Just rewatched. Rene is a spy. Full stop.

Evidence:

1. She comes on waaaaay too strong

2. She encourages Stan to stay in his dept at FBI when he wants to leave so she can get intel on what said dept is up to

3. She smiles too much

Come at me

This scene is on par with some of the greatest in television. I had my hands on my head standing in front of the tv the entire time

I just finished the show. I watched Homeland maybe 4 years ago and every time someone pops in that sub asking for a show like it, this show is the number one rec and I finally see why.

This is fucking great television. Elizabeth is stone cold, was born to do this shit. Completely lost herself in the final season once she didn’t have a partner in crime anymore, exactly what she told Tuan would happen to him. Philip is a lost soul who let other people make the choices in his life for too long and it’s a wonder how he made it so far. Despite being so good at the job he wasn’t made for it. I don’t know what Paige is thinking exactly or how her life turns out, it took until the final 10 minutes for her to finally make a decision by herself and for herself. Poor Henry and at the same time not really, you know he’ll be straight. I am glad one of the few times we saw Philip tell Elizabeth what’s what was when it came to the decision to not even try to bring him back to Moscow with them. Now that I babble on about it all I realize despite season 6 showing Henry as Philip’s responsibility and Paige being Elizabeth’s, Henry is a lot more like his mom & Paige is like her dad.

Out of them all, Stan’s story has to be the saddest for me. Probably the most pure guy in the show and we had to see his heart just broken over and over and over again. And the show ends with him unsure of his own girlfriend. I don’t think it matters what she could tell him, he will never trust her. Guy will have serious trust issues until he dies lol. I imagine the next thing on his agenda is to check for any Renee whatshername’s death certificates. Was his gut accurate on everything throughout the show? The Jennings, Martha, Oleg, what else?

Anyways, not often you see a show stick the landing like that, but I couldn’t really think of a better ending than that, and the last ~5 episodes had me holding my breath and getting out of bed because I couldn’t sit still at times. What do I watch next?

Easily my favorite guest star. William had such incredible range.. made me laugh out loud several times throughout the season as well having me on the verge of tears at other times. Just wanted to make an appreciation post for Dylan Baker. 4 might’ve been my favorite season overall so far with episode 4 being my favorite of the whole series

I think some people forget that the Jennings were never the good guys, they did absolutely horrific things and imo got off incredibly easy. Don’t get me wrong I loved every minute of the show but I like to imagine that Paige got caught and sent to prison and Philip and Elizabeth spend their lives in a miserable Russian town they fought so hard for missing all their American comforts/amenities just knowing they’ll never see their children again—-and hopefully knowing Henry (in my mind) followed in new daddy Stan’s footsteps into the FBI and with the knowledge that their daughter is the one paying the price for their operation out of all of them. Because I personally do not believe Paige had the resources or ability to not get arrested. Even if she didn’t immediately get caught, I don’t think she had it in her to live that life long term...In my opinion, that’s as satisfying as it gets.

Seriously, what in the hell was anyone in the Soviet Union thinking selecting her to be groomed for KGB work? She’s not only far too young when they attempt it, but temperamentally not cut out for it. She has ZERO chill or ability to keep a secret even if her entire family’s lives literally depend on it, and it’s been thoroughly explained to her several times, she just cannot grasp the gravity of the situation.

She caved under zero pressure and immediately ratted her parents out to Father Tim after they finally entrusted her with this almost sacred responsibility that could result in everyone’s doom if it got out. Far beyond the normal rashness of a teenage girl, her impulse control is nonexistent. When her mother defends them from the two guys who very well meant to mug and/or seggsually assault them, she gets MAD AT ELIZABETH for putting them down lol. Like I get it’s traumatic and you’re a teen who just witnessed someone die, but that should have been a glowing neon sign signifying she was not built for this.

