Watching this episode, I
got the sense of waves crashing on the shore, coming so fast that they overlapped
each other. “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” was blackmail on top of blackmail,
disguise on top of disguise, confidence on top of confidence.
Stan makes a major power
move, blackmailing the FBI to ward off the blackmailing of Oleg. For a true
believer like Stan, this may be as close as he will get to turning on his
country. No doubt he was inspired by Aderholt’s earlier recollection of trapping
an asset by threatening to reveal his affair: “We blackmailed the shit out of
him and everybody wound up happy.” The FBI got the information and the asset
and his family live comfortably under the witness protection program.
Far from winding up happy,
Oleg seems like he’s headed for doom, which is ironic and unfair, given that
his actions were the rare altruistic ones on The Americans. After burying one son, Mrs. Burov does not need the
stress of worrying about another son, but she gathers her courage and tells her
son to do whatever he has to to survive, as she did in prison.
Elizabeth is considering
blackmailing Pastor Tim as insurance to prevent him from blackmailing the
Jenningses. She and Paige share one confidence after another, with Paige
telling her mother about the diary and Elizabeth telling her daughter some real
specifics about the mission in Topeka. This openness seems like a parallel for
the glasnost that is about to take root in the Soviet Union. It seems sweet for
mother and daughter to share but I’m also thinking “grand jury testimony” when
Paige gets these specific details.
It’s fascinating to see
Paige turn into a spy almost by reflex. The copy of Das Kapital that Pastor Tim gave her may be the bridge that finally
connects communism with the church’s social justice and may start turning some
wheels in Paige’s mind. She seems affected by the grain crisis, telling Henry
(or the post-pubescent actor who kidnapped Henry) that she would have eaten the
sandwich he threw away.
Disguises also piled on top
of disguises. The vacation is over and the boss wants Elizabeth and Philip to
go back and forth to Topeka to work their sources on the grain/midge thing. (I loved
how at the gym, Philip was positioned under the red star on the wall and the
woman was positioned under the blue star.) This running back and forth seems
like it would be exhausting and impractical. In addition to their Kansas
mission, Philip maintains his pilot disguise with Alexei and he and Elizabeth
return to their base disguises as American travel agents at dinner with Stan
and Renee.
At this point, Philip, Stan
and Oleg are triplets of doubt. They are all disillusioned with their missions
and ideologies and maybe it’s only a matter of time before one or all of them
breaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment