# The Americans: Season 6 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2018, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379 "2018-03-28T22:50:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 35
**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 6, 2018, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/681 "2018-06-06T07:31:20Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Being related to a criminal is not a crime. What legal justification would they have for holding her? This is how I see it too. That doesn’t mean she’ll just get a “nice thirty minute chat”. Neither will Henry. But if I were advising her, I’d tell her not to go try to start that new life in Canada. I’d give that advice even if Henry were not in the picture, but given that she wants to keep in touch with him, it goes double. (Otherwise, she is forced to become a secret agent with a false identity making frequent trips across the border to see someone the FBI may be watching…to what end?) And I’d advise her to get a lawyer and draft a statement with that lawyer stating that she is devastated and wants to spend time with her brother, yadda yadda. Maybe offer to answer some questions in writing, but not agreeing to be grilled in person. Then let them arrest her if they think they can get an indictment, but with a decent lawyer (and I bet someone would be willing to waive their high fee to work on such a juicy case and get the publicity) I’d bet on her not having to ever be jailed, handcuffed, or even questioned. And she might get a book deal. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/682 "2018-06-06T12:51:19Z")
It’s the late 1980’s. Before FB and Twitter. Or cellphones. Disappearing is the easiest thing. She already has a identity and has at least some espionage training. If she buggers off to California she is basically safe. The FBI won’t look for her. As far as they will be concerned, she went to the USSR with her parents. Maybe she can contact the center for help. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/683 "2018-06-06T15:00:53Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > And I’d advise her to get a lawyer and draft a statement with that lawyer stating that she is devastated and wants to spend time with her brother, yadda yadda. Maybe offer to answer some questions in writing, but not agreeing to be grilled in person. Then let them arrest her if they think they can get an indictment, but with a decent lawyer (and I bet someone would be willing to waive their high fee to work on such a juicy case and get the publicity) I’d bet on her not having to ever be jailed, handcuffed, or even questioned. And she might get a book deal. You don’t think she’d “be jailed, handcuffed or even questioned”? Are you kidding me? Not even questioned?? She’ll be an adult daughter of two Russians spies that have been living in Washington for over 20 years, who have killed many people (and the FBI will believe they are responsible for some of them), had a personal relationship with two FBI agents for years, and you don’t think they’ll even drive by her apartment and ask her a few questions? I’m in my fifties and I was an adult during this part of the cold war and the government (the military, FBI, CIA) were focused on the the cold war and had been for decades. To think that Paige would be completely ignored as you portrayed it above is flat out wrong. ---
**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 6, 2018, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/684 "2018-06-06T18:21:19Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > You don’t think she’d “be jailed, handcuffed or even questioned”? Are you kidding me? Not even questioned?? > > She’ll be an adult daughter of two Russians spies that have been living in Washington for over 20 years, who have killed many people (and the FBI will believe they are responsible for some of them), had a personal relationship with two FBI agents for years, and you don’t think they’ll even drive by her apartment and ask her a few questions? > > I’m in my fifties and I was an adult during this part of the cold war and the government (the military, FBI, CIA) were focused on the the cold war and had been for decades. To think that Paige would be completely ignored as you portrayed it above is flat out wrong. I agree. Even if she really was totally innocent and in the dark, she’d be able to provide them with lots of background information. ---
**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 7, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/685 "2018-06-07T03:54:28Z")
No, you guys misread my post. If she agreed to it, of course they’d question her. For hours and hours and hours. But there’s a little thing called Miranda that says she doesn’t have to answer any questions, and she has a right to have her lawyer present. (And this was well after the Miranda ruling, but well before things got muddled post-9/11.). The lawyer can hand them the written statement, perhaps offer to answer questions submitted in writing, and beyond that tell them to charge her with a crime or leave her alone. I mean, even mob bosses that “everybody knows” are guilty get to be free and avoid being questioned if they have aggressive lawyers who protect their Miranda rights. And Paige is nowhere near that level, and also looks a lot more sympathetic if they go before a judge/jury. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/686 "2018-06-07T04:06:13Z")
A couple of quibbles with the Rouses Point border check. I’ll let slide the geeky stuff, like Rouses Point being a low-platform stop. But why would US Border Patrol be going through a train _leaving_ the US? I don’t remember ever having gone through US controls when crossing into Canada. ---
