User Reviews

No wonder this episode got nominated for an Emmy for best writing. The scene between Elizabeth and the old lady is one of the most suspenseful and terrifying moments on TV, after Breaking Bad. Like other reviewers have said, with just one word you could understand everything that would came after, with just one world the whole episode took another direction to its inevitable end.

Best episode of the show until now.

The title of this episode gives it away, but there was a nice tribute to the movie Blade Runner in the form of a conversation between Kerri Russell and Lois Smith.

Blade Runner had come out around the time represented by The Americans, 1982, so it was suited to the show. The show title is a riff on the Phillip K. Dick story , "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which was the basis for Blade Runner.

For those who saw the movie, there is a meeting between the androids and their inventor that is conversational and respectful though imminent death is implied throughout. This was beautifully mimicked in this episode. As a previous reviewer noted, the decision by Russell to admit being Russian was the kiss of death, but was a decision made of respect for the humanity of the woman

Very complex. Possibly the best episode yet.

And that word is "Russia".

Chatting with her captor, almost cheerily, Betty asks Elizabeth about her mother. "Where does she live?"

Elizabeth can't answer immediately. She hesitates, because she knows that as soon as she answers, then Betty will know she's about to die. Her head is downcast, but you can see her struggle. She's loved this chance to be honest, especially with a woman who so reminds her of her own mother. But if she answers this question honestly, then the... well, you can't even call it "friendship", maybe "respect" or "intimacy"... will end. But it's there for the moment, so she has to answer.

"Russia."

Betty's face falls and her lip quivers. You know that conversation is over, as a new one begins.

I haven't reviewed this show for a long time because there are so many other people out there saying all the right things about this great show. But I just wanted to thank Russell, Smith, and all the shows writers and producers. In those few seconds, watching Elizabeth pause before answering, I knew I was in the presence of greatness. Whether it's for the writing, or Russell, or Smith, this show had damn well better get an Emmy this year, or there is no justice.

The overall excellence of The Americans is personified by the tour de force performance by Lois Smith, the grandmotherly co-proprietor of the shop where the FBI's mail robot is undergoing repairs. Remember it was Agent Gaad in the previous episode who kicked it in frustration because it wouldn't open a key-coded slot with important documents. Philip and Elizabeth break into the shop late at night having been charged with bugging the robot in yet another attempt to glean information once it's put back in service. As they work, Elizabeth discovers that a woman is working late on the shop's books. That creates the extended scenes during which Ms. Smith and Keri Russell exchange their poignant life stories and warm to each other even though we know this is all headed for a bad ending. Here's where the plot contains several potholes that make you wonder whether they will be completely avoided down the road -- no pun intended -- or whether they will turn out to be major oversights that lead to discovered trip-ups by our Russian spies. SPOILER ALERT: The elderly lady's death is clearly designed to appear as a pill-overdose suicide, thus avoiding any notion she was deliberately killed. And so Philip and Elizabeth leave the shop, satisfied that the robot has been bugged successfully and will soon do its job. But who's not going to notice that the telephone's been ripped from the wall? Plus, Elizabeth's fingerprints are all over the phone itself and the various framed pictures she was handed to look at. If this is a shop that works on FBI equipment, how likely is it that suspicions won't be raised to the degree that the mail robot never goes home? Maybe the writers have this all figured out and we'll see if it plays out in the next episode(s). Otherwise, it seems out of character for Philip and Elizabeth not to have covered their tracks more carefully.

This episode is tops. The writers finally had a character say what we've been saying all along. Will the main characters finally "get" it? Maybe. Maybe not.