dex14

MrX

Loved the scenes with Gaad and Stan talking about Martha and the last scene with Philip and Martha.

rocket1312

One of the best episodes the series has done. Despite being totally low key in an "action" sense, the search for Martha was about as tense an emotional roller coaster as I can remember seeing on TV. Likewise, that final scene with Martha and Philip was one of the most emotionally devastating. I almost wish she had just jumped off the bridge. If Alison Wright doesn't get an Emmy nod this year, then truly no one is paying attention.

buckeyes8604

Fantastic episode. Tense from beginning to end. I really was concerned Martha was going to jump off the bridge.

My favorite line was from Matthew:
"My dad's an FBI agent, if we drink all of his beer, he's gonna notice"

PhantomStranger

Despite them dragging this Martha story out far longer than I would have liked, this episode was riveting. I thought they were going to a much darker place with the characters, like Philip seeing Elizabeth off Martha in public. That would have thrown the whole show into chaos.

So is Matthew going to start dating Paige down the line? That is practically the only reason to include that scene.

Decker

Heart-breaking, gut-wrenching episode. We've been saying "Poor Martha" for four years now but seriously, this is the lowest point of her story arc. I'm all upset after that episode.

BTW : Was anyone else expecting Stan to find a Ricin capsule behind that electrical outlet in Martha's apartment.

Luds

Very strong episode. I hope this wraps the Martha storyline since it was handled so well. She's heartbroken and the scene with Philip & Elizabeth at the end was really great too.

Like rocket said, it was very tense with a very low amount of action and budget. Was Martha going to jump? Was she going to be caught by the feds? Was Philip going to be caught as he was not in disguise? Maybe Elizabeth being caught? Elizabeth killing Martha and maybe Philip arriving as it happened? This was really solid.

rocket1312

I'm not exactly sure where the stuff with Matthew, Henry and Paige is going, but my guess is that scene was just continuing to push the idea of these kids basically being abandoned by their parents. While ostensibly a spy show, The Americans is really the story of a family. My gut instinct for a while now is that when things for the Jennings do fall a part completely (and they pretty much have to, right?) it will be the kids that are at the root of it.

One other thought I had on this episode is in regards to the final moments between Philip & Elizabeth and Philip & Martha. Elizabeth suggested to Philip that he lie to Martha about joining her in Russia in order to give her some false hope. However, he ultimately elects to tell her the truth. My feeling is that it's because he loves and respects her too much to lie. The flip side of that is when Elizabeth questions Philip about whether he would go away with Martha if he could. Philip says he wouldn't and that it isn't like that. He then boldly professes his love for Elizabeth, something that we've never really seen from these characters. Perhaps Elizabeth was the one who actually needed some false hope. In a lot of ways Philip's relationship with Martha is more genuine than with Elizabeth and Elizabeth is in some ways just another one of his marks. Even if I'm completely off base here, the relationships on this show are so real and so complex and there's so much going on beneath the surface and it's probably the main reason why I love this show so much.

Decker

I will say though : That seemed like a really half-hearted manhunt from the FBI considering they knew for fact that one their most-wanted fugitive spies was at that moment by herself in a local park in Washington DC (where there are literally hundreds of agents present) and they sent, what, four agents to drive around for a half hour to look for her before heading back to HQ? I know they needed the story to advance, but that didn't seem realistic at all.

rocket1312

That definitely jumped out to me too but I just assumed that there were agents out looking everywhere. We just didn't see them because a) production budget, and b) it wasn't really important to the story that we see a giant man hunt. I presume the search is still going on, just that Stan and Adderholt and company aren't needed in the active search on the ground and can be more useful directing the investigation from the top. That doesn't really explain how Martha and Elizabeth were able to get out of the park successfully, but maybe the whole thing just happened so quickly that they were able to get out of there before the wide net was cast.

Superman07

This may be the best show I've ever watched. The amount of character development is second to none, but the way drama, tension, and heartache ooze off the screen is palpable.

I have no idea how it's not more popular.

Often times I actually feel like these episodes go by slowly, but this one flew by. In fact I was amazed the episode stopped where it did.

During the episode I was thinking Martha may get a partially happy ending. And by happy I mean not dead. Except, there is one serious foil to that ending - the shifty lady in the Rezidenture. I think it's obvious that she had a plane and pilot set out in order to smuggle the lab sample out of the country. I feel as though she gave pause to come up with a plan to "solve" the problem at hand. I'm leaning towards Marha getting on the plane, and the plane never reaching its destination due to a viral outbreak. Although maybe that's stretching it for this show.

If Martha does get out intact, it does serve as stark contrast what the Russians are willing to go through in order to get an asset out, as opposed to the FBI who didn't take action to save Nina.

PhantomStranger

I doubt Martha survives.

RoyalTea

FBI HQ is in Washington, DC, but isn't that office mostly bureaucrats and pencil-pushers? One thing about DC is that there are a LOT of different law enforcement agencies: Metropolitan Police, Secret Service, Capitol Police, Pentagon Police, Park Police, etc.

I'm sure that if there was an urgent risk (KGB operative actively planning an attack), the FBI would utilize any or all of these resources, but since this was about catching a (suspected) mole, I can see why they might want to keep this in-house.

mcnabb

What a great Episode as the theme is more about trust and betrayal.

Gaad feels betrayed that his own secretary was able to fool him, which makes him question if they are really beating the Russians?

Martha feels betrayed by Clark to the point where she just wants to know his birth name.

The scene with the kids is more about what happens when parents aren't around to supervise. They are betraying their duty as parents and you end up with a bunch of teenagers drinking beer and not thinking twice about it.

What a brilliant show.

Damfino

Rock creek park is a big place, so it wouldn't be that easy to find someone. What did bother me though is that Philip was wandering around calling out for Martha while not disguised as Clark. What if Stan had seen him?

karoomba

And then naturally Stan would angrily yell out to him 'Why do you know that name!!' ...


I'm shocked nobody has a made a 'save martha' joke in this thread.