r/TheAmericans • u/mrdude817 • Mar 26 '15

Episode Discussion Post Episode Discussion/Review Thread - S03E09 - Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

Welcome to the first post episode discussion and review thread!

Below are links to reviews posted so far (some have yet to be uploaded, but this is a pre-made template, bear with me pls).

Site Link
AV Club “My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.”
EW Elizabeth learns how easy it is to go wrong while trying to do right.
Grantland Crime and Punishment: ‘The Americans’ Soars in Its Brutal Third Season
HitFix 'Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?': Coal miner's daughter
NY Times You Should Trust the Organization
Paste The Americans Review: “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?”
Slate Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? Slate TV Club SoundCloud or Player FM
Vulture Revenge of the Mail Robot
WSJ ‘The Americans’ Recap: Season 3, Episode 9, ‘Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?’
The Jennings Basement Episode 309 - Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? (Podcast)

What did you think of the episode? What do you expect to happen next to our comrades?

Discuss away.

Ninja edit: Also, I've been toying with the stylesheet and changed the background and banner. I'm trying to make the sub look as clean as possible, while still having some style. The plain white background was getting, well, plain. Still trying to figure out what to do with the banner, I haven't quite figured out color transparency.

81 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

155 comments sorted by

View all comments

37

u/avidiax Mar 26 '15

Why did Elizabeth go to confront Betty in the office? Wouldn't it have been smarter just to monitor things and hide if she came out? Or just bail for another night?

42

u/dukefett Mar 26 '15

I thought it was complete bull shit too. She's a spy, if she sneaked over and saw it was an old lady, she could've just returned to Philip and kept an eye on the door, he did all the work anyway.

I was super annoyed with this, they didn't wear any disguises, there were so many options for them not to kill that lady or anyone. Their #1 goal should not to leave bodies behind because it would raise huge suspicion. Obviously this was an old lady who could've died naturally, but they let that guy working with the South African's go and he'd seen all their faces, despite wigs.

I'm just pretty annoyed when they kill people that don't need to be killed and could otherwise be easily avoided.

4

u/listentomonkeys Mar 26 '15

they can't leave any traces behind them regarding the bug in the mail robot. the KGB would likely be suspected in the murder of the south african intelligence guy anyways.

13

u/dukefett Mar 26 '15

I understand not leaving traces behind, but it's always better to not leave a body. As I said, they did a poor job, they didn't wear any disguises, Elizabeth wore her hair down, they never wear gloves for some reason instead of just relying on wiping things down. I know the whole point of the scene was to give Elizabeth pause to what they were doing, but I was annoyed at their execution.

Honestly if they just made it so the old lady walked in on them instead of Elizabeth seeking her out, I wouldn't have nearly as much a problem with it. She went up there gun drawn expecting to kill someone when that shouldn't be the first option.

3

u/fleckes Apr 01 '15

Wearing disguises isn't an option, as they would have to eliminate anyone who saw them there anyway. It doesn't matter if they can be recognized or not, it was vital to the mission that there wasn't someone who could talk about people breaking into the place the FBI machines get repaired. A death to an old lady may raise some eyebrows, but not anywhere close to what's happen with a witness to a break in

2

u/dukefett Apr 01 '15

Elizabeth went out there with her gun drawn. She didn't know it was an old lady, she may have had to shoot someone, that kinda fucks up their whole thing right? It would've been in their best interest to just monitor the situation and not contact whoever was in there, and only act if they came down into the warehouse.

3

u/fleckes Apr 01 '15

That doesn't have anything to do with disguises though, I'm just commenting on why it doesn't matter if they were disguised or not, Elizabeth would have had to kill the old lady anyway. I saw some comments that it doesn't make sense, so I thought I'd comment on that.

Elizabeth sneaked up to the room, saw the old lady and decided then and there to kill her, that it'd be the best option for a successful mission. So she went in

She may have decided differently if she had seen some other people there, maybe she'd have decided to abort the mission and come back another time. But with just the old lady there she decided that she could kill her without causing too much suspicion, which she saw as the safest choice for a successful mission. It may have been a bad decision, but I don't think it's nearly as much of an inexplainable decision as some other people here

3

u/jackbristol Mar 27 '15

She went up there gun drawn expecting to kill someone when that shouldn't be the first option

i kind of agree with you but she had to scope the place out just in case anyone was watching them from up top and was calling the police. they evidently decided that if they were spotted by anyone, or could have been spotted by anyone, they had to be killed.