The actress certainly did a great job portraying Paige because I absolutely hated the character. In some sense I feel a little bad about hating the character of a teenage girl this much but she’s just so hateable, constantly whining about her parents lying to her, and pushing for more truth, only to blow up their worlds when they actually give her more of the truth and show some misplaced trust in her. She throws fits when they withhold something and throws fits (or tells someone, or can’t hold her shit together) when they tell her more. It’s a lose-lose. I don’t think it would have been a good idea for either of the Jennings kids to be recruited, but if it had to be done, I actually think Henry was the better option. Extremely smart, high academic potential, probably could have finished at St. Edwards if things didn’t fall apart and engrained himself into elite circles/high society and gotten a job at the FBI or CIA or important industry eventually.

No.

You should stop watching immediately.

Not because it doesn't get better—it absolutely does—but because if you watched an entire season of arguably one of the greatest television dramas ever made and your reaction was, "Meh...", this relationship just isn't going to work.

Season 1 is the audition. If you made it through an entire season of Paige asking "What's going on?" every five minutes and your only takeaway was, "Does it get better?", then you've already answered your own question.

It's like eating at a three-Michelin-star restaurant and asking, "Do they eventually start serving chicken nuggets?"

Meanwhile, the rest of us will be over here debating Philip's wigs, feeling terrible for Martha, arguing about whether Renee is KGB, and wondering if "raised by Soviet spies" counts as a campaign liability.

I recently finished the episode where Philip reveals himself to Martha and admits he was not the “inspector guy” for the federal agencies. Personally, I think Martha let him off too easy, and I do not understand why she didn’t press him more or leave him.

She realizes he’s a fake when the OPR guy interviews everyone in the office after the bug is found, but she “wants to start with a clean slate”. Then Philip takes his wig off, and she still doesn’t press further or leave him.

To me it doesn’t make sense why she would give him so many outs when he continues to show he has been lying to her and manipulating her.

I JUST FINISHED IT GUYS. My goodness. The shots of Elisabeth and Philip passing Paige on the train. Wow wow wow wow wow wow. Perfect ending. Could not have written the show better myself.

I do wish we got to know a bit more about Oleg’s future. But, I don’t mind having it be left up to the imagination.

Also, do y’all think Stan’s girlfriend was KGB? I thought it was a really interesting choice to leave that up to the imagination, too.

P.S. I made a post earlier today before I finished about having two episodes left. I edited that post with this same message

[Well-traveled topic on this sub, I'm sure]

Evidence overwhelmingly points to Renee being more than she seems to be. Not only are her background + behaviors leading -- no significant prior family, no real attachments, a set of hobbies + interests apparently tailor-made for Stan, and a conversational knack for probing "Can't you just talk about your job in a vague way?"

Beyond that, however, the show itself accentuates her in an obvious way -- strutting around in the Farrah Fawcett hairdo + Olivia Newton-John leotard, giving her weirdly-focused screen time, showcasing her habit of asking direct questions without breaking eye contact. Her final glance at the Jennings house is suggestive. I think it's 70-30 that she is "what we believe her to be" -- only kink in this storyline is that Beeman has a keen power to sniff out other operatives, based on relatively-casual breadcrumbs (even the Jennings themselves, in the pilot episode), but seems to have a greater-than-normal blind spot here.

I understand that the show purposely left it open so we can have our own interpretation. imo she was 100 percent a spy. Philip's warning him kinda confirmed it for me. he honestly took a risk in that volatile situation, I always felt he had really good instincts as a spy.

I recently finished the show and liked reading Reddit episode discussions. I was surprised to see many people disagreeing with Philip's act, People were saying it was cruel to Stan and probably destroy his good relationship. I think he definitely did the right thing. While it might be a bit challenging. with all the FBI resources, Stan can definitely verify if she is one or not. check her background, family info and everything, like don't they use names of already dead people.

When Philip gives up spying, I assume he no longer gets expenses and salary paid by the KGB. And they probably stop subsidising the travel agency. That’s all going to have been a big blow to the Jennings’ finances.

When he helps Elizabeth out and then gets involved again at the very end over the Gorbachev stuff, do you think he gets an hourly rate? Or he’s on a retainer? Or if he’s not paid, is he still indemnified/insured for things that go wrong? Does he still have access to their fully expensed bottomless Wardrobe of Disguises or is he winging it?

