The Americans S3 E6: Born Again

This was a quiet episode of The Americans but still managed to ramp up the tension. For a second, while Elizabeth and Paige walked through Gregory’s neighborhood, I thought Elizabeth was just going to flat-out say, “We’re communists.” It’s a smart play to link communism with the revolutionary spirit Paige is already showing through her religion and I thought this was what they were going to do. I’m happy this plot is moving along because as fascinating as the psychology behind the young illegals program is, I am ready to see some action on it.

Baptisms bookended this episode and maybe it should have been called “Born Again and Again.” What denomination is their church that it uses immersion baptism? It seems annoying because you have to dry off and get changed and ugh. A sprinkle on the head is fine.

So Nina betrays her fellow prisoner for a steak dinner. That woman’s guilty conscience must be staggering her at this point as she couldn’t even look at the other woman (who by the way is a pretty good screamer). Still, her description of her situation was poetic: “One lover was a communist and one was a capitalist. I was whatever they wanted me to be.” She is still letting others manipulate her, this time for survival.

I feel bad for Philip at this point. He’s clearly disgusted with himself for the inappropriate contact with Kimmy. Now even after she gets the hint that they can’t sleep together, you think he could breathe a sigh of relief with the bug planted, but Gabriel makes his spy keep up contact with her once a week for the duration. Now the flashback to the spy training as prostitutes seems even skeevier. Gabriel hinted that the two did need to become intimate but I wonder how far FX will let this play out. Even if that actress is 18, how much tolerance will an audience have for even implied underage sex? Philip is also letting his own soap opera with the possible illegitimate son bleed into his spy work, just as Elizabeth let her history with rape bleed into her act for the sailor in Virginia last season. They confess their deepest feelings to strangers while playing a part, which must offer some safety.  

How does Philip get all this done in a day? He spends nights at Martha’s, has to work this underage source, has to keep up the façade of working for a travel agency and now might have another son. How does he not just collapse?

Speaking of sons, I enjoyed Henry’s questions about EST and how Stan and the girlfriend couldn’t exactly answer, “But what is it?” We need more EST scenes because I will never not be amused. Oh, and hi, Stan’s son! I thought you died.

I was also really amused by Paige catching Elizabeth smoking and the fact that the master spy couldn’t hide something so prosaic from her kids. Kid, if you think smoking is shameful, you don’t even want to know what other secrets your mom is keeping. Last week she dropped a car on a guy. The scene with the Jenningses smoking pot was also fun, as it’s so rare that these two share an actual laugh, even if that laugh was about their fundamentally morbid spy work. Of course, it all turned dark in a hurry with Elizabeth understandably upset about Philip’s prolonged seduction of a teenager.

Finally, Martha should dump Clark and marry that new FBI guy. He was the only one who listened to her about the classified files on the mail robot. I also thinking the mail robot should have its own spinoff or be integral to the resolution of season three in some way.

Overall, this was a table setting episode, where nobody got crushed by a car or stuffed into a suitcase. But the season is at its midpoint and I think things will ramp up shortly.