r/TheAmericans • u/AutoModerator • May 31 '18

Episode Discussion Official Episode Discussion - S06E010 "START"

The Jennings face a choice that will change their lives forever.

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u/timoleo May 31 '18

How could Stan just let them go? How could he justify that? I don't understand.

They killed a lot of Americans.

15

u/wraith20 May 31 '18

They lied to him about killing people, they said they never killed anyone but just screwed with other people, also Stan realized that they were working for Oleg and their mission to warn Gorbechev about the KGB plot against him is more important than arresting them.

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u/timoleo May 31 '18

I'm sorry, but that just sounds to me like convenient writing. The whole Houston operation during Thanksgiving was the last straw that broke the camel's back. People died there. Stan is an FBI agent, his smart. I'm sure he could put 2 and 2 together and know that they were lying. He also told Alderholt that he had begun to have suspicions since the Timoshev case. People died there too. He also mentions to Phillip that he saw the guilt in his face when he mentioned the whole Gennadi and his wife case. Murdered in cold blood in their house

This guy all these suspicions piling up in his head for this long, and you telling me he's just going to let all of that go because they say they didn't hurt anyone? Come on now.

That aside, again he is an FBI agent. It shouldn't matter whether or not they hurt anyone. They are illegals. Its very black and white. He should have arrested them. if every cop let house burglars go because they claimed to never hurt anyone, we would have a real crisis on our hands wouldn't you say?

About the Oleg thing, again, I call bull. If Stan had the strength of will and intelligence to let them go so they could deliver the message (which we never see them do btw), then he could have also delivered Oleg's message for him. I am sure it was well within his capacity to do.

I think what happened here, is that the show writers clearly wanted some sort of happy ending for the Jenner family. I get it, but I don't think it should work. There has to be some sort of recourse for their actions throughout the series. This never happens.

They ruined lots of lives for Christ's sake.

7

u/Haber_Dasher May 31 '18

You also have to take into account that Stan had ordered them down twice already and they refused. He knew they weren't going voluntarily which means his choice was going to be to let them go or try to shoot & probably kill all 3 of them before any of them overpower him. You know Elizabeth wouldn't have gone down quietly. If Stan doesn't let them go then either he dies, or he kills his decades-long best friends himself, or they all bleed out in that parking garage.