The Americans was all about relationships last night. “A Little Night Music” was a slower episode, to be sure, but this season has been so breathless that it was nice to relax a little bit (and I use the word “relax” in its loosest sense, because this show is so goddamn tense).
Some relationships are crumbling, like those of Paige and her parents, or Martha and Phillip – er, Clark. Some are just beginning, like Elizabeth and the seaman recruit Brad Mullen (but to be fair, that relationship is fraudulent from the ground up). Elizabeth’s scenes with Brad (played by Jefferson White) are a quiet wonder to watch. She’s fragile and tender, never more so than when she recounts the story of her rape to Brad. The story might be fabricated, but Elizabeth is genuinely a survivor of rape, and when she tells the story, the events might be false, but the scars it left on her psyche have never been more apparent. It’s a testament to Keri Russell’s skills that she makes all sides of Elizabeth equally believable. Last week she was menacing a man with a crowbar, this week she’s near tears as Brad kisses her. What a performance.
Claudia returns to task the Jennings with finding the identity of Emmet and Leanne’s killer (note: in previous reviews, I’ve referred to Leanne as “Leah.” That’s incorrect, and totally my fault). Claudia is as shaken by their murder as Phillip and Elizabeth are, and when she confesses “I don’t want to lose any more people,” you forget for a second that she’s talking about Communist spies. In reality, she’s talking about people, and while their ideology differs vastly from ours, and their motives are purely anti-American, they’re still people who love and are loved. In evoking this reaction from the audience, The Americans comes close to subverting the time-honored archetype of the antihero.
To wit, the most striking scene in “A Little Night Music” is the argument that Phillip and Elizabeth have regarding Paige’s newfound religion. For the first time in a while, one of our, um, “heroes” espouses the Communist agenda she’s hiding in America to promote. Elizabeth rails about indoctrination and consumerism, and even quotes Marx’s famous line about religion being the opiate of the masses. She’s a mother who is confused and concerned about her daughter, and scenes like this remind us that that isn’t a uniquely American value.
A Few Thoughts
– Martha is going to out Clark as her husband (at least it looks that way). No good has ever come from a woman on a TV show drinking wine and making late-night phone calls
– Stan confesses his affair to Phillip. Another knockout scene played to perfection by Noah Emmerich, who is doing the best work of his career
– What is it with these prestige dramas and sons? Henry Jennings is in danger of joining the dubious ranks of Homeland‘s Chris Brody and Mad Men‘s Bobby Draper
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