Perhaps my favourite episode this season so far, The Great Patriotic War starts slow, like a burning candle, but just as you think you are being sucked into a series of routine operations that go nowhere (though featuring great spycraft and research, as always), it quickly spirals into a terrible drama, as Elizabeth (Keri Russell) once again crosses the line into a full blown irredemable antagonist. Her botched attempts at assassinating Gennady (Yuri Kolokolnikov) frustrate even the audience, but close to the very end we are eventually "rewarded" with the gruesome scene of a double murder and a poor child left orphan, which takes the episode into almost horror territory, making us feel guilty for wanting to see all along what eventually happened.
With top notch acting from all the actors involved, we see Paige (Holly Taylor) struggling to keep her emotions and double identity in check, which made me realize that for the first time in a long while I am actually enjoying her scenes again, while Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth are drawn further apart both due to their disagreements in Paige's upbringing and Elizabeth's ruthlessness in wanting Phillip to derail Kimmi's (Julia Garner) trip to Greece into communist Bulgaria to kidnap her, and obtain the information she needs about the summit from her CIA father through outright blackmail.
As Phillip hears about Gennady's murder and his child left orphan he can't help but sabotage the Kimmi operation by cancelling his plans to meet her in Europe, risking almost exposing himself in the process, to prevent another young victim added to the KGB's long bodycount. Thus we see Elizabeth's and Phillip's character development go in opposite, but equally well-written directions, in a sense both crossing the Rubicon, by crossing lines from which there is no going back. Elizabeth's ruthless and fanatic devotion to the KGB leads her into manipulating her own husband with sex and having no qualms about leaving a child orphan, with no serious weight on her conscience other than some guilty drinking the day after. Meanwhile Phillip sees through this deception and through Elizabeth's ruthlessness which reminds him of his own sins he is still trying to atone for, and with a last-minute phone call he destroys the Kimmi operation, openly sabotaging Elizabeth for the first time.
There are some amazing side-scenes as well, such as Phillip sparring Paige with all gloves off, a nice, if strange, father to daughter moment on which Paige gets to see a real glimpse of his father's personality and of the actual and terrible nature of the spy work she's been naively getting into. Part-time test of her skill abilities, and part-time warning, Phillip's visit to fight Paige is a stark reminder to her that maybe things are not all easy and noble in the world of the KGB, as she naively seems to think, and that the real world has real risks and consequences, with no sparring pads in between.
Another character that showed great development was Claudia (Margo Martindale), who introduced Paige to a history lesson of the Great Patriotic War from a Soviet perspective, and with harrowing testimony as a real-life WW2 survivor, although it would have been nice for us in the audience to get more of a peek into this interesting character's past instead of the quick cut to opening credits that we got.
Overall this episode has everything of The Americans we've come to know and love, packed into a gripping 57-minute package - Slow-burning intrigue, moral dilemmas, amazing character development, gruesome action-packed scenes, and the always interesting real-life methods of 1980s spycraft.
With top notch acting from all the actors involved, we see Paige (Holly Taylor) struggling to keep her emotions and double identity in check, which made me realize that for the first time in a long while I am actually enjoying her scenes again, while Phillip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth are drawn further apart both due to their disagreements in Paige's upbringing and Elizabeth's ruthlessness in wanting Phillip to derail Kimmi's (Julia Garner) trip to Greece into communist Bulgaria to kidnap her, and obtain the information she needs about the summit from her CIA father through outright blackmail.
As Phillip hears about Gennady's murder and his child left orphan he can't help but sabotage the Kimmi operation by cancelling his plans to meet her in Europe, risking almost exposing himself in the process, to prevent another young victim added to the KGB's long bodycount. Thus we see Elizabeth's and Phillip's character development go in opposite, but equally well-written directions, in a sense both crossing the Rubicon, by crossing lines from which there is no going back. Elizabeth's ruthless and fanatic devotion to the KGB leads her into manipulating her own husband with sex and having no qualms about leaving a child orphan, with no serious weight on her conscience other than some guilty drinking the day after. Meanwhile Phillip sees through this deception and through Elizabeth's ruthlessness which reminds him of his own sins he is still trying to atone for, and with a last-minute phone call he destroys the Kimmi operation, openly sabotaging Elizabeth for the first time.
There are some amazing side-scenes as well, such as Phillip sparring Paige with all gloves off, a nice, if strange, father to daughter moment on which Paige gets to see a real glimpse of his father's personality and of the actual and terrible nature of the spy work she's been naively getting into. Part-time test of her skill abilities, and part-time warning, Phillip's visit to fight Paige is a stark reminder to her that maybe things are not all easy and noble in the world of the KGB, as she naively seems to think, and that the real world has real risks and consequences, with no sparring pads in between.
Another character that showed great development was Claudia (Margo Martindale), who introduced Paige to a history lesson of the Great Patriotic War from a Soviet perspective, and with harrowing testimony as a real-life WW2 survivor, although it would have been nice for us in the audience to get more of a peek into this interesting character's past instead of the quick cut to opening credits that we got.
Overall this episode has everything of The Americans we've come to know and love, packed into a gripping 57-minute package - Slow-burning intrigue, moral dilemmas, amazing character development, gruesome action-packed scenes, and the always interesting real-life methods of 1980s spycraft.
