FX’s The Americans continues an incredibly intense final season with season six episode five airing on April 25, 2018. The episode begins with Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) visiting a bakery and then the safe house where Sofia (Darya Ekamasova) is holed up now that she’s in protective custody. She’s worried about their next move which apparently will be to Oklahoma. Stan promises she’ll be safe and taken care of. They talk about Gennadi and she seems okay with the idea of him also moving to Oklahoma.
Claudia (Margo Martindale) shows Elizabeth (Keri Russell) photos which indicate a member of the Russian negotiating team, Fyodor Nesterenko, met in private with a CIA officer in the Soviet division. They try and figure out why this meeting took place, and Elizabeth admits she has a bad feeling about it. They need the next Breland tape now but unfortunately won’t get it until Kimmy returns from her vacation in Greece. They can’t wait that long because they need to know if their man is crooked before the Summit. Because of what happened during her Mexico meeting, it’s urgent Elizabeth find out what’s happening. Claudia and Elizabeth also confirm they need to locate the courier (Gennadi) who defected.
Paige (Holly Taylor) arrives and Claudia gives her a history lesson on World War II, from the Russian angle. She also reveals she lost most of her family during the war, including her parents.
Stan’s next stop is delivering a pizza to Gennadi (Yuri Kolokolnikov). They eat it while drinking beer and watching hockey. Gennadi’s in a fantastic mood.
Elizabeth’s driving with Paige when she admits to her daughter how frustrated she was when Paige was in 9th grade and the history books barely mentioned Russia’s involvement in WWII. Paige then reveals she learned some things from Brian the intern about his congressman’s defense department budget. Elizabeth tells her not to venture into that area of discussion with Brian if she really wants to date him. Elizabeth suggests she steer the conversation away when Brian brings up his work as an intern.
Stan finally leaves after many beers are consumed by Gennadi. There’s still an FBI agent stationed outside Gennadi’s place as Stan takes off for home.
Elizabeth arrives home and shares with Philip (Matthew Rhys) that they told Paige about Russia’s part in WWII. Elizabeth believes Paige really gets it. Elizabeth actually reaches out and caresses Philip’s face as they talk while he’s trying to balance the books. They kiss and for a while seem like their old selves. Elizabeth even laughs.
The next morning Philip finds Elizabeth outside, smoking, but she quickly stubs it out to come inside and enjoy a cup of coffee. She admits things aren’t going well at the Summit and that one of their negotiators is secretly meeting with a CIA agent. She needs Philip’s help and Philip appears stunned by this development. (Maybe he’s wondering if that’s why they had sex for the first time in months.)
Elizabeth needs Philip to go to Greece, meet up with Kimmy, and bring her to Bulgaria. There, they’d hold her for drug smuggling. They’ll use the fake arrest to blackmail Kimmy’s dad into telling them what they need to know. Elizabeth thinks this is the only option and everything she’s working on rests on this. “All you’d have to do is go on a trip,” says Elizabeth.
Philip doesn’t want to do this because Kimmy’s just a kid. Elizabeth thinks Kimmy will only be held for 24 hours before her dad agrees to their terms. After that, Philip would be completely free from ever being involved with Kimmy again.
That night, Paige has fun with her friends at a bar and then remains to talk to a cute guy named Vince after her friends take off to study. Paige listens to his stories about skydiving and then Vince’s friend, Tony, adds obnoxious comments and acts like a real jerk. Finally, Paige has had enough. She gets up to leave and Vince’s friend takes offense with her parting remark. He grabs Paige’s hand, calls her a b*tch, and stops her from leaving. She punches him, hard, and shockingly he punches her back. Paige goes into beast mode and kicks his butt in front of everyone in the bar. When Vince runs after her, Paige punches him right in the nose. (Go, Paige!)
Elizabeth sees Gennadi enter a store around the corner from the safe house. He’s walking back to the safe house when Elizabeth stops him, asking for a light. The FBI agent hustles up, stopping Elizabeth from carrying out her plan.
Philip apparently agreed to Elizabeth’s request for help and is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Kimmy. He lies and says he has a meeting in Rome and can meet her in Greece. Kimmy doesn’t want him to because she’ll be with her friends. She promises to see him when she gets home from vacation.
Philip drives Kimmy home and as she’s about to step out of the car, he tells her he’s proud of her. He compliments her on growing into a smart, interesting woman. She smiles and says she’s happy to be his friend and hopes to see him over Christmas break. They kiss and Philip apologizes, asking if it was out of line. It wasn’t…and they kiss again which leads to sex in her bedroom.
Elizabeth’s back at her nursing assignment, and Erica (Miriam Shor) is in a horrible mood. She looks through Elizabeth’s drawings and is upset Elizabeth only has a few completed. Erica’s in a lot of pain but declines morphine.
