The Soviet Division is the season finale of Season Five of The Americans on FX, and the sixty-fifth episode overall.
Synopsis
The riveting season finale finds Philip and Elizabeth racing against the clock as a life hangs in the balance, while Stan faces an uncertain future.
Plot
Brad, Dee (Phillip, Elizabeth) and Tuan Eckert approach the Morozov’s house and ring the doorbell. There is no response. Just then, Alexei and Evgheniya arrive home. They invite the Eckerts in and Tuan goes upstairs to find Pasha unconscious and bloody from his suicide attempt. Phillip rushes to aid and Elizabeth calls 911. Meanwhile, Alexei goes outside to get assistance from Thomas, the CIA agent assigned to watch their house. The paramedics arrive and take Pascha and Evgheniya away. Thomas and Phillip exchange a look which makes Phillip uncomfortable.
The next morning Phillip discovers Renee is moving in with Stan, due to a (supposed) broken pipe in her apartment. The Jennings meet with Claudia, reporting that Evgheniya is taking Pasha back to Russia, but Alexei is too scared to go home. Elizabeth and Phillip appear united in their unhappiness over how the mission unfolded. “We almost killed their son, and now we’re sending her back to be blackmailed,” says Phillip. “Do we have to tear this family apart, too?”
Gennadi Bystrov takes a lie detector test for the FBI and passes, much to Stan and Dennis's surprise.
In Russia, Martha walks with her language instructor Volodya; he takes her to a park where children from an orphanage are playing. He implies Martha is able to adopt a girl named Olya, whom she interacts with.
After visiting the Morozovs, Phillip and Elizabeth tell Tuan they will be sending their report soon, and if Tuan would like, they can recommend he’d be better suited for a different line of work, back in his homeland. Tuan is aghast and wonders why they’d do that. Phillip says it's a chance for him to have a different life, but Tuan is insistent: “Please don’t say that.” He then adds that he’s already sent his report, and included criticism of the Jennings for not being present enough during the mission, and almost sabotaging its success by attempting to save Pasha (he calls this “petty bourgeois concerns”). Phillip, disgusted with Tuan’s arrogance, says “We were afraid Pasha would die.” Elizabeth intervenes, before Phillip escalates their conflict, by saying “Let me talk to him a minute.” Phillip leaves without another word.
Elizabeth reminds Tuan that she and Phillip simultaneously ran many operations in addition to this one, that they’ve been doing their jobs a long time and are highly valued by their people, so negative comments in his report won’t have any impact on them. She also tells him he’s destined to fail, if he continues to act on his own. “Make them send you someone,” she says.
Henry gets an acceptance letter from St. Edward's, but his joy is dashed when Phillip curtly tells him he’s not going, without even offering an explanation. As the song “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” plays in its entirety, a series of scenes shows the Jennings saying goodbye to their life in the US: Paige with Pastor Tim at the food pantry, Phillip with Stan playing racquetball, Elizabeth with all her shoes, clothing, and kitchen amenities.
Phillip goes to the Breland’s and smokes pot with Kimmy and her friends. She gets upset when he tells her he’s moving to Japan. Later at home, Phillip listens to the tape he retrieved from her father’s briefcase and learns that Breland is being promoted to the CIA Head of the Soviet Division. Phillip drives to a deserted area of town and considers tossing the tape into a river.
As they cook dinner together, Stan tells Renee he’s thinking about leaving the counter-intelligence unit and working elsewhere in the FBI. “I don’t want to do it anymore,” he tells her. Renee says he’s a good person and his department needs someone like him, “who’s not afraid to push back, and stand up when something’s wrong. And if you don’t do it, who will?” Their conversation is reminiscent of one one Clark had with Martha, when she showed interest in moving out of counter-intelligence.
Elizabeth and Paige continue their self-defense lessons, and Elizabeth accidentally hurts Paige, giving her a fat lip. Phillip comes home and examines her injury. He apologizes that his and Elizabeth’s job have made her life difficult: “I’m sorry you didn’t get to grow up with all the regular stuff, like just a dog, or a boyfriend who lives across the street.”
Phillip and Elizabeth take a walk; he confesses he was going to get rid of the recording he got from Kimmy. He tells her about Breland’s promotion, and wonders if maybe they can get someone else to change out the tapes. “It’s not just me having a hard time,” he says. “It’s you, the kids. We're allowed to have a life.” Elizabeth thinks for a moment and then says “I can’t. I just can’t.” However, she says maybe Phillip should stop, and just run the travel agency. When he protests that she needs him, Elizabeth says “not for this. I’m making you stay. And it just keeps getting worse for you. I don’t want to see you like this anymore.” Phillip nods his head in agreement.
Notes
- Alla Borisovna Pugacheva (Russian: Алла Борисовна Пугачёва, born 15 April 1949), seen in a poster on Pasha's bedroom wall, is а Soviet and Russian musical performer. She enjoys an iconic status across the former Soviet Union as the most successful Soviet performer in terms of record sales and popularity.
- Elizabeth is shown in bed reading Space, a novel by James A. Michener published in 1982. It is a fictionalized history of the United States space program, with a particular emphasis on manned spaceflight. Michener writes in a semi-documentary style, exploring the rise of the military-industrial complex and the evolution of NACA into NASA.
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a ballad performed by musician Elton John. Lyrics for the song were written by Bernie Taupin, with the music composed by John. The Yellow Brick Road is an image taken from the 1939 film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. In that film, Dorothy and her three friends are instructed to follow the yellow brick road in search of the Wizard of Oz, only to find that they had what they were looking for all along. The lyrics describe wanting to go back to a simpler existence after living what the narrator thought was the good life. The Wizard of Oz was reportedly the first film that Bernie Taupin had ever seen, and he used the imagery in the lyrics relating to his own life as his desire to "get back to [his] roots."
Music
| Song Title | Performer(s) |
|---|---|
| Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | Elton John |
| She Has Won | The Jetzons |
| So. Central Rain | R.E.M. |
Videos
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