The Americans - Premiere Recap: Rod Stewart's "Passion"

Episode 1 of Season 2 of The Americans, “Comrades,” did much to set the tone for what’s to come. Things are shaping up to be a bit different as the show heads into its second season. We’re used to separating the home life of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) Jennings with their work as KGB spies kicking ass on American soil, at least to a degree. Now, their daughter, Paige (Holly Taylor), has continued her search for answers regarding her parents’ mysterious ways. She’s a smart girl, and it’s only a matter of time before something solid pops up. Things also carried on for Stan (Noah Emmerich) this week, as his relationships with both his wife, Sandra (Susan Misner), and his mistress, Nina (Annet Mahendru), continued to twist and turn. Meanwhile, another devastating situation snuffed out any sense of normalcy or safety for Elizabeth and Philip by the close of the Season Premiere. Nobody is safe anymore, not even their children. Here is the Recap and Review of Episode 1 of Season 2 of The Americans, “Comrades”! It was the Season 2 Premiere!

FX "The Americans"

Mostly, the Season 2 Premiere served to set the change of tone as we head into this next string of episodes. We’re used to this show working in a very specific formula. Elizabeth and Philip carry out weekly assigned KGB tasks, iron out any kinks as they do so, and juggle family life simultaneously. Meanwhile, Stan the FBI agent is always but a step behind, waiting for just one slip to expose the identities of the two blank faces that plague his work. As the premiere kicked off, it seemed things were going to stay true to form, at least initially. We were clued in to the fact that Philip still retains his very healthy guilty conscience after we witnessed him offing two Afghan freedom fighters before having to subsequently kill their restaurant’s innocent busboy due to exposure. This, of course, took a toll on Philip that radiated throughout the premiere, true to character. Elizabeth, meanwhile, opened the episode by leaving her distant rehabilitation following her severe gunshot wound just in time for Henry’s (Keidrich Sellati) birthday party.

The party served to reintroduce us to the interesting friendship between Philip and Stan, as both men shared the current status of their rocky marriages. Philip and Elizabeth are looking at the chance of a fresh new start, while Stan and Sandra are still at rock bottom. Of course, both men technically have two women in their love lives. Philip is still technically married to poor Martha (Alison Wright), who remains hopelessly in love and completely unaware that she’s being used for insider information. Stan, on the other hand, still has his relationship with his “mole,” Nina. I use the term “mole” loosely because, at this point, she seems to be in control. Remember, she came clean at the end of last season. Now, she works as somewhat of a recovered mole. It was interesting to witness Stan sharing a bootleg of The French Lieutenant’s Woman with Nina, unaware of the subject matter, then subsequently having to sit through it again in theaters with his wife, who by the close of the premiere, decided to start working on her marriage once again. Nina still has the shameful feelings of a “whore,” yet she’s turned the tables on Stan. The relationship isn’t supposed to be real anymore, but we know that at one point it very much was.

This week, we were also introduced to a new face at the Russian embassy. Igorevich is young and has a lot of spunk, enough of an intriguing attitude to catch Nina’s eye. Ivanovich (Lev Gorn) seems to think he’s a bit green because he does things like listen to Rod Stewart at the office, but I’m thinking he’s going to turn out to be a surprisingly ruthless opponent to the American forces. Remember, Nina has to continue to feed Stan good information to keep up the charade; however, she can’t risk giving him knowledge that’s actually important to the Russians. Hence, Igorevich’s intended job.

Paige continued snooping through the basement laundry room this episode, though she failed to discover anything new. She knows her parents have secrets, though I’m not sure she found that which she was looking for this week. When she crept into her parents’ bedroom at night, assuming they were still out, Paige caught a gander of a substantially sexual scene that certainly left her a bit traumatized and inspired a talk on privacy the next day at breakfast. Of course, this might serve to stunt her searching for now, but nobody is having sex in the basement...

The core plot to the Season 2 Premiere actually ended up changing the game for The Americans entirely. We were introduced to another KGB couple, a pair that seemed to have been friends with Philip and Elizabeth for years. They shared stories of their children growing up after landing another unknowing ally from within Lockheed, the American aerospace corporation. You know the story, at this point. They convince some poor sap that they’re all playing for the same team by putting the fear of God in him, as though not cooperating is un-American when, in reality, they’re essentially unknowingly joining forces with the KGB. More importantly, both of these couples look at their children as American couples do and with just as much pride.

FX "The Americans"

Stan opened his arc for Season 2 by clearly aching for a new challenge or a revived old one. Ever since the American’s failures leading up to the Season 1 finale, they’ve had next to no leads regarding their KGB targets, the people we know to be Philip and Elizabeth. We also briefly caught up with Sanford, who you might remember as the man who attempted to win over American approval on the finale by betraying his forced partnership with Elizabeth. In squealing regarding her newly acquired connection to the air force colonel with high connections, he was promised big money. Unfortunately, this didn’t pan out, and the gambling addict was left desperate. In all his desperation, he attempted to harass the colonel he blamed at the man's own home, eventually earning Sanford several bullets in the brain fired by the colonel in self-defense. Stan, who never stopped believing that Sanford was telling the truth all along regardless of his addiction issues, now seemed even more suspicious. Sanford lost his life over this, and that would not have happened over nothing.

The most important plot set up during the Season 2 Premiere shook the show up completely and set up a whole new string of possibilities heading forward. It was interesting to watch Elizabeth and Philip with their children at the fairground. Their fellow KGB couple, Emmitt and Leann, watched from a distance, eager to see just how Paige and Henry had grown. You see, the couples are friends and have kept tabs on each other’s lives over the years, but their children could never know. Any sort of exposure endangers both families and their children’s lives. Unfortunately for Philip, a KGB order unexpectedly came up for Emmitt, though he’d previously exposed himself to this connection and his surveillance team too many times before. Instead, Emmitt set it up so that Philip could rendezvous on the spot with this man within the carnival games. Only, he also included Henry in the situation as extra image protection, and Philip and Elizabeth refuse to use their kids under normal circumstances. Luckily, both Philip and Henry came out unscathed after receiving the required handoff, and the Jennings were free to meet up with Leann and Emmitt later in the day at a designated hotel room.

In what was possibly the most jarring scene The Americans have ever put up, Elizabeth and Philip arrived to find Emmitt and Leann shot dead along with their 15-year-old daughter, who remained entirely innocent and unaware the entire time. Elizabeth rushed to scoop Paige and Henry to safety as they continued to rove around the fairground. Philip, meanwhile, made sure to acquire the necessary information from Emmitt’s briefcase, even if his old friend couldn’t be the one to personally hand it off to him. The combination of the information received by Philip earlier and what he found in the briefcase led to a specific address. As Philip covertly left the hotel room, absolutely devastated, he watched back as the family’s surviving son walked completely unaware into the room that contained his slaughtered family. Meanwhile, something became horrifically clear following all of this… someone must know something if this family turned up dead. Meaning, the entire Jennings family might be completely exposed, and this new assailant isn’t afraid to kill children.

To close the Recap, Episode 1 ended with Philip rushing off to satisfy Martha’s needs, and Elizabeth sitting on her bed alone.

What did you think of The Americans Season 2 Premiere, Episode 1, “Comrades”? Who could have killed Emmitt, Leann, and their daughter? Will Stan learn of Nina’s betrayal soon? Did you miss Claudia? When will Paige find out?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of The Americans Season 2 Premiere, Episode 1, “Comrades”!