**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 7, 2018, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/687 "2018-06-07T04:16:29Z")
They were searching the train for fugitives; it wasn’t a border control per se. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/688 "2018-06-07T11:46:13Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > But there’s a little thing called Miranda that says she doesn’t have to answer any questions, and she has a right to have her lawyer present. (And this was well after the Miranda ruling, but well before things got muddled post-9/11.). The lawyer can hand them the written statement, perhaps offer to answer questions submitted in writing, and beyond that tell them to charge her with a crime or leave her alone. I mean, even mob bosses that “everybody knows” are guilty get to be free and avoid being questioned if they have aggressive lawyers who protect their Miranda rights. And Paige is nowhere near that level, and also looks a lot more sympathetic if they go before a judge/jury. Miranda. It’s that sweet. There’s a little thing called espionage too. The world is a different place now than it was then. The Russians were the one enemy of the United States. Presidents lost elections by the perception of being soft on communism. We fought the Korean and Vietnam war over communism. Reagan got elected because he was a viewed as being tough on the Soviet Union and Iran. The Reagan build up? We spent hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars increasing our military to defeat the Soviet Union or bankrupt it. The Cuban missile crisis 25 years previously was against the USSR. They were our number one enemy for 30 years with no end in sight (at that time). We tend to forget how all encompassing they were as an adversary. I wasn’t a Reagan fan, but when he called them “the evil empire” he spoke for a vast majority of Americans. It nothing else she has a counterfeit passport. I’m guessing the FBI will come up with something else to have held her with in about 5 minutes. But if you think that Paige could have successfully told the Federal government to go screw itself with nary a 10 minute sit down with the FBI, I guess I won’t convince you otherwise. ---
**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 7, 2018, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/689 "2018-06-07T12:10:41Z")
Like she’s going to keep the passport?!? People have gone to prison for the rest of their lives without so much as a “10 minute sit down” with any kind of law enforcement officer. The right to remain silent, as an American citizen post-Miranda and pre-9/11, was absolute. That doesn’t mean you have the right not to be prosecuted! But I’m absolutely comfortable saying she could go without even that “10 minute sit down”. Then you have to ask yourself: if they don’t have the opportunity to grill her and trip her up, are they going to be able to successfully prosecute her? I don’t think they would try, because they don’t have any solid evidence and she’d make an appealing and sytmpathetic figure in court. And if they did try, I believe they’d lose, for the same reasons. Her defense lawyers would say the government is frustrated because they lost a couple spies who were sitting there under the nose of a counterespionage FBI agent for years, one of them becoming his best friend. “So now they want to take it out on these poor kids, who are victims of their parents’ crimes as much as anyone else is.” So again: this is not about the FBI’s interest in grilling her, which would obviously be high. It’s not about whether she can placate them, get them to believe they ought to forget about her: she can’t. It’s about her asserting her constitutional rights, and probably getting the ACLU to go to bat for her to defend those rights. And it’s about the government just not having any evidence to use against her. You guys have implicitly acknowledged that but are assuming she’ll “fold under questioning”, as the memorable line in “Goodfellas” goes. So I’m simply making the obvious point that she can’t fold under questioning if she refuses to be questioned! ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/690 "2018-06-07T12:50:19Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > So I’m simply making the obvious point that she can’t fold under questioning if she refuses to be questioned! This is beyond silly. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/691 "2018-06-07T13:09:48Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Like she’s going to keep the passport?!? > > People have gone to prison for the rest of their lives without so much as a “10 minute sit down” with any kind of law enforcement officer. The right to remain silent, as an American citizen post-Miranda and pre-9/11, was absolute. That doesn’t mean you have the right not to be prosecuted! But I’m absolutely comfortable saying she could go without even that “10 minute sit down”. > > Then you have to ask yourself: if they don’t have the opportunity to grill her and trip her up, are they going to be able to successfully prosecute her? I don’t think they would try, because they don’t have any solid evidence and she’d make an appealing and sytmpathetic figure in court. And if they did try, I believe they’d lose, for the same reasons. Her defense lawyers would say the government is frustrated because they lost a couple spies who were sitting there under the nose of a counterespionage FBI agent for years, one of them becoming his best friend. “So now they want to take it out on these poor kids, who are victims of their parents’ crimes as much as anyone else is.” > > So again: this is not about the FBI’s interest in grilling her, which would obviously be high. It’s not about whether she can placate them, get them to believe they ought to forget about her: she can’t. It’s about her asserting her constitutional rights, and probably getting the ACLU to go to bat for her to defend those rights. And it’s about the government just not having any evidence to use against her. You guys have implicitly acknowledged that but are assuming she’ll “fold under questioning”, as the memorable line in “Goodfellas” goes. So I’m simply making the obvious point that she can’t fold under questioning if she refuses to be questioned! You’re way to vested in a fictional character played by a terrible actor (Holly Taylor) that ruined… every scene… she was in…?.. with her… irritatingly pause riddled… speech patterns. But here’s another take on the last scene of her sitting in the safe-house, drinking vodka: She realized how much she had to lose while on the run with her parents. She took the first opportunity to bail on them because she realized she preferred a life (on the run with likely consequences) in America rather than go to Russia with her spy parents. She resented them for dragging her into that life and making her part of something she never would have chosen for herself. The shot was a “fuck all that” toast to all the bullshit and trying to put that behind her. She was never committed to the cause anyway, she was a wannabe with naive idolation of her mother. She was easily influenced as a teenage girl, first by a charismatic religious leader and then by her mother who assisted in the brainwashing by that manipulative fuck, Claudia. The character finally took control of her life. Unfortunately, she hadn’t thought far enough ahead because she has no resources on which to depend on for her very survival. Unlike her parents, she had no plan B. She’ll eventually want to see her brother and that’s when she’ll get caught by the FBI. What happens to her later is that she’ll tell the FBI (Stan) everything she knows because her life was ruined and she’ll want revenge and Stan is the only adult she has left in her life who always treated her well and never lied to her, and who will look after her and Henry. For all his faults, Stan isn’t going to abandon them. Also, the FBI will question pastor Tim again and he’ll spill his guts after learning that the Jennings have been exposed and done a rabbit. ---
**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 7, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/692 "2018-06-07T13:25:53Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > This is beyond silly. That you seem to think the FBI had the power, in 1987, to make people answer their questions? Yes. Yes it is. Quicksilver’s scenario is pretty silly too. ---
**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 7, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/693 "2018-06-07T14:16:20Z")
Quicksilver wrote: “You’re way to vested in a fictional character played by a terrible actor (Holly Taylor) that ruined… every scene… she was in…?.. with her… irritatingly pause riddled… speech patterns.” You know who _else_ had pause riddled…speech patterns. [https://www.memecenter.com/fun/1105335/captain-kirk](https://www.memecenter.com/fun/1105335/captain-kirk) ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/694 "2018-06-07T14:54:38Z")
You know who else does this? [https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Obama-talk-with-so-many-pauses](https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Obama-talk-with-so-many-pauses) Every line… is delivered… with… several pauses. I don’t really see that Holly Taylor is a terrible actor. But then I’ve only ever seen her play Paige. I guess we’ll know more when we see her in a different roll. ---
**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 7, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/695 "2018-06-07T15:33:36Z")
I don’t think she’s terrible either. And even if she doesn’t have great range, that won’t make her retroactively terrible. There are some pretty good actors who kind of sound the same in every role, but they have so much personality and screen presence, it makes up for it. ---
**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 7, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/696 "2018-06-07T16:09:25Z")
I don’t think the actress is bad, so much as the character. Paige was so obviously star struck by her mom, and Claudia (not by her father, though), and enjoyed the secret knowledge of being “in the know” about her parent’s secrets. She was born to be a follower. She’s easily swayed. If she’d been born to hippie parents she’s be wearing beads and burning incense. If her parents were Hare Krishnas she’d be handing out poppies at the airport and wearing saffron. If her parents had been white supremacists, she’s be carrying a copy of the Protocols and keeping a journal with swastikas on it. I’m not sure at this stage of her life if she even has her own independent character or belief system yet. And, although nothing came from it, Elizabeth was really a poor spy trainer. She never saw her daughter’s weaknesses. Paige’s eagerness would have eventually blown a mission. And E was too close. She was so proud to have her own little girl take over the family business that she was blind to the fact Paige was unsuited to it. She would have eventually got the entire family caught. ---
**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 7, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/697 "2018-06-07T16:37:59Z")
Just goes to show that the whole “2nd gen illegals” program was a bad idea. The simple fact is that there’s no right age to tell your kid(s) that you’re a spy for a hostile power. Tell 'em too soon and they can’t keep the secret (as Paige didn’t). Tell 'em too late and they’re too Americanized to want to follow you. And since the ideal moment would vary from kid to kid… ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/698 "2018-06-07T19:42:04Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Quicksilver’s scenario is pretty silly too. ORLY? > [@E-DUB](#): > > You know who _else_ had pause riddled…speech patterns. > [https://www.memecenter.com/fun/1105335/captain-kirk](https://www.memecenter.com/fun/1105335/captain-kirk) He’s fucking annoying too, and a barely tolerable actor. Without exceptions I can think of, his (over)acting is a punchline. > [@Orwell](#): > > You know who else does this? > > [https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Obama-talk-with-so-many-pauses](https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Obama-talk-with-so-many-pauses) > > Every line… is delivered… with… several pauses. Sure but it’s what’s said in the spaces between the pauses that matters. Paige’s character was intentionally written to be earnest but credulous. She wasn’t supposed to be a clever and independent thinker. She was an impressionable follower, easily influenced and brainwashed. