Episode Title: “Cardinal”
Writers: Joel Field and Joe Weisberg
Director: Daniel Sackheim
On the surface, what makes “The Americans” such a seductive TV show is the world its two main characters inhabit. In between packing lunches for their two kids and running a travel agency, Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) don wigs, steal cars, plants bugs, decipher codes and bed anyone they have to in order to stay one step ahead of the FBI while dutifully accomplishing the many dangerous missions their taskmasters in Mother Russia send them on.
But what keeps “The Americans” so engaging, after the initial lure of the show’s spy thriller antics wears off is something much more mundane and everyday than Cold War-era espionage. As show creator, Joe Weisberg has stated, “The Americans” is about Elizabeth and Phillip’s marriage. In “Cardinal,” that definition broadens a bit, when the usually unwavering Elizabeth realizes the threat her devotion to her county poses to not just herself and Philip but her family.
After the brutal murder of their comrades, Emmett and Leanne and their daughter, Philip heads to Virginia to check out Emmett’s handler, Fred while back at home, paranoia sets in as Elizabeth gets spooked by the utility workers set up across the street from their house. Though not easily shaken, after the murder of her friends and fellow officers Elizabeth starts questioning what will happen to their children should she and Philip make the ultimate sacrifice for the motherland. Sure, Moscow will “take care of the kids,” but in the life these two have chosen, Elizabeth wonders what exactly that means?
In Virginia, Philip vets Frank and realizes he had nothing to do with the hit. He returns home and turns his attention to Martha (Alison Wright), whose value to him may become worthless if she decides to pursue a clerk position at another agency. Lucky for Philip aka “Clark,” Martha decides to climb the ladder in-house at the FBI but after hearing about the murders on TV, she also decides to get a gun.
While most of the threats facing Philip and Elizabeth are external, there is one slowly developing in their own home, as Paige (Holly Taylor) continues to act on her suspicions about her parents. This time, she’s interrupted by her mother just as she’s about to call Elizabeth’s “sick aunt” in Pennsylvania. If and when she finally does find out the truth, the Jennings family will be faced with a test greater than any KGB assignment.
In the meantime, Philip and Elizabeth find themselves keeping one enemy a little too close, as Agent Beeman (Noah Emmerich) continues to show up unannounced. When he drops in at the travel agency looking to plan a bachelor party weekend for another agent, the two smoothly handle the situation though their surprise is evident. However, the trail has gone cold on the couple who Beeman holds responsible for his partner’s death and the kidnapping of a CIA official and Beeman, himself, has his hands full with Nina (Annet Mahendru), who’s playing both ends to the middle by telling Beeman about a walk-in visitor at the Embassy while reporting the details of her sex life with the FBI agent to her boss, Arkady (Lev Gorn).
“Cardinal” keeps the game of cat and mouse going between the KGB and the FBI while keeping us guessing who’s who with new threats arising while old ones still linger. It’s hard not to miss the dysfunctional mother-daughter-like relationship between Elizabeth and Claudia (Margo Martindale) but the evolving tension between Elizabeth and her own daughter is quickly becoming one of the show’s more fascinating subplots. As the late Leeann told Elizabeth in the season premiere, “nothing prepares you for watching your kids grow up – here.” That lack of preparation might just be Phillip and Elizabeth’s undoing.
