4x12 A Roy Rogers in Franconia

[8.2/10] The Americans has, almost since the beginning, played in the space of what we do for our loved ones versus what we do for our country. It is, arguably, the central tension of the show, where Philip and Elizbaeth have to balance their responsibilities as Russian spies undercover in the United States with their responsibilities as spouses and parents at home. But a “Roy Rogers in Franconia” puts that issue in central focus, where what Elizabeth, Paige, William, and Oleg choose to do is framed in those terms.

The plainest instantiation of that comes when the show laudably takes time to let Paige react to the realization that her mom killed a man, and to have Elizabeth unpack that notion for her. One of the best things about the ongoing “Paige learns her parents’ secret” storyline is how it’s given us a lot of superb scenes of honesty between Elizabeth and her daughter.

Learning that your mom and dad are secret agents would be a lot to take in, and the show doesn't gloss over it or take it lightly. It uses the aftermath to both treat the gravity of this revelation with seriousness, but also to use it as a stand-in for the broader steps into adulthood and new understanding between parents and children that comes with it.

When Paige asks how Elizabeth could be so calm, could be so effective, at subduing their attackers, Elizabeth answers truthfully, but guardedly. She tells her daughter that she rand Philip received self-defense training in Russia and that she was not going to let someone hurt her daughter. It’s a perfectly legitimate explanation (at least under the circumstances), but the episode doesn't skimp on Paige being understandably horrieid, or at least shocked by it. Paige understands that her parents love her, she understands that they’re capable of some serious things, but putting that together into one mortal moment is a lot for her to reckon with.

In an odd way, it’s the same thing that William is grappling with. He believed in what he was doing once, and is still willing to do his job for the most part, but the notion of turning over a disease that could do such terrible things, “wipe out half the Eastern seaboard” as Tatiana puts it, wears on him. It’s too much, to feel like you’re in the care of, and contributing to, an institution capable of doing that sort of mortal damage, whether you’re a young woman who’s just watched your mother deploy lethal force or an older man who fears his government would unleash a terrible plague on its enemies.

So Gabriel offers William the one thing it’ll take to get him to pull off his job -- a ticket home. He tells William that if he can get the bioweapon, he can go back to Russia “a hero” and retire in safety and comfort. Gabriel frames it as a terrible thing they need to do, or at least a potentially dangerous one, in order to protect their loved ones, a necessary evil to serve a greater good. It seems like enough to get through to even a disillusioned soldier, willing to put his grander concerns aside in order to be some place where he can escape this life and make those sorts of human connections again, human connections that even Gabriels admits to missing.

The problem is that William seems headed for a brick wall of “Retirony” or, for you non-Simpsons fans out there, the phenomenon of someone being derailed or killed or otherwise sidelined when they’re “two days from retirement.” The FBI gets a tip that the Russians have someone on the inside of a bioweapon contractor, and Stan and Aderholt and Wolfe are able to do enough legwork to piece together that it’s William. I imagine there’ll be plenty of time to talk about this down the line, but it seems like William’s bit of relief, his “one last job” scenario, is going to end in more tragedy than triumph.

(As an aside, I like how Aderholt has developed on the show as a nose-to-the-grindstone detective who sniffs out leads and does the work to figure things out. Frankly, he seems like the most competent guy in the department, and the fact that he’s the one who figures out the mailbot is bugged is a nice touch, which also plants a seed for the show to harvest later.)

The FBI gets that tip via Oleg, who gives it to Stan, despite the last episode’s declaration from Agent Beeman that their relationship was effectively over. Oleg’s reasons are a little opaque. Maybe he too is having a moment of conscience like William, Maybe he’s playing Stan as part of a longer con. Or maybe he doesn't want Tatiana to go to Kenya to become the new Rezidentura, doesn't want to lose her like he’s lost other people, and so is willing to throw this monkey wrench into her success in order to, hopefully, keep her here.

It’s an act of equal cruelty and kindness whatever the answer, one which maybe hurts the spread of biological weapons, but which might also hurt someone Oleg cares about for his own personal well-being.

That’s the hardest and most interesting thing about the show here -- it’s hard to tell how much these characters are acting in the interest of their broad minded principles, how much they’re acting (knowingly or unwittingly) out of being manipulated by their handlers, and how much they’re out of raw personal interest.

That’s especially true for Paige and Matthew, who share a first kiss here. As with William, I imagine there will be plenty more time to talk about this. But for now, it’s an interesting development from a plot standpoint, because it further complicates the ties between a family of Russian spies and the family of an FBI agent.

But it’s also interesting because we don’t know how much of Paige’s affection is genuine and how much it comes from a desire to help feed her parents info about the FBI via her young suitor. It’s something that clearly concerns both Philip and Elizabeth, who are worried both about their daughter opening up too much about someone who could pose a threat to them, and about her sublimating or mixing her personal feelings in the name of advancing the mission.

It connects to the best scene in a great episode, when Paige tells her mother to stop evading the questions or giving non-answers, and be honest and frank about how she could kill like that. Elizabeth tells her daughter about the place where she grew up, about the hardships during after World War II, about how her people fought to survive and banded together to fight back, and didn’t really have the time or luxury to think about the moral implications of it.

It was an act of survival, an act of necessity, to keep the people they cared about safe. All over The Americans, people are making the same sorts of choices, to save the world, to save themselves, and to protect their loved ones. But the reasons for that become mixed in a world where such clarity rarely finds purchase, and there’s more blood to be spilled before anyone can feel settled, comfortable, or safe.