The Americans S6 E5: The Great Patriotic War

All in all, that was one of the ugliest episodes of The Americans ever. Let’s take stock. Elizabeth brutally murders Gennadi and Sofia, leaving their son to find their bodies. Philip spars with Paige, with a self-defense lesson becoming something uncomfortably close to assault. Then, crossing the final Rubicon, Philip sleeps with Kimmy, whom he’s known since she was about 15.

Eww eww eww eww eww eww eww eww eww.

Philip was turning even more fully to the darkness in this episode, only redeeming himself at the last minute. He wants to protect his daughter. After Paige gets into a bar fight and (justifiably) punches out those two creeps, Elizabeth and Philip are appalled that she’s having sex and nearly blowing her cover with her too-expert violence. The hypocrisy is strong in this scene, with the Jennings parents berating their daughter for going the honeypot route when they’ve done so many times themselves. Still, those Soviet sexcapades have taken their toll on Philip and Elizabeth, so they undoubtedly want to spare their daughter.  

It was thrilling to see Paige defend herself at the bar and even more thrilling when she cut off her mother’s latest lecture. Two seasons ago, she would have cowered. Back at her apartment, the lesson Philip taught her took a terrible turn, with the choke hold becoming truly frightening.

Elizabeth pulls Philip back into one last mission and he’s miserable about it. Still, he does his duty for his country and sleeps with Kimmy to manipulate her into going to Greece, and then Bulgaria, only to get kidnapped on a phony drug charge so her father will spill the beans on why a member of the CIA Soviet Division was meeting with the USSR summit delegate. Thank God Philip changed his mind and told Kimmy goodbye and not to go to any communist countries.

The murder of Gennadi and Sofia was brutal and was another Rubicon crossed, this time by Elizabeth. She knew it, too, hesitating to kill her fellow countrymen. These two were counterparts of the Jennings family, and I wonder if the show created their characters as a warning of what could happen to our two spies. There was also an echo of the dead Soviet family in season two.

In a lighter moment, we get to see drunk Claudia! After coating their stomachs with olive oil (sorry, I’d rather just go lighter on the booze than do that), the Russian girls do shots of vodka and gab about their sexual experiences. It was a nice counterbalance to Claudia’s earlier speech about losing her family during the Great Patriotic War. This is a woman who has seen such terrible things that she will never waiver in her commitment to the cause. There was another light moment with Philip and Elizabeth sharing tenderness in the bedroom but the sad look on her face before they started fooling around made me think this will be the last such moment between them.

I was glad to see Tatiana again but it was depressing that she hasn’t gotten a promotion in five years. Oleg is right that she should be running the Rezidentura. She always seemed like a mastermind to me. With her in conflict with Oleg, it’s going to end very badly for him.

It’s going to end very badly for a lot of people. Stan may be off the USSR beat now that his last links to it are dead but the murder of Gennadi and Sofia will undoubtedly get him riled up. Philip’s warning to Kimmy about staying in Greece may spur her to tip her father off. And the mere fact that Philip backed out of that mission, not wanting to destroy the life of a girl who surely reminds him of his own daughter, may be the final break between him and his wife.

Demon Weeds

Rip out all the demon weeds by their roots, every last one. They are cruel in the way they arch toward June with hope and anticipation, but their orange blossoms collapse with summer barely nascent, then lay down in the garden like hair matted under a hat.

Those are spots where other colors could shine: marigolds or dianthus or dahlias or pansies or flowers whose names I’ve forgotten.

We did not ask for this. Our predecessors planted these flowers of evil that would inspire Baudelaire and I only want to be free of them. I rip out each by the bulbs without a care, without a regret. You think they are beautiful but they are my seasonal nemesis.

The Americans S6 E4: Mr. and Mrs. Teacup

The Jenningses are failing at life. Their marriage continues to be a sour affair, with one tense fight after another. They spar in the kitchen when Philip pokes holes in the story about Rennhull’s death, then spar again in the bedroom, with Elizabeth looking ready to pounce and announcing she’s going downstairs and he shouldn’t wait up for her. There is a little tenderness when the two go to bed, but even that is tinged with Elizabeth’s heartbreaking statement that she’s tired all the time. Of course she is. Even someone as superhuman as her can’t keep up this pace forever, particularly when more and more of her missions turn out to be dead ends.

