There is such a thing as being too realistic.
AIDS is another possibility. Arguably Philip & Elizabeth are both sex workers of a sort, and a lot of it was likely unprotected. Granted avoidance of VD was probably a big part of their training, but that in the Soviet Union during the early '60s.
Good point; the smoking could be a red herring, with AIDS the real health issue.
The scenes with the dying artist-woman are just too pointed not to be there to provide a reason for Elizabeth to realize how awful her last days might turn out to be (assuming she does get a terminal diagnosis). She’ll be motivated to choose a different end.
Country Line Dancing is lamer than I remembered if that’s even possible.
So much for Paige’s virtue. She’s going rogue. I suspect that she will be sharing things with Claudia that she keeps from Elizabeth.
Why can’t Philip use his skillz to break in somewhere and steal a bunch of cash? And will he start banging Kimmie now that she is of age in order to keep her home for Thanksgiving?
I like those ideas. And banging Kimmie would just be enjoyable in its own right.
On the dark warehouse scene: listen to the latest official podcast, at least the first ten minutes. The showrunners basically admit to trolling people with that scene, and expressed disappointment that they didn’t get more of a reaction.
Seems a bit weird that Philip would tell Henry so early in the school year that he might not be going back the next year.
Elizabeth murders- 6
Henry scenes- 4.
I don’t know why I’m keeping count, it just seems funny to me.
I’m thinking the fact that Elizabeth seems to be psychologically dying without Philip is her terminal diagnosis as it were. Knowing Elizabeth, I’m not encouraged by how she processes the “I should have spent less time on work and more with my husband” speech.
This makes a lot of sense to me.
Funny - my wife and I both commented at the end that they sure didn’t rocketing through a lot of plot in that ep. Just more confirmation that I’m not enjoying this on anywhere the same level as you folk.
Yeah, that break-in scene was way too dark to do anything other than convey a sense of how confusing/frustrating it would actually have been. But as it went on and on, caused me to check out. E shooting out the lights from the hip while walking, and then instant single killshots in the pitch black strained my credulity.
Paige is gonna fuck up somehow majorly, and implicate the others.
Wondering why the ep was titled “Mr and Mrs Teacup”, when the defectors weren’t shown and were only mentioned in one scene? I guess I don’t understand how important they are to ongoing plotlines.
What illness do you think the dying lady has?
Annoying as shit, IMO. Ten minutes of dark screen is not why I watch TV, and if it was designed to be tense and atmospheric, it completely missed the mark.
Very intentional. I listed to The Americans podcast and the showrunners specifically said they wanted to push the boundaries of just how dark a scene could be.
And it was a fail, IMO. I eventually just quit looking at the screen; there was no point. Some people were apparently shot, but that’s all I got.
It was the same thing with the “digging the hole” scene at the beginning of last season: they intentionally made it an absurdly-long scene to emphasize how tough and tedious digging a 10x10x6 foot hole is, but it was also a fail (IMO), because it was simply bad television.
(sorry - I got lost in paging and didn’t realize the darkness issue was already addressed)
I loved the hole digging scene. This one, meh.
Agreed
What’s the body count up to now? We have dead sailor who was hitting on Paige, several dead security guards, one dead warehouse supervisor(?) and one dead General. Did I miss any?
I initially kind of thought Paige would be upset after sailor bit the dust but no signs of concern or remorse so far.
Paige doesn’t know about the sailor’s death.
Although you’d think it would at least potentially make the news. And the dead guards at the warehouse CERTAINLY should. This definitely seems like something that should be addressed.
You’d think when a security guard at the US Naval Observatory where the vice president lives is found dead on the sidewalk gushing blood from his neck it would make the news.
eta ack, too slow
Yes, good catch–that speech was as pointed as is the illness. Parallels galore.
I’d guess some type of cancer of the gastro-intestinal system, based on the vomiting, but IANAD.
As for the Teacups–parallels, again, I think. The husband is devoted to the wife but the wife may be more devoted to something else (to the idea of freedom and other men in her case, versus to the USSR in Elizabeth’s case). As for their plot function, some are guessing that Elizabeth might be compromised (identified, maybe) in the process of trying to fulfill the instructions Claudia gave her, to punish the Teacups for defecting. Or supposedly defecting.
Her vomit looked like coffee grounds, which can be a symptom of cancer of the esophagus, pancreas, or stomach among other things.
Good point about Claudia; it didn’t occur to me that Paige may be seeing her behind Elizabeth’s back. I just assumed Paige either decided to sleep with him because she liked him or/and because wanted to pursue a possible source on her own. It’s even possible Claudia encouraged her. Imagine Elizabeth’s reaction to that. :eek:
Great episode. I’ve long resisted the easy narrative of “Philip good, Elizabeth bad”, but it’s hard to escape after this one.
I’m with you. I’m a little disappointed about how blatantly the writers are setting up her presumed demise or incarceration-under-torture or whatever they’re going for. ‘The monster is defeated, huzzah!’ seems to be what they’re aiming at, audience reaction-wise.
They’re being a bit heavy-handed with Philip’s saintliness, too–though I did like the treatment of the scene of him schooling Paige to be less over-confident and cocky. That was believable.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.