I think the KGB is going to frame the defector as KGB agent so they can get her back and then plant Nina as a mole in Stan’s life. They get a defector back and they get Nina spying on Stan.
I also like this but I’m also wondering if it leaves a couple of storylines fairly redundant, like the Belgian chick and Oleg’s dad…
I dunno, still like the idea of TeamNina joining hands across the ideological divide to bring our gal back to the high heeels she, we, so richly deserve.
SlackerInc wrote: “Or do you think they would play along and want her back just to punish her? But that’s just trading one traitor for another.”
Yes, but a high profile traitor for a relative nobody.
Stan has one friend and confidant in the world: Phillip. The Soviets don’t need two spies on Beeman, he isn’t the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Stan will never fully trust Nina (she will kill him for Vlad) and he already trusts Phillip.
Does Paige’s turn to Christianity put an end to any practical attempt to recruit her as a Second Generation Illegal? Or is she still impressionable enough?
Her successful recruitment into the KGB would be terrific. This series or its spinoffs could go on forever. Maybe Elizabeth will meet the violent death she really deserves. But if her parents are never caught or exposed a grown up Paige could emerge as the central character in her own action drama, a morally ambiguous anti-heroine like Kevin Costner’s role in No Way Out.
Maybe Paige spends a summer before college travelling “abroad” (actually training in Soviet Union). Maybe she is mentored by KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin. Maybe she gets accepted to one of America’s military academies! As an intelligence officer Lieutenant Jennings is deployed to the Persian Gulf during the 1991 war, where she collects critical information on weapons etc. to send back to Moscow.
Paige would also have to deal with the August 1991 KGB Coup, the fall of the Soviet Union, the breakup of the KGB, and perhaps a decision of whether to work for the Russian successor state or start a freelance career as a mercenary agent.
All the while she is running circles around Agent Gaad and his Keystone Kops (assuming Gaad is not also a traitor).
Elizabeth had interpreted Paige’s turn towards Christianity as a sign that she wanted to believe in something and felt that it meant she was more recruitable.
What could be interesting is if the show lasts long enough for the happy couple to witness the collapse of the Soviet Union, not only would Elizabeth be distraught of the failure of her ideology, but they’d also be worried about being exposed to the FBI.
I do sometimes think the assumption of religion being the draw for Paige should be treated with a little caution.
She went on that first trip and found a new ‘family’ at a time she was really very frustrated with her parents obfuscation - basically, she knew they were lying. You remember she met a girl on the coach, her parents didn’t get her, a group of kids singing in a hall, etc.
That’s not to say Mr/s Pastor are some kind of occasional surrogate parents just that religion per se might not be the big draw here.
This show is tanking in the ratings. It’s really a shame, and it’s hard to imagine FX putting out a fourth season.
Part of the problem is the availability. If the first two seasons were on Netflix, it might be a different story. Here’s hoping if FX gives up, Netflix takes on new production.
If it does end I just hope they have enough notice to put together a decent finale.
It’s not surprising this show has dropped so precipitously among the advertiser-treasured 18-49 demographic…it’s because it’s the 18-49 demo.
I have no way of knowing the average age of the posters here, but it seems logical that a show that takes place almost two decades before a present-day 18 year old was born wouldn’t draw much interest to the younger segment of the population.
I can tell you that my personal interest in this show can be directly attributed to the fact that I was a teenager at the time of this show’s setting. The ratings bear out I’m not the only one.
The ratings also took a nosedive after the beginning of season three, the same time the storyline about Paige began its prominence. I wonder if that is more than a coincidence, although given the fickle nature of TV viewers, it’s impossible to know for sure.
The Americans has a smaller audience of devoted comrades who may come to be recognized as a “cult” viewership in the coming years.
Are you suggesting that the Paige drama is not that interesting? Personally I am growing tired of the Stan-Oleg-Nina triangle.
If written and acted well enough the question of whether she joins the “family business” in spite of any desire to live a normal American life could make Paige as intriguing a character as Michael Corleone.
If Holly Taylor can pull that off she deserves en Emmy.
Indeed. After all, it seems to me that if you take all the dialogue ever spoken in the thirty-six episodes of this show we have seen so far, Holly Taylor has spoken less than one tenth of one percent of that dialog. In other words, it would be almost impossible to correctly predict what the odds would be of her becoming successful as an adult TV actor.
But, if you were to take a guess, what would you say the odds are that she has the talent needed to become a successful TV actor as an adult? I have no idea. But do you think she has enough talent to pull her weight as a lead actor and carry the load by herself? That is a pretty tough load to carry. And, if she doesn’t have what it takes, do you think the showrunner can pull of a switch by having Paige die in an auto accident and a long lost Russian cousin will show up and take her place?
It’s just my guess and it’s very hard to tell. But given her age (she started acting on this show at the age of 15) and the amount of acting experience she has had on this show, I would guess that even for a professional talent agent, it would be close to impossible to decide just how good an actor she will be as she ages in a few years.
Given that hardly any children actors become adept at this craft as they become older, I fear the odds are stacked mighty high against her. It’s kind of like a high school boy football player’s dream of becoming a pro. Most all of them want to do that. But how realistic is that? Only one boy in 5,000 can become a pro. That is just how many slots there are on the 32 pro NFL teams with 53 players on each roster.
I love this show and feel it is one of the best to ever be seen on TV, but I sure would hate to stake its future on the proposition that **any ** single child actor will develop enough talent to become a successful professional actor as an adult.
Take a look at her acting history. Before joining this show, it is highly understandable, but she has almost zero previous history.
To play devil’s advocate here, you could “flash forward” five years or so and have a different actress take the part.
I love this show, but, speaking for myself, the fact that I have to watch every show twice plus read this thread to figure out what’s going on helps me understand why it could turn many off. And I’m in the middle of that prized 18-49 demographic FWIW.
Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Kurt Russell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Reese Witherspoon …
We cannot know whether or not Holly Taylor is ready to carry the story forward in The Americans - The Next Generation. What is clear is that there is only so much suspense in having Elizabeth and Philip chased around by Agent Gaad and his Keystone Kops. Eventually E will meet some fiery, gnarly death. She may want to die for the Motherland. Maybe P will escape E’s fate and run off to Portland with Martha and open a used book store.
Hope for the continuation of this story beyond this year or next might depend on Paige emerging as a kind of Nikita-working-for-the-other-side.
When Martha decides to introduce her coworkers, especially Stan, to her husband, it is all over for Phillip. And Martha will do that.
I think Martha will get stuffed into a suitcase before that happens.
Yep, she’ll discover she’s more flexible than she never knew.
Don’t forget that Martha did buy a gun after the killings of that other agent couple. I’m betting that it will be used on her before the season is out.
This would be in keeping with stats that say a gun in the home is more likely to shoot the owner rather than an intruder.
That would be some dinner party; Martha and Clarke and Stan and Nina.
Maybe Oleg could bring along the double agent. Elizabeth needs a date?