The Americans - Episode 2.07 - ARPANET - Advance Review

   

     Previously on The Americans: Paige is joining a church, Henry continues to be irrelevant, Stan requests that Nina take a polygraph, and Elizabeth and Phillip get a new handler and continue to train a rookie spy.

     One of my favorite parts of the first season of The Americans was the way that reality was interlaced with the fictional story of our friendly neighborhood KGB spies. The episode where President Reagan was shot was expertly done. From the perspective of a history buff, it was a refreshing way of looking at the events of those days. In this episode of The Americans, an early version of the Internet, referred to as the ARPANET, is the target of Phillip’s mission of the week. He teams up with undercover agent Charles Duluth (from last season) in order to bug (rat is more like it) the ARPANET in order for the Soviets to learn more about the revolutionary mode of communication. It should be interesting to see how technology progresses and how much the characters in The Americans are aware of it.

     While Phillip is spending time sporting a different wig, Elizabeth is discovering that Andrew Larrick isn’t going to be quite as predictable as she originally thought. While Larrick is obviously going to prove to be difficult, I don’t think this is an enormous surprise for viewers. What is a bit of a surprise is the track that Elizabeth’s protégé, Lucia, looks to be on. Rather than faithfully following Elizabeth’s every word, Lucia proves to be independent, albeit naïve. While she could turn out to be a pain for Phillip and Elizabeth, it is refreshing that the writers chose not to make Lucia completely clueless because I don’t think the Sandinista agents were well known for hiring entirely clueless spies.

     In my favorite story line of this episode, Nina struggles with the prospect of being forced to take a polygraph. Television likes to tell us that it is extremely easy to beat and while I have never taken one (always wanted to for some odd reason), I doubt that fooling the machine is as easy as this episode conveys it to be. During Nina’s scenes in this episode, the writers do a fantastic job of continuing to make us question Nina’s true loyalties. As soon as we think we have her figured out, she does something else to make us change our mind. It’s these characters of moral ambiguity that are truly enjoyable for viewers.

Rating: 9.5/10

     This episode is simply fantastic. Interwoven with reality and just the perfect amount of fiction, The Americans thrives with an excellently written set of stories. There is one story line that I found to be completely random, but it used minimal screen time and therefore, it didn’t bother me much. Continue with episodes like this and the second season will be a surefire success.

Tune in to The Americans on Wednesdays @ 10/9c on FX Network. Be sure to come back here to SpoilerTV to let everyone else know what you thought of the episode.