# The Americans Season 4 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496 "2016-01-28T15:34:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/481 "2016-06-02T23:31:59Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > p.s. did I read that right; mom and dad are a little worried puritan Paige is angling towards offering sexual favours for info … If Paige is this upset over finding out her parents kill people (often enough that her mother has lost count & doesn’t even get upset) imagine how she’ll react when she finds out about all the sex stuff. Especially her father screwing a girl her own age. > [@hajario](#): > > My guess was that Henry would find something hidden when he went into the garage to find the antenna box. That’s what I thought too. I hope we get some kind of payoff to his subplot next week (& it’s not some ridiculous ass pull like he’s been screwing Stan or Stan Jr). > [@E-DUB](#): > > …I think that Tatiana was a little too conveniently gabby with Oleg about the bio-weapons. In the compartmentalized need-to-know world of espionage, that kind of stuff you don’t even tell the person you’re sleeping with. > > Great Elizabeth moment: Did you see her face when Paige and Stan’s son were having their conversation? At the same time conveying bemusement (Aww, look at Paige playing spy), maternal pride, and just a hint of “what have we gotten our daughter into” horror. > > As the noose tightens around William, can’t wait for the finale. I wonder if Tatiana’s promotion still goes through after next week. Based on the preview he exposes himself to the Lassa virus when the FBI arrests him. Obviously it’s not the same thing as wiping out the Eastern Seaboard, but it’s still pretty bad even if he doesn’t talk. I also liked that moment when the Jennings realized what Paige is doing and how squicked out they were at the implications. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/482 "2016-06-03T07:17:48Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > If Paige is this upset over finding out her parents kill people (often enough that her mother has lost count & doesn’t even get upset) imagine how she’ll react when she finds out about all the sex stuff. Especially her father screwing a girl her own age. No he isn’t. Which is pretty much the point. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/483 "2016-06-03T07:37:14Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > That combined with the emotional overload - (“I just cheated on my wife.” “I’ve accidentally gotten someone pregnant” “She’s dead - because of me” “I’ve killed their daughter/sister”) Don wasn’t thinking straight. > > I don’t get that vibe from him at all. Also, he was mostly raised by his mother (Stan was undercover for a lot of his childhood). During that scene, I was much more concerned with what Henry might find in the garage, especially if he was really hunting for all the right equipment. I do remember pleading with my parents to hook the computer up to the good TV (the bigger, non-black-and-white one) and how it was not plug-and-play at all. Yeah, I’m with you. Although that’s pretty careless if they left anything incriminating somewhere else besides their secret compartment. > [@alphaboi867](#): > > If Paige is this upset over finding out her parents kill people (often enough that her mother has lost count & doesn’t even get upset) imagine how she’ll react when she finds out about all the sex stuff. Especially her father screwing a girl her own age. I guess you missed it when Philip figured out a way (stealing the Christianity conversion idea from Paige) to keep Kimmy as a buddy to smoke up with, but not to have sex with. ETA: I have a prediction. When they shadow William, they are going to catch him using the access code Philip gave him. That code is going to be traced back to Don specifically, and Don is going to end up going to prison. So Elizabeth (“Patty”) will have ultimately completely destroyed that family’s life, without achieving anything except another coup for Stan. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/484 "2016-06-03T10:27:24Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > ETA: I have a prediction. When they shadow William, they are going to catch him using the access code Philip gave him. That code is going to be traced back to Don specifically, and Don is going to end up going to prison. So Elizabeth (“Patty”) will have ultimately completely destroyed that family’s life, without achieving anything except another coup for Stan. Nice idea. I do think there may be a catalyst that finally causes E reconsider her unquestioning loyalty. Amusing she didn’t know how many people she’s killed when Paige asked her. Also suburban mom and daughter watching daytime tv together hours after mom slices someone’s jugular. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/485 "2016-06-03T17:04:23Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I agree. Why wouldn’t he just go outside with them? > > Anyway, maybe the computer stuff bore some fruit since Phillip gave William the code. sometimes oblivious I didn’t catch how they finally got the code. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/486 "2016-06-03T17:25:28Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > sometimes oblivious I didn’t catch how they finally got the code. I don’t think they said. If he actually had the passcode written down in the discs, they they really did target the right guy. They warn us all the time here about not writing your passwords down (especially right next to your computer!), but since they still warn us, that must mean there are people that still do it (and have their password BE “password”!). It bugs me that the whole plan seemed to be getting Don to leave Gabriel and cohort in the office alone. What would they have done if he hadn’t? Did they have a plan B? Straight up blackmail (give us the code or we tell your wife)? I also kind of chafe at the FBI pulling full surveillance on the tape drop. Of course, if they didn’t, they’d arrest Phillip and the show would take a different, drastic turn, so they can’t, but maybe they shouldn’t write the show so people are forced to do stupid things. I mean, how do they even know Oleg’s information was legit? it could be part of a long con game where there IS no one inside, and the goal is to get everyone spending energy looking for a non-existent mole. Or, it could be a feint - the info is intended to have the FBI find a fake mole so the real one is never found. They need to hire real paranoid thinkers for counterintelligence, not accountants! ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/487 "2016-06-03T17:54:08Z")
We know that they didn’t have any other way to get the codes other than Don. Gabriel tried so that Elizabeth didn’t have to go through with the plan. We know that they didn’t find anything written down as far as the code goes. They said that they hoped that they would find something on the discs. It pretty much had to have been something on the computer dump. I agree that it was a huge leap of faith to think that they would (1) be let into Don’s office and (2) be left there alone. Poor William. He’s just like the detective who gets shot on his last day on the job. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/488 "2016-06-03T19:38:44Z")