Tatiana (Vera Cherny) meets up with Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin) after hearing he was in town. He confesses he thought about her all the time, and she understands why he left. They make small talk and then she admits it would help her a lot – and make things easier – if he just explained what he was doing back in America. She doesn’t believe he’s there to take classes. She promises not to hurt him if he tells the truth. She then admits she knows he told the Americans about her operation. He gets angry and yells at her, saying she almost got him killed. He swears he didn’t betray her. She still has the same job as she did for the last five years and she blames that on him.
Tatiana tells her boss to send a cable to Russia stating Oleg’s not in America for the GRU, he’s not there for them, and he’s not loyal.
Things are tense when Elizabeth returns home. Philip confirms he’s going to Greece to see Kimmy.
Paige arrives unexpectedly asking her mom if they can spar. She has a bad bruise over her eye and is obviously upset. Elizabeth and Paige spar and Philip watches from the sidelines. Finally, Elizabeth asks what’s going on and Paige reveals she was in a fight with two men. Paige explains how it happened and Elizabeth wants all the specifics – was the bar crowded, could a bouncer have stepped in, etc. Elizabeth gets Paige to admit she’s been to this bar before and they know her name. Elizabeth tells Paige she can never go back to that bar and can never draw attention to herself ever again.
Paige has had enough and tells her mom to back off, saying she’s not her boss and she’ll sleep with a guy she likes if she wants to. Paige leaves in a huff and Philip asks what Paige meant about sleeping with a guy if she wants to. Philip demands to know who Elizabeth told their daughter to sleep with, and Elizabeth corrects him and says she told Paige not to sleep with a boy.
Elizabeth finally reveals what’s happening with Paige and the intern. She also admits that Philip could be right; Paige might not be cut out for this.
Elizabeth heads back over to check on the safe house. She climbs up a fire escape and into Gennadi’s apartment. She didn’t realize Sofia and their son are also in the apartment, and quickly hides when Sofia enters the kitchen. Elizabeth’s forced to hide again just as she’s about to go out the window when Gennadi comes into the kitchen.
As he heads over to close the open window, Elizabeth attacks and stabs him in the throat. Sofia comes into the kitchen, sees Gennadi dead on the floor with Elizabeth, and tries to make a run for it. Elizabeth follows her into the hall and stabs her before slicing her throat. Elizabeth then spots the child watching TV and quietly backs up and leaves the way she came in.
Philip visits Paige at her apartment. Her roommate’s not home and he asks her how it felt to hit someone. She confesses she doesn’t think she’s the same as him, and that he’s not into what she and her mother do. She claims she’s into it, so Philip tells her to come at him. He wants her to show off what she learned. When she tells him they don’t have pads, Philip reminds her there aren’t pads in the real world.
Philip wants her to really hit him, assuring her he’ll be okay. He knocks away her jabs and then easily tosses her aside when she attacks again. For every one of her moves, he has a more effective counter move. He’s not even breathing heavy and she’s panting when he finally releases her and leaves the apartment. Lesson learned, the hard way.
The cops are all over the safe house when Stan arrives. Only the child survived.
Paige arrives at Claudia’s and her mom’s already there. They teach her to coat her stomach with a shot of olive oil before going out drinking so that she’ll be less drunk than whoever she’s drinking with. The threesome get drunk and talk about sex. Elizabeth remembers eating rats when she was starving and reveals she was much younger than Paige when she lost her virginity. Elizabeth tells a story about living in an apartment with no privacy and the boy was so scared he didn’t take her underwear off. He thought he was having sex but instead was “driving into the space between her and the couch.” They laugh about it and toast to the boy.
Stan pays a visit to Philip and asks for a beer. Stan admits he needs a drink because these two Russians he was working with just got killed. He says he was supposed to be protecting them and they were killed in front of their own seven-year-old boy. Stan says he’d just been watching a hockey game with the guy and now he’s dead.
Philip calls Kimmy and tells her he can’t meet her in Greece. He says she needs someone her own age, and even though he cares about her he can’t keep doing this – not even as friends. Kimmy’s upset but Philip assures her she’ll be okay. He claims he has to move on. He also warns her that if someone tries to get her to go to a communist country with them, she has to say no. She’s confused, but Philip reiterates, “Go to Greece, stay in Greece, and then come home. You hear me? Goodbye, Kimmy.”
More on The Americans:
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 1 “Dead Hand”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 2 “Tchaikovsky”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 3 “Urban Transport Planning”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 4 “Mr. and Mrs. Teacup”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 6 “Rififi”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 7 “Harvest”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 8 “The Summit”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 9 “Jennings, Elizabeth”
- Recap of The Americans Season 6 Episode 10 “Start”
