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The Americans 3X13: March 8, 1983
🕑 Added 2025-08-11 21:06:57 +0000 UTCI initially thought that this episode wasn't going to be dramatic enough for a season finale, but I'm happy to wrong.
Okay so, Elizabeth and Paige. head off to Berlin and hope that they will be taken to see Elizabeth's mother. But, it turned out that they ended up bringing her mother to the hotel they were at. And she and Paige seemed to get along fine, but it was such a short visit. Afterwards, she heads to the bathroom to pray for her. And that shot, of Elizabeth sitting on the floor, watching her pray, was haunting. I really thought she was going to ask Paige if she could pray with her. But I think it ended up being more powerful without.
Later, when they are back in the states, Paige tells Elizabeth that she doesn't know how to handle the fact that she's going to have to lie to everyone for the rest of her life. And, I think it's a valid concern. She's still a child and now she's got to keep every lie straight for the rest of her life. Because, if she doesn't, her parents end up in jail. Or dead. And of course, the very first thing that she does when she gets home to call Pastor Tim and spill the beans. Fuck. This is going to be a disaster.
While the girls are away, Philip is busy confusing me. I have no idea what he was doing over in that dude's house that he killed. It seemed like he planted a bug in there, but I have no idea why. What is the bug of a guy who's dead going to tell us? But he makes it look like a suicide. And then later, he tells Elizabeth that doing it took care of the Martha situation. So, I was even more confused.
He also spends more time at these EST events. At first I was sure it was because he had some ulterior motive, but by the end of the episode, I was convinced that he really was just trying to figure out how to navigate this relationship with Elizabeth. Because, as soon as she gets home, he tries to have a conversation with her about how he's been feeling. He has a hard time getting the words out though, and while she's encouraging at first, eventually, she gets distracted by something political on the news (I'm sure I should know what it was, but I didn't).
Elsewhere, Stan meets up with Oleg who informs him that the Z defector is in fact, working with the KGB. But Russia has forbidden any assassinations outside of proper channels (which feels like it should have been a thing anyway). But, they decide they can still get her and trade her for Nina. However, back at the FBI, Stan hands over the recording he made of the meeting and Gaad, is pissed. He informs him that he's basically going to try to get him fired. But it turns out the higher ups are cool with this and want Stan to keep doing what he's doing. However, they are trading Z defector for a different agent and not Nina. So, it seems like he's striking out there.
Like I said, I was skeptical about this as a season finale until I finished it. Ugh. As per usual, it was so good.
