Philip debating in himself how he wanted to stay but he still has to leave,
Elizabeth working for an idea that betrayed her,
Father Andrej betraying them eventough he was the only one they were basically naked in fron of without their disguises, yet the keep the rings,
Oleg standing up to Stan while his father breaks down at home,
Paige standing up for herself while her parents break down,
Henry ultimately staying with Stan,
Elizabeth and Philip finally go home when they settle on how they want to stay, and they go home not knowing what they will find there after/admist the coup,
Philip not knowing if he helps or not by telling Stan about Renée but she still watching the house,
Tchaikovsky's music, None but the Lonely Heart, that they listened to in 6x02, and back then Claudia said he lost his mother when he was young,
Elizabeth dreaming about Gregory, the painting and her kids while starting to smoke saying she didn't want to have kids anyway,
But still accepting she and Philip would have met in another life, and they could have lived in peace with their kids.
I want to think I used to be able to describe the parallels but I can't say anything anymore.
Reusing an old asset as a throwaway character is a very good idea, especially how he says he got out because someone died (even if he shot the man in self defense - allegedly?) so he will be the tipping point for Paige who doesn't want to be in this because of violence. Also: Tchaikovsky and the None but the Lonely Heart! Two episodes back to back with Talking Heads?
I guess everyone got the wanted, right? Philip is free, Elizabeth works more than she ever did, Claudia initiates Paige to the soviet ways, Oleg is happy with his family, Stan is at a different departement with only a single case tying him back to counterintelligence. It is so heartbreaking to see Elizabeth still being loyal to something that is clearly opposed to progression. Because of that she and Philip lose eachother, Paige's talent waivers when she misremebers a name, Oleg has to leave his family behind and Stan, well Stan doesn't know yet what he got himself into, but his intuititon is famously good, so he's not in the clear.
And holy shit, 5 songs in 50 minutes?
The thing about this season is that eventhough it was purpusely slow, it didn't pull the punches. We have seen these people repeatedly say that they are tired and want less and less from this work of life, so now the creators seemingly stepped on the breakes only to twist the daggers and barely let the wounds heal: they are tasked with convincing an almost broken up family to go back to the SU, directly mirroring their own family, Henry is set on a way out as Gabriel confirmed it was a mistake to bring Paige in, who while deeply damaged but still no other path forward in sight to her seems to accept the life of an agent and refuses to fear again, Pastor Tim is leaving for good, Reneé is starting to take Philip's place on Stan's side, who is also almost done with the illegals, not as a friend and close confidant, but maybe an agent as well (Yellow Brick Road's line literally goes 'Maybe you'll get a replacement' when Philip leaves the gym), while Oleg is just falling deep in the trenches of systematic corruption and offers a broader portrayal of the Soviet Union's internal affairs than we were ever let on, with him on the backside we also get glimpses of those who were left behind, like Gabriel, Mischa and most importantly Martha - or to look at someone who is only at the beginning, Tuan, with whom the Jennings spend more time pretending to care about as their fake son than the one they actually have. But what Elizabeth says to Tuan is very real: noone can do this alone, except Elizabeth might not even consider that together doesn't have any less danger. In hindsight we know (MINOR SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6) that Elizabeth and Philip will have a huge gap between them next season that contradicts her statement here, but we also know (SLIGHTLY BIGGER SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6) that the relationship of Gennadi and Sofia also deteriorates, which will prove Stan's ominous feelings right once again, this time proving him right that he should not have endangered the lives of others. The first two season were about learning to roll with the punches of the Reagan era that messed up the status quo, season three and four was about roughing up, season five was about sinking it in, the trust, the cost, the losses, and that so close to the end there might be a light at the end of the tunnel and that it is possible to break even. Buckle up kids, after all these every lesson seems learnt, so season 6 will be calculated and ruthless.
Devastating. Just, devastating. I usually keep everything in its category, but this is some Sopranos level shit. Pastor Tim... yeah, he's not wrong, the damage is done, but he is also condemning Paige because he deems her irredeemable and beyond repair. This series is about trust, and I don't know if it can go lower. (But it can.)
