the walls between us
In the first episode of this final season of The Americans, an early montage is set to the beautiful Crowded House song “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” which includes the lyrics:





I’ve spent years on this Tumblr writing about The Americans and, in particular, the trust and devotion that binds Philip and Elizabeth. How they rely on each other. How they put each other first. I never thought the world would win. But now, I’m starting to think it might.

Because the world has indeed come to build a wall between them. Up to this point, they were always in it together. Elizabeth, doing what needed to be done for Mother Russia. Philip, doing what needed to be done for Elizabeth. But now, Philip’s out. Pushed to his breaking point, he’s left the spy business, and now, for the most part, lives like the typical American working dad that he’s always pretended to be. On the other hand, Elizabeth is deeper in it than she’s ever been, with a terrifying new assignment that comes complete with a cyanide pill. Philip wants Gorbachev to win. Elizabeth just takes her orders and follows them like a good soldier, and the people giving her orders decidedly don’t want Gorbachev to win. Philip eyes his turkey sandwich and recalls the hunger he experienced as a child. He goes out country line dancing in a bar with the Stars and Stripes on the wall and looks happier than we’ve ever seen him. Elizabeth still hates America every bit as much as she was taught to.

It seems to me that it may come down to what they prioritize. Each other, or the countries their respective hearts belong to. Elizabeth gets a little nudge in one direction from Erica, an artist who is also the dying wife of a government official Elizabeth’s spying on.












“Doing I don’t know what. Just…doesn’t matter…” That’s love.
Faced with death, Erica now feels that the most important thing she could have done with her time was spend it with Glenn.
I think that, because Elizabeth has always had Philip, she sometimes takes for granted what it is to have a partner, though the show never does. It constantly reminds us what loneliness does to a person, and how essential having a partner can be. Anyway, I hope Elizabeth figures that out before all is said and done, and that in the end, in the battle between communism and country line dancing, Philip and Elizabeth choose what matters most: each other.
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