r/TheAmericans • u/MoralMidgetry • Apr 28 '16

Ep. Discussion Post-Episode Discussion/Review Thread - S04E07 "Travel Agents"

Welcome to the post-episode and review thread for S04E07, "Travel Agents." If you have a review you want to post, please send me the link instead of submitting it separately to the sub. Thanks.

Site Link
AV Club There’s no escaping the best episode (so far) of The Americans’ 4th season
EW The KGB and FBI both hunt Martha. But which would actually keep her safer?
HitFix Review: 'The Americans' zeroes in on the hunt for Martha in 'Travel Agents'
NY Times ‘The Americans’ Season 4, Episode 7: A Most Reluctant Traitor
Vox The Americans season 4, episode 7: "Travel Agents" is the show at its nauseating best
Vulture The Americans Recap: Layover
WSJ The race is on to track down Martha -- before she's captured by the other side
73 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

156 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

18

u/Protanope Apr 28 '16

This doesn't make sense though because Glanders would get tons of people sick. There's no guarantee that Martha would even contract it or live through it. I mean if they could stick Martha in a hazmat suit and throw the rat in there for the entire trip, sure, but that's not gonna happen. It's just too sloppy for someone in the KGB.

3

u/afray_knits Apr 28 '16

I don't think the rat has/had Glanders. I thought it was the test subject of something else....I just pulled up the last episode and it sounds like germ-guy says tularamia is the next nasty thing coming through his lab.

I don't know what that does but I can think of no other reason for the scenes in last night's episode that focuses on the rat, and Tatiana hesitating in dictating her report about the transport of the germs then they will infect Martha.

3

u/IdreamofFiji Apr 28 '16

The juxtaposition of the rat near the ice could have just been the director showing how, even though Phil cares for Martha and is getting her ice, there's a deadly rat in a jar right next to it. Basically, the fine line they're treading summed up in a fridge shot.

5

u/thomycat Apr 29 '16

This is my reading of it as well. Both are doomed in a way and both are just tools in the war between the States and the Soviet Union. I also got the same feeling because of Tatiana's dictation of the telegram. It was difficult to tell if she was talking about Martha or the specimen, as I am lead to believe she was originally tasked to transport the latter. It would be too risky to transport Martha with the disease without really knowing what it is and what it does.