Previously on The Americans: The Martha situation is approaching DEFCON 1 with Stan and Agent Aderholt finding themselves dangerously close to “Clark”.Despite Elizabeth’s best efforts to assure Phillip that Martha is safe, he is unable to control his stress. It’s very obvious in this episode that Philip only wants to do the right thing because he feels responsible for Martha. Philip has done some terrible things in the past. He’s murdered more than his fair share of innocent bystanders, but Martha is more than just an innocent bystander. She’s completely guilty and even though she meant well, she became complacent in Clark’s operation. All the same, Philip cares about her. He is more than capable of going the extra mile to help Martha regardless of the effect it has on the KGB's operations.
That being said, Elizabeth has always been the more tactical of the two. Because of this, it will be interesting for viewers to see how Elizabeth responds to the drastic measures that Philip is forced to take to protect Martha. By showing Martha how he really looked last season (e.g. removing the Clark wig), Philip took a major risk that others (including Elizabeth) may not be completely comfortable with.
While Philip, Elizabeth, and Martha do their best to deal with the situation, Agent Aderholt and Stan work to learn as much about Martha’s past as they possibly can. This research supplies them with a startling discovery about a past relationship of Martha’s.
Additionally, this episode features the return of Clark’s sister, Jennifer. This show does such a great idea of creating alter-egos for Philip and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is always so serious, but her alter egos tend to be quite a bit more light hearted. Jennifer is no exception to this rule and does her best to cheer up Martha.
Rating: 9.3/10 - The Rat is another fantastic episode of The Americans. Yet again, this episode ends on a great cliffhanger that causes me to question how Martha can possibly make it out of this alive.
