I had my borscht and potato dumplings, and I sat down to watch the last episode, it's always interesting for me to remember my life through what I watched, listened to, experienced at the time. I remember when this premiered in 2013, that closing scene where Phil Collins played as Liz and Paige had a body in the trunk, and after they began to kiss, after disposing of the corpse in the bay, and the final scenes of Stan finding nothing in his new neighbors garage.
I thought the final episodes stumbled a little in their unveiling of the Jennings through Stan's eyes, it hasn't quite flowed the way the series strongest moments have, and there was some of that tonight. But, the falling action of the finale was brilliant, and true to the show, but also hopeful and affirming, in a way I didn't expect. There was redemption found with Stan, and those scenes were powerful, I kept waiting for Liz and Phil, with Paige to overpower Stan and strangle him in the parking lot. I mean, that shows the kind of darkness The Americans operated in.
But, there was hope and humanity there. "Oh, and I don't know how to say this....but Renee may be one of us"
That scene with Oleg too, was wrenching.
Every scene after that was near perfect. That feeling when Phil looks over at the typical family in McDonalds, with a handful of food, and just wishes he was like them, though he doesn't know them really, he just doesn't want to be HIM. I know that feeling, when your problems and life have spiraled, and you would do anything to be one of the average, everyday people you are suddenly seeing for the first time. I remember those moments in my life.
Both music montages, as Stan returns to work with the guilt and anguish weighing on him, as he does surveillance for his former friends, and confidantes, who he knows will never show, with the knowledge Renee may be a spy, but he loves her anyway, because that's who Stan is. He covers her up, and moves forward.
The train scene was wrenching, as the music sweeps back in, and Paige stands alone on the track, the Jennings safe, but leaving behind what they loved the most in the world. I choked up. A final sacrifice, of too many. Stan talking quietly with Henry, and Paige having a drink in the stash house.
I think a near perfect end to the show, which managed to stay true to itself, and transcend it's brutal and unforgiving nature, if only in small moments, Liz and Phillip together in a country they will have to rediscover, the same way they will have rediscover themselves, after years of manipulative sex, depraved violence, dismemberments and stranglings, shootings and stabbings, children killing their parents, the devastation they have caused, violence that as spread from them, and infected everything around them.
If you have done things you regret, and have retained some humanity, you will always have to live with the things you have done. And hope that the good inside, can slowly overtake what's left as the years go by.
*I didn't know how to take the Renee scene, and I think the showrunners played it perfectly, I took it as a yes.
I thought the final episodes stumbled a little in their unveiling of the Jennings through Stan's eyes, it hasn't quite flowed the way the series strongest moments have, and there was some of that tonight. But, the falling action of the finale was brilliant, and true to the show, but also hopeful and affirming, in a way I didn't expect. There was redemption found with Stan, and those scenes were powerful, I kept waiting for Liz and Phil, with Paige to overpower Stan and strangle him in the parking lot. I mean, that shows the kind of darkness The Americans operated in.
But, there was hope and humanity there. "Oh, and I don't know how to say this....but Renee may be one of us"
That scene with Oleg too, was wrenching.
Every scene after that was near perfect. That feeling when Phil looks over at the typical family in McDonalds, with a handful of food, and just wishes he was like them, though he doesn't know them really, he just doesn't want to be HIM. I know that feeling, when your problems and life have spiraled, and you would do anything to be one of the average, everyday people you are suddenly seeing for the first time. I remember those moments in my life.
Both music montages, as Stan returns to work with the guilt and anguish weighing on him, as he does surveillance for his former friends, and confidantes, who he knows will never show, with the knowledge Renee may be a spy, but he loves her anyway, because that's who Stan is. He covers her up, and moves forward.
The train scene was wrenching, as the music sweeps back in, and Paige stands alone on the track, the Jennings safe, but leaving behind what they loved the most in the world. I choked up. A final sacrifice, of too many. Stan talking quietly with Henry, and Paige having a drink in the stash house.
I think a near perfect end to the show, which managed to stay true to itself, and transcend it's brutal and unforgiving nature, if only in small moments, Liz and Phillip together in a country they will have to rediscover, the same way they will have rediscover themselves, after years of manipulative sex, depraved violence, dismemberments and stranglings, shootings and stabbings, children killing their parents, the devastation they have caused, violence that as spread from them, and infected everything around them.
If you have done things you regret, and have retained some humanity, you will always have to live with the things you have done. And hope that the good inside, can slowly overtake what's left as the years go by.
*I didn't know how to take the Renee scene, and I think the showrunners played it perfectly, I took it as a yes.
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. Ultimately I agree that it's fitting that a show that was always at heart a family drama with spy dressing, methodically paced, and subdued wouldn't end with a climatic shootout or explosion but the anguish coming from the family breaking apart and never being the same again. 
. Then the 2 of them returning home to a country they don't even recognize anymore, after making so many sacrifices, (giving up their bodies and souls), to a cause neither one were fully invested in at the end.
. I think if Henry knew, it would have completely destroyed him. Then Phillip drops the bombshell that his wife could possibly be a spy too and he will possibly never know 
. I definitely think the writers wanted to keep things ambiguous about Renee, but Stan did have a fondnesss for Russians, RIP Nina 
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