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Original Message
"The Americans finale"
Posted by AyaK on 05-17-18 at 01:39 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-17-18 AT 01:40 AM (EST)

I wanted to post this somewhere, and the third-from-last episode just ran tonight without knocking out my theory as to how the FX TV show "The Americans" will end. It's still just a theory, and I've been waiting for it to be proven wrong, but it hasn't happened yet. So here goes (and I know how few people watch this show, but here goes anyway):

The show has done a lot of looping back to season 1. We had Stan re-create his search of the Jennings' garage in "Harvest". We had a Gregory mention with Curtis in "The Summit". But what if the show wants to recreate the really iconic moment from the pilot for the finale?

In the pilot, Philip, Elizabeth, and Rob are trying to kidnap the Soviet defector Timoshev. Before Philip and Elizabeth capture him, he stabs Rob. They don't want Rob to die, but they can't actually take him to a hospital because they'll get captured, so they drive to a hospital and dump him on the front lawn, then take off. They end up killing Timoshev when it turns out he'd raped Elizabeth while she was in training, but their objective is not to get caught. When Joel Fields came in to write an episode, he based it around Rob's death (the episode "Gregory").

So here we are two episodes from the end, with a bunch of questions unanswered, but one important one: who's going to die? But what if no one has to die, the way Rob did, if someone is willing to take that person all the way into the hospital at the risk of being caught? I feel that this whole season to this point has been to set us up for that. I think Philip is going to end up taking a wounded Stan to the hospital to save his life, because Philip doesn't want to be a part of more deaths. I think Philip is going to offer Elizabeth a chance to escape before he does it ... and I have speculation for the rest of the ending but it all seems a little too speculative to discuss here (such as how Stan gets wounded).

We shall see.

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Messages in this discussion
"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by kingfish on 05-17-18 at 04:24 PM
I watched a couple episodes of the Americans when the series started, but none since. Seemed interesting, and I don't know why I stopped.

At some point I will Binge watch it, and when I do, I'll remember this post.

For the moment, I'm LOLing watching Detour.

"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-19-18 at 11:45 AM
They have been filming quite a bit around my neighborhood (70's and 80's car parked around, the movie theater in a recent episode is half a block from my apartment building) and I keep meaning to watch if only to see the neighborhood.



Tribe!

"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by foonermints on 05-19-18 at 04:37 PM
HiYa, AyaK!



Handcrafted by RollDdice


"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by cahaya on 05-22-18 at 00:23 AM
I had no idea that this series existed, but blame my penchant for reading and joining writer's workshops for that oversight.

Five seasons and a lot of episodes to catch up on all this, so I browsed around for the synopsis and now know who Philip and Elizabeth are (and their "American" family).

As for endings...

Weisberg and Fields said they have known the broad arc of the series ending for some time, but they are still fine-tuning the final script. “We won’t be done writing it until we land on the very last frame that we lock of the final episode,” Fields said.

And perhaps a red herring...

Taylor pointed out a tantalizing mystery from the show’s standing kitchen set. “In the Jennings’ kitchen, there are two dogs on the fridge, and none of us know where that dog came from,” she said.

"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by kingfish on 05-23-18 at 06:19 PM
LAST EDITED ON 05-23-18 AT 09:16 PM (EST)

The show I was thinking about was "The Americans" with a backwards K in place of the c, about spies imbedded in the US. Am I on the same page as you all?

"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by cahaya on 05-23-18 at 11:43 PM
LAST EDITED ON 05-24-18 AT 00:19 AM (EST)

I watched tonight's show at 10:00 on FX (catching the Celtics-Cavs game during commercials).

The "c" part of "American" is a Soviet hammer and sickle, not a backwards "k".

Tonight's episode was interesting and definitely builds up to a final episode next week.

Philip and Elizabeth's cover is blown as the dogged FBI agent Stan unearths enough clues to get them under surveillance, along with an FBI interview of a priest who suspects something is amiss. Meanwhile, their daughter Paige also finds out about their cover through an inadvertent incident amongst her teen friends.

Earlier, Elizabeth trails Nesterenko and kills Tatiana before she has a chance to knock Nesterenko off in an assassination attempt. This apparently has some ramifications on Gorbachev's hold on power in the Soviet Union in the midst of a power struggle. Her handler, Claudia, is cooked.

Philip is chased in the streets by the agents, gets away, and warns Elizabeth in a coded phone call that they're blown. She grabs an already prepared go-bag and some cash, passports and fake license plates to make a run for it.

We don't see anything of their son, Henry, in this episode.

So how will it end?

It seems inevitable that Philip and Elizabeth will, probably separately, and probably with not the same result, face one of these fates:
1. Get caught and arrested and the whole ring gets rolled up.
2. Get killed (or commit suicide) in the attempt to avoid getting caught.
3. Get away, only to get killed by the KGB or anti-Gorbachev agents.

No happy ending for either of these two here.

Stan will probably survive all this and earn an FBI medal.

Paige and Henry seem safe and will continue their life as American kids, with the blot of their parents in their past.

