5x07 The Committee on Human Rights

[7.7/10] “It all adds up.” If you wanted to boil The Americans down to a sentence, I’m not sure you could do better than that. There’s always been issues explored on the show about the push and pull between family and professional obligations, about the unique relationship between the United States and Russia during the Cold War, and tons of other topics that the series touches on. But if I had to single out one defining theme of this show, it’s that -- that living this sort of life, holding these sorts of projects and plans and people together, takes a toll, and you can only outrun it for so long.

That’s hinted to be the real reason that Gabriel is leaving, in a way, that he’s had enough, and doesn't want to shepherd Paige through the same life. There’s a key contrast in this episode, between how Gabriel speaks to Paige at the beginning, greasing the wheels of her to see the benefits of this life and to admire her parents, and the way that he speaks to Philip in the end, telling him, extraordinarily candidly for the old spook, that it’s a bad idea to bring Paige into the fold.

In the first scene of the episode, he is supremely convincing. There is a conviction and a warmth to what Gabriel says to Paige about her parents. It’s easy to take his words about the lives they’ve saved, about the sacrifices they’ve made, at face value, even if you know the veteran spy always has a hidden agenda. And his puffing Paige up, talking about how she demanded the truth and faced it as a form of bravery, is a hell of a pitch to a teenager who wants to be recognized for her own agency and self-determination. The button with Paige telling her parents that Gabriel is like family to them is a little too direct, but the point is served. There’s a connection between these people, and even if that can be used to manipulate at times, there’s a potency to it.

Compare that to the last scene in the episode, which lacks much, if not all, of the warmth of the opening one. Philip is back with quiet accusations masquerading as questions. Gabriel admits that both before and after the war, he was complicit, if not active, in doing some miserable things, things that he regrets and seem to have weighed on him. Despite his stoic front, he’s experiencing the long range equivalent of what Philip is, the accumulation of all that crap eventually becoming too much. The twist, as Gabriel’s last words to his surrogate son indicate, is that the last straw was Paige. He cannot be a part, or a further part, of condemning her to the same sort of life and hardship, given the way he can see the effect it’s had on her, on her parents, and on the others like him who’ve been called to this service.

We see that with Paige here. Philip and Elizabeth suggest that things are getting better, that maybe she’s pushing through the worst of it, but as everyone from Stan to Pastor Tim has noticed, this secret, the things she had to do and not do, are still eating at her. She tells Pastor Tim that she’s not praying as much, not finding the solace in it that she once did.

Most heartbreakingly, she breaks up with Matthew. It’s a tough scene to watch because both of these kids are suffering and it’s neither of their faults. Paige is going through something she can’t explain or account for with anyone, that makes her feel like she can’t be open, can’t find the comfort she was hoping for with her young beau. And Matthew can sense something is off but has done nothing wrong that he could possibly discern, and so is simply blindsided by the person he cares about deciding that they shouldn’t be together anymore. It’s another small casualty in this war, and another sign that Gabriel is right, and Paige is not ready or suited for this work.

While Matthew is being dumped, his dad is finding the very sort of solace that Paige was looking for. The biggest plot development in this episode is the confirmation that the CIA is backing off of Oleg, but that the price is for Stan to be transferred out and de facto fired from GBI counterintelligence. The twist on that is that he can still stick around as long his current operation is ongoing, thanks to a line in the sand by Agent Wolfe, but the delay won’t last forever, and so he’s counting down the days.

That’s obviously a tough thing for Stan, since he has devoted so much of his life, and lost so many parts of it, because of this job, just as Gabriel has. But the difference is that his new girlfriend senses something else, convinces him to confide in her (in general terms), and helps him exercise his worries in the process. It’s a small thing, and obviously FBI agents have to hold things back too, but it’s a release valve that Paige doesn't have right now, and without it, or the maturity and strength to be able to carry that load on her own, she’s in much worse shape.

But very few people in this show are encouraged to confide in someone else without it being part of a game, or a scheme, or a ruse. Philip asks Gabriel point blank if Stan’s new squeeze is KGB, and he answers, incredulously, in the negative, though hedges by noting that the Centre might not have told him one way or another knowing that Philip would inquire.

It’s been a tough week for Philip and Elizabeth too. In one of the early scenes, Philip’s fake Topeka girlfriend manages to be one of the show’s most endearingly boring and cutting characters, who rocks Philip’s confidence a bit when she calls him needy. At the same time, Elizabeth has a rude awakening when she learns that her Topeka boyfriend has another girlfriend in Mississippi. These are fake relationships, meant only to pave the way for them acquiring the super wheat that they pass over to Gabriel before he leaves, but both leave their marks on the real people behind those masks.

That’s the rub of all this espionage and moral compartmentalizing. You can try to bury those feelings, put on blinders for what themission is. But eventually, the death of a thousand cuts take holds. Philip and Elizabeth have stayed strong for a long time, but are buckling. Paige is still new to the game and is crumpling quickly. And Gabriel has reached his limit, particularly at the idea of bringing another young soul into this. It all adds up, and I suspect that Gabriel will not be the last character to decide that after enough time, that becomes unsustainable.