Oh, no, not Gaad -- not Gaad!
The Americans doesn’t much like its cast, it seems. In the space of seven episodes this season, two main characters have suffered their final demise while another has been shipped off to Russia, likely never to be seen again. The first three seasons were almost completely devoid of exits from the main group, except for Maximiliano Hernández’s Chris Amador, even at points where the show backed itself into such a tight corner that killing a character seemed the only way out; of course, The Americans was smart enough to know that there was another escape and that those characters weren’t done. With Nina and Martha, the reverse was apparent: Both characters had served their purpose and keeping them around further would have been little more than doing so for the sake of keeping them there.
With Gaad, the same choice has been made, and it’s the right choice, if not one that’s come slightly out of left field. After being pushed out of office at FBI Counterintelligence seven months ago to be replaced by “Webster munchkin” Agent Wolfe (Peter Jacobson), Gaad was tracked down in Thailand by three Soviet agents who offered a proposal for him. But unlike Stan with Nina, Gaad wasn’t turned so easily and attempted to run, only to be pushed through a window where he took a shard of glass to the stomach.
Damn it, The Americans.
Arkady later implicitly confirmed that the KGB had attempted to recruit Gaad as he told Oleg that an operation had gone wrong, one that perhaps “should have never been planned in the first place." Again, killing Gaad here seemed like the smart - and only - move: Turning him would be a gross misuse of his character given how vehemently he’s objected towards the Soviets; letting him live out the remainder of his days in peace as he visits family in Thailand would be too easy. In essence, this eventuality was inevitable. While I’m immensely sad (or saad, as Alan Sepinwall would put it) to be losing Richard Thomas - his slow and intense delivery of lines like “That’s… crazy” and “They seduced and married my secretary” added some much-needed humour - The Americans once again proved that it knows when to make the hard choice.
You know who else is having to make a hard choice? Elizabeth. After putting herself in a position to play Don and acquire the codes necessary to get William to Level 4, she was reluctant to move forward with the plan because he and Young Hee will “never recover” from it. Again, it comes down to her having become far more human through her relationship with Young Hee. She and Don may be the targets, but Elizabeth cares for them and their family and so wrecking their life isn’t as easy as Gabriel, the Center or even Elizabeth herself might expect it to be. Thus, Gabriel offers to ask the Center for another way in, just in case, to which Elizabeth agrees. Is she losing her edge? Perhaps. However, while feeling emotions for another may be seen as a weakness, she’s a trained professional and it’s difficult to imagine that if, as is likely, she is told to follow through on the mission, she’ll do it as ruthlessly as ever. Keri Russell was excellent in that final scene, too.
But it was Holly Taylor who really knocked it out of the park this week, as we were treated to what was, effectively, another Paige-centred tenth episode of a season. While Munchkins didn’t feature anything quite as monumental as the season-ago Stingers did, it allowed Taylor another platform to showcase her skills and prove why stepping up her story was the right move. With Pastor Tim missing in Ethiopia, it was down to Paige to act as an intermediary between Alice and her parents after the pastor’s wife threatened to expose the spies were anything to happen to her or Tim. A tricky situation, though diffused with the utmost of ease as none of our characters actually did anything - he simply got lost.
Prior to this discovery, however, Paige was placed in the middle of a game of hot potato: Anything her parents said simply infuriated Alice more and their admittance that should it come to it, moving to Russia is an alternative, meant that the pressure was on her to keep Alice in check for her own sake. Taylor’s performance hit all the right notes of confusion and stressed desperation as Paige struggled to comprehend the problematic situation placed in front of her. She doesn’t know for sure whether her parents are capable of this horrible thing - and, as she questions, how could she? They keep all of the grim details of their operations secret from their daughter to protect her, which keeps her from knowing, like we do, that their work includes things like this. Her trust in them and their lies made this a hugely compelling story, sold brilliantly by Taylor.
Thematically, lying played a big part in Munchkins: Elizabeth and Don opened the hour lying to Young Hee by pretending nothing was wrong; Paige can’t decide if her parents are lying about Tim; Martha’s father (whom I’ll come onto in the notes) thought Stan and Aderholt were lying about her being a Russian spy; and Gaad refused to lie to his country by turning towards the KGB and paid the ultimate price. In a world of spies, the truth is never going to be a prominent factor.
Yet another highly emotionally charged hour, and yet another superb episode. The Americans continues to turn the screw as tight as possible on its characters, and it’s making for quite phenomenal viewing.
Notes:
- Kimmy (Julia Garner) was back for the first time since the season-ago episode, which also meant the return of Philip’s great disguise as James. She revealed to him that her father works for the CIA, which could end up backfiring on her. Though it’s entirely possible that those two variables are unrelated, and that her life will fall apart because of the bug Philip planted long ago. Still, nice reminder that she exists, and her scene fit in well to the overall theme of the episode.
- Martha’s father Bill (Richard Kline) also reappeared for the first time since season one’s The Oath and attempted to convince Stan and Aderholt that his daughter wasn’t in league with the Russians and that they needed to find her to clear her name. A tragic scene, given what we know, but a necessary one to see the impact of Martha’s disappearance beyond Philip.
- Matthew made a brief appearance too, discussing an FBI secretary who was found to be a spy with Paige. His lust for her is so obvious, and my notes simply read “So. Much. Puppy eyes.”
- As I noted on Twitter, the longer I walk around my house swearing after watching an episode, the better it is. I spent a good five minutes doing that after this episode. And yes, that was completely Gaad-related.
- It never fails to amuse me that the Jennings and Beeman households have the exact same layout.
What did everyone think of Munchkins? Leave your thoughts in the comments and vote in the poll below.
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