You felt that the series finale ofThe Americanscould go either way.
A low-key ending, maybe?
Ambiguous, minor-key, everyone gathered grim around the kitchen island for one final exchange of lying glances?
Jeffrey Neira/FX
The Jennings family maintained their Lead Character Forcefields through 74 episodes, the whole Reagan era.
You feltThe Americanswas evolving above the simple pleasures of gunshot catharsis.
But this final season was a gory overcorrection.
Stan (Noah Emmerich) was closing in.
Recall season 4, which saw the brutal dispatching of three day-one cast members.
Was season 4s casual lightning-strike brutality a sign of fatal final acts to come?
It was all for nothing, Elizabeth, mentor-Judas Claudia (Margo Martindale) told her favorite spylast week.
Could that be a premonition?
Would death come, suddenly, absurdly?
Could a wig slip at the worst moment?
Or perhaps Elizabeth would walk through some door and get her head blown off, like DiCaprio inThe Departed.
The violence was all emotional, you could say, if you felt expansive.
Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are no more, but Nadezhda and Mikhail live on.
The memoir writes itself.
This is freaky stuff, no doubt, cusping on Full Kafka.
This finale wasnt terrible, had a few moments of pure bliss.
But it felt limp, unwilling to push its characters too far.
There was tremendous tension, whichThe Americanswas always good at, and disappointing follow-through, whichThe Americansalways struggled with.
The personal collided, finally, with the political, and the result was emotionally gratifying but narratively unsatisfying.
It suffered, unexpectedly, from a climactic Attack of the Cutes.
I cried, I groaned.
She spent this final season performing weekly open-heart surgery on her mortal soul.
He handed the phone to Elizabeth.
What your father said, she spoke into the phone, I feel the same.
but Russell let you see, vividly, how there was so much else she couldnt say.
There was a wellspring of emotion bottled inside a very tough, very bruised, very strong woman.
I love you, Henry, she said, thats it, Im demolished, calling Mom now.
Showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisbergwrote this finale, and longtime executive producer Chris Long directed it.
Long developed a clever motif, filming the characters within atmospheric rectangular frames.
Everyone in a box, alone, entrapped.
The Americanshad a lets-call-it-subdued color palette the big chromatic idea was, What if gray could be more gray?
The renegade father caught sight of a happy family having a fast-food dinner.
These images reflected the aspirations of the final act crafted by Fields and Weisberg.
Nobody died, but relationships ended decisively.
I admire the intention, question the execution.
Were even specifically used to dark dramas about regular suburban types with murder-y secret lives.
Elizabeth and Philip did awful things.
Philip and Stan played racquetball.
Philip got dumped by a mark, the old Don Ivan flirt-magic gone.
Elizabeth developed a crunchy crush on a tai chi bro.
They killed a man for the wrong reasons.
Philips son crossed the world, then crossed back.
Back in Russia, Oleg learned hard truths about the USSR, backed in maternal remembrance and marketeer inquisition.
Season 6 was more fun, and more obvious.
Bloodier, and morally binary.
(Notably, Oleg was sidelined into dead-drop pickups.
The problems came to the forefront in the shoulda-been-showstopper scene: Stans confrontation with the Jennings trio.
I wouldve done anything for you, Philip, for all of you, he said.
You made my life ajoke.
But then there was the hard pivot: Now he reallycouldaccomplish something.
These people, if theyre not stopped, thats our whole country, he begged.
Thats our whole future.
And its the world.
And whether we get to live in peace or not depends on this.
Save the General Secretary, Save the World!
And wont someone yo think of the children?
Helovesyou, Stan, Philip insisted.
That read requires insidious nihilism nowhere else in this very cryface-emojid episode.
I dont buy it.
Our favorite characters did a nice thing for each other: Hmmm.
The result was shocking.
The truth set nobody free, and nobody escaped from themselves.
My neighbors were secret Communists!
Your parents were Russian spies!
In the one flat-out-awful moment of this episode, Stan revealed Henrys curious parentage, and Henry lookedsoooooo bummed.
That was the emotional high point, no question.
There was one final scene of pure tension passport control is no match for the Jennings wig game!
Heres Bono, speaking as Elizabeths thought balloon: WAAAAAAAAOOOOOOHHHAAAAOOOOOO, HHHAAAAAAOOOOOOAAAAAAAAOOOO.
A great moment, fiery and ludicrous as this ice-cold serious show ever let itself be.
Philip and Elizabeth sat next to each other, wigs and makeup making them look like strangers.
All the rest was epilogue, sweet and pointless, an unnecessary attempt to heal raw scar tissue.
There was a dream sequence, proving decisively that not all shows should do dream sequences.
You had a general feeling of amelioration, the show convincing itself everyone would turn out okay.
Theyre not kids anymore, said Philip.
Could be, but the show took his side.
Stan has Henry; Henry has Stan.
The resonance ofThe Americansdepended on the metaphor.
Married life is crazy, and crazy-difficult.
Your parents did things youll never understand.
You never really know anyone.
What is love, really?
The spy-verse shenanigans of the Jennings double-triple lives felt like megaphoned variations of relatable questions surrounding love and marriage.
And the show caught early analog indicators of post-digital paranoia, an all-encompassing feeling that nobody could be trusted.
Revealing your true self never turned out well for anyone onThe Americans.
Until, well, it turned out okay.
Not great, but not bad.
And its the world.
We know they succeed, because Gorbachev did everything Gorbachev did.
Fun to imagine what the 90s will look like for our former spies.
Itll be messy, no doubt, but this finale was too clean for that.
The steady gradualism ofThe Americanscould reap its own rewards, slow-burning in a way Murphys dramas would never try.
The onetime Jennings couple stared at Moscow, gray on the horizon.
Thus did we fade out.
The story of a couple superheroes, or just two very talented pre-internet trolls.
One thing Ill treasure: Renee, the best worst ideaThe Americansever had.
Laurie Holdens Cheshire cat smile was unreadable until the end.
(How many KGB agents can one FBI agent invite to Thanksgiving dinner?)
Does Stan suspect her?
Does he accept her, even if sheisa spy?
Does he trust his feelings, even knowing he might be wrong?
Will he let the mystery be?
Maybe hes had a bit too much reality, prefers to live inside a fantasy.
Nothing more American than that.
Finale Grade:B-
Series Grade: B+
