Previously on The Americans: The FBI is wising up to the mail robot bug, William’s loyalty is questionable, Stan never wants to see Oleg again, and Paige saw a side of her mother she’s never seen before.
This episode opens in the immediate aftermath of the last episode with Paige and Elizabeth walking in the front door at the Jennings’ residence. As Paige continues to learn more about her parents, she is also going to continue to look at people around her differently, particularly The Beemans and Henry (who is practically half Beeman now). In this episode, expect Paige to begin to look at one of them VERY differently as a result of her development this season. Additionally, in the typical fantastic format of The Americans, last week’s events are not just easily gotten over by any of the main characters. Paige is deeply affected not only by the killing itself, but also by Elizabeth’s ease and calm response. This allows Paige and Elizabeth and opportunity to talk quite a bit, both about the past and the future.
William continues to question his future as a Soviet spy in this episode. Rather than tell Elizabeth (which would be extremely unwise), William confides in Philip about his traitorous thoughts. He is understandably unsure about how he would feel if a deadly pathogen was released because of him. William has been an excellent addition to the cast this year and, since the rest of the Soviet spies we’ve seen have all been mostly dedicated like Elizabeth, it’s nice to see Philip have a “comrade” to talk about these things with besides the EST people.
Over in the completely disconnected and somewhat irrelevant group at the Rezidentura, Oleg has a disheartening conversation with his mother who is still grieving over the loss of her son. Additionally, Tatiana gives Oleg some interesting news about her future employment. While I really enjoyed this episode, I’m continuing to question the point of all the Embassy stuff. It just always seems so completely different from anything else that goes on in the show that I don’t really care about it. The only true point of interest in the Rezidentura anymore is Stan’s friendship with Oleg.
Rating: 8.7/10 - There’s a lot of setup involved in this episode, which makes perfect sense given that next week is already the season finale! In spite of all the setup, the writers still deliver yet another entertaining hour of quality programming.
