How Will This Season of 'The Americans' End? Here's What We Still Don't Know

By Sarah Carlson | TV | May 15, 2014 |

By Sarah Carlson | TV | May 15, 2014 |

Describing an episode of TV as “filler” or all about “table-setting” can be a bit reductive. (I’m guilty of this crime, sadly.) The best counter for this I’ve heard is that one wouldn’t treat a novel the same one, dismissing chapter 12 because it didn’t have the same amount of action as chapter 13. Yet the twelfth episode of The Americans Season Two, “Operation Chronicle,” is definitely the “before” chapter, moving all the pieces in place for a finale that is sure to knock most of them off the board. All that was missing was a “To be continued” placard as the screen faded to black on the monster haunting the Jennings getting closer to his goal of making them and their cause suffer.

We know what the board looks like now. Here is what we don’t know:

• What is Larrick’s connection with the murder of the Connors, and why is he after Jared?
• Why did Kate meet with Jared out of disguise, and why did she reveal to him his parents’ actual job?
• Better yet, why was Jared so trusting of Elizabeth? What did Kate tell him that made Elizabeth’s pitch of him starting a new life so relatively easy to swallow?
• Will Fred be able to deliver a sample of the radar-absorbent paint? Are Phillip and Elizabeth underestimating him?
• Does Kate’s death mean we get Claudia (the fabulous Margo Martindale) back?
• What will Martha do now that “Clark” has shut down her appeal to have children?
• Better yet, when will she try to rip off his “toupee”?
• Is the carelessness of FBI employees’ handling of confidential files all it will take to bring down Agent Gaad?
• Stan is after the Echo computer program, but is it to hand it over to the Rezidentura? Or does he have another plan?
• Will Nina try to escape using the money Oleg gave her? (And what’s going to happen to him for his insubordination?) Where could she go and not eventually be found?
• Is Henry going to yell “Khaaaaan!” in the finale?
• Just what is Pastor Ted up to? This protest trip and his interest in the Jennings is fishy.
• Will Paige’s curiosity of and concern for her parents and their obvious lying ultimately hurt them and their mission?

That would be fitting — the chink in the armor being their children — and would tie in nicely to where we began the season with the murder of the Connors and Elizabeth and Phillip worried their family may be next. Trying to maintain their home life, which matters and is real no matter how under cover/built on lies it is, with their job has been a key struggle for the couple, with Phillip growing increasingly tired of it and Elizabeth convinced it all will inevitable come crumbling down around them. She’s right — consequences are inevitable, for them and for Stan and for Nina and everyone living in this world of deceit. They’re all in position for the final battle, whether they are fighting for their own freedom or for another’s. The plots have tied together nicely this season, but don’t put it past The Americans to leave us with more than a few unexpected outcomes.

Sarah Carlson is Television Editor for Pajiba. She lives in San Antonio. You can find her on Twitter.