An elderly bookkeeper goes to the office at night to get
some work done and with her dying breath, condemns Elizabeth’s entire way of
life as evil.
Betty may
be the first person ever to call out Elizabeth to her face. The spy lets her
guard down, because she no doubt sees her own dying mother in the woman and
because she’s going to kill her anyway so there’s no point in her lying about
her life and family. What the woman says is a slap in the face: You have
children and this is what you do? You think killing an old woman who happened
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time makes the world a better place? THANK
YOU.
That whole scene was brilliant and hard to watch. At first
you might think the pill overdose is a mercy but it was more pragmatic because
Elizabeth had to make it look like a natural death so the police wouldn’t be
looking for her (now I wonder if that woman wrote a note while she was alone).
We needed to see that woman’s excruciating end to see the real collateral
damage these spies inflict. As much as I kind of root for Philip and Elizabeth
just for the thrill and their performances, this is the ugly truth of what they
do, so the old woman’s words were a slap in the face to the viewers, too.
This is another example of The Americans giving real weight to smaller characters because I
had so much empathy for that woman and the life story she laid out. Kudos to Lois Smith for playing a hell of a
part. They could have played it as a throwaway but the whole season could turn
on her condemnation of Elizabeth. She’s always been the more ideological of the
Jenningses but this could plant the seed to make her doubt her recruitment of
Paige. Elizabeth has rarely been that rattled.
The woman died for a mail robot. As dark as that is, I was
thrilled to see that piece of machinery get some spotlight. There’s never too
much of the mail robot. At first I was disappointed to see it out of commission
but then I realized that the episode’s title, “Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric
Sheep?” was a reference to the fact that the mail robot spent the episode
asleep. Brilliant.
Maybe Elizabeth’s murder of that woman was a reaction to
letting the Afrikaner go last episode and maybe she feels she can’t spare any
more mercy. The whole thing was moot anyway because Hans shot the guy in the
eye and strangled him to impress Elizabeth both professionally and personally.
Meanwhile, over at the Westerfeld apartment, Martha has
either gone full Looney Tunes or is playing a long con with Philip. That was
the most suspenseful spaghetti dinner in history. It looked like they shot the
scene to seem like Martha was going to kill Philip as there was something
vaguely horror movie about it. She gives her KGB husband some information of
real value about the mail robot and indirectly gets that bookkeeper killed. It
was unsettling to know that she’s both in denial about the seriousness of her
situation and aware of what she’s doing. Martha probably knows she’s trapped
with a man who could kill her and just goes along with him because what love he
gives her is worth it. It’s better to pretend.
I’m realizing just how much Martha and Stan have in common
without knowing it and that if the subterfuge of either one is uncovered,
neither could feel self-righteous against the other. Each is betraying America
for a loved one. Stan has flirted with this before for the love of Nina but his
working with Oleg seems like it’s a new level of betrayal because now he’s messing
with a Soviet defector. Zinaida, ever opaque, continues to intrigue me. She
seems curiously unrattled by the intruder in her hotel room.
Philip doesn’t seem like he’s going to take any more from
Gabriel or the Center and made it clear he’ll go to any lengths to protect his
family. Maybe this episode was a turning point for him like it was for
Elizabeth.
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