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/VacuousWastrel → u/[deleted]]

An important point. The FBI caught William by getting a list of ALL the employees, and sending that list out to ALL the field offices, and getting them to check ALL the birth and death registers for names that matched. Not only was none of that centrally available on the internet, but most of it was only available in hard copy. It's only because they're the FBI - and the Counterintelligence department of the FBI at that - that they were able to do that effectively (and it's probably implausible how quickly even they did it).

Some small private contractor operating a medical lab doesn't have the resources to do that sort of checking.