Both have personal and professional reasons for the side they take. Elizabeth has grown closer to Paige by slowly fostering her disillusionment with Western society, and the value of a government-placed asset is proven early in the episode by disgruntled Company-woman Charlotte. But for Philip, whose devotion to the cause is cracking along with his conscience, a normal life is the least he can give Paige. More importantly, diving into the world of espionage means putting yourself in harm’s way, and if Philip couldn’t protect poor Annelise, how can he ever be sure his daughter will be safe?
Yet, what continues to make the Jennings relationship – despite all the cheating, murdering, and treason – one of the most realistic marriages on TV is that even though Paige’s fate is shaping up to be an ultimatum between the two, they can still be a functioning, supportive couple. As much as their job is starting to drive them apart, being there for one another as they handle each assignment is how they’ve grown to survive the increasing demands of the Centre.
The next day in the office, Elizabeth is icing a bruise, but it’s Philip giving her the cold shoulder. Offering him one of the brownies he had previously been robbed of, Elizabeth then shares troubling, personal news: her mother is dying. As she does, director Daniel Sackheim pans the camera around, bringing the two together on an equal plane, eye to eye and hand in hand. Their issues are still in the room with them, the blue icepack in the background lodging protest against a full reconciliation, but as partners and parents, they’re trying their best to hold together a situation that might well be broken.
“You want to line up these two sights together,” Martha is told midway through the episode, a piece of advice that applies just as well to a marriage as it does her target practice. Of course, the great irony of said advice is that it’s coming from Stan Beeman, who has spent most of the show fixated on the fuzzy target that is Directorate S, all the while missing everything that’s been going on right in front of him. Stan unwittingly comes face-to-face with Gaad’s attacker even before finding out his boss got punched out by a 5 foot 4” blonde (“they make them tough over there”), but the loss of both Sandra and Nina has provided him a form of clarity. In a way, going to the EST seminar has the desired effect: taking one defiant step onto Sandra’s new lawn, Stan finally, proudly, and honestly speaks his mind. The following shot, framing Stan in a terrarium of his own solitude, showcases how far he’s still got to go, but like the Jennings, honesty is doing more harm than good at the moment.
The same can’t be said, however, for Annelise, who puts all her cards on the table for Yousaf, a lynchpin for Pakistani intelligence that could potentially stymie CIA efforts in Afghanistan. Yousaf’s titular episode from Season 2 was one of the weaker installments last year, but as setup for the events that played out tonight, it shows marvellous foresight. Her time on the show was brief, but Annelise’s murder isn’t just grist for the plot machinery. Well, granted, it is still that, as the final scene makes it hard to deduce how much Philip has to gain now that his honeypot has become an incriminating Venus flytrap. But the Annelise we see in the car with Philip tonight is a markedly different person than the one we first saw in the same car a couple years ago. “He deserves better. So do you,” she says of Scott and Yousaf, her conscience so clouded by self-loathing that she forgets herself in the list of those owed more than they’re given.
What becomes of Annelise should only strengthen Philip’s case to keep Paige out of the family trade, but Elizabeth’s own asset, Charlotte, provides an important counterpoint for what Paige can expect in a normal life, where the Jeffs of the world get ahead by virtue of being a man. For as creatively as The Americans plays with the politics of the past, its gender politics have always offered a sharp reflection of present struggles to achieve something resembling equality between sexes, whether in the workplace, at home, or in fiction. Both Charlotte and Annelise reckon with their consciences tonight, and wind up dead or disgraced for it. Yousaf kills someone, and forces beyond his control double over to protect him, because he’s holding the keys. Elizabeth has consistently proven herself to be the best asset the KGB has, but that’s because she’s treated honesty as a luxury she can’t afford. Recruiting Paige may open up a connection she’s never had with her daughter, but it may also expose her to a new kind of danger: something more valuable than the cause.
- Stray Thoughts
-“Come on, we’re having such a good time!” The focus rack and slight pan onto Elizabeth when Charlotte tries to keep her busy is like watching a shark get a whiff of blood in the water. Sensing a trap that quick is why Elizabeth is the best at what she does, though when it comes to nonchalantly wiping away fingerprints, she could still use a few lessons.
-Nathan Barr’s score continues to be one of the show’s best weapons, all the more so now that it increasingly seems influenced by the melancholy guitar work Gustavo Santaolalla did on the soundtrack for The Last of Us.
-Love love loooooove that first scene in the Russian embassy, with the camera first zeroing in on Arkady’s reaction to the hostage video, then panning over to catch Oleg’s, and finally cutting to a wide shot to reveal there have been three other people hiding in the scene the whole time.
-Martha’s case for “Secret Best Character on the Show” gets shored up in just a pair of scenes, shooting and screwing like she doesn’t have a care in the world. Sackheim opening on the upside-down Kama Sutra book makes the imagery on the page a hilarious mirror to Martha and Clarke as they perform an already symmetrical position. If Wes Anderson ever directed an adult film, it might look like this.
-Nina, meanwhile, has been convicted for espionage and treason back in Russia. “You told me it goes that way.” “Doesn’t make it easier,” Gaad tells Stan. For as bold as it was for the show to send one of its best characters halfway around the world, the real test will be in seeing how believably Nina remains a part of the story.
-Reintegrating Yousaf back into the plot tonight helps set expectations for a pair of late scenes that otherwise lack much impact. The FBI has a new asset coming in from out of Russia, and Elizabeth is doing a little late night tail training with a cute Brit. At this point, I fully trust the show’s groundwork-laying to pay off when the time is right.
-Hey, the credits are longer!