‘The Americans’ Series Finale Review: “Start”

All good things must end. And in the case of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, that meant leaving their lives behind and going back to Russia.

 

The Americans finale was the perfect ending to an all-time great series, and it didn’t need any explosions, gun fights, or shocking deaths; it was simply 70 minutes of pure, realistic drama, which shouldn’t really come as a surprise considering the the quality of the show from the very beginning.

 

Heading into “Start”, I knew it would be impossible to predict what would happen, but I thought the most likely scenarios would be either the Jennings family narrowly escaping after picking up Henry from school or a big showdown with Stan and the FBI at Henry’s school.

 

Very quickly, though, those potential outcomes flew out the window when Philip told Elizabeth that they need to leave their son behind, in America, because it’s what’s best for him. Could you imagine being faced with that choice?

 

The pain in Philip’s eyes was apparent before his wife even arrived, as he knew that Henry belonged in the United States because it’s his home. And, as always, Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell were phenomenal when Philip first brings the idea up to Elizabeth. She is immediately appalled by the notion, but she soon knows it’s the truth: Henry should stay, and they will never see him again.

 

On the other hand, Paige is fully acclimated to the real family business (excluding the extent of the killing her parents have done), and the final season saw her embracing Russian culture with Elizabeth and Claudia—from foreign movies to foreign cuisine. But still, Paige clearly has reservations about leaving when her parents come to the apartment, particularly when they say Henry isn’t coming with them.

 

Philip and Elizabeth basically make the decision for her, though, when they say they need to move now, and that sets up the biggest moment of the series and perhaps one of the greatest scenes in television history.

 

Stan, after calling the travel agency and the Jennings home to confirm they aren’t at either place, waits across the street from Paige’s apartment to see if Philip and Elizabeth arrive. When they do, it all but confirms that his neighbors are actually Russian spies getting ready to flee the country.

 

So, he follows them down to the parking garage, which completely catches the three off-guard, and they quickly feign innocence/ignorance by acting pleasantly surprised to see Stan there. However, he questions them, and when the stomach ache excuse by Paige predictably flops, Philip starts walking towards the FBI agent, but Stan pulls his gun and calls Philip a “lying piece of s***” and demands they all get on the ground.

 

At this point, there aren’t many options for the Jennings trio, so after a brief silence, Philip bluntly tells his neighbor the truth: “We had a job to do.”

 

Elizabeth and Paige are surprised that he’s admitting who they really are, but Philip has spent six seasons building trust with Stan through a sincere friendship, and the truth is probably the only chance they have of getting out of this situation. Stan is hurt by the admission, saying that Philip was his best friend and made his life a joke, but Philip dishearteningly states that his life is the joke, as Stan was not only his best friend, but his only friend, which was a depressing truth.

 

The attention then turns to Paige and her relationship with his son earlier in the series, and she tells Stan that she genuinely liked Matthew and wasn’t getting close to him for information, which is true. He believes her, and then seems to believe Philip and Elizabeth when they say Henry doesn’t know anything about their double life.

 

The bond between Stan and Henry is a soft spot because the youngest member of the Jennings family looks at his neighbor as a cool, secondary father figure. And as Stan contemplates everything, he tells Philip that he “would have done anything” for them.

 

But still, Stan continues to point the gun and wants them to get on the ground, so anything can happen, and it feels as if Philip might actually be shot and killed at any moment.

 

The breaking point seems to be when Philip explains that he simply couldn’t do what his country needed anymore, so he quit. Elizabeth backs up his claim, and Philip says he’s just a “failed travel agent” now. Then, the Jennings patriarch says how they have to leave their son behind and it’s his own fault because he got caught, which is a truly heartbreaking admission.

 

Philip and Elizabeth then explain that they are actually fighting against their own people now because some of them want to take down Gobachev by faking Elizabeth’s reports to lie about the peace talks. In response, Stan asks if they know Oleg Burov, and he knows they are lying when they deny it, but says that Oleg had a similar story about enemies of Gorbachev (and in turn, peace) inside the KGB.

 

The Jennings say they need to get back to Russia to deliver the message that Oleg didn’t get through for the good of their country and the world. With time against them, Philip suddenly ends the conversation by saying they are getting in the car and leaving whether Stan tries to shoot them or not.

 

It’s still anyone’s guess as to what will happen, but the final one-two seems to seal things. First, Paige tells Stan, “You have to take care of Henry.” And Philip agrees (“He loves you, Stan.”) and wants his son to know the truth about them.

 

Then, the three of them slowly head for the car as Stan seems almost stunned, with Philip delivering some groundbreaking final words for his best friend: “I don’t know how to say this, but I think there’s a chance Renee might be one of us. I’m not sure.”

