We don’t typically commit to recaps of television shows after only the pilot episode, but last week’s premiere of The Americans was different than most pilot episodes. This is FX, after all, and where dramas are concerned, John Landgraf and the network hasn’t failed us. The pilot episode was intense, compelling, a little steamy, and all together engrossing, establishing The Americans has an addictive show right out of the gate. Before we kick off this week’s recap, here’s a very abbreviated summary of the pilot:
Set in the early 1980s, soon after the election of Reagan, The Americans centers on Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell). They are KGB spies living in the United States, and their cover is that of a normal American family, complete with two children, Henry and Paige. They work as travel agents. There’s considerable tension in the marriage — which was arranged years prior by the KGB — because Phillip has become invested in their cover life, and loves his wife and children, and doesn’t loath the United States. Meanwhile Elizabeth still puts the motherland first. The tension came to a head last week when Phillip, instead of turning himself in and defecting, killed a Russian defector who had raped Elizabeth during her training days back in Russia. The chivalrous act endeared Elizabeth to her husband, they banged in a car after ditching the body (to the soothing tunes of Phil Collins), and it appeared that Elizabeth’s country-first facade had cracked. It’s also worth noting that, though they have lived together as husband and wife for 15 years, Phillip and Elizabeth know very little about each other’s lives before they met.
Meanwhile, a new neighbor, FBI Agent Stan Beeman, moved in across the street from the Jennings, in a quiet D.C. suburb. Beeman works in counterintelligence, and because of certain clues, became suspicious of the Jennings. However, by episode’s end, he seemed to have dismissed — with some relief — the paranoid idea that the Jennings were Russian spies.
That brings us to last night’s second episode.
1. She’s Half Off Her Rocker — For the second week in a row, The Americans leads with a fairly intense sex scene. These guys are not messing around.
The target is Analise, the wife of the deputy Undersecretary of Defense. Analise is probing her husband for scraps of information, but she’s not doing it so much for the Russians, or even Phillip, but because she’s a bored housewife and likes the thrill of doing something naughty. During a dinner party, Analise takes pictures of the Secretary of Defense’s office. A clock is spotted.
Minor problem: Analise is in love with Phillip. She’s hot. And Elizabeth is expressing a tiny shred of jealousy.
It’s hard to say whether Analise will be an ongoing part of the story, although she’s clearly obsessed with Phillip and likely a danger to his cover because she’s so reckless.
2. Put This in Your Back Pocket — The threat posed by the Russians at the moment is the concern that the Soviets might get nuclear missiles into Nicaragua. Meanwhile, Elizabeth thinks that Reagan is “crazy, the man literally wants to destroy us.”
3. General Zhukov is not what he used to be. We learn from these two cats in the Russian embassy that there is some apparent power struggle at the head of the KGB. General Zhukov, who has been calling the shots, and who put Phillip and Elizabeth in place, is losing his grip on power.
4. If They’re Asking, It Must Be Necessary — The spy mission in this episode is simple, except in its execution. It’s typically a six-to-seven month operation, but the KGB is fast-tracking it, endangering the lives of Phillip and Elizabeth. They want it done in 3 days. Phillip and Elizabeth know who the Secretary of Defense’s maid is.
They poison the maid’s son, and hold the antidote as ransom. The maid must retrieve the clock, return it to Phillip, Phillip will bug it, and the maid must return it to its rightful place. Easy enough, right?
Not so much: The maid has two things going against her: She’s very loyal to the Secretary of Defense and his family, who have already saved her son’s life, and she’s a big believer in God. She believes that fate will take care of itself. Her faith buckles, however, when Phillip puts a pillow over her son’s head. Ultimately, after a few tense moment, some false starts, and the maid’s brother who nearly kills Phillip, the mission is accomplished, and the antidote is provided.
5. There’s a Nanny — I don’t know if and when she’ll play into the main narrative, but it’s always good to keep an eye on her. She’s a ginger, after all. Gingers are evil.
6. Keri Russell is very attractive.
Also, Phillip and Elizabeth still have some concerns about Agent Beemer, but they think the danger has passed. Later in the episode, Phillip and Beemer have a neighborly chat over caviar that Beemer lifted from someone he was questioning.
7. I’m Not Getting Arrested — There’s a lot going on with the family piece this week. Elizabeth is worried about Paige, especially in the event that she and Phillip are arrested. She’s becoming more invested in the family, so much so that she is carrying a gun, presumably to blow her own brains out in the event that she’s caught, so as to avoid torture and/or being put into a position of having to choose between the motherland and her children. She’s also trying to bond more with Paige — she pierces her ears — to create some loving memories in her daughter’s mind should she ever find out that Elizabeth is a Russian spy.
8. Just nod your head — FBI Agent Stan Beeman and his partner, Agent Chris Amador, are on the trail of this woman.
She works for the Russian embassy. She’s trading high-end caviar stolen from the embassy for expensive stereo equipment and US currency. Beemer and his partner find this out using dickish tactics that don’t exactly fit within one’s Fourth Amendment rights.
Beemer uses the information to turn the woman from the Russian embassy into a mole for the FBI.
9. You know that tingle you get when you know something’s about to go bad? — After the mission is accomplished, Elizabeth and Phillip themselves bond over the same caviar, and Elizabeth finally concedes that the price they are paying is too high, that their loyalty to the motherland is presenting too much danger to their family. “They shouldn’t ask us to do impossible things.”
10. The Payoff — From the bug, the KGB learns that the Secretary of Defense is working to develop a Ballistic Missile Shield (this would later be known as Reagan’s “Star Wars” and it would be much mocked and derided), and the idea is to have it cover both Europe and the United States, which would nullify the Soviet’s nuclear threat. The KGB is obviously bent out of shape by this revelation.
The more interesting thing at play here for the purposes of The Americans main narrative is that the FBI has a mole in the Russian embassy who is in a position to relay to the FBI that the KGB knows about Star Wars. It also provides dots between Agent Beemer and Phillip and Elizabeth, which Beemer and the FBI could possibly connect. CUE OMINOUS MUSIC.
A fantastic episode overall, and the show is doing a great job of creating episodic missions that play into the overall season long narrative. My only quibble with The Americans so far is that there’s no levity to offset the grim nature of the series, and so far, we don’t care a lot for the characters. I think we need a few lighter, resonant moments with the Jennings to better establish an emotional connection to those characters. Hopefully, that will come.