There were two dead end missions this week. Elizabeth kills two security guards, very nearly avoiding capture, and still doesn’t find the radiation detector. At least I think it was two guards. The show was lit as badly as a Netflix drama and I couldn’t tell, although it did make for a beautiful shot when Elizabeth shot out a light over her head.

Then, just as eavesdropping on the American and Russian gets juicy, the stupid dying artist goes and vomits at the stupid World Series party and has to go home like a big baby. That was hilarious to watch, but then again, I’m always amused by televised vomit. (What did she eat, raisins?)

Things are going just as smashingly at the travel agency. Philip overextended his credit and can’t make ends meet. This is also right around the time of the October 1987 stock market crash, so I wonder if that will be a factor. As communism falls apart in the USSR, capitalism is about to take a hit in the USA, so maybe neither ideology has all the answers. He may not be able to afford to pay for Henry’s senior year at the academy, which is terrible. Elizabeth knows this is bad but says to Philip, probably coming off more harshly than she intended, that Henry is Philip’s department.

Paige is apparently her mother’s department, as she warns her daughter that she can date someone or be a honeypot but she can’t mix the two. She flirts at a bar and sleeps with some guy and may be doing just what her mother warned against. I was struck by the contrast between Paige and Kimmy. The two are about the same age but Kimmy still seems younger than Paige, who looked great and sophisticated at the bar, and coolly skilled taking pictures in the hotel hallway.

Now that she’s on her deathbed, Erica wishes she had spent more time with husband Glenn. It remains to be seen whether Elizabeth will take the hint. Whether she knows it or not, something is coming to an end for Elizabeth, as it is for Erica. Soon, everything she’s done for the motherland may have been for nothing. At least Erica has left behind some amazing art. (And Erica really should go easier on herself. It’s awful to that young and in a drawn-out way, but passing on all her work is about as good a legacy to leave as you could in her situation.)

I continue to find the central conflict of this season fascinating. Philip informs on Elizabeth to Oleg. As Oleg explains, there is an increasing divide between hardliners in the Soviet Union and Gorbachev supporters. Philip says Elizabeth would never do anything to hurt her country but what if her actions are hurting a country that is changing in ways she can’t understand? Will they choose their marriage or their country?

Elizabeth tells Paige that “somewhere something got lost” in Philip. Elizabeth’s exhausted face tells a more complete story: something in her is very lost and hollow and it will only get worse as the Cold War runs the course we know it will take.  

We'll get there!

Winter is releasing its grip on us and good riddance. However, one thing I will say in the season’s favor is I much prefer driving in the winter than in the spring.

This is because if the timing of the snowfall is just right, overnight or early in the morning, the roads are deserted since people are staying home, and I can sail into work with no problem. There are exceptions when a storm hits before rush hour and it’s gridlock, but sometimes I am alone on the road in the snow and it’s easier to drive. Weather conditions don’t faze me; I just hate sitting in traffic. (Of course, snow is one situation in which people urge competent drivers to be less competent. “Four to six inches? Everybody stay inside!” Like it’s volcanic ash.)

In contrast, the end of April is always a nightmare to drive in. It gets better as the season goes on but the roads are always a parking lot during the first few nice days of spring. Does anyone else encounter this? The only reason I can think of for this is that people who have been hiding under the bed for the last few months due to the threat of (say it in a spooky haunted house voice) BLACK ICE decide to venture out and you have under-skilled drivers who are easily foiled by sun glare and slow down to look at the budding trees.

I see these people on the road, puttering at 10 mph under the speed limit for no reason in the left lane, and I imagine one dimly-lit thought going through their heads: “We’ll get there!” It doesn’t actually matter when they get there, of course, because basically they have nowhere to go and all day to do it. There’s a quarter-mile buffer between them and the car in front of them. Meanwhile, they are too oblivious and/or inconsiderate to see traffic stacking up behind them, people for whom it actually does matter that they “get there” quickly. These commuters are people who understand that to make the car go, you need to press down on the gas pedal with your foot, rather than waiting for the gentle spring breeze to press it down.

I realize I complain about traffic a lot, but I have a lengthy commute and I resent having to suffer any fools on the road.

The Americans S6 E3: Urban Transport Planning

Elizabeth Jennings’ pulsing forehead vein of doom makes a terrifying return this week. Paige left her post last week and her mother berates her, winding up for a soliloquy in the same manner of the glorious/horrifying “find some more shit to volunteer for at that goddamn church” speech from season 4. After the dressing down, Philip says he told Paige she and her mother could talk about what happened in the woods. The response from the Queen of Self-Awareness: “What do you think I was just doing?!”

