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Previously on The Americans: Martha is getting very suspicious of "Clark" after Agent Gaad discovers the bug in his office, Phillip returned a scientist to the USSR against his will, and Phillip, Elizabeth, and Hans staged a kidnapping.
This episode picks up right where the last episode dropped off with Phillip and Elizabeth transporting their prisoners to a deserted site to interrogate them. The interrogation scenes were beyond brutal and watching Venter burn to death in front of the whole group was, without a doubt, one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen on TV. The Americans does such a fantastic job at balancing intense action scenes with equally intense dramatic scenes.
Meanwhile, Agent Walter Taffet is conducting some extremely invasive interviews in an attempt to uncover the mole in the CIA (Martha). I really enjoyed both Martha and Agent Aderholt's interrogation scenes because they struck up just the right balance of suspicion and aggressiveness. In Walter Taffet's mind, he could be dealing with a high level KGB spy who has infiltrated an FBI office so it's understandable why he would take such an approach to the interviews. While I definitely sympathize with Martha's position, I found myself really feeling sorry for Agent Aderholt. He has had an excellent career, does his job well, and is the quintessential self made man. All of his hard work could be destroyed by Martha's oblivious nature if the bug ends up being pinned on him as I suspect. #SaveAgentAderholt
Back in Russia, Nina has completed her first mission in prison and has received an amazing gift in return: only 10 years in prison. While this doesn't seem like much, it's pretty drastic for a prisoner to go from a life sentence to 10 years for such seemingly easy work. My problem with Nina's storyline this season is that it just seems way too easy for her. Her mission with the scientist, while definitely difficult, still does not seem to match exoneration. It seems to me that the writers have written themselves in a corner and only had one easy solution to it.
Additionally, without Nina in the embassy I'm having a hard time justifying all of the time that we spend in the embassy. Oleg is an interesting character as a foil to Stan, but outside of this purpose I don't know what purpose his character serves for the overall show. While I found Oleg's daddy issues are a stale story line, I really enjoyed Arkady's response to such threats. He values Oleg and believes him to be a valuable asset which is a fantastic story point for the writers to bring up. Given Oleg's inevitable attempt to save Nina, this friendship is sure to prove valuable for Oleg.
I really liked that Paige delved into such heavy research on Gregory. Instead of having Phillip and Elizabeth just spoon feed information to Paige slowly, they have introduced a second avenue for Paige to learn the truth. This is a truly impressive method way for Paige to gain information. It's impossible to predict and turns Paige into a ticking time bomb which makes for a great amount of suspense.
Martha's meeting with Clark towards the end of this episode was Allison Wright's best work on the show to date. Combining The Americans' signature dramatic intensity with such suspense made for a great scene. Martha's admission that the FBI found the pen was not quite the bombshell I had expected, but that's because Martha is finally beginning to put the pieces together about Clark! I continue to be impressed by how the writers can drag her story so far beyond belief, but manage to avoid jumping the shark! "Who are you Clark?" began this episode's (possibly season's) best dramatic scene and although I was disappointed that Martha decided to fall for Clark's charm yet again, I highly doubt that her suspicions have completely disappeared.
8.9 / 10 - Nothing earth shattering occurred in this episode. Martha's confrontation with Clark was a great scene, but didn't quite explode yet. I'm hoping for a great season finale explosion for Martha's story. Nina's relevance continues to wane, while Oleg and Arkady develop a close friendship that could prove interesting. Overall, plenty of action and great drama, but simply not quite as good as last week's.
