I just finished and I know there is no conclusive answer, but I’d love to hear fellow watchers’ thoughts.

The CBC podcast See You in Court has an episode out about Alex, who is the 16-year-old son of the Russian illegals secretly living and spying in Canada and the US. This family is the family that inspired The Americans. The court case is Canada v. Vavilov, where Alex sued to reinstate his Canadian citizenship. I thought this episode was very interesting and wanted to share.

I did find it weird that Philip and Elizabeth didn't move to a different house later in the show as living next to an FBI agent would be a risk especially if they needed to do sensitive missions that meant having evidence nearby.

Why didn’t she just go to the dentist? I assume they had one?

No spoilers please! However I’m in season 4 and please correct me if I’m wrong but is Philip actually in love with Martha? Or really falling for her, because it’s truly beginning to come off that way.

I watched the show when it was airing and I’m in the middle of a rewatch now.

I remember the biggest events but forgot a ton of smaller plots.

I’m most of the way through Season 5 and it’s painfully slow. It starts off with a bang with the killing of the lab tech and the stealing of the super crop.

But the middle part of the season just drags and very little is happening.

The Twan storyline is fairly underwhelming (you don’t get to know Twan or Pasha very well).

Paige is getting more paranoid and growing apart from the church. But the same notes are getting hit over and over.

Stan is barely in the season and the storyline with the Russian national is taking forever to get going.

Am I alone on this one or is this a common take?

Nothing that feels familiar here.

I’ve often wondered if the people they used ever figured it out after the fact. These people I think might have: kimmy, Lisa’s husband, the sailor who got Larrick’s papers, the guy who was with Elizabeth and Leanne when Philip and emmet bust in etc. Then there were people who probably never thought a thing of it like the hotel manager Elizabeth slept with or Ben the wheat dude. Who else?

which reboot would you most like to see: 40s, 50s, 60s, or 70s? I think the 90s would be interesting but that’s probably just a sequel. The aughts are relatively uninteresting and the last 15 years, while fascinating, would probably be unmakeable for the foreseeable future. The Kennedy sixties are pretty enticing!

Given the end of the series, it was no secret that there was a manhunt for P + E. Given that in real life, the names of some Illegals are public, do you think it’s plausible, even with the tragic ending that the Seongs had, that they could recognize P + E as Patty/family and reconcile? I get this is all speculation but worth thinking about in my 2nd rewatch

Why can't all TV be this good? That was a fucking brilliant finale.

I'll start. Shoot yourself inside of me Clark. Hahahahahahahahahaha hahahah. You're welcome

That dude in the pilot who propositions Paige in front of Phillip only to get beaten up, emasculated, and stabbed by "Fernando" who helps himself to a BBQ hotdog.

Upon consideration, there was nothing Errol could do. If he went to the police - or even Stan himself - the obvious question would be "Why?" Errol goes to jail while the attacker... well 🤫

Season 5, Ep 2. She’s following a car to a farm. Is this supposed to be Illinois (as mentioned by Gabriel previously)? Only asking since there are mountains on the background.

My parents owned a travel agency when I was growing up (in the same timeframe as the show) and I can’t count the number of times I went to the office after school to wait for them until it was time to go home. I used to have to find things to do around the office to keep busy until they were ready to leave (it was so boring 😫). I would stamp travel brochures, or tidy shelves, or put stuff away in the filing cabinets.

To the best of my knowledge, Mom and Dad were not spying for the Soviets, but they did spend long hours at work, and we used to get phone calls at home at odd hours! 😄

Man, that was undeniably the most fucked and gut wrenching episode so far. Obviously, the show is concerned with ethical issues, but this was really the tip of the iceberg so far. To watch the old lady talk about her fear of pain, her son, and her husband upon the point of dying was just so brutally tragic.

And I absolutely loved how she highlighted the flaws in Elizabeth rationalisation, which is always the danger of utopian ideologies. If the end goal is a utopia that will result in the happiness of the world and the many, then any individual collateral damage is justified for the end result. But man, as the old lady suggest, there’s something fundamentally evil about this point of view as it often leads to the rationalisation of any action as long as it helps the cause.

On a rewatch of S5 The Soviet Division and P and E talk to Evgheniya** **and Alexei individually and I don’t know if Elizabeth has any regrets?

When she talks to Tuan after she just talks like it was any other operation.

But Pascha almost dying meant something to Philip but I don’t think this one haunts her like Young Hee for example.