The Americans - "Trust Me" review

The Americans goes “Trilogy of Terror” in this week’s episode, “Trust Me,” which I review after the jump, just as soon as I brew my cup of tea infused with rectally smuggled African blood diamonds…

For every action, there is an equal, and opposite, reaction

Sir Isaac Newton said nothing of the sort, but it has come to be known that his third law of motion is the above quote.  Realistically, he was using mathematical symbols to prove his point, and philosophers have assigned this statement greater significance in the meantime. It applies to the movements made on both the Soviet and US side of the board.

The Americans has created a world where every Soviet action has been met by a US action, and vice versa.  The Americans laid a trap with the Radios in the previous episode; the Soviets shot their asset.  The Soviets had a leak, so now, so do the Americans. The Soviets went digging for a mole in their own organization, so the Americans will likely be doing so in the near future.  This is a delicate balance, and currently the Americans have the upper hand. The chessboard is being set for something major¹.

I have been referring to the interactions as shifting the chess pieces, but that’s not actually an apt analogy.  In chess, every piece is clearly marked.  The tallest two pieces are the king and queen, and the king has that little cross on the top of his head.  At no point will the rook all of a sudden be able to move diagonally.  The only transformation that can occur is pawn-to-queen².  In reality, the closest board game equivalent is “Stratego.”

I’ve never actually played Stratego, but I’ve watched as others have played.  In Stratego, you don’t know the identity of skill of the pieces of your opponent, and neither does your enemy know yours. There are bombs, and bomb defusing agents, and each can do specific things.  It’s almost as if you’re playing silent poker in the dark. That’s what The Americans has become – a game in which the other side can really only gauge the overall placement of people on the board, unsure of who and what and where they are, but knowing that they are, in fact, there.

This week’s episode reduced the role of Phil and Liz for the majority of the show.  They spent a large chunk of time being tortured (and doing some senior abusing on Claudia).  This is kind of welcome.  The torture scenes were largely mild, and I was always skeptical that they were actually being tortured by the Feds.  Everything the KGB used to try and break them were things the KGB would already have on them.  The problem I have with the approach and line of questioning is that, if they really were moles, why would the FBI be torturing them? Wouldn’t they just conduct a fake extraction, cook up some ridiculous story that their regular handler was compromised, and then try and get them to admit that they were double agents by giving them coffee and vanilla crème donuts?  The interrogation and line of questioning was more for if they would consider defecting or giving up information.  Either way, I was glad that I didn’t have to worry about Phil and Liz’s marital struggles until the last 15 minutes.

In that void, Stan Beeman stepped it up in a big way.  He decided to start meeting with Nina in a parked car in a secluded garage instead of, you know, in the middle of an open green space, with no one else around. Smart. This way, if anyone is tailing her, like happened with the bar scenario from a few episodes ago, she won’t be found out so easily.  In contrast to the sketchy logic for writing the torture of Phil and Liz that I still don’t fully get, Stan is thinking more and more for Nina and less and less for “his asset.” She is in danger, especially with the mole hunt. It makes absolutely no sense to burn Visili. After all, he is someone who is feeding Stan (through Nina) all of the Soviet information they need. It makes sense to burn someone, but Stan, acting quickly, decides it must be Visili. He orchestrates the diamonds, the information, and the investigation, all without leaving his desk³ . He also, conveniently, ships Nina’s sexual partner⁴ back to the Soviet Union, and to a likely stint in a hard-labor camp. A good day for Stan, other than his tan on tan turtleneck and blazer, coupled with this blonde hair and pallid visage. That was just too much khaki all in the same place for my liking.

The writing here, making the trap for Visili overly simple, actually works in the psychology of the show.  Stan came up with it quickly.  He had to think of a way to draw suspicion away from Nina, and toward Visili.  He cooked the whole thing up, left a bunch of hasty messages that seemed like code, and then planted some stolen intel, all through Nina. When Visili puts it all together, and then considers Nina’s lack of surprise as he was led away, he’ll figure out who the mole is.

The other storyline, Paige and Henry, and their molester… I can’t tell if the writers were looking to wink at the audience, of if this was a legitimate storyline.  The writers have been great about placing 1980s references⁵ and temporal markers⁶ into the show, but this felt a little too “on-the-nose” for 1980s nostalgia, if it was meant to work as both breadcrumbs and legitimate drama. As soon as she stuck out her thumb, I thought to myself “No way this doesn’t end in attempted child rape.”  True to my thoughts, this storyline turned into a completely over-the-top after school special where Valerie Bertinelli has some bad actor named Donny try to rape her in the back of his brown van. They honestly went down to the river and drank beer with a guy who looked like he was cast over the phone, through the glass at a state penitentiary. Then Henry clocks him with a bottle of beer, they run, and everything’s ok, except for Henry’s pants.  In true fashion, the attempted raping ends with someone saying “this has to be our secret.” All I needed was the cast of Diff’rent Strokes telling everyone that they should never take rides from strangers⁷.

This is the crux of this show for me right now – the best character is Stan Beeman, and by a long shot.  I’d like an entire episode devoted to him – the Jennings are stuck in an elevator, or applying for a second mortgage, or having wisdom teeth extracted all day or something, and we can follow Stan.  First of all, the actor, Noah Emmerich, has done a fantastic job making him likeable, knowledgeable, and sympathetic.  He is layered, deep, and stoic, all things that make me want to know more.  The episode I’d most like to see would be Stan in trouble in the field, and having flashbacks to his undercover work as a white supremacist.  He could maybe trace a lead to Gregory and the Black Panthers, get caught, and then parallel his time in the KKK as a subversive element then paired with his time trapped by Gregory’s Black Panthers, another subversive element.

I’m actually slightly tired of the weekly drama of Phil and Liz, and their marriage that ain’t quite working.  It’s as if the writers don’t want us to forget “Hey, they might not actually love each other!”  We get it.  Let them get in to a good groove, and then have something like this happen to them, which shakes their trust.  If the show is going to continue onward for several seasons, they need to move past the “You need to start trusting me, Elizabeth!” phase of their cover/marriage.

¹-Judging by John Boy’s “They Will Pay” comment, coupled with all the explosions from the preview for next week’s episode, that time is nigh. 

²-It always struck me as odd that these pawns could turn themselves into queens.  When I was younger, I suppose I always saw that as a Cinderella “Rags-to-Riches” tale. I was wide-eyed and idealistic at the time.  Now, I assume that the philandering king has taken on another concubine. I’m so jaded and edgy.

³-This reminded me of the Cold War-set movie "Spy Game" with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.  It took place over the course of a single day, and featured Redford masterfully playing everyone to save Brad Pitt, all while never leaving his desk.  Oh, right.  Spoiler.  Whoops.

⁴-From the Amelie-esque look on her face while Visili is gyrating on top of her, Nina won’t exactly miss that fat bastard.

⁵-Carnac, anyone?

⁶-The baseball game playing in the background was a great way of telling us it is baseball season.  That they are all still dressing for warmth means it’s probably April in DC. The Reagan assassination attempt was also on March 31^st, so we have to be in April.  It’s just a nice little reminder that it has to be somewhere between April and September in 1981. To make it really hit home, it’d have been nice to see some Cherry Blossoms in bloom, but, I guess, they spent most of their time being water boarded or putting ass diamonds in tea. Not a whole lot of sweeping helicopter shots of the Tidal Basin at noon.
⁷-Upon further review, there actually was a hitchhiking/rape episode of Diff’rent Strokes, and Conrad Bain did an out-of-character PSA at the end! Though you’ll have to take my word for it, I wrote the previous sentence before I found that out!