Slow season yes, but in hindsight it is extremely on point and sad. No biig events as opposed to many smaller storylines, but they build on each other so well.
I'm not saying production value is my favourite thing this season, but jesus the lighting, the fog and the smoke in this episode is so breathtaking
Creators love putting on a Peter Gabriel song when characters burn a piece of paper in the middle of the night. Not much, but it's weird that it happened twice now.
Aaaaaand Philip's a wreck again :(
That bait-and-switch dream sequence at the end, that was mean
You know as I'm rewatching these episodes, there are 2 things come to my mind: I did not find the letting-go-Martha storyline so sluggish last time, and eventhough I see that there are procedural steps that need to be taken step by step and that makes it so slow, somehow I can't process what's happening. Maybe season 3 and 4 are becoming a blur for me because I'm watching too fast and not even making notes as I did for season 1 and 2, or I just want to get through to season 5 because I know that is a tough one and barely remember it so I want to get to understand that and not this. The Americans was never a fast paced show, nor I wanted it to be one, but maybe just maybe the groundwork layed in the first two season to unfold in the next two is hitting me with full force and makes my mind a mush, but to the extent that I'm suffering with the characters. I'm pulled into the cost of wanting something and sacrificing another for it in return. Maybe similarly to Philip I will stop at season 5 a bit and recollect, maybe akin to Elizabeth I actually am just enjoying the company that I know I will have to let go of at some point and I know it so I try to think of it emotionless as if it were a job. But I resonate with Gaad the most: I'm glad Gaad felt the irony in what happened to him, in four seasons he changes so smoothly from someone who knows how to do his job and run the department to someone who is slowly realizing he is way out of his depth and maybe was never competent in the first place. Similarly to Elizabeth, Philip and Martha, the cost of their job, moreover the cost of the people they trusted will not go unpunished. But it will not unfold until the next one, and the next one.
I guess Juno Temple will carry this season then, but so far I only liked the lights and compositions
I hope Claire safely gets out of there some day, not that the Fishers are so bad, but you see her being the youngest with the most possibility to not make the same mistakes depending on circumstances in her life, and there is just so much hope in there through the redemption and self discovery of what others leave behind.
Ruth finding kinship in a lonely dead woman breaks my heart but there is also subplot of a surprise Adam Scott just wanting to look hot enough for Michael C. Hall and these storylines are equally good? Nice of the show to find the common ground in loneliness and horniness - except for Nate and Brenda, they are a trainwreck in the making, I hope they break up soon and be happy separately
I adore the friendship of Ruth and Robbie and how they pull forward oneanother, noone deserves Keith and Claire, and I sincerely hope that Brenda and Nate breaks up very soon to settle whatever is going on in themselves because having debates of determinism as a way of shoving aside their problems is just infuriating. Claire is just watching Terrence Malick's Badlands pretty much reflects her story halfway through, I liked that!
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day. There's gotta be something down there in everybody that positions them to how to treat other people, the lies, the pretending, the double standard, it escapes me how exactly this show wanted to portray connections. They don't jump on the first answer to show everything by adding any minute can be the last, nor they want to tackle what it means to be alive. Life's but a walking shadow, sure, but there are these twisted relationships formed by dubious attitudes ending in absurd situations. Very difficult to wanting to be interested in people that succeed repelling those who want to know them. It is familiar, but it is also a mixture of something exhilirating and something deeply sad and depressing. It is a tale, full of sound and fury, seemingly signifying nothing.
It would have been a perfect episode if they cut off the last 5 mins and have it as a bombastic cold open in the next episode
Open house, free loot - well almost. But it does sum up nicely to see these people getting so close to being caught only to have their work pay off and stumble upon a motherload for the taking. Sometimes the sacrificies are worth it when there is a team, a partner to help out. The teeth pulling scene and the one before, all without dialogue, is one of the series best. It's amazing they are starting to hit the level where they can communicate nonverbally because they play so well their emotions tell everything we need to know. Again, that teeth pulling scene: a pinnacle of the show.
