You’re Still Lucky: On The Americans, Season 4, Episode 4

This week’s episode of The Americans is exceptional, as it brings three characters into situations where they’re forced to directly acknowledge or confront the compromises or costs that come with trying to hold on to something or be true to something. These are characters who are each in their own ways forced to function within systems that deny them the right or the freedom to live in ways that are fully open and honest and in keeping with their core beliefs. I’m going to show the first two; the third is too much for me to handle right now, for the ways in which it’s so tied in to how certain characters on this show have failed each other and failed love from the beginning, while others have risked everything for it.

First, Martha Hanson, an FBI employee who is married to Clark, a man she knows is not real, though she nonetheless believes or has convinced herself that the connection they share is real. And maybe it is. For her, at least, it’s a lot better than nothing. When a male colleague takes her out to dinner and starts asking questions, she lies to him to cover up the truth, but her lie is filled with truth, in which she acknowledges what she has accepted and settled for. “No unrealistic expectations.” Because for her, underneath the layers of outward-facing deception that her marriage to Clark demands is the honest fact of her love for him.

image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image

“It’s grown-up. It’s honest.” As if growing up means resigning ourselves to the “reality” that deep, open and honest love and connection isn’t possible or available. For Martha, maybe it’s not. Maybe what she has is not that bad. Maybe she’s still lucky.

Then there’s Philip, the man Martha knows as “Clark,” who actually is married to someone else, though Martha doesn’t really know about that. William, another Russian agent in deep cover in the United States, who is very much alone, is clearly envious of Philip’s connection to his wife Elizabeth.

image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image
image

Philip nods. He wants a “normal” life but he loves Elizabeth. The work he does brings him into conflict with himself all the time. But I think some part of him knows that William is right when he says “You don’t know what it’s like” to be alone and also when he says “You’re still lucky,” echoing something that Philip’s handler Gabriel said on the first episode of the season: “Not everyone’s as lucky as you two.”

image
image
image
image
image
image
image