5x02 Pests

[7.4/10] For the last episode, I wrote about the sense of a moral equivalency imbalance. Stan occasionally flew off the handle or put the personal ahead of the professional, but he usually meant well. The Jennings, even though we’re inclined to root for them as our point of view characters, killed people in cold blood and, at the behest of the KGB, hacked up corpses and took out allies who posed problems. The season premiere seemed like The Americans trying to remind an audience liable to sympathize with the Russian agents of who’s good and who’s bad here.

And then “Pests” comes along and more or less flips that dichotomy on its head. On a personal level, the CIA wants to try to turn Oleg as someone friendly to them or, if he won’t cooperate, then blackmail him with Stan’s tape. Stan tries to warn them against it, saying that Oleg is a good man who (so far as he knows) gave them the info about the biological weapons because he thought it was the right thing to do. As he says to the Deputy Attorney General, he should be rewarded for that, not punished, especially if trying to turn him will result in Oleg being killed.

But no one will listen to him. There’s a message there, that however much the show may cast the FBI as foils or good guys, there are lines that they are willing to cross too, that deals or personal relationships or assets putting themselves out on a limb doesn't count for much when it’s against the interests of the agency, or someone could be useful.

That could be a means to trying to change the audience’s sympathies for who’s good and who’s bad, but maybe not in the way we’d expect. There’s a sense that whether it’s the Centre or the FBI, the people in charge view their agents as assets, as disposable pieces. Maybe that’s wrong given efforts to avenge fallen partners or retaliate for missions that have been exposed. But there’s still a sense of a disconnect between the people on the ground and the people calling the shots, on either side of the wall.

That is not, however, the only way that the American side is crossing lines in the show. As the Jennings get close to the family of defectors, they learn that they’re doing “research” out in Illinois. That research at least appears to be trying to create pestilence. There’s room for ambiguity as to what’s really going on, but the implication is that the American government is testing crop-destroying insects, with the presumable intention of unleashing them on Russia, or including them in grain shipped from the United States, to make it more difficult for the Soviet Union to feed its citizens.

It’s the sort of civilian-focused violation of norms that would shock the conscience. And yet, while we’re not privy to conversations among those perpetrating it beyond finding places to eat, one can imagine them having the same “it’s necessary to help keep the world safe” justifications that the Jennings do when dealing with biological weapons or the like. The upshot is that there are no clean hands here.

There’s also more scenes of abundance here, as the Jennings and Twan dine with the defectors, and the father of the family waxes rhapsodic about having so much food, about having choices, about being able to speak freely without going to jail. But you also get the contrasting reactions of the kids in those families. Pasha is miserable being in a new place where he doesn't know anyone or speak the language. And Twan is angry at how lucky kids here have it compared to where he came from.

That provokes something in Elizabeth, who has tried things the more American way with Paige. After getting a bad response of telling her to be careful, of telling her not to sleep with Matthew, of trying to box her in, Philip and Elizabeth try to treat her like an adult by giving her their super secret spy technique of...rubbing your fingers and thinking of your parents.

Alright, maybe that’s just the first step toward deeper, more intense spy training, but I have to admit, all I could think of was “Whistle a Happy Tune” from The King and I, which makes it pretty underwhelming.

Still, this is another instance of The Americans blending real life domestic problems like how to impart your values and concerns to a teenager who’s testing her boundaries and wants to be able to direct her own life, with crazy spy worries like whether your teenage daughter will out you as spooks to her across the street boyfriend who just so happens to be the son of an FBI agent. It’s a space where the show excels, so it’s a welcome development, but it calls for more of a solution than just “we’re going to show you a basic stress technique.”

And that’s pretty much it for this one. The Americans has started slow this year, letting us get to know Oleg’s new situation, which intersects with Stan’s old one, having the Jennings get involved in their latest disguise-wearing con, and continuing the story of Paige growing up and bristling against her parents restrictions. Sure, there’s Oleg learning more about how the corruption in Russia works, or Stan dating a girl at the gym who’s probably some kind of spy or something, but the show is slow-playing most of its major plot machinery and personal developments so far.

That’s not a bad thing necessarily, you can just sort of feel the show clearing its throat before getting to the major stuff. Ruminations on whether Russia or the United States has the moral high ground in the world of the show is an engaging enough topic, but after so many tense and ominous things going down last season, these opening episodes can’t help but feel like something of a cooldown, something to get us reacquainted with the Jennings and the dynamics of the two countries at the center of their lives before things kick into gear again.