Previously on The Americans: Gabriel isn’t looking so healthy, Epcot plans are put on hold, Agent Aderholt is taking Martha out on a date, and Nina is talking with boring bureaucrats about something….
The majority of the episode takes place with Philip and Elizabeth in quarantine. Obviously having your show’s two main characters quarantined for an entire episode can effect how the rest of the characters stories go. Luckily for the audience, the writers know exactly how to handle something like this. Following last week’s cliffhanger ending, “Chloramphenicol” picks up with Philip and Elizabeth urgently attempting to stop Pastor Tim’s upcoming KGB arranged “accident”. The whole plan to move Philip and Elizabeth out of town while Pastor Tim and his wife are executed was never the best plan to begin with. While Gabriel surmised that she would “wonder, but never be sure”, I don’t think it would take an absolute genius to figure it all out. Now, with Philip and Elizabeth stuck in quarantine, those plans are a multifaceted disaster waiting to happen. Paige and her parents have improved their relationship together over the course of the last three episodes and it would be a real shame to see that all go away because of a mistake like this.
Oleg returns to a sizable portion of screen time in this episode. While I have lamented the absolute uselessness of Nina’s character over the course of this season (and part of the last), I must note that Nina’s role in the Rezidentura is what brought Oleg to the show. Even after such a time apart Oleg can’t seem to forget Nina. Expect to see Oleg work hard to use his father’s prominent position in the Russian government to save her.
One of the seemingly less important, but more entertaining relationships on The Americans is the friendship between Henry and Stan. I’ve really enjoyed watching the two get closer over the course of the last four seasons. Because Henry’s storyline lacks the emotional weight that Paige’s story has, it’s always fun to see Henry get more screen time for enjoyable reasons. After humorously asking Stan for romantic advice about his teacher in episode two, Henry asks for a bit of different advice in this episode. We’ve known for awhile that Henry has a bit of a thing for Sandra Beeman, but this question makes it a bit more strange.
Back in prison, Nina is spending most of her time relaxing in her cell and daydreaming. She dreams of exactly what any person in prison would dream of: freedom. Luckily for Nina (and/or the audience depending on how you look at it), this episode features a major shift in Nina’s storyline. I don’t want to give this story’s direction away, but expect Nina to do something that actually matters for a change.
Rating: 9.6/10 - This is quite a unique episode because it is both a bottle episode in the sense that Philip and Elizabeth must stay in quarantine for a lot of it, but it also moves a previously dormant storyline along by leaps and bounds. The end of this episode actually feels like a season finale so you definitely don’t want to miss it.
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.
