The Americans 5.01

[selenak]

In which our antiheroes are back, but not in the USSR.



Sorry, had to get that bad pun in somewhere. Anyway. Last season's closest thing to a cliffhanger had been Gabriel's "it's time for you now to go home", but this season opener takes its considerable time before we get some dialogue to explain what became of that one - Philip and Elizabeth declined. Otoh in other ways the season opener is played like a direct continuation of what went before - the biological weapons storyline, it seems didn't die with poor William, and of course Paige is miserable on two fronts, because of her parents' disapproval of the Matthew romance and because she suffers from continuing nightmares due to the mugging and Elizabeth killng the mugger in front of her. Since the Matthew situation is what it is (and isn't really about Matthew but Matthew's father and his job, though if I were Paige I'd ask Philip why his own interactons with Stan are okay), Elizabeth decides to help with the nightmare situation by teaching Paige some self defense moves. Which otoh is a good idea and makes complete sense - but otoh nothing is untainted when you're a spy asked to raise another, and thus of course Paige learning how to fight can also be understood as yet another step of her being pulled into her parents' lives.

The cold open introduces us to a new longer term assignmet for Philip and Elizabeth, and this one, too, comments on double standards and the innate hypocrisy of the spying trade, as they're posing as an US couple, parents of a teenage son - who actually IS a spy - and befriending a family of Soviet emigrants/dissidents (with the father obviously having some US useful confidential job that's the point of this). Tuin (Toin? Spelling?) the Vietnamese boy playing their son is what at the start of the show they swore their children should not become, and what so deeply shocked them to discover Jared already was in the s2 finale, and here they are working with him. That the job in question also confronts them with tales about the miserable state of the Soviet Union in the 80s is an additional irony, and their response, when they're at last alone, is a P & E version of that classic, "in MY day we ate water instead of soup and LIKED IT". Note that they don't address the stories about corruption at all; they can't, because that goes to the core of their self justification. Doing any number of criminal things for a country that may be poor but upholds ideals is one thing; doing it for a country which is as corrupt or more so than the system you're fighting, otoh, takes away any purpose.

The state of the Soviet Union - and the corruption within - will, it seems also be a big subject for Oleg's arc this year. Last season, Nina's subplot was a look at life in prison, and it seems Oleg's this year will be a look at life at large in Russia. Now Oleg of course is living in privileged circumstances, quite different ones to the avarage Soviet citizen, but he's asked to investigate corruption in the upper hierarchy. I fear this can lead to nothing good for Oleg (the typical noir storyline would be for him to actually uncover the culprits only for his boss to be involved, too, and framing Oleg and his father instead), but it's still a good narrative choice by the show. After four seasons where the non-Department S- Russians were at the Washington Rezidentura (or in Nina's case in prison), we will, it seems, get Russians in Russia just in time for the build up to the end of the Soviet Union.

(BTW, when I saw the portrait of Chernenko on the wall I have to admit I had trouble recalling his name until Oleg's new boss said it - I did remember there had been one after Andropov and before Gorbachev, but I didn't recall anymore who he had been.)

Meanwhile, Mischa Jr. is on his way to leave the Eastern Block - via Yugoslavia, of course -, and the fact his hair cut and Oleg's are identical (and that this is also the one Pascha sports) makes me wonder whether that was indeed the 80s young Soviet male's haircut? I don't recall. On a more serious note, the Irina backstory still doesn't make much sense, but I am looking forward to Philip and Elizabeth having to confront Mischa Jr. if and when he makes it to the US, because as opposed to their assignments, his own stories about current day Russia won't be able to be dismissed - he's an Afghanistan veteran, after all, and in a way their own might have been - if they had remained in Russia.

Trivia thoughts:

- "America the Beautiful" sung in Russian is a hoot
- Stan being a jerk with "you remember Sandra?" : argh, Stan, just quit it already
- other than falling for a woman in the gym, no signs yet what Stan's storyline is going to be,
since Oleg's return to the USSR makes the leverage Stan now has on him useless and Martha is
gone; I mean, of course said leverage can still be used by a US spy in Moscow on Oleg, but it
won't be Stan.
- if your present features an US government most likely in Putin's pocket, the contrast to the 80s
is, err... interesting.

Comments

[maidenjedi]

if your present features an US government most likely in Putin's pocket, the contrast to the 80s is, err... interesting.

Heh. Yes.

Okay, tell me what you think about Elizabeth's motivation in talking with Paige about Matthew. I felt like Elizabeth wasn't fully on board with Phillip - like, she knows Paige shouldn't be going down this road, etc., and it is an unnecessary complication, but also like she's looking for an angle, a way to work Paige, maybe even use her in some new way here.

[selenak]

Huh, no, I didn't get that vibe at all. Mind you, I don't think Elizabeth can switch off her inner agent completely when, say, teaching Paige self defense , i.e her primary, conscious motive is to help Paige deal with her fear, though it's telling that she doesn't register Paige doesn't just have nightmares because she was attacked, she also has them because she saw her mother kill someone), BUT there's also a part of her which thinks, hmmmm, could be useful for the future if Paige becomes one of us after all. Otoh Matthew, no. I think Elizabeth is probably aware that the most sure way you can drive a teenager into fixating on a romantic relationship is to say "don't date that boy", which is why she plays it more low key than Philip. And maybe if Matthew were the son of the CIA's boss she'd be tempted. But as it is, Matthew really is bound to cause trouble and heartache (without meaning to), and there's no discernable benefit, because Philip is already keeping Stan sweet and unsuspicious.