In 2013, Alison Wright — who plays Martha Hanson on FX’s The Americans — was sued by her former talent agency for breach of contract. She’d switched agencies before her contract expired, so her former agency had sued her for $500K in actual damages, representing 10 percent of the $5 million they expected Alison Wright to earn on The Americans. In other words, her former agency thought she’d be on the show for at least five seasons.
I remember laughing at that notion, thinking that there was no way Martha Hanson would survive until the end of the first season, much less five seasons on The Americans. Yet, here were are, more than halfway through the fourth season, and Martha is still alive, slowly being strung along by an ever-increasingly tense narrative. The Martha Death Watch continues.
Every year on The Americans feels like it could be the last for Martha, who plays an FBI secretary and the until-recently unwitting wife of KGB agent Philip Jennings/Clark Westerfield (Matthew Rhys). For much of The Americans‘ run, Martha was also someone most fans of The Americans were eager to see killed off. She was a nuisance character, an annoying diversion to the main narrative arc.
Played brilliantly by Wright, the Martha arc has been the slowest-developing storyline I have ever experienced watching contemporary television. Through nearly four season of The Americans, her subplot has been eked out in drips and drabs. The most dramatic events in Martha’s life were placing a pen with a bug inside it on her boss’ desk, or making copies for her KGB husband while furtively looking around the FBI office. Meanwhile, the rest of her storyline was devoted to moaning and complaining that she never got to see her husband enough, or begging Clark to stay the night, while Clark put that poor put-upon woman off over and over and over. Killing her character would have felt like sweet mercy.
The Americans, however, would never waste a great opportunity with a cheap, shocking death. They were biding their time, slowly setting up what would eventually become the most thrilling series of episodes yet. This season has seen the Martha death watch pick up the pace, from a slow aimless walk to a sprint. Creator and showrunner Joseph Weisberg is turning the screws, tightening the noose as Philip/Clark and the Russians engage in a cat-and-mouse hunt for Martha. It’s no longer, “Martha is definitely going to die this season,” but “Martha is definitely going to die this week.”
Yet, even after last night’s stellar episode, “Travel Agents,” Martha is still around. There’s no slack left in the rope, but it hasn’t broken her neck yet. Martha has evolved from a tedious exasperating character into a sad, sympathetic one. That poor, poor woman: All she wanted was someone to love her, to make her feel less alone in the world. And now? Her life is over. The KGB is preparing to put her on a plane to Russia, where she will once again be alone, in a country where she doesn’t speak the language, where she knows no one. When Philip/Clark told her at the end of last night’s episode that he wouldn’t be coming to Russia with her, it was the saddest, most heartbreaking moment of television in 2016. “Not even to visit?” Martha asked, as Philip snuffed out the last dim light of hope in her eyes.
After dragging her along for four seasons, we no longer want Martha to die. We want Martha to somehow survive this ordeal and be rewarded for the pain and emotional turmoil she’s been put through. We want her to find someone who reciprocates her affection. She deserves to live. She deserves someone to love!
Unfortunately, we’re not even sure that Martha is really headed to Russia. The KGB’s Tatiana didn’t mention that she was on the list of passengers. Exfiltration plans have never gone well on The Americans. This feels like one of those instances where the KGB is lying to Philip and that Gabriel will have Martha killed in the back of a van as soon as Philip is under the impression that she is safe. If so, it will be devastating.
Or maybe he won’t. Maybe Martha will somehow survive. Maybe Alison Wright’s former agent was right all along. Maybe Martha will make it through season five, after all.
