Not so-super market.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Martha’s back! It felt inevitable we’d see her again at some point, but it’s great to get confirmation here. In classic Americans style, it wasn’t rushed. We saw her, but Oleg didn’t (or at least he didn’t really recognize who she was when he glanced at her), but now we know she’s potentially in play this season. When might she pop up again? We shall see.
Oleg in the meantime is bringing us deeper into exploring just how crappy things are for the average person in Russia, as we saw the depressing looking market he ventured to (and Martha was shopping at) while questioning a woman who was, notable, still getting better food than others. While Nina gave us a Russian storyline before, it was under very specific circumstances as a prisoner, so following Oleg this season is allowing us to explore different aspects for the series.
Going back to how The Americans doesn't rush things, when the idea was first brought up of letting Paige know the truth back at the end of Season 2, it was easy to jump to the thought of her suddenly becoming a lethal teen superspy. But I love the slow burn approach The Americans has taken instead. Finding out all she has has been a traumatic experience for her, but she still is learning more, bit by bit. The scene where she told Elizabeth how easy it was to lie to Matthew’s face, but how gross that made her feel, was great. Elizabeth equating keeping “my family are Russian spies” with other aspects people hide from their significant others was a stretch, to be sure – but one it feels like Elizabeth would make as she and Philip bring Paige in on more and more of how they live their lives, without still getting to the truly ghastly parts.
You know, like killing a dude named Randy who made the mistake of coming back to his desk at the wrong time. Elizabeth’s “You should have asked” when Randy said he never asked what their research was for was all we needed to hear to know that Randy’s time was up. The way we see Philip and Elizabeth work in these situations is always chillingly impressive, as with a few glances, they communicated that it was time to kill Randy – and then went about cleaning the place up and wiping any evidence they were there, without ever exchanging any words.
Tuan continues to be a bit of a wild card presence this season, as Elizabeth and Philip were impressed by his natural skills when it came to screwing up his bowling throw to connect more with Pascha. But he’s obviously a kid who’s holding onto a lot of rage, as he spoke about the United States destroying Russia – not because he hates Russia, but because he feels that what happened to his country will happen elsewhere.
I did feel like he was being contradictory when he complained to Philip about how much Pascha says he hates his father, and that he’s lucky to have a father - given how much he constantly spews venom about Alexei himself. You could chalk it up to him being an angry teenager, sure, but it felt like Philip should have called him out on or taken notice of it. It actually would have been interesting to have that exchange happen between Tuan and Elizabeth, given her angry, “Tuan’s right. He should be shot” statement about Alexei, who she agrees is a traitor.
I do hope Stan and Aderholt storyline picks up soon, as it all feels pretty murky at the moment. Though it was amusing seeing them stalking their new would-be contact in both a restaurant and bathroom, to the point where I wanted it to keep escalating to him turning over in bed and they were both laying there.
Mischa meanwhile is finding it a lot trickier to get to Philip than he hoped. Anyone else think of Freddie Prinze Jr. in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer whenever there's a prolonged storyline about someone trying to get back to where the central action is taking place? ...Just me?
The Verdict
It was all about the grain – and those damn midges -- this week on The Americans, as we learned more about the US plot to ruin Russian food and Philip and Elizabeth had to kill another (mostly) innocent guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Meanwhile, Paige’s spy skills continue to grow – but she continues to also find them repulsive, which is a fascinating contradiction to explore. Plus, Martha! Now will she and Oleg have a chat?
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