The Americans is back, Season 6

[RingtheBells]

Havent watched it yet but just noticed that my Sky box had recorded it last night on ITV 4 at 10 o'clock, I'm sure it was on ITV encore last season. Looking forward to this and it's the last season so hope the end is good.

Couldn't see a thread and don't want anyone to miss it .

Oh my. That was perfect. What amazing writing and acting.

Strangely elegiac ?

Does beg the question (given that the show has some factual basis) did anyone ever make it back that way IRL ?

Thanks hadnt realised!!

Stan! Staaaaan! Loved that. And the music. Loved the music. What was the classical piece towards the end? Just wonderful. I'll miss it.

Beautifully done final episode. Oleg was the hero of the whole series IMHO. Don't want to say any more in case of spoilers!

Can't be a spoiler now it's aired. What are your thoughts on Oleg?

Well Scooby I think he was the best one of them. He risked his life to tell Stan about the bioweapons (in Season 5?? Can't remember now) and yet he's ended up in prison, with his wife and child left in Russia.

Also the bit where Stan walked back into the lookout with the two coffees as though nothing had happened really choked me up. I like Stan.

And what about Renée's last lingering look across at the Jennings house? That was brilliant, so unreadable - was she KGB or not?

And (sorry, opened the floodgates now!) what will happen to Elizabeth anyway - I mean, she killed a KGB officer (Tatiana)? They need to do a wrap up episode!

I wonder if they will do something later on like they did with Prison Break, it would be good if it centred on Stan. There were loads of bits not completely tied up like what is going to happen with Paige and of course Renee. I liked it that there was not much dialogue and it was definitely much better than an all guns blazing finale which I thought it would be.

I felt really frustrated that we didn't find the truth out about Renee - poor Stan what will he do? Phillip left Stan with the seeds of doubt about Renee, a son to look after and a big lie to his employers to keep.

WTF is Paige planning to do? Look after Henry and be grilled by the FBI? She'd cave in 5 minutes and drop Stan (and Fr. Tim) in the crap. Even living under an assumed identity could she survive? and with the spy network disabled how would she get fake ID etc? She'd want to see Henry and he'd be put at risk.

I have hope for Oleg. E&P will be able to deliver the dead drop information direct and save Gorbachev. So Oleg might get release in a prisoner exchange.

Will Philip meet Martha and his son who came to find him?

I liked Elizabeth's dream on the train with her in bed smoking with Gregory and Paige and Henry in the "pain" painting.

What did you guys think of the last episode?

Such an amazing finale, cleverly done so our sympathies are with everyone- no one comes out of this undamaged.

I thought it particularly poignant that Elizabeth’s dream featured Gregory. He really was the love of her life.

And Phillips realisations about his “shitty life” which was for what exactly?

And Stan, totally conflicted by his love for Phillip, his duty, and no doubt his realisation that if he dobbed then in his previous dealings with Oleg would be revealed. He was saved by the priest identifying P&E, but left with doubts about the woman he loves. Just heartbreaking to see his life crumble around him. Maybe his redemption will be with the son?

I will really miss this proper grown up TV

Ha you're right Kikashi, Paige has bodged every mission so far, so she will undoubtedly end up blabbing about Stan.

However (and this may be an unpopular view!) Stan will have brought it on himself - I can see what the 'theory' is behind his letting them go, (friendship, moral ambiguity etc etc) but I wanted P and E to be brought to justice for all those murders.!

I took it that Arkady was now in control (although in that case why did he have to do all the driving - wouldn't he have got a driver?), and the anti Gorbachev plot had been foiled - in which case Oleg will be out of prison and back in the USSR within a matter of months.

Oh and I knew Paige wouldn’t go. What’s in it for her in Russia? She is born and bred American. I always found her apparently easy acceptance of her parents “job” and training herself was slightly implausible

kikashi I hope you're right about Oleg! Philip was so manipulative in that negotiation with Stan, I'm sure some of it was sincere but he made Stan believe he had no alternative.

The other thing was... the Cold War is almost over - although none of the characters would have known that of course - so maybe there would be a way for the Jennings to be reunited somehow because Paige and Henry could go to Russia... if they wanted to that is.

Cross posted Mrs S - think I may be an outlier but I didn't end up sympathising with Elizabeth, Philip or Stan! E and P because they are brutal killers, often of 'innocent bystanders', and Stan because he let them go. But I realise this is a simplistic view... I hadn't thought about Stan's self-interest about not having his Oleg connections revealed (though I can't quite remember what Stan did wrong!).

