But there are many spies on the show—Philip especially—who care about complete strangers simply because they're people. It just seems like you're making a huge generalization to assume that spying—something many people have done for different reasons in different circumstances—means a person is a sociopath or a…

Also I take it with a grain of salt whenever US adults claim that they would never have been able to talk to their parents like whatever US kid on TV. I suspect people remember themselves as being more polite than they were.

Why is Danny's change was "half-hearted" compared to Sandy's? Danny letters in track. That means he does whatever the hell you have to do to letter in track—practicing, I assume competing, working out. There's hours of work involved in earning that letter—this after he failed at several other sports and kept trying…

I think what's supposed to attract her to it is part of what attracted her about the church—that she sees them as working to make the world a better place. They're heroic and brave and not even getting credit for it. I think that's the bit that attracts her. I do think she was originally drawn to the church because of…

Philip knows that Stan lives across the street. They even had dialogue to make clear that whenever they leave at too odd an hour they take precautions so that he wouldn't see them every time they go in and out.

You honestly, in both cases, seem to be defining "dumb" as "not watching the TV show like I am."

I think he's just one of those boys who look young. The final Bobby ended the show at I think a year younger than his character, just like Kiernan Shipka. But he looked and seemed younger than 13/12 even then.

I don't know if it's that clear cut. Joan decides to sleep with the guy for money and eventually starts her own business. Megan quit acting because it was too hard when she started out, but eventually was able to keep at it because she had a rich husband bankrolling her. In the end it seems like Joan's living her…

No, none of them are sponsors. Especially since most products aren't advertised in ways they'd like. Matt Weiner pointed out on one of the commentaries that obviously Budweiser would never *pay* to be featured in a story about an alcoholic trying to limit his drinking.

But then, Don has the same problem in S6 with his own pitch that's too suicidal. Granted, he didn't see it at the time, but they didn't buy his "You have to die to get to heaven" reading there either.

Isn't his problem there more that he's just ahead of the curve? I thought what he was pitching actually was the way cigarette advertising actually went and the people he was pitching too were just not able to see it.

Yeah, I always thought one of the things that made Don a great ad man was that he might pretend to be cynical, but he actually believes what he's selling. He desperately wants to be in that commercial where it looks like everyone is loved. He sells himself on those (real) pictures of his family, sells himself on the…

I think it's just a common name that doesn't really stand out any more than Galina does—not the most common, but not exotic either. The Americans has a lot of Russian characters so they hit a lot of common names.

Honestly, it seems like every decision we hear about from this character makes just as little sense. A scavenger hunt to track down his father and put them both in danger (and probably others as well) almost just fits the pattern.

They only got here in 1965 so 1968, when Elizabeth met Gregory, is already pretty quick. But there's also the flashback where Philip's giving Elizabeth the name of some guy to go after, and Elizabeth talking about some work she's just come back from doing, in the scene where she decides to have Paige, which is 1967,…

We've seen flashbacks to missions that happened in the 60s that would have been pretty shortly after they arrived so I think it's definitely safe to say they were never ever sleepers.

Yes, there were subtitles.

But where is he thinking that his kids can't live there? It's Philip who wants to go back in this ep and Elizabeth who makes the final decision to stay.

To be fair, it was in some ways payback for something. If he hadn't been justifiably angry at her for informing on him all those years he probably wouldn't have slept with Irina. Elizabeth never actually apologized for that—she tends to think just explaining herself is enough. But it wasn't revenge on his part, imo. I…

Elizabeth was pretty vulnerable when she asked him if anything happened with Irina and he lied. When she found out about it she was so spooked she wanted to break off their relationship entirely and when he called her bluff she tossed him out of the house. That seems pretty upset to me.