u/techbirdee

For a long time I thought the casual attitude towards killing was the most shocking thing about this series. American television features a lot of gratuitous killing, and this series is no different. The missions in The Americans always involve getting information- and if killing is necessary, so be it.

But sometimes the person who is killed is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They can't afford to have a witness, so they kill you. Sometimes they feel bad about it for a little while but they get over it. At other times the killing is the whole point.

But every killing is wrapped in lies. And these people are good at it. They can both lie convincingly at a moment's notice. They make others feel bad for doubting them. They tell different lies to different people for different missons and somehow manage to keep it all straight in their heads.

Its no wonder that their marriage is affected by a lack of trust. They are fundamentally dishonest people.

During the 4th Season Saul is kidnapped. He tells Carrie over the phone that he would rather die than be part of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban. He repeatedly threatens to kill himself so this does not happen. Carrie lies to him so he stays alive.

When the prisoners are exchanged Saul gets all dramatic and refuses to stand up. He's still trying to block the trade. He'd rather die. At the end of the season we find out that Dar has made a deal with Haqquani which involves him being taken off the kill list. In the end we see that Saul, who would rather die than be traded for Talliban prisoners is ok with making a deal with Haqquani because it will prevent the video being released and save his career.

How does this make any sense at all? First Saul is willing to die for the cause. After he is rescued he sells his soul to save his CIA career. WTF is going on with him?

She doesn't work for the CIA. But she turns up wherever the story is. Is she like a floating German embassy worker?

From beginning to end I see nothing good about this man. He treats people like garbage, lies, and manipulates. Somehow he never gets caught for it. This is someone you'd expect to be cheerfully killed off pretty early in the series, but he lasts...

The person who abused and killed JonBenet is known to the Ramsey family.  He is an adult male who knows the family through the pageant circuit.  Alternatively, he is the parent of a child who goes to school with JonBenet.  He might work for or with John Ramsey or go to the same Church.  He is close enough to John to discover that they have a common interest in pedophilia.  He also has a daughter, and they set up an arrangement where they each use the other’s daughters as well as abusing their own daughters. They are both very discreet and do not think this is harmful.  Patsy is aware of it and sees this as a way to make JonBenet sexier.

This offender is never on the radar of the police - so his DNA has never been tested and his fingerprints are not on file.

He enters the Ramsey home using a key while the family is out on Christmas. John Ramsey gave him the key.  He is familiar with the home because he has been there before and has had previous sexual encounters with JonBenet

He waits in the basement and fantasizes about Jonbenet.  After the family goes to bed, he tiptoes upstairs and finds JB in the kitchen eating pineapple.  He tells her he has a present for her and takes her down to the basement.

He engages in a kind of sex play that mimics strangulation.  Unfortunately it all goes wrong.     She screams and tries to run away from him.  He strikes her on the head with a golf club or other object.  After she is subdued, he resumes the sex play and accidentally strangles her to death.

Now he is alone in the basement with a dead 6-year-old girl. He washes her body and decides he is going to fit her into a suitcase and drive away.   She does not fit into the suitcase, and he realizes he does not want to be caught with a dead child.  He wraps JonBenet in a blanket and stashes her in the “wine cellar”.  In a panic he writes a ransom note which is designed to stall for time.   He hopes the Ramseys will delay calling the police.  He waits quietly in the basement until dawn and then leaves through the back door.

John Ramsey finds JonBenet’s body during a surreptitious visit to the wine cellar in the mid-morning.  He instantly knows who killed her and he knows it was an accident.  Still, he cannot tell the police, or they will hold him and Patsy responsible.

So begins thirty years of lying and covering up.  John and Patsy Ramsey did not do this to their daughter- but they are responsible for her death and all they can do is play dumb and pretend there was an unknown intruder.

The grand jury voted "to indict John and Patsy Ramsey for child abuse resulting in death and being accessories to a crime". They seem to be accusing someone here without actually bringing charges or giving the name of the perpetrator.

The most likely person they could be covering for is Burke. I don't really think he was involved in this crime, but if he was I can understand why the parents would cover it up.

The only other option I can see is that the Ramsey's were allowing a pedophile to abuse JonBenet in their home. This person would have to be someone with a lot of power- so much power that it would unleash holy hell if the Ramseys exposed him.

So who could it be? Its not a known pedophile- his DNA is not in CODIS.

What if its a high level politician? What if its a well known minister or some other high profile person who went to their Church? Someone who they knew but who wouldn't actually be considered a friend- so their DNA would never have been tested. I cannot begin to speculate who that might be. But he would have to be someone the Ramseys were willing to protect. And if the Ramseys were actually trading favors with this person by letting them use and abuse JonBenet- that is all the more reason for them to cover it up. If its a powerful person that would also explain why the police department never figured it out and have stalled on testing the DNA using ancestry for a very long time.