There hasn’t been a bad episode of The Americans yet, but last night’s was the best since the pilot episode: The drama picked up the pace, brought back the spy mission missing from last week and re-injected the sexual element that makes The Americans so dangerously thrilling. Most dramas will clear a narrative path for us, project where they are going, and whether they are successful often depends on how subvert our expectations. They will lead us one way, and the best dramas zig when we expect a zag. What I love so far about The Americans is that it isn’t leading us: It’s often difficult to tell where any one subplot is heading. We have to play catch-up, follow the narrative path as the track is being laid down in front of us. If you’re not paying enough attention, it can become difficult to follow. They don’t say, “This is what we’re going to do,” and then navigate a path. We often don’t have a sense of the overall picture until the last piece has been added. It’s challenging drama, but it’s still plenty entertaining.
The first scene of last night’s episode is a perfect example: Undercover, Elizabeth is grilling a private contractor for the Department of Defense about his work there, and about the recent loss of his wife. It isn’t until she returns to the car and talks it over with Claudia that we fully realize that the private contractor is another Russian spy, Udacha, who provides intel to the Soviets on the anti-ballistic missile program.
We also learn that Udacha is lonely and paranoid, and he’s unable to talk with his mentor, Vasili the KGB Resident, because the FBI has changed their encryption codes. That means that agents and their handlers cannot speak without worrying that the FBI is following them. Claudia instructs Phillip and Elizabeth to find the new encryption codes, which sets up this week’s mini-caper.
Phillip uses a terrible wig continues to seduce Martha, an aide in the FBI counterintelligence unit. Meanwhile, Elizabeth sleeps with Kurt Schultz, a pervy old dude with a thing for belts who created the encryption codes.
From the tryst, Elizabeth learns that the encryption technology is mobile, so she and Phillip set up a fun little caper. They cause an FBI agent to crash his car into theirs. When he has the car serviced in the mechanic’s shop, Elizabeth snakes her way into the trunk, and steals the encryption information, although her inability to escape leaves her in a precarious position: Sneaking out of the trunk of the FBI agent’s car on the lot of the FBI Headquarters.
With the encryption codes, the Vasili should be able to talk to Udacha and quell his paranoia. However, there is a catch. Nina, the FBI’s mole in the Soviet embassy, uses, well, her mouth — she blows him — to pry information out of the Director. As a result, before the Director can meet with Udacha, the FBI figures out that the encryption codes have been stolen, they change the codes, and Udacha ultimately gets one in the head, compliments of Elizabeth.
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As a Russian (well then-Soviet) born immigrant, this show delights me. Growing up in the States, every movie or show I consumed would pretty much call any Russian the bad guy, even long after the Cold War was supposedly over.
My point is I’m glad that there’s finally a (quite good) show with three-dimensional Russian protagonists, as opposed to flat ones who were either all-evil or all-stupid. And they nail all the little cultural nuances too, as far as I can tell.
Nina knows that Stan has a school boy crush on him, that is why she so coldly told him she blew the Resident. It was her way of striking back for the shitty situation she finds herself in.
So a pretty good episode overall. I like the show and I like the angle. This is really something different that I haven’t seen before (Homeland DVDs are still sitting on the desk) it’s a show about the good guys (Phillip and Felicity) who work for the bad guys but ultimately want what’s best for the world, at least in their views. We saw the way Phillip defused the situation last week and the way he behaves this week. So he’s a good guy but works for the bad guys, it’s fucking awesome the conflicts. Emmy material, IMO.
Also of course Stan wants to bang Nina. He was learning how to hit on Russian women and his wife came out in a new teddy wanting to bang him and he’s all “LOL nothanx” and went to figure out how to hit on Nina.
And FX needs to fire some of its writers and give them to AMC or another cable network. After Breaking Bad and Mad Men leave the best non-FX or premium drama on TV will the The Walking Dead. Fuck that shit.
Badges….!!!
…we need badges for this show…..start with a “Death In The Gulag for missing the drop”
Bodges? We don’t need no steenking bodges!
Sorry, but you just made it too easy.
concur.
