Elizabeth and Philip realize it sucks to be them in the latest episode of 'The Americans'
Elizabeth: We're in trouble.
Philip: I know.
That exchange, which takes place inside the Jennings' parked car, closes "Pastor Tim," Wednesday's episode of The Americans. Then, Elizabeth rests her head on Philip's shoulder, and the camera cuts to a lingering shot of them through the rearview window as the camera slowly zooms out of their garage. To me, the visual is sort of reminiscent of characters driving off into the sunset, but in this particularly, it's the complete opposite. Framed inside their tiny garage, it feels like the Jennings are trapped like never before.
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It's a telling and dread-filled moment that perfectly sums up the point of this episode. While the season premiere focused on Philip's tortured soul and fear of the future and mission, "Pastor Tim" is all about revealing that Elizabeth might not be as far away from her husband as we may have thought. By the end of the episode, she reaches the place Philip's been at for quite some time, i.e. feeling cornered in.
Since the beginning of the series, Elizabeth has been characterized as the (admittedly stereotypical) cold one in the relationship. Her resolve and dedication to the cause rarely wavers, and she doesn't seem nearly as troubled as her husband each time she has to kill someone. As the seasons have unfolded, the show has slowly started defrosting her icy exterior and that's very much on display in "Pastor Tim" starting with the first scene of the episode.
After Elizabeth and Philip securely hide the virus, Elizabeth asks what was up with Stan, forcing Philip to come clean about attending EST meetings. He explains that it's been helping him "learn how to deal with things." In the past, we could've expected Elizabeth to scoff at the idea of attending these meetings and perhaps judging Philip. But, that's not what happens here. Instead, she's receptive and understanding because she's noticed that something has been bothering him.
"Is it something that you'd ever want me to go to?" she asks, and Philip responds, "Sure." This short exchange reveals how far the Jennings have come since that first season. I've never been married, but this very real.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth isn't nearly as understanding when it comes to her daughter. As she reviews the bug in Pastor Tim's office, she hears Paige tell him everything. Her first instinct is to kill him because that would easily solve the problem and they'd finally be rid of him. But, Philip objects because he's worried that killing the one person Paige trusts would hurt her even more -- and, god forbid, their daughter ever learn her parents' were responsible.
While Elizabeth check out Pastor Tim's sermon writing cabin to figure out how to effectively kill him, Philip heads to the airport to meet up with the carrier, a pilot, who is supposed to smuggle the virus outside of the country. The exchange is supposed to go down on the back of an airport shuttle bus, but everything goes awry when Philip is forced to kill an airport security guard who notices how nervous the pilot is. At first, we see the murder happen in the background of a shot that foregrounds a young woman in the front of the bus who is oblivious to what's going because she's blasting "Tainted Love," and it's played for humor. But then the scene seamlessly transitions to horror as we cut back to Philip who is choking the life out of this man. In the end, it was all for naught because the courier purposefully leaves the virus behind, forcing Philip to bring it home with him again.
Having the virus back inside the home makes Elizabeth incredibly uncomfortable. That night, she has a nightmare where Paige heads to Pastor Tim's castle and finds his dead body in bed, but then Pastor Tim turns into the man who raped Elizabeth when she first joined the KGB and attacks her daughter. The job is really starting to get to Elizabeth.
Gabriel informs Elizabeth of her mother's death. When Elizabeth returns home, she tells Paige who comforts her mother even though she felt very little for her grandmother. However, her mother's obvious sadness makes Paige feel guilty, so she comes clean about telling Pastor Tim. Elizabeth, who knew already, blows up and scolds her for not putting the family first.
"I'm not a liar, mom. I told you that," says Paige. "That's not fair. You put me in this position. You did this to me."
Those words shock Elizabeth to the core and she realizes Paige is hurting more than she knew. Their trip to East Germany wasn't as healing as she thought. Furthermore, "I'm not a liar" probably shocks Elizabeth even more because it's the first time she has to confront the fact that Paige might not ever join the family business. Elizabeth calms things down and promises they'll figure things out.
Now, Elizabeth and Philip definitely can't kill Pastor Tim. By episode's end, the two biggest problems threatening the Jennings' family -- what to do about Pastor Tim and the virus -- remain depressingly unresolved.
Mission Debrief:
There's something about the scenes in the gulag with Nina that both bores me and interests me. I'm still not sure what the show is trying to do there, but I'm sticking it out because I can sense there's something more to them. This week, Nina meets with her husband and asks him to smuggle a letter to the Israeli scientist's family, but it's intercepted.
What is up with Stan?
Henry seeks girl advice from Stan. Do you think the Jennings realize that Henry is also becoming a more worrisome potential threat?
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Sandra Gonzalez was a Senior Television Reporter at Mashable. A Texas native, she spent almost four years in New York City before leaving the land of superstorms for Los Angeles, where she was introduced to these terrifying things called "rolling earthquakes."Previously, she was with Entertainment Weekly, where she wrote about every show that could fit into her perfectly crafted TV schedule and anything ever touched by Shonda Rhimes.You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @theSandraG
