Noah Emmerich plays it perfectly, letting Stan’s wary eye pass over everything from the smiling photographs to Paige’s discarded cross necklace with admirable restraint, his suspicion teetering right on the edge of full-on alarm. That sequence of Stan tiptoeing through the Jennings house was both completely frustrating and beautifully done. That, more than anything, makes it feel like he might truly be on his way to knowing everything. Even if he came up short, Stan’s now realizing that he may know nothing at all. Instead, I’m going to loop back to talk about Stan, who has finally listened to my pleas to get interesting already and inched so close to the truth that it’s a wonder Philip didn’t feel a draft on the back of his neck from Stan breathing down it.Īfter years of shrugging off his travel agent neighbors coming home at 4 in the morning - which, c’mon Stan, you knew that and are only suspicious now? - he finally takes the time to consider that he’s spent years of his life getting conned. We can’t insert emojis into this recap, and the only reaction I can possibly conjure up to that is a frozen grimace. FXĬaroline Framke : With all due respect to poor Marilyn, I’m gonna pass. Let’s talk about cutting bodies apart with an ax!!!! CUTTING BODIES APART WITH AN AX! (Also, more praise for Stan.) The ascent of Stan. But that doesn’t mean the happier moments aren’t real.Įnough of that, though. Everybody on this show has abused that privilege, over and over again. We are always writing our own stories, and giving others the pen that they might write themselves in, and hoping they don’t abuse that privilege. The end of a bad marriage doesn’t mean both halves of that couple weren’t happy at the wedding, just as a happy wedding doesn’t guarantee a bright future. It’s easy to remember the happy times when things are going well, but it will be just as easy for Stan to say, “I always suspected!” when he finds out his best friend was playing him all these years. But the show is making a larger point here about what makes our interpersonal dealings tick. It’s just a matter of how you choose to look at it.ĭoes Stan back off because he doesn’t find any evidence? Or does he back off because, on some level, he doesn’t want to lose his friend? Or do the two feed into each other somehow? We’re close enough to the end - and Stan is close enough to finding out Philip and Elizabeth’s secret - that I feel fairly confident he will, eventually. Every relationship is a fake one, and every relationship is a real one. Whether we’re watching Stan and Henry, or Stan and Philip, or Elizabeth and Erica the artist, we’re seeing stories about people who enter into relationships for transactional reasons - Henry wants a surrogate dad (even if he’d never say so), Philip needs to keep tabs on the FBI, Elizabeth needs intelligence - and find themselves with a “real” relationship anyway. I loved how frustrated I was by it.īut thinking back on it an hour or so later, having had time to stew over it, I’ve realized that what sets The Americans apart is its commitment to telling stories about relationships. But bringing Stan into the Jenningses’ inner sanctum and having him come up empty-handed is, like, next-level commitment to the show’s mission statement. If The Americans had suddenly turned into a pulp extravaganza, it would have felt cheap. Now, it will come as no surprise that I’m in the first camp. At this point, you either admire The Americans’ commitment to being itself or you wonder if it’s squandering its opportunity for a big, flashy finish, like we might have seen on Breaking Bad or The Shield. He goes back home, comes into work the next day, and pulls up another lead.īear in mind that this is with a little over three episodes left in the entire series.
Todd VanDerWerff: It’s a beautifully, brilliantly tense moment: Stan Beeman, dots connecting in his head, infiltrates the Jennings household, while Philip and Elizabeth are away “working on a travel agency emergency.” He skulks around, poking in corners and pulling at threads that we know would have once led to something but don’t right now. This week, critic at large Todd VanDerWerff, news editor Libby Nelson, and culture writer Caroline Framke offer their takes on “Harvest,” the seventh episode of the final season. Every week, some of Vox’s writers gather to discuss the latest episode of FX’s spy drama The Americans.
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