‘The Americans’ Series Finale: Top 15 Characters

In honor of The Americans ending on Wednesday night, we are giving a few recaps of the best episodes, characters, and moments in the show’s history. If you missed top episodes of the series yesterday, you can check that out, but we will now count down the top 15 characters from FX’s hit drama.

 

15. Gregory

Gregory only appeared on three episodes in Season 1, but it didn’t take long for the character to make an impact. He truly cared for Elizabeth and their cause, but Gregory is forced to leave the United States on The Center’s orders after a member of his crew is captured by the FBI. However, Philip and Elizabeth allow him to go out his own way by getting into a suicidal shootout with the cops.

 

14. Hans

A graduate student from South Africa, Hans joins the KGB and works under Elizabeth starting in the Season 3 premiere. He always seemed to want to do things the right way as a genuinely good-hearted person, but Hans tragically met his end in Season 5 when he slipped and cut himself around William’s dead body—forcing Elizabeth to execute him before the disease led to a horrible death and put the others in jeopardy.

 

13. Andrew Larrick

There aren’t really any single-person adversaries for Philip and Elizabeth throughout the series, but the lone exception is Andrew Larrick in Season 2. The Naval officer and former special operate was both a physical and intellectual equal for the couple, and he is nearly able to bring them in after he decides he is done with the KGB before Philip narrowly kills him.

 

12. Henry Jennings

The Jennings family member with the least amount of screen time is easily Henry, and that’s mainly due to his lack of awareness regarding his parents’ actual occupation as Russian spies. Basically, Henry is just an easy-going kid that plays hockey and video games, but it will be interesting to see how he handles a potential move across the world—or something worse—in the series finale.

 

11. Pastor Tim

Pastor Tim is a bit of a polarizing character depending on how hard viewers have been pulling for Philip and Elizabeth, but he has a noble cause with the church and seems to truly want the best for Paige (which is the reason—along with potentially getting assassinated in retaliation—for not giving up the Jennings to Stan in the penultimate episode). He wasn’t put in a great situation at all when Paige told him about her parents, but Pastor Tim has handled it about as well as he could without tearing them apart or getting himself killed.

 

10. Claudia

Philip and Elizabeth have had a rocky relationship with Claudia throughout The Americans, and that’s because they are all strong-willed people with their own ideas of how to accomplish a common goal. It’s hard not to respect her for taking a beating from Elizabeth in the first season, but the positive relationship that was built between the two and Paige over the time hop for Season 6 was erased when it was revealed that Claudia and some discontents back home want Gorbachev dead.

 

9. Paige Jennings

Paige has certainly come a long way from the girl who ratted out her parents for being Russian spies to a KBG agent herself, but she’s not higher on the list the because the adult characters simply have more depth to them. Still, it’s been interesting to see Paige balance the truth (her parents are Russians) with the appearance of truth (her parents are American travel agents), and perhaps she will be forced to put all her training to use in the final episode.

 

8. William Crandall

While he was certainly a little odd (living alone in America as a Russian agent will do that to a person), William was undoubtedly loyal to his country—particularly when he infected himself with a lethal toxin to avoid arrest and an interrogation. Even though he lasted just one season, William’s dry humor and gloomy disposition as he worked with Gabriel, Philip, and Elizabeth made him one of the more memorable characters on the show.

 

7. Nina Krilova

Much of the first three seasons and the beginning of the fourth season had to do with Nina—first as a mole for the FBI, then as a double-agent for the KGB, then back in Russia—and she didn’t deserve the end she got (a quick bullet to the head). It’s unfortunate that Stan caused her life to be thrown into turmoil by holding the fact that she was sending money back to her family over her head, but Nina was a selfless person that probably survived longer than she should have by “playing the game.”

 

6. Arkady Zotov

This might seem high for Arkady, but he’s balanced his job and doing what’s right better than anyone. For example, he respected that Nina did the right thing by coming forward as a traitor and decided to let her redeem herself by attempting to turn Stan. Also, he protected Oleg from returning home before he wanted to. And now, he’s trying to keep Gorbachev in power, which will hopefully lead to peace.

 

5. Gabriel

Philip and Elizabeth were much more comfortable with Gabriel as a handler compared to Claudia or Kate because of trust and experience, respectively, and he was a calming presence as the couple went through the Paige dilemma, the Martha dilemma, and anything else that came up through work or otherwise. We haven’t seen him in the final season after he went into retirement, but we could in the finale if the Jennings family makes it to the motherland.

 

4. Oleg Burov

It feels as if Oleg has been there from the start, but he debuted in Season 2 as a new, well-connected hot shot at the Rezidentura. However, we quickly realize he’s his own man despite his father having some pull in Russia, and he wants best for both his country and the entire world. In the final season, Oleg is putting his life on the line to protect Gorbachev and achieve peace, but his commitment to his country is on full display when rather than pointing out Philip and Elizabeth to Stan, he shakes his head to indicate that he has no idea who they are.

 

3. Stan Beeman

Watching Stan—an FBI agent—find out that his neighbors are Russian spies has been almost humorous to watch over the past couple episodes, but he and the department are right on Philip and Elizabeth’s tails heading into the series finale. Sure, Stan wasn’t a model husband or father early in the series, but he’s really, really good at his job and went through a lot before The Americans by being away from Sandra and Matthew when he was undercover in the KKK. In Season 6, he seems to have everything figured out except for the family living across the street.

 

2. Elizabeth Jennings

The top two spots are basically interchangeable, and Elizabeth deserves a ton of credit for a) staying in the game for as long as she has and b) defying orders by not killing Nesterenko and protecting him from Tatiana. She’s also considered perhaps the best spy the Russians have and does whatever is necessary for her country—which now aligns with Philip’s views and means protecting the peace talks headed by Gorbachev’s regime. And even though she almost never shows it, Elizabeth definitely has a soft side that includes an affinity for life in America.

 

1. Philip Jennings

While his wife hides her love for the United States, Philip is basically living the full American Dream by Season 6—or he’s at least trying to. It was tough to see the patriarch of the Jennings family struggle with what he had to do on missions throughout the series, but it’s been almost equally disheartening to see him fail as a travel agent following the company’s expansion. However, when he’s in action, Philip is every bit as great as Elizabeth, and that was on display last week when he single-handedly escaped right under the nose of the FBI. Can he and his family escape one more time in the series finale?