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The Americans Ep. 2.05 “The Deal” continues to build season’s central conflicts

The Americans Ep. 2.05 “The Deal” continues to build season’s central conflicts

the americans 2.5

The Americans Season 2, Episode 5 “The Deal”
Written by Angelina Burnett
Directed by Dan Attias
Airs Wednesday nights at 10pm ET on FX

 

A fundamental lesson for any “budding capitalist” (I’m talking to you, Oleg) is understanding the concept of value: and in the spy world, this idea does not boil down to dollars and cents, but advancements of principles and ideologies. With the life and loyalties of the very valuable mind of a Jewish physicist living in the United States available for trade, “The Deal” is an episode about value – not only what these characters value in their world, but how easy it is to reduce human life to a single metric, fighting a war to “save” humanity in the most inhumane way possible, another fascinating hour in a season of The Americans that’s beginning to build towards larger stories.

For the first time, “The Deal” expands the undercover war beyond the Americans and the Russians, introducing the amateurish Israeli spy outfit, Mossad, to the audience through the kidnap of the refugee physicist. They steal the Department of Defense employee from under the noses of the Russians at the end of “Refugee” – but as the captured agent shuttered in a warehouse building with Philip, they are an immature organization poking their head into international espionage here and there to get their feet wet, and act as a wench in the side of the American political system unwilling to recognize them as a mature governing body, and to the Russians, who won’t allow any Jews living in the country to leave for Israel, under any conditions.

In reality, the identity of Philip’s hostage isn’t consequential in away – what’s important is how the presence of a third party shifts the steadfast approaches of the USA and Russia. It allows the narrative of The Americans to expand a bit, bringing Arkady into the fray as a frustrated Rezidentura leader in his bureaucratic attempts to ex-filtrate the scientist without losing Philip, who both the Rezidentura and the Mossad agent recognize as “platinum” assets, cogs so valuable, the safety of 1500 other human beings could be placed on it. Make no mistake: Arkady negotiated the terms to get the physicist sent back to Russia, trading the lives of 1500 Russian Jews for the life of one man who can introduce them to technology they’ve never even heard of – but he also did it to keep from getting his agents killed, tied to the duties of his job to protect his agents and the mission at hand – an approach that Oleg finds a little too… hands off at times, we shall say.

Oleg’s character finally gets some definition in “The Deal”, both as an effective field agent (leading a complex FBI trail far away from the exchange and subsequent of the physicist) and as a person who understands how to shift the balance of power without making a phone call. It certainly looks like he’s got Stan by the nuts, poking around Arkady’s paperwork on Nina’s Operation of Love and deducing that something was fishy in whatever seedy Washington safe house the two meet in (still the same one Vlad was murdered in? Couldn’t be, could it). His actions in the episode finally give him some traction as a character, making him not only a viable counterpart to Nina and Arkady, but to Beeman as well (and the first time we’ve seen the FBI and the KGB having a conversation that didn’t involve sex, I believe).

More importantly, it ties him back into the episode’s ideas about what is valuable and what isn’t, musings that find their way into every facet of the episode. In the life of an undercover spy, everything has value: human life, information, friendships – even sex, a currency that Clark’s been using to his advantage (a fact that “Jennifer”/Elizabeth is very interested in, playfully demanding “an explanation” from Philip in the episode’s closing), to keep Martha happy. Elizabeth visiting Martha in the first place is again, The Americans showing how deceptive these people have become to themselves: when everything is a half-truth or something to barter with, it becomes inhuman (something the Mossad agent poignantly explains to Philip while tied to an old stove with a long extension cord), reduced to a list of benefits and detractions.

Elizabeth and Philip are trained to view things like sex and friendship as currency (see how quickly she ended things with the young Marine? No time being wasted there); early in the show’s run, it showed them struggling with this idea (see “Only You”), trying to build a relationship around the pretensions and requirements of their job. That’s been put on the back burner with the shocking violence bringing reality to their door (a door Paige is still trying to answer, though she’s going about it in a very odd way; “My crazy life”? What the fuck does that mean?), but “The Deal” explores it through Clark and Martha, rather than the show’s central couple, who are separated for the majority of the episode. Martha wants to believe that Clark is in love with her – that’s part of the deception, part of ‘the deal’ Philip makes with his conscience to keep her useful.

Although “The Deal” is largely centered around one, seemingly isolated event – the missing physicist from “Refugee” – it provides a nice petri dish for some of the show’s recurring themes. There are plenty of plot threads I didn’t even touch on – like Claudia’s replacement (reaffirming how “valuable” Philip and Elizabeth are to the KGB) – but these are quiet events in the background of an episode very focused on other things. I’m still not quite sure where The Americans is actually going this season yet, but with such a command of its thematic material (and its presentation; I haven’t talked much about the cinematography or audio work this season, but it remains fantastic) and the return of Jennifer (which features my single favorite Elizabeth wig and personality), I’m sure enjoying the ride so far.

 

Other thoughts/observations:

– Gaad is back, before he could even start missing the color-coding and vending machines.

– Elizabeth, as Jennifer: “Could I be a Betty Buttinski?”

– we meet Claudia’s replacement, Kate, for a very brief moment. I’m assuming Claudia is off sneering at some children somewhere at the moment.

– Who is the KGB agent listening to Martha’s phone calls, who warns Elizabeth with a notice about “Columbia House” accounts? Slick little move right there to get her over to Clark’s house (if that guy was actually working for the KGB – I can only assume).

– Paige: “I don’t know where to put everything [in my life].” Still don’t understand the point of that scene.

– What would Stan be willing to trade to keep Nina’s safe? How about some of his wife’s “finding myself” drawings? They might look good framed up in the Rezidentura.

 

— Randy

[wpchatai]