The Americans - "COMINT" review

It’s time to review this week’s episode of The Americans, a treatise on patience (Axl Rose did it first, and with a seemingly unending whistle solo.) Before I do that, I should probably attend a sexual harassment seminar.

Patience is a virtue, and only Stan, Liz, and Phil showed any of it in “COMINT,” with varied results. Amador was rash in his pass at Martha, instead of planning the right thing to say at the right time, he blurted out a stupid comment that had the opposite intended affect.  Nina, misinterpreting what Stan says, throws herself at Visili and awkwardly plies him for information.  The temptation for Phil and Liz to act impulsively exists, as well. Phil stifles his desire (which we were led to believe in the promos for the episode) to haul off and kill the contact Liz just suffered to gain, instead taking it out on his son’s lost thermos (though, Liz's "You're not my daddy" comment as a "who's your daddy" joke reference didn't go unnoticed.)

Stan’s hard work didn’t pay off, however. His patience in working Nina, and the way in which he waited for the KGB to come to him all ended up biting him in the end. The Russians dispatch the contact –the lonely man – with ease, and Stan’s actions have put Nina at risk.  This is the first mistake Stan has made, and he made it because he is letting Nina blind him.  Of course, the burning of the asset was because Director John Boy said he's "waited a long time for this" and blew his chance at trapping the Russians.  Had the FBI put someone on Visili and let the KGB think their communications technology was compromised; the Russians would’ve walked right into a trap.  They got sloppy, and lost a valuable contact.  This time, however, we didn't get our requisite Stan Beeman "I'm so damn tired of being right all the time" face. It's like he was too focused on the cyrillic alphabet to notice they were about to lose their upper hand.

The two main dramatic scenes, not counting the S&M scene at the beginning, were the heist on the hydraulic lifts and the foot chase to the Potomac.  Neither had the intended effect, however.  The foot chase scene was obvious in its tight shot parallels that Visili and his contact weren’t going to the same place.  At this point, those types of “tight shot, quick cuts, could be on a split screen” scenes just shout “not going to the same place!” or “not happening at the same time!”  For the trunk to trunk heist scene, there are some technical issues – how did Liz escape the trunk?  This is the 1980s.  Trunks didn’t necessarily have night-glow trunk escape handles.  That came about because of child safety concerns in the late 90s, so how did Liz pull that little magic trick?  Also, Phil freaked out and clearly was trying to follow the two guys once he realized that Liz could be trapped.  Yet, she snuck out of the trunk, and walked calmly out of the FBI parking lot.  There was nothing about being stuck in the belly of the beast, behind enemy lines.  It was fairly banal.  It could have been a major crux of an episode, yet she Houdinied her way out, and then just walked off.  What’s more – Phil raced out, but then decided to go to a donut shop for coffee and vanilla crème donuts?  The urgency didn’t match the actions.

Overall, though, “COMINT” was a very good episode.  I’d like to see a stated plan for the rest of the season, however.  Not storyboards and arc development, but just some type of understanding of how the season will go – a common goal.  We’ve been treated to discussions of Star Wars, but there needs to be some type of goal that the KGB is working toward so that each episode moves the chess pieces a bit closer to a checkmate on the season, rather than an episodic mess of random happenstance missions that feed in to the KGB plan, to which we aren’t privy. The latter route would make this show The Walking Dead: 80s Red Scare!

Other thoughts:

Will every male-female relationship in the Jenkins’ lives become a parallel for Phil and Liz’s relationship?  As Liz sits down with her contractor contact to gauge his level of commitment to the KGB and to Russia, her questions have multiple meanings, including discussing his fidelity to his wife and his loyalty to his country.  We find out seconds later that his loyalty is long gone – but he also feels completely alone without his wife. Liz wants to reach out to him, and is cautioned by Granny against such attempts, even in the purest sense of duty to country.

At a time when Liz and Phil are trying to connect themselves to each other as actual husband and wife, though it may only be working superficially at this point, Claudia advises Liz that she shouldn’t make those contacts, because, in the end, she will need to cut bait, and the people who have connected themselves to her will feel too attached to let go.  It’s not hard to see that this is a conversation both about the man who is lost without his wife, but also about Phil.

At some point, Liz and Phil will need to part, either temporarily or fully, and it will be Liz who will need to decide: Family or Country?  Right now, I’d suspect she’d choose country.  But, if it’s two seasons from now, and she has fully engaged with the family, it would be family.  Something tells me her decision point will come sooner rather than later, and we’ll have to see how Phil will react to it.  Will he become sloppy like the man in the phone booth, calling his handler over an unsecured line so that the Feds can hear everything?

Before we knew more about Stan’s relationship, or lack thereof, with his wife, I would have thought that he’s completely the kind of person who would elicit desire from Nina, because he’s so honest and protecting.  She’d make an advance, he’d say “No way. I’ve got a family.”  Now, I’m just counting the days until he protects her cover by sticking his neck out for her and getting a verbal beat down from John Boy, with sexy results¹, especially considering his doubling down on the word “beautiful” as he reassures her to be patient, her second such lecture on patience.  Stan, choosing to learn Nina’s language instead of respond to his wife’s advance, which, in the cold relief of the end of the last episode, may be the last of her attempts to make their marriage work.  Who, by the way, wouldn’t be interested in watching Phil and Stan, bachelors and foils, live in the same apartment building, like some weird 1980s “Perfect Strangers” style sitcom?

Agent Amador’s ham-fisted attempt at complimenting Martha in the office is an awfully telling section of dialogue.  It’s as though The Americans realize they are one of two big period piece shows on TV right now (the other, of course, being Vegas²) and the other is rife with sexism and antiquated (by our standards today) actions toward women and minorities.  Amador³ goes a little too far in complimenting Martha on her shoes with his comment about her calves.  Martha points out the obvious (though, incorrect… it’s not sexist, it’s sexual harassment) comment, and Director John Boy⁴ chastises him for it.  There’s no way anyone who grew up in the 1980s can’t see that exchange and immediately think of this PSA where a bad Lane Smith look-a-like :

Especially given his yukky eye-roll at the end of his over-the-top chastisement of Amador.  It almost exactly mirrors not-Lane Smith’s look of indignation as the four foot tall (by that point) secretary smacks him down.  In this day and age, no one would think of making that comment, but as we transitioned out of the era when those types of comments were acceptable, men were still trying to play the victim card (“how can it be sexist if I’m trying to compliment you?!” and other dumb defenses.) This breadcrumb from the 80s is, of course, paralleled against Liz’s whipping and cries of helplessness, which, of course, were mostly acting. With her training, at any point, she could’ve snapped that fat bastard’s neck.  The lesson in the episode comes from Granny, someone who has obviously advanced during her time in the male-dominated world of espionage when she says, speaking about feminism and US gender equality acts, that American women need to learn that any advances they gain will be because they didn’t wait.  Again, tie it back in to patience.

¹-Between Nina and Stan.  Not John Boy and Stan.  Though, I’m sure there will be some proto-Homophobia and AIDs discussion in a season or two, if the show lasts that long.  Though, it did get picked up for a second season, so we’ll at least get to see 1982!

²-I’m kidding.  It’s Mad Men.

³-I’m going to use his name as much as possible, now that I’ve finally learned it.

⁴-I’ll never stop calling him John Boy. “Goodnight, John Boy!”