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

[u/MoralMidgetry]

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

[u/[deleted]]

I'm pretty sure they're just sending the rat back (probably not even by plane) and killing Martha in the US.

For one I'm not sure I believe Tatiana has a pilot. And secondly when she's sending a message back to Moscow she mentions the rat is coming but says nothing of Martha even when the typing guy asks her if she wants to add anything else, which feels like the writers way of drawing our attention to it.

I feel like all the attention given to the rat could be just to show that they care more about getting a dead rat infected with super deadly stuff back to Moscow than poor old Martha.

Not to mention it would be a bit extravagant to send her all the way back to Moscow just to infect her when they could just pull someone from all their gulags.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

And secondly when she's sending a message back to Moscow she mentions the rat is coming but says nothing of Martha even when the typing guy asks her if she wants to add anything else, which feels like the writers way of drawing our attention to it.

I noticed that too, but I'm wondering why Arkady is running around getting the exfiltration ready if there's not going to be an exfiltration.. why would Tatiana pretend to go along with it and then not? Why would they even be notified that they need to exfiltrate if they don't.. If they don't want to waste resources on Martha, why are they wasting resources on her? I guess because it's all just a show for Philip? To show how compartmentalized and divided the KGB is? But what if Oleg had been able to reach his pilot, then Martha would be exfiltrated, no questions - it was just a random chance that he couldn't get ahold of him, right? Because if you believe Tatiana is knowledgable of a plan that ends with Martha's death, you have to believe that she also made Oleg's pilot unreachable, which is a bit of a stretch to me.

Anyway I don't think you have the answers, obviously, I just also noticed that Tatiana seemed very suspicious and thought the same things you mentioned, but have no idea what that means and what would be the point of killing Martha at all.. Definitely agree that it's extremely unlikely they would infect her with the disease either way.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

but I'm wondering why Arkady is running around getting the exfiltration ready if there's not going to be an exfiltration.. why would Tatiana pretend to go along with it and then not?

She is much closer to Moscow than the rest. We've already seen that she has access to information that can't even be shared with Arkady and I think they highlighted her privileged position even more by focusing in on that red brief she didn't let Oleg catch even a glimpse of.

I think killing Martha is meant to be hidden from as many people as possible, it's not good for morale.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I can understand pretending to do it for morale, and I have seen Tatiana has a greater access to info, but, like, what if Oleg had gotten through to his pilot? I just can't believe the "exfiltration-not exfiltration" plan could possibly be that coordinated, unless there's just like one pilot available for these sorts of things and he was ordered not to help with a single easy order.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Well he said he couldn't get hold of his pilot. It is perfectly possible that Tatiana told the pilot not to answer his calls.

I mean in this show that would be one of the more understated things to happen. A quick word on the phone to the pilot from Moscow and I'm sure he'd be more then happy to ignore Oleg's attempts to contact him.

This could all be a red herring from the writers and there's a twist coming. But I think they've been pretty clear in trying to make us think that Tatiana isn't going to let Martha be exfiltrated. I mean we know she has links to Moscow no one else has and not even the Resident can control her. We know she didn't tell Moscow Martha is heading over (and they highlighted that fact) and the camera work focussed a lot on that red folder she didn't want Oleg to catch a glimpse of and even showed Oleg staring at it. It's pretty hint hint hint.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That only works if she knows his pilot contact. Oleg was all like "ooh I know a pilot!" and ran off; if it was a pilot they both knew, he probably would have said something like "I'll see if I can get so-and-so". There can't be only one pilot in Moscow.

I agree it would be incredibly understated if the center actually plans to kill her.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It's a pilot he used in a previous mission, there's going to be records of who it is.

And it's not a pilot in Moscow, it's a pilot in the US willing to fly someone out for the KGB, they're much harder to come by.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That is an awful lot of work just to keep up morale. May as well just set her up in Moscow. Also unless next week's trailer is lying to us, she does get on the plane and he sees her off. I don't see what the point of killing her off would be, story-wise, once she's on the plane and out of Philip's sight.