The Americans - Recap: The Game of Life

Episode 2 of Season 2 of The Americans, "Cardinal," wasn't as much driven by action and drama as it was heavy on the emotion, and that made it a great hour of television. Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) were still reeling from the sight of their friends, fellow KGB couple Emmett and Leann, lying dead in their hotel room; however, it was the image of their daughter, who'd been murdered in cold blood, that they couldn't seem to shake. How could they possibly keep Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati) safe from an invisible looming threat when the enemy could be anyone, especially considering the fact that the FBI seemed to be entirely clueless regarding the ordeal. Stan (Noah Emmerich), meanwhile, continued his affair with Nina (Annet Mahendru) this week, finally getting a lead on some new KGB action. Nina, on the other hand, seems torn between love and war, yet again. Here is the Recap and Review of Season 2 Episode 2 of The Americans, "Cardinal"!

Episode 2 followed three major plot points, two of which centered on the traumatic aftermath of the murder of Leann, Emmett, and their daughter. The third focused on Nina’s complicated relationship with Stan as her role as a sort of counter-mole at the Rezidentura continued.

FX "The Americans"

For the most part, it seemed that up until this point it’s been easy for Nina to somewhat play both sides of the fence. While she seems somewhat desperate to put up a tough front regarding her underlying feelings for Stan in the work place, it’s easy for us to tell that she still has a deep personal connection to him. It might seem like nothing more than a job requirement to get this FBI agent to fall deeply and madly in love with her, but she enjoys this job way too much if that’s the case. During Episode 2, the Russians had a "walk-in" at the embassy. Now, this is a rare occurrence. If a walk-in happens, then something big is about to drop. We were introduced to Bruce Dameran, a man who claimed to have only a small window of time to deliver some valuable information, though Nina wasn’t made privy to any of that for now.

What made this interesting was that Nina chose to report the information back to Stan, though she really didn’t have to. We know that this is an important deal for the Russians; however, there is something in the way that Nina has been behaving during this start of Season 2 that says she’s not quite done with her honest relationship with Stan, and she wants to make him happy. Yes, she does need to deliver something to the American forces, but this was a massive risk. Stan subsequently took the information back to the FBI and they got to analyzing street security camera footage to pinpoint the face of the man known as “the walk-in.” Eventually, they narrowed it down to Bruce. Back at the Rezidentura, Nina typed up her notes chronicling her work during Episode 2, though she chose to leave out the part about informing Stan about the very important walk-in. Instead, she simply hinted that he was wondering about Arkady’s (Lev Gorn) latest moves.

One last important piece of information regarding Nina’s arc this week is that the new face at the Rezidentura, Oleg Igorevich, continued to work his charm on her. He’s a self-proclaimed feminist for Mother Russia and he likes new wave music. Meaning, he’s the perfect mix of the KGB cause and progressive American culture to entice Nina to stray from Stan.

Philip and Elizabeth were forced to continue to search for answers regarding the identity of the killer of their friends and their daughter. During Episode 2, Philip targeted the man most likely to be involved with the crime, their resident agent. Now, Elizabeth’s arc this week that centered on her love for her kids probably took the cake regarding the emotional draw, but the close second was Philip’s interaction with his friend Emmet’s agent, Fred.

FX "The Americans"

Philip, disguised as a repairman, decided to take it upon himself under orders to investigate the agent’s home while he was out. After some careful snooping, he uncovered a clearly loose piece of flooring, eventually removing it to reveal a lockbox. Unfortunately for Philip, the lockbox was protected by an electrical security system, and a shocking volt sent him flying back and rendered him unconscious. Philip awoke to find himself constrained later and, because he remained very well disguised, failed to draw any sense of recognition from Fred, the agent he’d interacted with at the carnival games last week. The thing about Philip is that he has a lot of heart, and if it meant breaking code to play into this man’s emotions in order to save his own skin, he’d do it well. Philip was the one to break the news of Emmet’s death to his agent, who subsequently broke down in tears. This was his friend as well. Philip even realized that Emmet had broken code and shared stories about his children with this man, who clearly would never have laid a finger on Emmet’s family. All thoughts always seemed to find their way back to the family’s young son, who remained alive and in limbo in the wake of this tragedy.

FX "The Americans"

Elizabeth spent Episode 2 in its entirety stressing about the wellbeing and safety of her children. Every misplaced car on the street or noisy neighbor threw up a red flag that told her that her family was in danger. Of course, Elizabeth was paranoid but appropriately so. This is the first time in her life in the KGB that she’s realized that her children’s lives are in jeopardy as well as her own. She signed up for this. They, however, did not. This added a whole new monkey wrench into the game of completing orders because time and effort had to be spent ensuring that Paige and Henry remained protected first. For example, it wasn’t enough to leave the two at home while Elizabeth ran an impromptu rescue mission. Instead, she had to come up with an elaborate scheme to ditch them at a showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

My favorite scene this week was probably the moment in which Elizabeth was enlisted to help a struggling young KGB agent who was new to the country. The girl had overdosed due to some unfortunate party habits of the congressional aid she’d been partnered with in order to sap information. The young man remained incapacitated in his car, while the girl who’d called for help trembled, terrified of the effects of the cocaine. This truly brought out the mothering side of Elizabeth. Elizabeth ran off to get snacks before returning the nurture the girl through one of her first missions. She left her with some comforting words of wisdom, ensuring her that things would get better.

Before closing the recap, there are a few more points to touch upon from Episode 2. First, when is poor Martha (Alison Wright) going to get a clue? This week, Philip as “Clark” managed to convince her to start vying for a higher position working under Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas). The Americans doesn’t seem like the type of show to punish the innocent, which is also why I’m not so worried for Paige, who continued to attempt to do some digging this week by beginning to trace back phone calls to the “Aunt” her mother recently visited.

What did you think of The Americans, Season 2 Episode 2, “Cardinal”? Who will be the first person to learn the truth about Philip and Elizabeth? Who has Nina’s true loyalty? Who killed Emmet’s family?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of The Americans, Season 2 Episode 2, “Cardinal”!