 

And that’s it. The Jennings get in and start driving out of the parking garage, and Stan stares at them before moving aside to let them by before standing alone with his thoughts to end the scene.

 

It’s nothing short of amazing for a final showdown of a series to be so great without any bullets flying or people dying, but The Americans has always done an exceptional job of perfecting the subtleness of a scene, and the parking garage confrontation was a master-class in acting and writing.

 

That was the climax of the episode and the series, but the story for these beloved characters was far from over. After changing their appearances to match their passport photos, Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige call Henry from a payphone to speak to him one last time.

 

Philip talks first and tells Henry that he loves him and they’re proud of him, but the naïve Jennings just thinks that he’s been drinking and amusingly suggests Elizabeth should drive home. His father says, “I just want you to be yourself, because you’re great.”

 

Then, Elizabeth gets on the phone and is clearly unable to say too much without getting emotional, so she just said she feels the same way as Philip. And Paige declines to talk because she just can’t do it, so Philip gets back on the phone.

 

Henry has no idea this will be the final time he talks to his family, so it’s heartbreaking to see him quickly get off the phone because of a ping pong tournament. As the Twitter account for the show said, “Sometimes the gravity of a moment is only revealed in hindsight.”

 

Later, back on the road, Philip, Elizabeth, and Paige get some McDonald’s, which is a significant scene because it shows what could have been versus what was; because they were compromised, the Jennings are splitting up and will never be a happy American family like the four people sitting and laughing inside the fast food joint.

 

But at least they still had Paige, right?

 

While the parking garage scene was the best of the series, the moment where train crosses into Canada delivers a final blow to Philip, Elizabeth, and the viewers.

 

The tension is extremely high when officers come on board to check everyone’s passport, and it gets ratcheted up to a ten when we see they have a paper with Philip Jennings’ face on it as a wanted man. The disguise was enough for him to not be recognized, though, and the same was true for Elizabeth.

 

I don’t know about everyone else, but I thought one or both of them might be identified, potentially leading to a tragic, bloody end. So, when they were cleared and the train started moving, we were so relieved to see our two favorite characters were going to safely make it back to Russia.

 

But The Americans doesn’t need to kill someone to create a powerful, memorable scene, and what happens next is a figurative shot to the heart. Elizabeth’s eyes widen as she looks out the window, and the train/camera moves to reveal Paige is standing alone on the platform outside; she wasn’t coming with them.

 

You could tell Elizabeth nearly began to cry just out of pure shock, and then Philip also sees his daughter for the final time when she passes him a few cars back on the train, still standing calmly on the platform. There’s nothing they can do, but Philip hurriedly walks up to be with his wife, as both sit together in devastating silence as “With or Without You” continues to play.

 

And with that, the only death of the finale occurred: not a person, but the Jennings family itself.

 

The two scenes—parking garage and train—were the best of the series and two of the best in all of cinema, and I can only hope that The Americans gains post-life popularity and is eventually considered the classic that it should be.

 

The rest of the “Start” gives us satisfying closure but still leaves some fates undetermined. Fortunately, Stan keeps his end of the bargain and tells Henry the truth about his family, and we can probably assume that he will look after his former best friend’s kid.

 

Oleg is perhaps going to spend a good chunk of his life in an American prison, but there’s still a chance that Stan will somehow get him freed by saying he is doing work for the good of the world by keeping Gorbachev in power against corrupt threats inside Russia.

 

Paige gets back to Claudia’s empty apartment and takes a shot of vodka, but it’s unclear where she goes from here. Does she have enough plausible deniability to be herself in America because Stan is really the only person that knew of her involvement?

 

And as for Stan’s own life, he will probably never be able to fully trust Renee knowing that she could be a Russian spy, which might be difficult to live with.

 

But I mostly care about Philip and Elizabeth. Maybe I’m the only one, but I thought there was a legitimate chance that they would be “Sonny Corleone’d” at the Russian border for protecting Gorbachev, and I was finally able to breath easy when they reached Arkady Ivanovich.

 

The exhausted couple fell asleep together in the back of the car with Arkady driving them for what seemed like the entire day (Russia is a big country), but they woke up at night to set up a memorable final scene.

 

After asking Arkady to pull over when he spots the city lights, Philip wakes up Elizabeth and they get out to take in the breathtaking, snowy view.

 

“They’ll remember us,” Philip says of Paige and Henry, to which Elizabeth responds, “We raised them.”

 

And after her husband says it feels strange to be home, Elizabeth responds in Russian, “We’ll get used to it.”

 

Philip says nothing as the camera pans up over the city and fades to black.