MovieChat Forums > The Americans (2013) Discussion > That was a sh*tty ending

That was a sh*tty ending

posted 6 years ago by ill-famed (22)
8 replies | jump to latest

Why did Stan just let them go? That makes no sense at all. Even if he takes all the half-truths and lies by omission that they tell him in that last meeting at face value -- which he has little reason to -- just arrest them and let the prosecutor sort it out. Stan basically knows that they killed all those people in Chicago, he's highly suspicious that they committed other murders, but instead of arresting them, he essentially commits high treason by letting them go. And it doesn't even make sense in the grand scheme of things -- even IF Stan wanted to support Oleg/Philip in their efforts to keep Gorbachev in power (and he doesn't, he said so himself), Philip's/Elizabeth's arrest wouldn't make much of a difference there. Just let the feds sort it out. But don't let two suspected mass murderers just walk.

This show has always been prone to underwhelming season endings (the previous season being a prime example), but this sort of takes the cake. :\

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 6 years ago

> Why did Stan just let them go? That makes no sense at all.

Sometimes Stan lets personal relationships distort how he approaches work. He showed that in his dealings with Nina and Oleg. So I don't think his doing the same with P&E is entirely a bolt out of the blue. A stretch, yes, but not an unreasonable one.

(Also, I think it can be argued that he's already been letting his personal relationships with P&E warp his work judgment. He's been letting that happen for years. Shouldn't he have caught on a lot sooner that his neighbors, travel agents who are always rushing off to 3 AM meetings, might be involved in some unsavory and perhaps illegal things?)

> even IF Stan wanted to support Oleg/Philip in their efforts to keep Gorbachev in power (and he doesn't, he said so himself)

He said that, sure -- to Oleg. But that might have been nothing more than him twisting Oleg's arm while interrogating him. Law enforcement officers have been known to lie to suspect before. Who knows how he really feels?

[–] JDL (36) 6 years ago

You make some good points but I tend to agree with the OP. It just didn't seem characteristic of Stan to let them off completely scot free after all the betrayal and dishonesty he found. If he was motivated, in any part, by a desire to facilitate their efforts to protect Gorbachev, they did a poor job of showing that. I took his denial of any interest at face value, although it did present a compelling twist that could have justified helping Oleg or them in some way. If we were supposed to believe that, I completely missed it.
Still, this was a very powerful climax - very well shot and acted. I did find the ending and everything after Paige got off the train to be very anti-climatic and disappointing. Just think how much better it would have been if what E and P saw out the window was the mounties leading Paige away!

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 6 years ago

> If we were supposed to believe [Stan was concerned with Gorbachev's fate], I completely missed it.

From what I recall, there was nothing in the episode to imply that Stan was concerned with it at all. OTOH, he only said "I don't care" to Oleg, and in a context where it could have been nothing more than an interrogator applying the psychological screws to a suspect. In all, I don't think it was implied either way what Stan thought of Gorby.

> Just think how much better it would have been if what E and P saw out the window was the mounties leading Paige away!

I gotta disagree here. What we saw was Paige's own choice to get away from her parents; something that was foreshadowed, but by the time it happened, had become so unexpected (at least to me) that it was a complete shock -- yet in character, all things considered. Paige being arrested wouldn't have shown in any way that she had changed, grown, etc.

[–] winslow (1318) 6 years ago

I really thought she was going to ditch them at the McDonald's. Either that or make a call to the feds.

[–] JDL (36) 6 years ago

Paige's decision was certainly jarring in this finale. I suggested it would have been more powerful for her to have been apprehended as compared to the actual ending here having E and P making it safely out of the US and back to Russia almost as if nothing had happened. Sure, they had to leave Henry behind and couldn't explain to him why; and Paige decided to stay behind, but for all we know may end up being just fine. But other than harboring some doubts over the value or importance of what their efforts had been for, they basically got what they had planned for when they entered the KGB.
In the real life events that inspired this story, the whole family got deported even though the spy/parents' 2 sons were never involved in anything. They were raised as Americans and were living typical American lives when the parents were caught. That was a much sadder ending for the kids, in my opinion, than this fictional one where a child chooses to betray the US and gets to make a choice to stay when the parents fled.
Maybe it is just a matter of perspective.
But I still have a hard time cheering for or even sympathizing with the lead characters in The Americans who, after all, were wreaking havoc here. They received no justice for what they did, even if one child chose to stay in the US. Compare that to watching them see Paige being led off to spend her life in prison.

[–] BullSchmidt (3189) 6 years ago

> They received no justice for what they did, even if one child chose to stay in the US. Compare that to watching them see Paige being led off to spend her life in prison.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Ultimately, the main problem I have with that outcome is that it reduces Paige to the status of a minor character -- someone whose job is to interact with major characters to highlight their attributes, promote their development, et cetera, but who doesn't have the function of herself growing, facing crises, making decisions, and so on. An object to be used dramatically to make things happen with the main characters. And indeed, you seem to prefer this outcome because of the effect it would have on P&E -- Paige should be locked up because of the effect it would have on them.

Paige isn't the star of the show, obviously; instead, a supporting character. But as such, she has changed, had her own conflicts, crises, etc. By contrast, Henry really had become a minor character. In the dramatic sense, of course. But also, within the fictional universe, he had become a minor character within his own family. The series has made it pretty clear that Henry hasn't really been part of the family since P&E let Paige in on the big secret. So the way the series handled that worked, although it was cold as hell, both in the actions taken with Henry and the manner in which they were presented. P&E have the obligatory "what do we do" conversation; they decide to leave him; they make a phone call; and that's that. At the end, we don't even hear Henry's reaction to his parents' departure, we just see Stan sitting with him. But what he says isn't important at all, so that's fine. He's become nothing but an object to be sometimes subjected to the consequences of P&E's acts.

[–] SammiWin (1112) 6 years ago

If anything, I was expecting Stan to let them go.

[–] Batty67 (358) 5 years ago

I think Stan truly cared for Philip as his best friend. He liked Paige but I get the sense that he did not really know her that well. As for Elizabeth, I think if he caught her alone in the garage, it would have ended with her, Stan, or both dead. If he caught Paige alone, she would have likely been successfully arrested.