The Americans Season 1 Episode 13: The Colonel- Were the surprises enough for you?
Tasnim Ishrar
So the war’s over for now! It was quite a 13 episode long journey that has come to an end leaving us with The Americans Season 1 Episode 13, the grand finale full of The Americans and the Russians. So, with this ultimate review I’m saying my last good-bye to the first season of our beloved show and its stars :'( This review of The Americans Season 1 Episode 13 is our final tribute to The Americans Season 1. “Spoiler Alert” and enjoy!
So, we were all expecting an episode full of surprises but were we fully satisfied or not? Hold the answer till the end of the review.
After Episode 12 what we were mostly looking forward to was Arkady’s reaction to Nina’s deception and were eager to find out what her punishment would be. In The Americans Season 1 Episode 13, we find out that her penalty is yet more deception. Arkady said he had a feeling that using Nina against the Americans was the smart thing to do. He also mentioned that Nina could return to Russia where she wouldn’t face execution as she had made her confession in time. Nina agreed to help the KGB by leaking the FBI schemes she can lure out of her American lover. As we see in The Americans Season 1 Episode 13, she keeps her promise and alerts Arkady when she realizes that Stan was unto something when he told her that Nina would be granted ex-filtration once they were done with their current mission successfully. All in all, I was happy to see Nina serve her country like she wanted to. Though predictable, the end result with Nina was quite satisfactory.
Unaware of the FBI’s plotting, Elizabeth meets Granny over breakfast. We learn that the Jennings had filed a request for Claudia’s reassignment, as per our expectation. We knew this was coming and looks like so did Granny. Whether she will actually be reassigned and if so then who will replace her, remains a mystery for now. Claudia lets Elizabeth know that the meeting with the colonel. Elizabeth then sets off to meet Philip where he suggests that he should meet the colonel while Elizabeth performs the rather simple job picking up the transmitter. Elizabeth, however, had already put her foot down about not letting him do it as she believes that the kids need Philip more. Little did the couple know that the trouble was where they least expected it. Philip ended up going for the colonel mission, leaving Elizabeth a note to pick up the kids and the bug and wait for him at home.
Claudia was more or less in the spot light in The Americans Season 1 Episode 13. After the, as always, unpleasant meeting with Elizabeth, she moves to her next target. You remember Richard Patterson from Episode 11, don’t you? It was evident that our beloved Granny wanted him dead as she claimed to be in love with the deceased Victor Zhukov. We were questioned her affections and here in The Americans Season 1 Episode 13 she comes back to answer us. Yes, she was indeed fond of Zhukov. Granny poses as the old woman that she is and enters Richard’s apartment to cut his jugular, leaving him on his dying floor.
The Americans Season 1 Episode 13 viewed encounters of people we’ve never seen together before. Stan meets Prince, Philip meets the colonel and we see Claudia with Arkady for the very first time. They discuss the danger of the colonel arrangement. Claudia seems to be against taking such risk, endangering the lives and covers to their KGB field agents. Arkady , after learning from Nina, that something was fishy, gives Claudia the signal to abort the meeting with the colonel and Claudia drops into the meeting accordingly and lets Philip know that this was a set up. After a moment of panic, they all realized that there were no FBI agents around. That wasn’t the set-up. It didn’t take much long for Philip to figure things out and he ran to Elizabeth’s rescue, where the actual trap was!
In the very beginning of The Americans Season 1 Episode 13, we find out that Stanford Prince is taken into federal custody. Stan, who was interrogating Prince, as we would have suspected, saw right through him. Stan asked Agent Gaad to keep Prince in custody until he started spilling the beans all on his own. Prince way left alone for a long time in the interrogation room and he finally broke. He spoke up giving the FBI all the information he had on the colonel. But that was after Philip’s meeting with the colonel. The outcome of Prince’s statement to the FBI is likely very less effective but it remains to be assured.
Now moving to what Stan was up to. He and his team were on to the KGB field agents. As we have seen earlier, Viola spoke up and the FBI found a bug planted by the Jennings and used it to mislead them. Philip was ordered to pick up a recording of the bug where the federal agents were waiting like hungry wolves to catch them and bite their heads off! But Elizabeth ended up in the trap. However, before Elizabeth’s cover was blown to Stan, Philip rushed in with his car and picked her up. The two made a tough escape but not before the FBI shot a bullet into Elizabeth.Philip takes Elizabeth where the doctor says that she needed rest. So, we know that she’ll live to see another day, but did we really want? What if we were kept in the dark about Elizabeth’s survival until the next season? Would that be too much to handle? Probably not.
So, Stan’s plan was a major flop with a win for Nina. Elizabeth, who can now finally tell white from black, as we see she asks Philip to move back home with her and the kids. Speaking of the kids, they were being looked after by the Beeman as their parents were away. With the excuse of bringing her books, Paige goes to her house and sneaks into the basement where she saw her mother come out of in the middle of the night. She found nothing suspicious. But the sneak peek, was that due to any prior suspicion she had about her parents or was that purely teenage curiosity or was it just the just because of the spy genes which she gets from her parents. We’ll find out, hopefully in the next season. Martha is still all over Clark, poor woman has no idea what her man’s up to or what his true identity is. No development there! Stan and Sandra’s relationship hasn’t seen the light of day yet. The deeply hurt Sandra reuses to go on a vacation with her husband, pretending that everything was okay. Things look pretty bad for Stan, don’t they; well that’s what you get when you mess with the Jennings!
