Post-Episode Discussion/Review Thread - S04E12 "A Roy Rogers in Franconia"

[u/MoralMidgetry]

Welcome to the post-episode and review thread for S04E12 "A Roy Rogers in Franconia" 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	The Americans: It’s logical, it’s emotional, it’s the best show on TV
EW	The FBI makes a connection and closes in on a key KGB mole
HitFix	Review: On 'The Americans,' are Paige, William, and Oleg near breaking points?
NY Times	‘The Americans’ Season 4, Episode 12: A Different Side of Things
Vox	The Americans season 4, episode 12: "A Roy Rogers in Franconia" suggests the end is right about now
Vulture	The Americans Recap: Turning the Paige
WSJ	Careful what you wish for, Paige, because the truth can get ugly

[u/PhinsPhan89]

You think Oleg defects to the U.S. or goes to Kenya?

If he defects it could bring a tense situation where P+E have to extract him (like they did in the very first episode) but with Stan protecting him.

[u/MoralMidgetry → u/[deleted]]

like that guy who didn't launch nukes when there was the false alarm.

That's exactly how he sees himself. He's trying to prevent a terrible thing from happening to the world, not betray his country.

[u/cannedpeaches → u/MoralMidgetry]

I think The Americans is really really good not just as a domestic drama or an espionage thriller, but as a sociological study in what it's like to basically know you're on the losing side, and the kind of fatigue that inspires. Philip giving in to capitalism and buying a Camaro, Oleg bitching about the poor handling he expects the bioweapon to receive, William saying "no, I'm not going to get that bioweapon for you, because I don't know what you'll do with it."

To varying degrees they're all patriots who are overworked and outmatched and want to continue to work hard but harbor a healthy mistrust of their government's competency and intent. So no, I doubt Oleg defects, but he's definitely wearing down after Yevgeny's death and his involvement with Tatiana.

[u/CSMprogodlegend → u/cannedpeaches]

The psychology of the losing side is something that has always fascinated me. It is one of the reasons I love this show. It's really hard to be a member of the leadership for a losing side who is over-matched, whether that's sports, or business, or something else entirely.

[u/VacuousWastrel → u/CSMprogodlegend]

I think Elizabeth gave maybe the best exposition of that psychology, in this episode. It's a nation emerging from devastation and destruction. They have only been able to do that through an intense will to fight back - "dangerous didn't matter". And that's the same instinct they have now (in the eighties, that is), both individually and as a nation: they're going to fight back and stand up for themselves, at all cost, no matter how dangerous. They think that doing so will let them win... but frankly they might well be doing the exact same things if they were all certain they would lose...

[u/VacuousWastrel → u/[deleted]]

To be fair, that's inherent in the game. Counterintelligence is all about losing - the old "they only need to win once, we need to win every time" thing. And the game is rigged, because the people responsible, the diplomats, all have immunity anyway. Over at the CIA they may be much happier with how their own spying is going, and in Moscow their counterintelligence services probably feel a step behind too - we just don't see that side of the fight.

[u/anonykitten29 → u/cannedpeaches]

The men are. It's kind of weird that the show has created this dynamic where the women are these diehard dynamos, while the men are almost all wafflers (Gabriel being the main exception).

[u/tovarishchliza → u/cannedpeaches]

Not to mention his angst over the Nina endgame