There are a number of reasons for this lecture. Paige exposed herself to danger and almost blew the mission by leaving her post, her mother is upset that Paige saw something she can’t get out of her mind (and that Elizabeth can’t get out of her hair) and Elizabeth is very much frayed by the heavy burden she carries alone and the possibility (confirmed by Aderholt) that Rennhull’s suicide will not go unnoticed.

Elizabeth is even more terrifying than usual lately. With her pert blonde wig in the hotel room, she carries an aura of cool menace even before she strangles the security guy. From everything she’s had to go through without a confidant, it’s now wonder it’s getting to Elizabeth. Still, she has a kind gesture for Philip, bringing home leftover Russian food. He appreciates it but has just finished some Chinese takeout, so they have to throw out the leftovers, ending the sweet gesture with a thud. (I know they are trained to be careful, but would leftovers really alert anyone to the fact that these two are spies? It’s basically beef stew and didn’t scream “Russian cuisine” to me. My Mom makes something similar and we’re not Russian. Couldn’t they have waited a day to eat it? It’s not like the FBI will raid them tomorrow. This either shows how paranoid Elizabeth is or that she's punishing Philip for filling up on Americanized food and not having any room left for the cuisine of home.)

The stew and the warmth at Claudia’s just reminds Elizabeth how much she hates America, perestroika and glasnost (I thought I heard a subtle Russian accent on the last two terms, which was a nice touch). Philip says in a few years, with the USSR breaking down, they’d be having Stan over for Russian stew. His wife is having none of it.

“(The Americans) want us to be just like them,” Elizabeth says. “I don’t want to be like them.”

Philip says she hasn’t talked to anyone in the Soviet Union in 20 years and she counters that he hasn’t, either. He cannot see a way past their differences and with sadness on his face, goes to meet Oleg and possibly inform on her. Oleg and Stan have a tense reunion, with Oleg ready to pounce, with each bringing up the ghost of Nina, the person they each loved who binds them together. Stan has enough respect for Oleg to warn him away from whatever he’s about to do.

Parallel to the fraying of the Soviet Union is the fraying of the travel industry. Philip’s business looks like it’s overextended and in a few years, the whole industry will decline with the rise of people booking their own travel online. Parallel to the Jennings situation is Gennadi and Sofia’s, where the FBI pulls them out of their situation and into witness protection of some sort. This happens because Sofia is unhappy in her marriage and confides in a coworker, blowing the mission. Philip and Elizabeth are having problems since they can’t confide to one another. Might this be a warning for our spies’ fate?

Speaking of spies, is Renee a spy or what? I had assumed she was working for somebody. The actress’ face betrays nothing but the premier’s recap, highlighting scenes of speculation about her character, made me think she must be more than she seems. But now I think it might be too much narratively for Stan to marry a Soviet spy, after Martha also married one. That Renee wants to be an FBI agent (after hilariously assuming working together enriches the Jennings marriage) just seems desperate for a spy to do. We’ll see.

Pity Poor Laura Ingraham

For someone who believes her First Amendment freedom is speech is being curtailed by the “Stalinist” left, Laura Ingraham sure does a lot of yapping.

Ingraham played herself a tiny violin the other night because libruls have been so mean to her, boycotting her just because she mocked a minor for not getting into college. She complained about the “left-wing retaliatory hit squads” on her nationally televised show, telling millions that she’s being stifled. You know us liberals: Once we disagree with your opinion, it’s the gulag for you. Nobody will ever hear from you again and your opinions go into the dustbin of history.

When Ingraham calls today’s atmosphere Stalinist, I imagine this is what the USSR was like under Joe Stalin. The two eras are indistinguishable. The Soviet Union back then must have been full of oppressed people, blabbing on their nationally-broadcast radio shows about how Russian dog food brands and Russian travel companies boycotted them because those state-controlled companies are so mean. Everyone would hear about how silenced and oppressed they were. It’s like someone put tape over their mouths while simultaneously giving them a huge megaphone.

Excuse me, Laura, but didn’t you just recently tell LeBron James to “shut up and dribble” when he expressed an opinion about politics? James was able to handle your criticism like an adult without nailing himself to a cross, so maybe you can, too. You did something dumb by calling out a minor by name and the free market decided it didn’t like that so they called you on your shit. This is your own fault and you should have known better than to say something stupid and bullying to a teenager. For Christ’s sake, you’re a grown woman.