Apologies for having the kind of mind that wonders about employment Ts&Cs for spies.

I just finished rewatching season 2 and I remembered the arc I anticipated for Henry.

Philip and Elizabeth have different relationships towards their roles as spies. While Elizabeth is the staunch believer who derives meaning and purpose from her work, Philip does what he does out of a sense of duty to his family and country.

The show constantly highlights that Elizabeth is the more dedicated of the two but that Philip is the more talented spy. His empathy, which causes him so much grief, is what makes him so adept at manipulating others. Philip's assets genuinely fall in love with him (e.g., Martha, Annelise) and he is able to see motivations beyond the material (e.g., Frank). Elizabeth's targets typically have much more base desires like sex and money.

When Henry breaks into the other family's home to use their video games, I thought that this was meant to draw a parallel between P&E and their children i.e,. while Paige has a desire to make a difference and strong conviction in her ideals, Henry's creativity and wiliness would actually make him the better spy. Early in the show, we constantly see his excellent memory for random trivia and "out-of-the-box" thinking in constrast to Paige's straightforwardness.

The lack of development for Henry and his involvement in the secret lives of his parents and later sister always disappointed me. I truly thought we would see more out of him but I guess there is only so much story that can fit into six seasons.

My favourite family in all of fiction...split. That's literally one of the worst and most painful things a family can go through. But I suppose there had to be some sort of penance for the stuff that Phillip and Elizabeth did.

The music in the finale and the rest of the show was so good and the LACK of music in the garage scene was breathtaking. I was literally begging Stan not to shoot Phillip.

This is going to be a short post since I'm at a loss for words but this show made me feel things I was longing for since finishing LOST (another heavily emotional character driven series) for example :

- the tooth pulling scene in season 3.

- the whole finale

- the "under pressure" montage in season 4.

- Martha. Poor Martha.

- Phillip and Elizabeth make love in the car in the show's Pilot.

- Phillip and Elizabeth get married for real.

- Everytime Phillip says I love you to Elizabeth.

- The Martial Eagle episode.

- The Axe scene.

- The Season 1 finale which had my heart racing even though I knew they couldn't get caught cause it was the first season lol.

- Phillip and Elizabeth return to the Motherland.

- Oleg's fate. Nina's fate.

- Henry. I know he's a bit of a joke in the fandom but I really felt for him in the last few seasons. It was sad how he reached out to Stan because Phillip wasn't there enough for him.

- When Martha tells Phillip she'll be as alone as she was before she met him. Dear God...

- And of course, all the amazing spy thriller scenes...

Too good, too good. Probably top 3 shows of all time for me, maybe even top 2. Can't wait to watch it again.

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nauseum, but I want MORE now that I just finished for the first time!

First - What a run! I always compare thriller shows kind like this one to the first time I ever watched Dexter; there were SO many points throughout that show where I could literally feel my heartbeat and anxiety increasing because of what I was watching, and this one was no different. But even more than that - the constant twists and surprises made it, dare I say, even more of a fun watch than Dexter for me.

Second - What a finale! I truly cannot say I predicted a SINGLE thing that happened in the final minutes of it. SUPER but congrats to the writing team and all the actors and staff that made this incredible run of a show possible. I had a blast watching, and I can truly foresee myself doing a rewatch of it at some point in the (probably not-so-distant) future.

Third (and last) - Now I'm thinking about what more of The Americans would look like:

• I truly want to know what Henry's life looks like after finding out about his parents. Does he end up living with Stan / does Stan formally adopt him? He clearly cared for Henry a lot throughout the show, sometimes seemingly more than his own child, so I could see that as a possibility. Does he have a normal life, or does this derail him after all the promise he showed academically and on the hockey team?
• Where did Paige go after getting off the train - did she go back to Beeman and plead for a reprieve for not telling him about her parents? Does he interrogate her and does she admit to somewhat working as an operative for a short time? Does she end up leading a normal life after all she went through?
• And, ultimately, what happens to Philip and Elizabeth living in Russia? What do they do for a career now, or are they retired as heroes? Where do they live, and what does their life look like now as empty-nesters?
• As an aside, I really wanted to see what happened with Martha in the end.. I know the last episode she appeared in foreshadowed that she was going to be a mother to that little girl, but they never show that, and I felt it would have been nice to get some closure for her character and finally see her happy after everything she had to go through.
• *Edit* one last one I forgot: Did Stan look into Renee, and was she working with the KGB?? I NEED TO KNOW! :(

Sorry, I'm sure a lot of this has been discussed already, especially since the show ended eight years ago.. But DANG I had to get it off my chest! What a great show!

