Source: tvline.com
April 7, 2018 3:47 pm
Source: tvline.com
Title: Tchaikovsky
Episode M.V.P.: Keri Russell
I’m sure there will come a day when I choose someone else as the M.V.P., but I honestly can’t imagine it right now. To turn in a career performance every episode for six years is something special, and to elevate that work to even higher heights of brilliance (by taking her character to even lower depths of pain and desperation) in its final season is even more astounding. There’s nothing phoned-in about Russell’s work, and it’s amazing to see how many variations on “exhausted” can be played by one person. What could be one-dimensional has instead become a performance not unlike the paintings Elizabeth is surrounded by—haunting and heartbreaking, showing new layers each time you look at it.
This episode was once again intensely focused on Elizabeth’s isolation. She’s not telling the whole truth to anyone, and that weighs on a person in a million little ways. I went into great detail last week about the physical manifestation of Elizabeth’s loneliness and exhaustion, so I’ll save you the same spiel this week, but you could apply every word I wrote to her work again. I continue to marvel at how small she’s made Elizabeth feel—how fragile she seems in those big sweaters with her arms crossed over her chest and her shoulders hunched over like she’s literally being compressed by the weight of all she has to carry on her own. But then when she’s on her missions, that ramrod straight posture and confident walk return, and that only makes me marvel more at Russell’s criminally underrated ability to devote every inch of her body to the story she’s telling.
Russell’s knack for bringing complexity and nuance to every moment she’s onscreen was used perfectly in the episode’s closing moments. The fact that her confession of having two children was both a moment of truth and a blatant attempt at manipulating a deadly situation played to Russell’s strengths. Elizabeth was both completely vulnerable and searching for a way to regain power, and Russell sold Elizabeth’s desperation in a way that made me genuinely afraid for her and also genuinely impressed with her ability to get out of that situation alive.
I know this won’t be the last time this season that I worry about Elizabeth’s fate, and so much of that sheer terror I feel when I think about it comes from the way Russell plays the sense that even Elizabeth thinks she’s not going to survive much longer. It adds not only an intensity to heightened moments like this episode’s conclusion, but also a lingering sense of impending doom in nearly every scene that has made this final season feel even more like a tragedy waiting to happen than I expected going into it.
Favorite Scene: Elizabeth and Claudia Talk
Elizabeth and Claudia’s relationship is fascinating to me. I’d love to get an episode (or a movie…or a detailed piece of well-written fan fiction…) that details the years we never got to see and how those years led to the current state of every dynamic on the show, but more than anything, I want to see how Elizabeth and Claudia got from where they once were to where they are now. The softness between them now—especially from Claudia toward Elizabeth—might even be described as jarring if it wasn’t played with such nuance by both Russell and Margo Martindale. There’s still a little hesitation between them, a little distance—but it’s a distance that’s closing right before our eyes. Watching Claudia and Elizabeth talk about art was such a fascinating moment, because we were able to see a contrast between these two strong, battle hardened women—these two “true believers.” Martindale’s reactions to Elizabeth questioning how anyone could be an artist were so telling; there was something very close to pity in her eyes. You could see her looking at Elizabeth as if for the first time, fully understanding what living for the cause and only the cause for so long has done to her. (And I’m sure it played a big part in Claudia playing Tchaikovsky for Elizabeth and Paige later on—almost as if she was reminding Elizabeth that art isn’t something to look down on or turn your back on.) Art is such an important part of humanity, and it’s very telling that Elizabeth seems both angry with it and afraid of it.
Martindale continued to meet Russell every step of the way as Elizabeth asked her to continue training Paige if something were to happen to her. Elizabeth’s growing belief in her own impending doom is clearly weighing on her, and it’s clearly weighing on Claudia, too. Martindale and Russell said so much with just the sparsest dialogue in this scene. The lingering sadness in Claudia’s eyes genuinely moved me and reminded me in no small way of the sense of regret the great Frank Langella brought to his episodes last season. Is the weight of all this starting to affect Claudia, too? It certainly seems like it.
What struck me the most about Elizabeth’s request concerning Paige’s future is how starkly different it was from previous conversations she’s had about who should care for her children if she died. In Season One’s “The Colonel,” she tells Philip that if it came down to the two of them, he should be the one to raise the kids, and in Season Four’s “Chloramphenicol,” Elizabeth once again gives Philip her blessing to raise the kids how he’d want to if she died—even going so far as to tell him to raise them as Americans. Those days are long gone now; instead, Elizabeth is instructing Claudia to, in essence, raise Paige as a Russian spy should she die. That contrast broke my heart because it speaks to how deep the divide has become between Philip and Elizabeth without ever hitting us over the head with it. Once again, it’s “show don’t tell” at its finest.
Another heartbreaking moment came when Elizabeth shared her hopes for Paige with Claudia. In visualizing a future where Paige has it better than she does, Elizabeth is finally acknowledging—in some small way—how hard this life has been for her. And Claudia’s reaction once again says so much—the sadness in her eyes betraying both an empathetic connection with Elizabeth and the honest but unspoken reality that Paige’s life will never be as “easy” as Elizabeth thinks it will be. There’s no “easy” in this line of work, and Claudia seems to be figuring out just how much Elizabeth has had to delude herself to bring Paige into this life. As it always does, the show took a conversation about a universal concept in families—a parent hoping their child will have a better life than they did—and made it even more emotionally challenging by tying it into this very specific world.
Extra Thoughts:
Posted by Katie
Categories: Television, TV Time
Tags: recaps and reactions, television, the americans
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[…] Scene: Elizabeth and Philip talk in bed I’ve been asking for it for weeks, and it finally happened in this episode: After an agonizing three weeks of physical tension, […]
By TV Time: The Americans 6.04 | Nerdy Girl Notes on April 22, 2018 at 3:01 pm
I think I looked away in that final scene, with the general, so I just assumed that we saw Elizabeth kill him. I usually look away… We had accidentally seen a spoiler of Elizabeth looking up at Paige with blood and brain all over her face, so I knew that was coming.
I have always hated Sofia, and had little interest in that relationship. I know it’s important, but I just find her incredibly annoying. The bathroom espionage scene was pretty crazy…
I’d sort of forgotten about Elizabeth’s difficult relationship in the past, so I guess they sold me completely on this new reality, however they came to it.
I guess at this point Henry and Phillip can have their American life, and Paige can be a spy with (or without) her mother and Claudia. I wonder if Henry will ever figure out what’s been going on under his nose all this time. Probably not for a while, now that he’s away from the house, just as his critical teenage eye might have turned to his parents. I hope whatever role he has to play in this last season is great – I feel like he could be really important, being the only member of the family not in the know, and with his connection with Stan. He’s a lot smarter than we originally thought, and I feel like he might surprise us.
By adventuresintheherenow on May 5, 2018 at 11:11 am