But the government is not shutting down Ingraham’s show. Nobody is arresting her. She’s free to say what she wants every night, and we are free to disagree or not watch her or challenge her or not advertise on her show. A lot of people like her who scream “First Amendment!” may actually want to do some cursory research on what the amendment means.

Pity poor Laura Ingraham, working for America’s most popular news outlet, which has a direct line to the ear of the president of the United States, whose party controls all three branches of government. They’re all being silenced.

The Americans S6 E2: Tchaikovsky

After the seismic season premier, “Tchaikovsky” seems like more of a table-setting episode, moving the pieces into place for the end.

This episode itself ends with the unforgettable image of Elizabeth’s bloody, brain-covered face (for a second I thought General Rennhull shot her eye out as he shot himself) warning her understandably freaked-out daughter away. She is still trying to protect Paige, lying to her about the nature of her spy work in the bedroom. Elizabeth fails to get the lithium-based radiation detector and the suicide of a general in the woods will not go unremarked upon by the authorities.

If there was a theme this week, it was unforeseen complications. The formerly treasonous general, not wanting to betray his country or have his past exposed, shoots himself and ruins the Center’s plans. Sofia kicks Gennadi out of the house and may be having an affair (I’m still a little slow on what these two are doing and what he was having X-rayed and photographed in the bathroom stall). Erica wants to die but Elizabeth, in what must be a first for her career, has to keep the woman alive until the summit. If she dies, Elizabeth leaves the house and they would have to send in another agent in another capacity. Erica wants the fake visiting nurse to start drawing, but the art lessons distract from what’s really important for Sovietbot: Taking pictures of documents. I don’t know who actually made all that art in reality but I love it. Elizabeth dismisses the art as decadent but it shows her things she doesn’t want to see.

Death imagery was heavy for Elizabeth this week. There was the bloody face at the end. There was Elizabeth lying on the couch at Claudia’s, in what could either be a therapy session or a deathbed. She asks Claudia to finish Paige’s training, something heavily reminiscent of a “take care of her” speech just before the end. Elizabeth is a dead woman walking, a ghost, looking like hell (at least, as much as Keri Russell can look like hell) fading into the background as we see a (very nice) blurry shot of her cigarette lighting up.

The really unsettling element of this episode was the backyard conversation between Philip and Elizabeth. When he asks if she can talk about what’s going on, does he really care or is he working her on Oleg’s orders? Is it a little of both? After all the trust those two finally built up, now they have to wear masks with each other as they do with so many other people.

Mail Robot!

Boy, I guess.

Local car dealership ads sure are a cavalcade of entertainment. Don’t you love people screaming at you to buy a car while getting ready for work in a whirl of chaos and waiting for the weather to come on at 6:30 a.m.?

I can’t understand why the people at the Barbera dealership thought this would be a good slogan: “Is Barbera the best? Boy, I guess.” Why would you ask if your dealership is best and then answer your own question with “I guess”? It ends with a thud that is almost audible. They might as well ask how great Barbera is and have people harmonizing the word “Meh.” They could just as easily say, “Is Barbera the best? We’d say yes!”

I also don’t understand why I saw a commercial during the local news that has a woman in a dealership saying “Namaste” and doing some “Eastern” prayer pose. Am I bowing to the light within that used Kia? Can one meditate in the tranquility of the dealership’s tile floors, plaid suits and haggling? Is there really a need for your spirit to bow to my spirit when we’re discussing an extended warranty?

I think too much about this but it seems like all these dealerships really want to personalize things. There’s the one guy who screams, “You know me, Philly. Just do the deal!” No, I don’t know you. You’re some guy who yells between the sports and weather on Action News. Am I missing something? Do we all know this person and I’m just out of the loop? There’s a commercial lately where the dealer answering questions from some imaginary interviewer about how important selling cars the right way is to him, or whatever.

God, who cares. Do people really get attached to their specific car dealers? I’m sure some people are buying cars for their kids and are in the dealership more often than me, who buys a car every 10 years and then runs that car into the ground and doesn’t really go back to the dealership for repairs. The relationship for me isn’t long enough to be personal. I just go in, haggle with the dealer and leave with a car (all two times I’ve bought cars). I don’t even remember the person who actually sold me my last car. But are that many people invested enough in dealers to respond to this personal touch?

Of course, I can recite several car ads from memory, so who am I to criticize the effectiveness of advertising?