"Finale tonight!"
Posted by cahaya on 05-30-18 at 06:13 PM
On FX at 10:00.
"RE: Finale tonight!"
Posted by cahaya on 05-30-18 at 11:49 PM
LAST EDITED ON 06-03-18 AT 02:17 AM (EST)

Spoiler Alert!

Spoiler Alert!


Even having only watched the last two episodes, the finale was a satisfying ending.

It turns out that no else had to die off in the final episode, thanks to Stan who let himself get talked into letting them go after Philip's monologue in the parking garage with Elizabeth and Paige.

It was a hairy trip for Philip and Elizabeth. They get into Canada via Amtrak with border agents checking passports looking for them based on sketches and then into Russia past a guarded checkpoint, no means certain that they wouldn't get detained somewhere along the way.

As I had predicted, the two kids, Paige and Henry, end up being left behind (Paige, willingly after stepping off the Amtrak at the Canadian border and Henry, not knowing anything of what has gone on -- only to be told later by Stan out of an act of compassion).

Philip and Elizabeth end up in Russia with an uncertain future, but a future together.

And apparently, Gorbachev remains in power despite some attempts to undermine his authority that could have threatened global stability.

"Spoiler? "
Posted by kingfish on 05-31-18 at 03:05 PM

There's not many who would have read this, but maybe Fooner recorded it for later? If so, you just got a Foonerville parking ticket.

And heaven help you if you spoiled one of the Ayatollah's favorite show endings. That'd be Fatwa city. To be safe, you better read up on WITSEC.

"RE: Spoiler? "
Posted by cahaya on 05-31-18 at 11:54 PM
WIT a SEC, did you even watch it yourself? No comment?
"Fake News?"
Posted by foonermints on 06-01-18 at 11:17 AM
Personally, The Mayor of foonerville™ has complete faith that the Kingfish knows what he is blabbing about.


"RE: Fake News?"
Posted by cahaya on 06-01-18 at 09:43 PM
LAST EDITED ON 06-01-18 AT 09:43 PM (EST)

Yeah, but who knows, though? He could be a Russian spy!

He probably even swam through the Barents Sea!

"If..."
Posted by kingfish on 06-02-18 at 01:17 PM
...I was a Russian spy, it'd be the gulag for you. Over there on the other side of the Bering Sea.
"Home of the Russian Pacific submarine fleet"
Posted by cahaya on 06-02-18 at 02:39 PM

No gulags here.

"BUT!"
Posted by foonermints on 06-02-18 at 08:14 PM
Word-On-The-Street says Swedish women are easy.
"RE: Home of the Russian Pacific submarine fleet"
Posted by kingfish on 06-02-18 at 08:51 PM
Nice try.

"RE: Home of the Russian Pacific submarine fleet"
Posted by cahaya on 06-02-18 at 10:39 PM
LAST EDITED ON 06-03-18 AT 02:34 AM (EST)

Actually, that would be the Atlantic submarine fleet.


"RE: Home of the Russian Pacific submarine fleet"
Posted by kingfish on 06-03-18 at 11:14 AM
There is a Barents Sea, but to get from the US to the Siberian Gulags, you need to swim the Bering Sea. There are no gulags in Greenland. To see Helga's folks, well, then you might need to swim thru the Barents.


And no one knows just exactly where our stealth submarine fleets are. Because they are, you see, stealth submarines. Nice graphics, but those are visible.

"Yah.. yah.."
Posted by foonermints on 06-03-18 at 01:47 PM
But was I still right about the Swedish women?


"RE: Yah.. yah.."
Posted by kingfish on 06-03-18 at 03:46 PM
LAST EDITED ON 06-03-18 AT 06:54 PM (EST)

Sounds good to me, but I think we should test that theory. Long tall women who grew up having to cuddle on artic winter nights? Yes please. That's something we should investigate.

"Cahaya:"
Posted by foonermints on 06-03-18 at 02:04 PM
Calling Russian submarines Fat.
"RE: Cahaya:"
Posted by cahaya on 06-04-18 at 11:49 AM
I'll go for the Swedish ladies over the fat submarines and gulag visits.
"RE: Cahaya:"
Posted by kingfish on 06-08-18 at 12:52 PM
Sorry. Nice try, but it's a big no go.

Spoiling the final episode of Americans for Fooner is a Gulag offense, not a Helga offence. Helga is there when you get out, but you broke the "no-spoiling TV shows for Fooner" prohibition, so it's the Gulag (across the BERING sea) for you. If you shovel enough coal, they might let you out early.

"RE: Cahaya:"
Posted by cahaya on 06-08-18 at 08:51 PM
Who needs coal when you can snuggle up and keep warm under the covers with a gulag-ette across from the BARING sea?
"RE: Cahaya:"
Posted by foonermints on 06-10-18 at 10:18 AM
How come I am imagining something X rated?


moonbaby!

"Final recap (spoiler)"
Posted by cahaya on 06-05-18 at 11:03 AM
There's a good recap on Vox for the finale found here.

"The Americans finale proved there are TV fates worse than death."

"RE: The Americans finale"
Posted by foonermints on 06-14-18 at 06:13 PM

Agman!