Note: Do non read on if you have in so far to see Season 1, Episode 6 of "The Ameri washbowls," titled " want Me."
Excuse me eon I remove my foot from my mouth. I was get impatient with the poor Jennings, but now, stuff is going down, kids.
And oratory of kids, before we get into the trials and tribulations of spies and marriage, can we talk about the disconcert pond?
Maybe it's nostalgia for being a pre-teen with a subaltern brother, or however that I've skilful been accustomed to the children on my favorite dramas being so cringe-worthy and irritating, but I am ena more(prenominal)d of the Jennings' duo.
"It was a really scary day," is how Stan Beeman summed up this episode for his wife, and it was the worst for those both kids. exclusively they ben't sobbing or stomping around. In fact, after realizing that mom's not coming to pick them up at the mall, big sister Paige insists they just start walking, which leads to hitchhiking. Oh, the eighties. I have been a thirteen- grade ancient big sister, and let's just get it out there -- we adopt the worst decisions. Much to Henry's chagrin, they get in the car with a seemingly nice, albeit seemingly creepy guy, who offers to drop them off on his way to work. So early in the episode, I excuse wasn't sure if he was an FBI agent sent to distract the kids or just the kind of guy who likes to pound six packs while feeding ducks on his way to work. Both seemed plausible.
Turns out, he's the latter. While little Paige tries to warm up to him like a thirteen year old girl does, Henry spots a natural language in his jacket and knocks him out with a bottle and they escape all the way home. Whether they know it or not, being a bad-ass runs in the family. When they finally make it home, they end up stick to in that way that only brothers and sisters can.
This can't be the first beat they've been left alone, especially given Paige's certainty that "mom's not coming." I'm expression forward to keeping my eye on her -- she's old and quick-witted enough to start picking up on things.
But tolerate to this Sunday afternoon in Jennings-land. Philip is packed up into a van and brought to an empty warehouse. His kidnappers know he's a spy. They have his passports, recordings of conversations with Martha. They launch his head in water -- the Cold War rendering of water-boarding -- and demand answers.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is chopping vegetables and lets us know she's human by wincing through and through the onion tears before she switches into mega-spy mode and hears manyone upstairs. two men abduct her in her bedroom and bring her to the warehouse. Since women are so emotional, they use psychological tactics on her and arrange her in a room plastered with pictures of her children, so she can get her priorities straight.
When they brought her out into the same room as Philip, I was bummed. They totally fooled me into thinking the FBI had figured them out and I just assumed Peter would turn, if left to his own devices. But together, they pretend to die for their loyalty to the motherland, just as Claudia, their handler, comes out to stymy the whole scene. Cut! They were pawns in a ploy for the KGB to get hold out mole suspects. The Jennings are pissed. At the KGB and at severally other.
I was beginning to think Philip was a bit of a wiener and his comfort with America excessively easy of an out, but this eon I'm sold. Philip's doubts Elizabeth's loyalty to him, as he should. She may have told the KGB that he liked American closet space and fast food. And that's wherefore they're suspect, and have to force a car accident to prevarication to their kids when they get home. He's a dedicated family man as more as an agent for the KGB. When he shouts I fit in!, you get that this is a personal and professional accomplishment. He's just as dedicated as Elizabeth, but in a more realistic way. Her loyalty is unquestioning and robotic, his is rational and comes from a choice instinct.
This is the first time we get a glimpse at what their marriage has been like before we met them. Philip sleeping on the couch, out from his traitorous wife. Elizabeth smoking cigarettes with Gregory and asking for his protection. Philip wooing Martha with Elizabeth's jewelry, for the sake of a source, but also, maybe, for the sake of affection.
Things squeeze a turn at the Rezidentura, too. Nina begs for safety now that the KGB knows there's a mole, and Beeman gives her a camera to take inside. When she balks, he tells her not to worry, and carries out a rather excessive plan to set the Rezident up, including purloined diamonds from an FBI evidence locker and a trace at a local tea shop. The episode ends with Beeman sum that the Rezident has been pinned as the mole, boarding a plane to Russia to face his fate. But it's sort of unclear if any intel was gained, or if he was just keeping Nina safe. Did you guys catch that? And does the Rezident suspect Nina? How smart is this guy? That's wherefore this episode won me over. I like being a little confused about the plot.
It also finally dawned on me why this show seems sleepy at times, despite its contemptible narrative. It's the first show in quite a a couple of(prenominal) seasons of television, on any network, about "the American Dream," and politics and family and sexual love that isn't ripped from the headlines. Unlike "Homeland", or "Scandal", or " kinfolk of Cards", or even "The Good Wife," we're in a completely imagined, but very realistic, world. It's almost like a good novel. They're not taking scenes from CNN and showing us some hyperbolic backstory -- this is very good, highly original drama that works.
Like in real life, things seem to work out. Until that moment, like this week's episode, when everything is tossed back up in the air again. Elizabeth and Philip are at odds with each(prenominal) other and the KGB, which they can't trust anymore. The kids are alright, but maybe too keen. And Beeman's finally whispering sweet-nothings to his wife. This is what we call a mid-season bump.
"The Americans" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on FX.
Loading Slideshow Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings, Matthew Rhys as Phillip JenningsStills from "The Americans"Keri Russell as Elizabeth JenningsStills from "The Americans"Matthew Rhys as Phillip JenningsStills from "The Americans"
Materials taken from The Huffington Post
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