We already know how the
Cold War ended. Glasnost and perestroika led to summits between the United
States and Soviet Union, which led to an arms reduction. Reagan asked Gorbachev
to tear down the Berlin Wall and at the end of the ‘80s, the wall did fall.
Numerous satellite countries got their freedom from the USSR and by 1991, the
USSR itself ceased to exist.
What we don’t know is how
the story of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings will end. We know what they’ve been
up to in the last three years since season five ended. In a stunning montage,
we see an exhausted Elizabeth playing yet another role as a visiting nurse to
an artist and then sleeping with a source. We can see the toll all this is
taking right on her face. We see Philip, who for the last few years was the
exhausted one, invigorated after quitting the spy game, immersed in actually
running the travel business at its new offices.
The fact that this montage
was set to one of the most drop-dead gorgeous songs of the ‘80s, “Don’t Dream
It’s Over,” a gentle song about letting go, made it especially moving. It’s one
of the best music moments The Americans
has ever done, with the on-point lyrics “They come to build a wall between us …
don’t let them win.” So we’re off to a pretty good start in season six.
Zoom out and see the rest
of the family and cast. Henry did get to go to private school, where he’s
playing hockey in front of his attentive dad. Paige is totally part of the young
illegals mission, spying with her mother and being indoctrinated into Russian culture
by way of viewing soap operas with Claudia. Stan has moved on to other
interests in the FBI and has married (probable spy) Renee. Aderholt is married
with a baby. They all gather at Stan’s for what may be the last peaceful dinner
before the end.
Paige is working in the
field but has a setback after the military guard holds her college ID for
ransom for a date, which is a pretty predatory thing to do. Elizabeth stabs him
in the neck. The fact that she took a risk in doing this right on the street
suggests this was more personal to Elizabeth than protecting Paige’s cover: She
doesn’t want her daughter going down the honeytrap road. Who would?
The conflict between the
Jenningses reaches clarity in the fight they have when an exhausted Elizabeth
doesn’t want to talk to Philip about her feelings. (She is working so many
angles that this episode must have set a record for wigs.) After years of
working alone, Elizabeth doesn’t have anyone to confide in about the burdens of
her work, or as her husband says, “It is finally getting to you after all these
years.” Last season, Elizabeth warned the budding psycho Tuan that he wasn’t
going to make it alone and needed a partner, since the work they do is too
hard. It’s more like future Elizabeth was going back in time to warn her past
self.
Elizabeth is also carrying
an impossible burden. In Mexico City, she finds out that a Soviet is trading
knowledge of the Dead Hand program for the American Star Wars program. Since
she’s in on it now, she can’t be arrested, and will have to wear the millstone
of a cyanide pill around her neck. It was fitting that the music swelled over
the dialogue, as if Elizabeth didn’t need to hear the rest of the speech. All
that matters is that the Center made her fly thousands of miles on short notice
to face her certain death, something she really has no choice in.
Philip is comfortable
country line-dancing with his coworkers but I assumed the show wouldn’t have
him on the sidelines all season. What brings him back? Arkady and a bearded
Oleg want him to spy on his wife. There are forces that don’t want the USSR to
change, Oleg explains, and Philip must keep tabs on his wife, “and if you have
to, stop her.”
This is chilling and
tragic, especially after the two really solidified their cover marriage over
the last few seasons. If The Americans
is going where I think it’s going, this will be a Shakespeare-caliber tragedy.
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