The Epilogue of “The Americans”
Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers…
What happens to Philip and Elizabeth after the curtains fall on The Americans:
The first quasi-private businesses are about to open in Russia. In two years, the Eastern Bloc will disintegrate in a quick succession of velvet and not-so-velvet revolutions. In another two years, the Soviet Union itself will collapse following a failed and fumbling hard-line coup. In the year in between the collapses, thousands of people will line up to eat at the first McDonald’s in Moscow.
Philip and Elizabeth will be in demand. As K.G.B. agents with excellent knowledge of English, they can get jobs at any number of new companies that are trying both to do business with foreigners and to stay out of the way of the secret police. They might become heads of security for one of the companies that will grow very large in the coming years; their experience in assassinations may also come in handy. They could also become biznesmeny and launch an enterprise of their own—their connections and their English will be a great asset. Hell, they could build a travel empire. (Back in Washington, they ran a small travel agency.)
This all sounds about right.
Where is this pulled from?
My big question for the finale is: why didn’t they use the drive-thru? (and why did the drive-thru have circa 2010 pavement markings?)
that should be enough state of discussion spoiler break
For the longest time I thought Oleg was destined to be an oligarch, but now I am not sure.
I see Philip ‘selling out’ but not Elizabeth. The fall of the Berlin Wall is going to wreck their marriage. (after a few years of being on the rocks because of the dramatic life change and completely different sources of stress now)Report
Link added.
One of the more frustrating things when I watched on Hulu Live TV (on DVR delay) is that they put commercials over the credits and then when the commercials were over it switched to FX’s current, it was midway through the episode so I thought through some glitch it had rewound me. I had to do about 10-15 minutes worth of work to verify that the episode and series were, in fact, over.
Oreg as an oligarch makes sense, but seems pretty clear that’s not going to happen now. Seems weird that there would be nothing Gorby could do for him given the givens, but that sure is how they made it sound.
I thought Elizabeth’s betrayal of the hardliners indicated that she was maybe going to accept the transition.Report
Just finished the series last night. The reason they didn’t use the drive thru was because they didn’t want the 3 of them to be seen together. The person at the window would have gotten a good look at all 3 and there is video here as well.Report
2 missed opportunities
1) they should have had Donald Trump make an appearance somehow. Maybe a webisode leading up to the last season premiere? At least a reference somewhere – Trump is as much a fixture of the 80s as the numerous other ones they named dropped. (RIP Jhoon Rhee)
2) more seriously they should have done something with Robert Hannsen. He easily could have been a guy in the SCIF (the room w the red light) that they keep on chasing out to have their own meetings.
(Eventually I think he actually had John Boy’s job, but I don’t think he got promoted that high until after the Cold War was technically over)Report