Amber Waves

The wait is finally over, The Americans are back on! Let’s dig into the best show on television.

First, how awesome is that poster above?

The end of last season was intense. The heat was so high on the Russian spies that fleeing the country was a real possibility. We come back in not too long after William’s death. Philip and Elizabeth are on to a brand new mission. They’re posing as a family with an adopted Filipino son who becomes friends with a new Russian student (I think they’re around 16 years old). The kid’s father is none too kind to the motherland and it looks like Phil and Elizabeth are meant to get close to find out if the father is a danger to Russia. The adopted son is a gung-ho recruit. He’s all about the mission and is intense about his immediate dislike for the father.

On the side character front, Oleg’s request to be moved back to Russia has been granted so Stan is out a contact. On the Stan front, nothing seems to be really buzzing at the FBI hive and he’s trying to move on from the divorce. He’s pretty stoked about “meeting” a woman at the gym and he’s happy that his son Matt has Paige in his life.

So the threat of Paige slipping around Matt is very real. Phil and Elizabeth don’t want Paige to date Matt and them telling her so just makes her mad and pushes her towards Matt. It also doesn’t help that since they are away so much on the new mission, Paige and her brother Henry are at Stan’s all the time. But there’s more to them being in love (which Paige quickly downplays to her parents) she’s been greatly affected by being attacked with her mother last year and seeing Elizabeth kill the guy. She worries for her parents all the time, is afraid of being alone and isn’t sleeping. So the immediate concern is her being with Matt but Elizabeth takes the right path. She’ll deal with her daughter’s insecurities and fear first. She teaches Paige basic defense and she learns fast. She’ll work up to dealing with the Matt issue in time.

Finally, Gabriel meets up with them and tells them what happened to William.

“He’s a hero.”

“Maybe he’ll get a stamp.”

There’s another mission involving the location where William was taken. Cut to them sneaking into the facility with a few other spies. They’re digging through the middle of the night looking for something and finally (a good 8-10 feet down) find a heavy duty metal case. They open it up and that’s no case, it’s a coffin. It’s William’s body. Having injected himself with the bioweapon, his body contains the sample that Russia still wants. The cut a piece of his leg out, seal it up in a bag and hand it off to a guy standing next to the hole. The guy falls in and cuts himself on the edge of the coffin and he’s basically splayed out on gaping hole William. They tell him it’s cool and to climb out. He heads up and like the true professional, Elizabeth caps him.

Great comeback to my favorite show. It’s as sharp and interesting as ever. They’re moving Paige’s story in a logical way and this new mission with the father could lead to a lot of things. Stan and the FBI are subdued for now. It’s just a matter of time until that fan gets turned back on. Really like the scene with Stan telling Phil about the woman, added some much-needed levity and normalcy. Now the question is, are they going to get Henry aware of anything this season or keep him shoved to the side? He’s so far out of the loop he might as well be in another state. Thought: with the worry being that Paige will open up to Matt, what if she tips off her brother instead?