It’s 1983/4 folks. It’s not post 911. Most people didn’t know what a PC looked like. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/489 "2016-06-03T21:33:57Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I think that Tatiana was a little too conveniently gabby with Oleg about the bio-weapons. In the compartmentalized need-to-know world of espionage, that kind of stuff you don’t even tell the person you’re sleeping with. I don’t think there was anything “convenient” about it at all. I have been half-convinced that Tatiana has been playing Oleg for a while and she is certainly up to something with him. I’m of two minds of this. I think, she either: a) Is setting him up on a sting operation; slipping him some info to see what he does with it - perhaps even on orders from Arkady or shadowy Kremlin people (in which case, the Rezidentura will certainly know he’s the one who put Stan and the Feds to William’s trail.) b) Tatiana has grown to genuinely like Oleg and is dropping that line as a warning to him - “Get the hell out of town because, based on information I know but can’t actually tell you, it could get very, very bad over here soon enough.” I’m still leaning towards Tatiana being up to something duplicitous, therefore I am suspecting she is setting him up. But I could buy that she was initially supposed to set him up, but decided she liked him and is trying to help him. Either way though, I did not think she was being off-hand or glib at all - that was a very deliberate “slip”. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/490 "2016-06-03T21:44:27Z")
I’d lean to Tatiana being a smart, ambitious poor girl who sees a very, very well-connected opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/491 "2016-06-03T21:47:04Z")
I think Tatiana is just what she appears to be. She spent enough time with Oleg (who, after all, is also involved with highly secretive stuff), became both personally and professionally close to him, and trusted him with the information. ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/492 "2016-06-05T02:40:43Z")
Does anyone have any ideas about why William was being tailed before this? When the FBI was told there was someone at one of the labs, they searched whole personnel lists rather than zero in on the one they had been following all along, seeming surprised that his identity was fake. They couldn’t have been tailing everyone in the labs, and William didn’t even have the highest clearance. I’d think they would have been watching Don or someone like him rather than an apparent American lower level worker. What made William suspicious to them all along? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/493 "2016-06-05T07:25:25Z")
> [@MsJinx](#): > > Does anyone have any ideas about why William was being tailed before this? When the FBI was told there was someone at one of the labs, they searched whole personnel lists rather than zero in on the one they had been following all along, seeming surprised that his identity was fake. They couldn’t have been tailing everyone in the labs, and William didn’t even have the highest clearance. I’d think they would have been watching Don or someone like him rather than an apparent American lower level worker. What made William suspicious to them all along? They were tailing a bunch of employees hoping to find something. No one was being failed full time. When they got their hit on him, they ordered all teams to follow him now. No one else is being tailed. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/494 "2016-06-05T14:59:36Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I think Tatiana is just what she appears to be. She spent enough time with Oleg (who, after all, is also involved with highly secretive stuff), became both personally and professionally close to him, and trusted him with the information. And at no point did she just say “oh, hey, in case you’re interested, we have a man inside an American biological weapons place”. Rather she let little snippets of information fall at various times, which he put together. Occam’s razor says that she was just being slightly careless around someone who (a) was her friend and lover, and (b) was the son of a politburo member, and thus clearly trustworthy. ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/495 "2016-06-05T15:14:17Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They were tailing a bunch of employees hoping to find something. No one was being failed full time. When they got their hit on him, they ordered all teams to follow him now. No one else is being tailed. They tailed him for long enough to be obvious to Gabriel and The Center, which created few opportunities for P&E to contact him, but had never checked his history, or they would have found that his identity was fake a long time ago. That’s what I don’t get. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/496 "2016-06-05T18:48:46Z")
> [@MsJinx](#): > > They tailed him for long enough to be obvious to Gabriel and The Center, which created few opportunities for P&E to contact him, but had never checked his history, or they would have found that his identity was fake a long time ago. That’s what I don’t get. Yeah, that’s a weakness in the plot. Over a decade before the events of this show, Frederick Forsyth’s _The Day of the Jackal_ had made the device (using the biographical information of someone who died as an infant or young child to obtain ID) familiar. It’s not believable that people working at a site as sensitive as William’s workplace would not have had their backgrounds checked thoroughly enough to turn up such anomalies. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/497 "2016-06-05T19:04:41Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Yeah, that’s a weakness in the plot. Over a decade before the events of this show, Frederick Forsyth’s _The Day of the Jackal_ had made the device (using the biographical information of someone who died as an infant or young child to obtain ID) familiar. It’s not believable that people working at a site as sensitive as William’s workplace would not have had their backgrounds checked thoroughly enough to turn up such anomalies. Maybe so, but hadn’t William been at the lab for at least a decade or two? They keep mentioning how long he has worked there. I think it’s believable that he cleared security checks and then remained there. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/498 "2016-06-05T19:13:23Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > Maybe so, but hadn’t William been at the lab for at least a decade or two? They keep mentioning how long he has worked there. I think it’s believable that he cleared security checks and then remained there. I suppose that’s at least semi-plausible. (Certainly in the ranks of “plot weaknesses” this one isn’t anywhere near as egregious as those we encounter in other shows.) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/499 "2016-06-05T19:30:04Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I suppose that’s at least semi-plausible. (Certainly in the ranks of “plot weaknesses” this one isn’t anywhere near as egregious as those we encounter in other shows.) You could just write it off to sloppiness. Remember, he doesn’t work for the Government. He works for a company contracted by the Government. They could have cut those corners to save money. Then again, the FBI should certainly have done a basic sanity check on the people important enough to get tails assigned to them. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496/500 "2016-06-05T19:34:31Z")
“Sanity checks” for persons working in germ warfare might weed out people that they need to have. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-4/744496.md?page=26)