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I don’t think she’s terrible either. And even if she doesn’t have great range, that won’t make her retroactively terrible. There are some pretty good actors who kind of sound the same in every role, but they have so much personality and screen presence, it makes up for it. She doesn’t have a large acting repertoire. Perhaps her lack of range is why. I’m not interested in seeing anything else she’s done. I kind of doubt I’m missing much. I still think your russophillia has you far too vested in the character to be an effective critic. ---
**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 8, 2018, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/699 "2018-06-08T02:04:27Z")
Thanks ever so much for the psychoanalysis, but it would make a lot more sense if we were talking about Oleg or at least Elizabeth. FWIW I have no “philia” for Russia as presently constituted (nor for the past couple decades). > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > If she’d been born to hippie parents she’s be wearing beads and burning incense. If her parents were Hare Krishnas she’d be handing out poppies at the airport and wearing saffron. If her parents had been white supremacists, she’s be carrying a copy of the Protocols and keeping a journal with swastikas on it. Maybe, but OTOH there’s that confrontation with Philip over the Bible. ---
**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:** [July 21, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379/700 "2018-07-21T04:05:32Z")
1987! How perfect is this?!? We need an epilogue, one more brief scene: “Mr. Trump, welcome to Moscow.” > **[What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/07/trump-putin-russia-collusion.html)** > > A plausible theory of mind-boggling collusion. > [@](#): > > It is often said that Donald Trump has had the same nationalistic, zero-sum worldview forever. But that isn’t exactly true. Yes, his racism and mendacity have been evident since his youth, but those who have traced the evolution of his hypernationalism all settle on one year in particular: 1987. Trump “came onto the political stage in 1987 with a full-page ad in the New York Times attacking the Japanese for relying on the United States to defend it militarily,” reported Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The president has believed for 30 years that these alliance commitments are a drain on our finite national treasure,” a White House official told the Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin. Tom Wright, another scholar who has delved into Trump’s history, reached the same conclusion. “1987 is Trump’s breakout year. There are only a couple of examples of him commenting on world politics before then.” > > What changed that year? One possible explanation is that Trump published The Art of the Deal, which sped up his transformation from an aggressive, publicity-seeking New York developer to a national symbol of capitalism. But the timing for this account does not line up perfectly — the book came out on November 1, and Trump had begun opining loudly on trade and international politics two months earlier. The other important event from that year is that Trump visited Moscow.[…] > > In 1986, Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin met Trump in New York, flattered him with praise for his building exploits, and invited him to discuss a building in Moscow. Trump visited Moscow in July 1987. He stayed at the National Hotel, in the Lenin Suite, which certainly would have been bugged. There is not much else in the public record to describe his visit, except Trump’s own recollection in The Art of the Deal that Soviet officials were eager for him to build a hotel there. (It never happened.) > > Trump returned from Moscow fired up with political ambition. He began the first of a long series of presidential flirtations, which included a flashy trip to New Hampshire. Two months after his Moscow visit, Trump spent almost $100,000 on a series of full-page newspaper ads that published a political manifesto. “An open letter from Donald J. Trump on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves,” as Trump labeled it, launched angry populist charges against the allies that benefited from the umbrella of American military protection. “Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?” > > Trump’s letter avoided the question of whom the U.S. was protecting those countries from. The primary answer, of course, was the Soviet Union. After World War II, the U.S. had created a liberal international order and underwritten its safety by maintaining the world’s strongest military. A central goal of Soviet, and later Russian, foreign policy was to split the U.S. from its allies. > > The safest assumption is that it’s entirely coincidental that Trump launched a national campaign, with himself as spokesman, built around themes that dovetailed closely with Soviet foreign-policy goals shortly after his Moscow stay. Indeed, it seems slightly insane to contemplate the possibility that a secret relationship between Trump and Russia dates back this far. But it can’t be dismissed completely. How do you even think about the small but real chance — 10 percent? 20 percent? — that the president of the United States has been covertly influenced or personally compromised by a hostile foreign power for decades? Anyone catch what time of year it was at the end of the series? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-americans-season-6/811379.md?page=34)