In fact doesn't that give Oleg another bargaining chip to get home? FBI is not going to want to have that aired at a trial!

That was clever to guess about Paige Mrs S, I was really surprised when that happened. Paige has been such a dupe (did she really believe they didn't kill people?) that I'd been assuming she'd go along tamely.

I think her best bet may be to turn herself in and do a deal - her information may be fairly useless now that Claudia has fled, but she must still have some useful snippets. Get a lawyer quickly Paige!

The Massachusetts-based family on which this show was very loosely based was captured after a long covert FBI operation, following info from a defector. The two children denied all knowledge of their parents' past, but the Wall Street Journal alleged that the older one (15 years old at the time of arrest) had been told and was being trained up. He still denies this.

I didn't quite understand how the FBI (as opposed to Stan) finally got onto them? If it was as easy as getting Father Viktor to name Father Andrei, and then getting Father Andrei to spill the beans, why didn't the FBI just do that earlier? Was there some 'breakthrough' that I missed that led the FBI to the church's door?

Very interesting Super.

PrivateParkin you are right. Philip was very manipulative. He knew Elizabeth had killed the Russians in the FBI safe house but said it wasn't him (which was true - but it was Elizabeth). I thought Stan let them go in order to let them get "the dead drop" information through (as he told Oleg he couldn't do it himself).

The FBI did know that Stan had Oleg as a contact (bio weapons). The CIA used the tape Stan made of their conversation to try to blackmail Oleg into becoming a source in Moscow last season . That was why Oleg didn't trust Stan anymore - I think.
Surely Stan would be under quite a lot of scrutiny himself now about his relationship with E&P and what they might have heard at his house. I guess his career will be over and it leaves him looking like a chump.

What did Philip mean about how if Stan had stayed with him at Est he would know what to do next? (in the garage when Stan confronted them)

The Stan / Oleg thing originated in their mutual
Love for Nina, the girl in the Residentura who started out as an FBI Mole with Stan as her handler. Stan started handling her in other more interesting ways but she fell
In love with Oleg. When she was carted back home/prison Stan and Oleg joined forces to try to get her released (I think). It was that interaction between S and O that was off piste for Stan

The FBI had discovered an “illegal” in Chicago (how unexplained) but they had been following him for a while working out the methods he used. They then tried to trace people in DC using the same methods as they already knew there were illegals in DC hence searching garages etc. I think Stan just knew in his gut that something wasn’t quite right with P&E and put 2 and 2 together.

Yes MrsSnitch - I forgot about the Stan/Oleg/Nina triangle. That makes sense re Stan still having to keep that quiet. Although handing over 2 KGB agents might have made up for it I suppose.

Loving all the analysis on here! I never looked at this thread properly before as I was so far behind on episodes that I thought I might come across spoilers. Also I did lose a bit of enthusiasm this series, in the episode when Elizabeth killed the two Russians when their son was in the house... I had to walk out of the room during that episode. But now that I'm totally caught up (fast forwarding the v gruesome bits) it's great to read everyone's views on here. Such a great, underrated series.

privateparkin that incident was a real turning point though. Phillips utter disgust when he heard about it from Stan led to him warning Kimmy about the plot to abduct her to get info out of her father. And I think it was the straw that broke the camels back for Elizabeth which led to her confrontation with Claudia, killing the KGB woman and wanting to help reveal the plot against Gorbachev. She realised that Phillip had been right that it was all for nowt

Does anyone remember why Stan didn't just put Nina into witness protection when she was about to be sent back to Russia - did she have to 'achieve' some outcome in order for the FBI to agree to it? And was there talk of them running away together - something to do with a letter under railway arches? Not sure if my memory is up to this reminiscing!
I'm not sure that Stan let them to go to get the message through - he twice said he didn't really care about the anti Gorbachev plot, but maybe Philip convinced him that it mattered. How did E and P get in touch with Arkady I wonder - they must have had some way of contacting him before they got back to Russia, to arrange the pick up!

I didn't end up sympathising with Elizabeth, Philip or Stan! E and P because they are brutal killers, often of 'innocent bystanders', and Stan because he let them go

Remember Stan shot an agent - effectively executed him - in cold blood previously.

That's right DG - the young guy (who was eating a burger at the time IIRC?!)