Emmy Episodes: The Americans

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the third year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

The Americans: Season 6, Episode 7 “Harvest” (B)

Now we’re getting somewhere, seeing an operation in motion that definitely didn’t go as planned. Philip showing up at Stan’s and spinning a story that the business is failing, he seemed to think he bought it, but the later news about the FBI’s disaster in Chicago shows that Stan is completely onto them, realizing that there’s plenty that doesn’t add up about what they tell them and a whole lot of room for suspicion. Fishing for clues from Henry only set off more alarms, and though we didn’t see him find anything definitive, he’s getting very close. Elizabeth seemed relieved that Philip showed up to help her in Chicago, and the two of them work well together. Their driver and Harvest himself getting shot was not part of the plan, and there’s nothing like dismembering bodies together to help get the spark back in a marriage. What was most telling about the state of things is that, even though Philip coldly stepped right back into the role that he’s supposed to have been playing for years now, Elizabeth clearly thinks that he made a mistake by ever committing to it. As Paige expressed that she was ready to die and that she hoped to one day find a partner like her parents found each other, Elizabeth explained that Philip was never cut out for this while simultaneously giving Paige the green light to apply for an internship with the State Department and start on a mission that I can’t imagine we’ll get to see completed with just three episodes left in this show’s run.