And Julia Garner incomiiiing
I love the tiny detail that Martha was putting away secret files even in Stan's dream, can't tell though if it was just for fun or his wolfhound sense worked in his subconscious and tried to signal him behind his back. Anyhow, Echo is a pretty amazing name for everything that has transpired and nicely outlines the shape of things to come. Nina, Stan and Fred have their loop closed, their room to wiggle runs out and none of them go gently and they all leave behind a huge amount of regret, the ones to stay alive will have much to settle in themselves. This part worked fine. Jared and Larrick however didn't. Remember the deer family caught in the headlights in the season cold open? Remember how in that single episode they pulled up a mirror family out of nowhere and made their sudden absence feel like a huge deal as well? If it feels the investigation into their death was lenghty and without much clues, then it feels even less climatic to drop the entire backstory of their death in a 2 minutes monologue. Philip and Elizabeth took over and continued their job, and both of them met with the cost of the weight they carry, Paige is on a way to find purpose for herself. The only thing missing from portraying their relationship in this season is the real danger of what if the truth comes out. We've seen it for Jared and it's just a huge, a gigantic red flag, but to throw it in this late with too little care left for his storyline was a really bad creative decision, eventhough it could and it should have been used to underline the meaning of the season of the family caught in the headlights. We are there now, a new task is at hand, but the road leading up it was so clumsy, fumbling with the details that everything else just became more and more interesting as the season went on. At least now we can move on to more intersting waters.
Larrick's wolfhound precise sadism and the mandatory cliffhanger just do not fit to this show
Probably the best possible way to introduce Pastor Tim, such a contrast to the wreck that is Philip emotionally. He keeps questioning what is the point and pushes through even if he keeps losing parts of his soul. On the sideline the focus and cost of the mission, any commitment is complemented even more: Stan is so thorough he happens to stumble upon connection between the conference and the dead family, but loses Sandra as if she is his blindspot, Larrick gave Elizabeth and Philip intel on the base, he knew they will go there, but is still surprsingly hurt when people die, Fred recognizes now many people died because be tried to help, Elizabeth befriends an addict starting what probably will be a story ending in as much heartbreak as disgust and self loathing, the same way Martha goes into work on a weekend because Gaad asked her to, only to be "betrayed" by him, which leads us back to Philip wanting to give his children what they never had only to be repelled by the guidance Paige seeks because she felt she can't confide in her parents anymore. Pastor Tim represent the value of his religion and his faith to both Paige and Philip offering aim and free salvation, and Philip is conversing with him at the end as if, again, just like many times before, he would only need to reach out and be free. But everyone who works this job know better than to let it go, even if it costs them everything.
I certainly remember countless of other episodes weighing the cost of the mission upon ones self, so imagine when I say this remorse here is just the tip of the iceberg.
I'm glad they got it right by the end with a bunch of punchlines, but in a way it still fit into the "what if Ron Swanson radicalized into the far right" because that shit is still perfectly plausible
Everyone is so sure of what is the right thing to do when they do it, but when it's revealed that it is not, noone knows how to take responsiblity, less because they don't want to, but because they truly believed they did the right thing, or at least the necessary, the lesser evil of all. But was it worth it?
Philip is fed up again, makes sense
Understandably, not as great as the previous one, but you see the sacrifices these people make even unbeknowst to themselves, the huge difference between the things they want and the way things actually are. Cannot help but feel that if Lucia is way too young and idealistic to comprehend, then how crushed an experienced agent like Elizabeth is when she realizes the error of her ways? Truly heartbreaking
Summing it as "another day, another mission" after what Baklanov said and Oleg did just leaves a knot in your stomach
Heres comes the flood at the end was priceless
You do not just drop Aimee Carrero like that and move on!
Deer family in the headlights! DEER FAMILY IN THE HEADLIGHTS! Sets the tone of paranoia for the season quite well, and in only one episode builds up a parallel family with the weight to also get rid of them. Bonus: Natalie Gold (Rava Roy), but most importantly Oleg "They'll be the end of us" Burov!
