Omens of death were hard to
miss this week on The Americans. Oleg
has a meaningful conversation with his father, asks his mother about the camps
and shares a meaningful look, then goes walking on a bridge. I thought he was
going to jump off, like I thought he would jump off the roof he was on a few
weeks ago. Paige starts doing something with a rope in the garage and for a
second, I thought she was going to hang herself, but that would be too dark,
even for this show.
Speaking of dark, we come
to Tuan’s plan to get Pasha to slit his wrists (just a little slitting, not
like hitting an artery or anything) so the family will move back to the USSR.
This is siiiiiiick and the Soviets
need to be held accountable for it. Elizabeth and Philip sat by and did nothing
to stop this teenager from being bullied, even when his mother showed her
anguish over it. Now Tuan actually instructs the kid to slit his wrists. These
people have done terrible things but this seems different since it’s a child.
And for what? What great victory
will they win, what great danger will they avert, if this family returns home?
It’s not going to be worth the human toll, and that’s the point.
That was quite a
suspenseful walk down the sidewalk to the Morozovs’ house, with the three spies
trying hard to walk briskly without running to try to prevent a teen suicide.
At least the Jenningses have enough common sense and morality to realize how
wrong this mission can go and how horrifying this plan is. Meanwhile, someone
is watching the spies from the street, and next week’s episode preview looks
especially dire.
Oleg has kept the grocer
woman out of prison but it sure looks like the FSB is wise to his treason. He
has his father on his side to fight, but will it be enough if Oleg has to pay a
price for tipping off the FBI about the lassa virus? “Now I can crush people if
I have to,” Igor tells his son. “I’ll crush them for you. Not just because you’re
my son. But because you’re good.” Oleg did something for the greater good but
may still go to jail or pay a terrible price for it.
Pastor Tim ships out to
Belize or wherever, with the Center arranging a new job at the World Council of
Churches. Paige, thoroughly disillusioned by the diary, unburdens herself of
her crucifix necklace by (a little melodramatically) throwing it in the trash.
Elizabeth puts it back on her neck (she could have at least wiped it off), and
tells her daughter, “You have to wear it until he’s gone.” The charade isn’t
going to end quite yet for her.
Tim actually has some
advice for whether the Jennings family should pick up and move to the Soviet
Union: “You can’t predict what a person’s life will be like and you can’t deny
them the challenges that will shape them.” Claudia has some harsher advice that
the family probably shouldn't tell Henry they’re moving until he steps off the
plane in Moscow.
This is an enormously
stupid idea. Henry is just starting to strike out on his own with a solid plan
to attend boarding school, and the parents would basically kidnap him to a
strange country. Paige is already depressed and disillusioned and moving her
may shove her off a cliff like Pasha’s. Plus, when they get home, Elizabeth and
Philip will find the USSR is a broken, desperate, hungry place. The move would
destroy their family.
They can leave the spy game
but they can’t go home. After decades, their family is just too tied to their
adopted homeland. For better or for worse, they’re all Americans now.
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