1x06 Trust Me

[7.4/10] It’s easy to imagine what we’d do if our backs were against the wall. A great deal of television is devoted to that type of fantasy, of being forced into a tight spot and finding the will and fortitude to overcome it. But in the real world, when you genuinely fear for your life, or for the lives of the people you care about, it’s a much less glamorous thing to find that courage, especially when it means hurting other people in the process.

“Trust Me” puts all of its major characters into tight spots. Elizabeth and Philip are kidnapped by goons who know who and what they are, who physically and psychologically torture them in order to see what they’ll give up. Nina feels nigh-literally under the gun as the Russians know there’s a mole in the Rezidenture, and she fears for her life as Stan tries to orchestrate some breathing room for her. And even Paige and Henry find themselves in an uncomfortable position as they try to hitchhike home from the mall and end up in a car with a creep.

It’s a nice theme for the episode because it puts the audience on edge too. Sure, the fact that the show goes on for 5 1/2 more seasons suggests this isn’t the end of the Jennings’ career as spies. (And my wife called the twist on that front in about two minutes.) But you’re also not exactly sure how this is going to go, and however diminished the stakes may be given that Elizabeth and Philip have to survive for about seventy more episodes, the folks who kidnap them are, so far, the only people in the entire show to get the drop on the Jennings, which adds some danger to the situation.

But oddly enough, in an episode where one set of spies are kidnapped, beaten, and interrogated, and another asset is guided through a dangerous mission while the KGB is on the hunt for a mole, the most nerve-wracking scenes in this episode are the ones with the kids, trying to figure out whether the creepy guy who picked them up is just a weirdo or something more dangerous.

The moments when he’s making awkward, unnerving small talk in the car, when he yells at Paige and Henry to halt because he paid for the beer he offered them, when Henry spots a knife in his belt, it’s more scary than all the precarious espionage that The Americans has put together so far. Because whatever scrapes they might get into, Philip and Elizabeth are, as they put it, trained for this. And Nina may be in a difficult situation, but she’s being guided by Stan and the resources of the FBI. Paige and Henry are on their own, with only the genetic advantage of being the children of two badass spooks to help them out of this situation.

Thankfully, it’s enough. When things are about to get bad, or at least seem poised to, Henry smashes a beer bottle over the creep’s head, and Paige and Henry make a break for it. It feels like an echo of Elizabeth’s worry from a few episode’s ago -- that if something happened to her and Philip, Henry would be okay, but that she wasn’t sure about Paige. The Jennings’ daughter was willing to get in a car with someone who gave her the creeps, while Henry was suspicious from the beginning and acted when push came to shove.

And yet, he was afraid. His “accident” demonstrates that, and in a sign of sisterly love and gratitude, Paige helps him take care of his clothes, and they agree that the whole thing will be their secret.

Fear is a powerful motivator, powerful enough to make people do extraordinary things. That seems to be the idea behind Stan and Nina’s story in this one. It’s the part of the episode with the most spycraft, where Stan uses a combination of some diamonds slipped into Vasili’s much ballyhooed tea grounds, some top secret photos gathered by a very nervous Nina, and some intentionally suspicious phone calls to frame Vasili and cast him as the mole the Russians have been looking for.

It’s another brick in the wall of Stan going the extra mile for Nina, taking some risks to keep her safe while still preserving her as an asset (and at least expressing a modicum of romantic affection directly). But there’s something really gross about the way he obliquely talks to his wife about it. He too finds himself in a situation where he has to deal with that fear and respond to it, but he does it in a way that puts a...well not exactly innocent man, but also a man who’s not to blame for the things he’ll be punished for, in harm’s way, all to save a girl he has a crush on in the guise of preserving her as an informant.

But presumably that secret will spill over into his personal life at some point, just like Philip somehow sniffs out and prompts the confession that Elizabeth told their handlers that he liked it too much here. Truth be told it’s kind of an odd storyline. There’s not much from their kidnapping that seems to suggest it’s something Elizabeth gave up, so it feels somewhat tacked on. And we’ve already played the “Philip gets mad at Elizabeth keeping something from him that he reads as a betrayal game” before, so the conflict doesn't have the same force it might.

Still, the reveal that it was the KGB themselves, trying to see whether the Jennings would give up any information when put under such pressure, is a cool if not exactly surprising one. It fits with the way Elizabeth was deployed just a couple of episodes prior to check to see whether Vasili’s contractor informant would crack. And the sense of utter betrayal, of sheer anger, that Elizabeth inflicts on Claudia and the Jennings in general dish out to their captors is palpable and compelling.

Because even when they’re afraid, even when they’re worried about what might happen and in physical danger, Philip and Elizabeth are solid, trained to cope with whatever’s thrown their way and bear it quietly. A wedge is being driven between them -- one that Elizabeth is resisting and Philip is embracing in a petty fashion -- but they’re professionals. So is Stan, but he makes his work, the things he’s afraid of, much more personal. And Paige and Henry, are anything but, while still managing to find their way out of a dangerous situation.

It seems pretty likely that this won’t be the last time that the Jennings family and Stan are put in a difficult or dangerous scenario. How they responded here, and how their reactions change as their circumstances change, tells us as much about who they are now and then as any official dossier.

Good. Am I smart if I called from the beginning that it was a fake kidnapping...? I guess it should be obvious since the FBI isn't talking about it, plus obviously the show can't end 6 episodes into the first season. But I still feel smart. I love the complex drama between Elizabeth and Phillip based on their wildly different attitudes towards Russia and America.

The kids plot, uh, it felt like I was back watching Kim in season of 24. Really, they get left alone for one day and they manage to find their way into a pedophile murderer's car? lol

This show is definitely very nervewracking. I know nothing is going to happen to Elizabeth and Phil because they're the main characters, but the mole lady is nice and I hope she ends up okay... I feel bad for her boss. He was so confident that they'd be able to trust him that it was a set up and that he did nothing wrong. The look in his face when he realizes they don't believe him.

It's hilarious that the one time Stan is able to open up to his wife and show some emotion is when he's telling her about how he's happy that the other woman he has a crush on is safe