“Pressure pushing down on me” from Queen/David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” played in the closing minutes of this episode, perfectly captures what several characters are experiencing in The Americans season four’s fifth episode. Martha and Paige are feeling the “terror of knowing” what they believe is the truth about Clark/Philip in Martha’s case, and her parents in Paige’s case, and are suffering greatly.
“Where were you?” asks a visibly shaken Martha (an excellent Alison Wright) of Clark/Philip. Philip (Matthew Rhys) doesn’t look very well himself after the Glanders scare in the last episode, but of course he doesn’t answer her question. She tells him that she thought that she was having a heart attack after FBI Agent Gaad noticed a discrepancy in the copy machine count (she had been making copies for Clark), and then Agent Aderholt suspiciously asked her out on a date. She was worried and couldn’t reach Clark, who was quarantined with Elizabeth (Keri Russell), William (Dylan Baker), and Gabriel (Frank Langella), after the deadly bacteria Glanders had sickened Gabriel. Martha tells Clark that it was a panic attack for which she was prescribed Valium.
Paige (Holly Taylor) also asks her parents, “Where were you?” after she spent a sleepless night thinking that her actions in confiding to Pastor Tim about them had put them in danger. She tells them that she can’t pretend that everything is okay when in addition to worrying about them she has to make up stories to tell Agent Beeman (Noah Emmerich) about their absence. Paige, by the way, demonstrated an ability to think quickly on her feet with a plausible lie for Stan Beeman. Elizabeth tells her that maybe we told you too much and declines to tell her more. In keeping with the poor parenting Elizabeth and Philip have demonstrated in leaving their children home alone so much, and in divulging information about their true identities to a young teen, they ask Paige to make up with Pastor Tim even though she felt betrayed by him when he shared her confidences with his wife, Alice.
About the poor parenting issues, is it any wonder that Paige sought out a “family” with Pastor Tim and the congregation when her parents are gone so much? Henry also has found a surrogate father in Stan and spends more time at his home than his own. It’s an example of extreme lack of self-awareness when Elizabeth bemoans the fact that Henry is at Stan’s again.
Oleg (Costa Ronin) is back in the United States after attending his brother’s funeral and learning of Nina’s death. Oleg blames his father for his brother’s death and for not helping Nina (Annet Mahendru). Nina’s execution in the last episode while brutal, unexpected, and traumatic for viewers, was a typical means of execution in the Soviet Union and it could be argued that it was more humane than a long imprisonment in a small, windowless cell wondering when death would come.
Oleg and Stan (who shared a love of Nina) meet in Stan’s car where Oleg tells him of Nina’s death. Oleg, still in mourning for Nina and his brother, is disillusioned with the Soviet Union after his brother, who died fighting for his country in Afghanistan, is given a burial without military honors. Oleg might be susceptible to working with Stan. More of Oleg would be a good thing.
Philip and Elizabeth, concerned about the situation with Martha and with Pastor Tim, meet with their Soviet handler, Gabriel. Philip tells Gabriel that he’s worried that Martha is blown and nothing Gabriel says alleviates Philip’s worry about Martha. Philip genuinely cares for Martha and Elizabeth sees him on the phone with Martha telling her that he loves her. Elizabeth subsequently initiates love-making with Philip.
In a sad tribute to the success with which Elizabeth and Philip are able to deceive, Paige says that her parents “tell me the truth,” and Martha told Agent Aderholdt in last week’s episode that her relationship with Clark/Philip was “the most honest relationship” that she’s been in. Stan tells Philip that he’s a good guy, and Gabriel tells Elizabeth and Philip that they care about people. One of the painful aspects of Elizabeth and Philip’s behavior is that they are taking advantage of Paige and Martha’s love and need to believe in them. That’s why it’s so poignant seeing Paige in bed with her back turned to her parents, and Martha washing down Valium with wine at the end of the show.