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GAME OF THRONES’ SEASON 3 EPISODE TITLES REVEALED
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Not spamming, by the way
Someone needs to compile picks of all of Phillip’s terrible disguises. I can’t think of one he has used that has not looked like your stereotypical pedophile.
Maybe disguise of the week can be a new component for this pos?
Frighteningly enough, guys did look like that back then. This is set in ’81, so that late ’70s poly-blend/stereo salesman look is till in.
Keri Russell climbing all over the cars was her Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment moment.
[twitter.com] GET OUT OF MY HEAD
She executed that masterfully.
this was my least favorite episode so far. just way to slow…i found myself zoning out during parts of it.
We haven’t had much backstory on Stan and his wife but I get the sense that they just don’t know each other. That they’ve built these separate lives and based on her comments about St. Louis she’s resentful that he uprooted his family with little to no consideration.
His wife is obviously insane..St. Louis is a shithole
I think the problem is that they knew each other very well before he went undercover, but the same guy didn’t come back.
There is a reason that the divorce rate for the FBI/law enforcement in general is so high.
I definitely think Stan is interested in Nina, but can’t act as of yet because of his complicated marriage. You could see the disappointment in his face when she told him she blew the KGB guy.
The time he has devoted to learning Russian certainly has picked up significantly.
Is there a rule in espionage that as soon as you get done screwing you have to reveal whatever pertinent information you have that makes you valuable? “I know I shouldn’t say this to a prostitute, but we just had sex, so I feel kinda obligated. The JFK assassination? Inside job…here’s proof.” /unviel microfilm proving it
It’s a silly Hollywood trope. The last thing I want to do after sex with a hooker/employee is talk.
Post Coital Conversation With A Hooker/Employee
1) You have to go now.
2) Don’t tell ANYONE or I swear to Christ I’ll torture you to death.
And there’s absolutely no suspicion that this ridiculously attractive member of the opposite sex who has seduced your schlubby ass is pumping you for information.
I fall asleep or eat oyster crackers. Maybe one day I’ll be in a situation where that information will be valuable.
The FBI director guy is a fucking dickhead. if they knew the Russians had cracked the code, why did they immediately switch codes? they could have used the old code to spread disinformation. instead they just raised suspicions about their hot sexy mole they spent so much time and energy cultivating.
the Americans in this show fucking suck at being spies. I hope the Russians win.
I think the FBI agents are going to get burned on this one, setting up for better counterintelligence in the future. Agent John Boy might not be around too long, making way for Stan to move up.
Read Legacy of Ashes… The United States is not good at the whole spying/covert operative thing.
I’ll add that to my reading list.
Great episode. Elizabeth is one cold SOB. She doesn’t get emotionally invested in the what she has to do. She is either a sociopath or seriously emotionally stunted.
Note that the guy handling Udacha and getting blown by the secretary in the embassy is not the Director of the KGB. He’s the KGB resident or, what in CIA terms, would be called the chief of station. He is essentially the head KGB agent in Washington.
Is his name Vasili? I spent 20 minutes trying to remember/track down his name, and I was only 90 percent sure it was Vasili (the actor who plays “Vasili” has no picture on IMDB). I saw someone else simply refer to him as the Director of the KGB, so I went with that. So, “KGB Resident’ would be the appropriate title?
I think he is Vasili; I think Nina called him that when they were discussing Russian tea. And yes, he’s the KGB resident in the embassy. I think we saw the actual head of the KGB (or someone close to the top) in the pilot or the 2nd episode, when he met with Elizabeth.
Cool! Noted and corrected. Henceforth, he will be known as Vasili the KGB Resident. Thanks guys.
Now I’m trying to think of the name of the dark-haired Russian who stuck his head in the office to tell Vasili about getting the encryption codes. Boris? Nikolai? Natasha? Ivan Ilyich? Raskolnikov? It’s got to be one of those.
Isn’t he Vlad? [www.imdb.com]
SOB – Soviet Operative Bitch
The KGB/Spetnaz were not to be trifled with. I think she’s just committed.
The one thing I do find weird is that the KGB resident would be handling an asset. Seems to risky, as we saw last night.
@Brian
It was his asset from when he was in the US on an educational visa if that gives you an ide of how far back the relationship goes.
The asset was upset and wouldn’t speak to anyone but his ‘friend’.