SPOILERS AHEAD
First of all, I was so excited about this episode because Margo Martindale finally showed her beautiful and talented face on The Americans. We here at watchtheamericans.com absolutely love Martindale so this particular episode was quite special.
With Granny Claudia’s return, she also brought a lot of different feelings. Claudia and Elizabeth have a love hate relationship and in Granny’s return, she told Mrs. Jennings how happy she was that she was still alive. Basically for this season, the commies are getting sentimental. Elizabeth starts worrying about her kids and Claudia kind of does the same also.
But aside from worry, Claudia also harbors feelings of anger against the one who killed off Emmett and Leanne! She instructs our favorite suburban Russian couple to track a man who’s capable of killing the fallen pair. This side mission is also “off the books”, meaning, the center doesn’t know about it. But the Jennings still obliged because let’s face it, who can refuse Margo Martindale, and 2nd, they were really close with Emmett and Leanne.
This episode brought A LOT to the table. First, it establishes that Philip and Elizabeth are super busy. There was this one scene where both of them were planning the whole day and it was jam packed. One of the reasons why is that their Travel and Tours business is really booming! I like it that they’ve shed a spotlight on their business and it’s not also something that they only use for cover. I mean, it really makes money, to the point that they can afford to buy a new car, sweet right?
Making their life not easier is their daughter Paige. I feared that the eldest of the Jennings kids will be a pain in the butt but I never expected her to join a Christian youth group. When her communist atheist parents heard of this they went a little bit crazy on Paige. Just imagine back when you were a kid and you did something not totally wrong and both of your parents scolded you at the same time.
This is the sort of thing that makes Philip and Elizabeth’s life more complicated. They live a double life where they have to balance family and their real job. At some point, things get mixed up and in Paige’s case, her turn to religion is irking Elizabeth so bad that she even quoted Karl Marx’s famous line “Opium of the masses.”
And if you remember, Stan Beeman was supposed to be given a medal for killing the sniper, it turns out that the killing brought forth an investigation on their division. Poor chap, he has so much to worry about his life. His friend is a Russian spy, and her lover is too. Oh Beeman, if you only knew.
Well, this episode is really full to the brim. I loved the fight scene at the end of the episode! Finally, I saw Keri Russell kicking ass once again. Too bad it was a cliff hanger though, oh well, I guess I just have to watch this Wednesday, 10 PM on FX!
