramas with interesting backdrops, but The Americans is more interesting to me, despite it never being as good as it should be. This show should be a slam dunk of good, but it still hasn't come anywhere near its potential in the first two seasons.

I agree with this statement 100%. I think season 3 will be a make or break for me. They've laid some solid foundation that they could work with...now I really hope they can execute.