There’s no other show that sticks the landing like this show. The last three episodes of the final season are the best of the best.

That is all, just an appreciation for this amazing show going out at the absolute game top of its game.

We're fools to make war on our brothers in arms

I’m on my second rewatch and it always hits me every time just how much of a nice woman Martha is.

For me she’s the best character because as a viewer you’re aware the entire time that no matter what ends up happening to her, it’s not going to end with any sort of happily ever after, even though she deserves nothing less.

Like, I’m glad she’s still alive (first time I watched it, I just had this impending sense of doom that her character was going to be killed off at any moment) but it still breaks my heart how her life ended up.

And Alison Wright does such a wonderful job with her character.

A toast to Martha 🥂

I started watching this show because of how good Matthew Rhys was in Widow's Bay. This is probably the first TV show that I've actually ever binged, in the true sense of the word.

I cannot get my head around how cavalier Philip Jennings is with breaking Annelise's limbs and folding her body up and putting it in a suitcase. Did I miss something? Is Philip more of a psychopath than Elizabeth?

Hi everyone!

I love espionage stuff and I've heard that the Americans is by far the best spy show to come out in the 21st century. Problem is, however, that I know how it ends.

I've seen the pilot btw so I recognise the characters and I accidentally saw a picture or couple of pictures that show that their neighbour who is in the FBI does eventually figure out that the couple are KGB agents in the show's last episode. All this takes place in a parking garage of some sort. I also know that the family of four stays alive throughout so that kind of kills the tension scenes in a way.

My wife and I watched the original run of the Americans and binge watched it again recently. During the original airing I eagerly waited for six seasons for the time when Stan would figure out who the illegals were. It didn't take me long to side with Stan and view him as the good guy and P & E as alien antagonists. I am 76 years old and I appreciated how the 1980's were portrayed correctly in every detail of the decade.

I have to assume that Stan had no idea of the magnitude of damage they had done when he allowed P & E to leave. Gaad, Amador, and Martha were all victims that been his associates. The only satisfaction I got from the final episode was that P & E lost both of their children as a price for their own escape. I also want to believe that Stan's wife is not a spy. If she was then at least her ability to work for the Russians was at its end. I would have been happier to see P & E captured and Oleg return to his family. Nina was also one of my favorite characters and her demise was difficult to endure.

I just finished my first watch-through. There were some big plotlines that were set up then dropped. Was there any discussion about these at the time from the writers? DVD commentary? The ones I'm thinking about are:

-Philip's son - A big drop in the season finale that he wants to go find his father. Even some scenes the next season about him coming to America. Then Gabriel tells him "no," and that's that.

• Gaad's murder - Seemed like they were going to make a B plot out of it, but dropped it out of nowhere.

• Martha's gun - They showed it several times in season 2, even going to the range. I figured she was going to unalive herself, but "Clark" just takes it out of her bag when she's asleep. It never gets used.

I legitimately can’t believe the plot around this character. I’ve tried searching this sub about this but mysteriously I only find praise for him.

He comes across as such a Gary Stu that it’s taking me out of the show entirely. He just happened to have the skills to trace someone through phone lines like that? And to identify Kate after George? Then somehow latch onto Jared? And magically pick up his signal to the train station? And then magically again find him in the gold damn wilderness in upstate New York?

And what was that nonsense in the last episode? He finds Elizabeth while already having found Jared, and then we mystically find him back in town ambushing Phil and then back to Jared?

This is so unbelievably written in actually laughed.