"Everything scares those two." - Claudia
The fifth season starts with an unknown, later revealed to be Tuan Eckert. He befriends a lonely Russian transfer student, who can barely speak English. He clearly does not want to be there as being a Russian who can barely speak English in the middle of the Cold War is high on the list of undesirable places. Pasha plays son to Elizabeth and Phillip in this episode. For maximum confusion, he comes home to them and calls them mom and dad and to make matters weirder, both are wearing disguises. Actually, it would have been weirder if they weren't.
It seems clear that they are targeting the Russian transfer student because of his father. He hates the ever living shit out of Russia. I actually thought Elizabeth would strangle him on the spot. He also touts the beauty of being able to get food wherever you want in America. This dude is not long for this world. Anyway, he has something to do with agriculture. Russia's farming in the post-credits scene does... not look good. It looks like food within the Soviet Union would be an important plot point throughout this season. The Jennings cultivating (sorry) a source that is connected with agriculture and Oleg investigating food corruption.
Speaking of Oleg, this episode is just an introduction to his new digs. He decided to come home to comfort his mother, who has still not gotten over the death of her son. He is living in Moscow, specifically Lubyanka, which is the headquarters of KGB. His new boss seems nice. His boss (whose name I did not get) will be primarily investigating popular people who use bribery, extortion and such to take control of food. He believes it is the "chief threat against the Soviet Union." So we'll guess we'll be getting an inside look at the self-destruction of the Soviet Union for the rest of the series that's mostly just been hinted at so far.
Paige does not appear to have improved her relationship with her parents whatsoever since she saw her mother kill a mugger in front of her. She's having nightmares. Elizabeth's solution is to teach her basic self-defense. I'm not actually sure this will help her with her nightmares, but it's a good idea nonetheless given that they are spies. Neither parent wants her to be with Matthew, but that does not appear to deter her much.
Speaking of which, there's a really weird dynamic going on between the Beeman family and the Jennings family. Apparently, both Henry and Paige started eating with Stan on a semi-regular basis for dinner. Stan also just comes over with beer later in the night to discuss how great it is that Matthew has Paige. Stan is happy, because Matthew is happy and because he has a crush on a girl at the gym. Stan has never seemed like a high school boy more than there with his "I met someone" actually meaning "I handed her a cup of water."
Lastly, Gabriel gives them a job and the show sure takes its time with this job. It's a simple job, but it takes forever and is highly dangerous. I guess no job is truly simple if it's really dangerous. They figure out the location of William's body (from Gabriel) and dig it up. It is dug really fucking far into the ground. The show expresses this point by taking about 8 minutes for the digging scene alone, though I did not count. They eventually get to him and CUT OFF A PIECE OF HIS SKIN. Jesus. Poor William. He didn't want to give this disease to the Soviet Union because he knows what it can do, which is probably part of why he was willing to kill himself and yet it gets out anyway.
All is going well until, Hans falls into the hole and cuts his hand on William. Hans was a minor character with no character development, but the actor portrayed with a naive innocence that made him sympathetic. So I was sorry to see him go. He somewhat stupidly was delighted at how it didn't hurt and didn't realize that he was going to need to die. Like I said, the actor did a good job giving him a naive innocence that was obviously an intentional part of his character. He sure went out like an idiot though.
Notes
- Mischa is on the way to America. For an idea of how good The Americans are at this, there's a tense scene where he needs to get past airport security. Despite the fact that he's obviously getting past it, I still felt tense. Not to mention, as a person rooting for the Jennings to somehow get out of this and live happily ever after stop laughing at me, it's probably better if the son doesn't reach Phillip.
- Claudia and Gabriel are aware that Mischa is missing and think he might be visiting Philip. They do not tell Philip this. I'm sure this will go splendidly for all.
- There's a great shot when Oleg is with his mother. The camera zooms in on a picture of his brother, but in the background is a mirror with Oleg and his mother talking right above it. It's a good way of expressing that neither of them have put his death behind them.
- The AV Club review of this mentions that the, well, mention of the Sarajevo Winter Olympics places this episode around February 1984.
- Any bets on how quickly the Russian father dies? The Americans tends to zig when I expect it to zag, but I'd still find it hard to believe he makes it out of the season.
- I was promised more Henry. I do not actually care if Henry is confined to one scene for the rest of the series. But I was promised.
- "What's the right time?" - Elizabeth ponders to Phillip about when to go back to Russia. Yeah you guys are never stepping foot in that country again - I'm guessing.
- Paige is reading The New Hotel Hampshire by John Irving (1981), which appears to be a coming-of-age novel. I haven't read this book, but sometimes shows like to make points about the show with quick shots of books or TV series reflecting the characters' reality.
- RIP Hans
Soundtrack
- "That's Good" - Devo
- There also appeared to be a Russian sung version of "America the Beautiful"
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