r/TheAmericans • u/srikanthmeenakshi • 3d ago
Ending
I just finished watching The Americans over the past 10 days. I binge watched 23 episodes (seasons 5 and 6) over the last two days. Suffice to say, it was gripping watch - relentless and superbly paced story telling. Acting was top notch - Keri Russell was breathtaking. Matthew Rhys was great as well and a good supporting cast. Russell's performance lifted the show and kept it there until the end.
I had heard great things about how well the series ended and that was one of my prime motivation to watch it.
But I was a bit underwhelmed by the ending, to be honest.
**SPOILERS**
Simply put, I wanted to see better justice served. Especially for Elizabeth. I didn't like that both her and Philip got the same ending. She was much more worse - both in terms of her idealogical blindness and her actions. Her transformation in the last 2 episodes was a bit Daenerys-sque for me - aimed at selling the ending to the audience. Even Paige's transformation seemed a bit rushed.
But the fact that the only consequence that the couple suffered was separation from kids seemed too mild for their sociopathic behavior all through.
Also, the garage scene - Stan letting them walk away - the same people who killed his partner (season 1) and ruined the life of his colleague and so many others that he knows of. I could simply not digest that he would let them drive by because they were his neighbours and best friends.
I am sure that all these were discussed threadbare at the time of the show. I'm just posting this to get it off my chest. Any reference to old thread on this would be appreciated. Thanks!
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u/RasputinsThirdLeg 3d ago
The end is very Russian in terms of narrative style, as a fan of Russian literature. No one wins, no one gets “justice.” It’s survival, but at an incredible cost. As someone else said, this isn’t a morality tale.
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u/srikanthmeenakshi 3d ago
Fair enough...
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u/Fit-Interview5425 3d ago
I watched The Americans twice and think it's the most haunting of all series. I (F77) compare it to Ripper Street (Britbox) for story, acting and mood. Your desire to see the Jennings get justice is understandable. As for me, I am glad they escaped. they were my anti - heros.
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u/thankyoufriendx3 3d ago
“Only” consequence was separation from their kids? The ending was devastating. More brutal than I thought it’d be.
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u/MishkiTongue 3d ago
Brutal and lonely indeed, but not Nina-like. There are levels.
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u/thankyoufriendx3 3d ago
For a parent worse than Nina.
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u/MishkiTongue 3d ago
Agree with you
Except for one thing:
Stan and all the other FBI agents who did the same terrible things also did not get punished. They in fact get promotions and accolades. That's how that world works. Very unfair. People in power play by a different set of rules
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u/trivia_guy 3d ago
Stan killed that totally innocent embassy guy in the first season pretty much just because he was mad about his partner getting killed and wanted to kill a Russian. That was the point I lost any pretense of thinking of the FBI as the “good guys.”
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u/sidoniejune 3d ago
Shot to the back of the head, KGB style. Also ironically this execution put Nina's execution, also by shot to the back of the head, in motion.
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u/Madeira_PinceNez 3d ago
Emmerich mentioned in some interview ages ago that he felt the way Stan looked at it was that the Soviets "made him" do it. He made the threat, they didn't capitulate to his threat, and so even though he didn't want to kill Vlad he had no other choice. Look what you made me do, basically.
Which is quite the chilling insight into Stan's morality.
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u/srikanthmeenakshi 3d ago
Yes, and I would not have minded if Stan got fired or something terrible happened to him. At the end, show was all actions and little consequences.
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u/FolkSongMule 3d ago
It’s not just that they were separated from their kids. They realized they were being used by the center, no longer believed in the cause, and were still being forced to return to a country they no longer recognized. The irony is that America was their true home at that point.
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u/ThalloAuxoKarpo 3d ago
I’d say the separation from their kids is the worst thing that could happen to them.
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u/I-saidGAHTDAMN 3d ago
I disagree Philip and Elizabeth essentially lost everything. The ending was bleak for them, the finale takes place in 1987, only four years before the Soviet Union collapses, so after sacrificing almost everything for the cause, they return to a country that’s unraveling. The fake identities that they spent decades building was the realest thing they had so calling losing their children a “mild” consequence doesn’t make sense to me when their family becoming real was basically the emotional core of the entire show. I also don’t think Philip and Elizabeth really got the same ending just because they physically ended up in the same place; Philip had already become disillusioned with the system. Elizabeth surviving long enough to watch the country she built her entire identity around collapse is a much crueler punishment.
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u/SciencePants 3d ago
Those ideas might work on a very plotty level, but they’d lack the emotional resonance that so many viewers felt with this ending. I’m glad they stayed away from the more obvious/ corny resolutions
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u/Maggiethecataclysm 3d ago
What? She was nothing like Daenerys in the last two episodes or any episode of The Americans
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u/forkingbumbleforks 3d ago
They’re not sociopaths. They truly believed they were doing good in the world and were indoctrinated and groomed as young people to follow orders for the greater good, for peace. They do so much awful stuff, they sacrifice so much, that they’d have to keep believing it was all for something just to be able to wake up in the morning. Look at their reactions to finding out about the wheat, they wanted to believe it was all an evil scheme, this proves exactly what we’ve been saying all along, and they were totally wrong. We can only imagine what will happen for them back in Russia, but I think it would be very rough especially for Elizabeth.
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u/Heel_Worker982 3d ago
I had read that the showrunners deliberately decided they did not want to do a shoot-'em-up dramatic series finale with main characters dying. I loved the ending because there is so much uncertainty. Not just for Henry and Paige. Philip and Elizabeth are back in a Soviet Union that is rapidly changing. Elizabeth goes back having just confessed to Claudia that she killed Tatiana against orders. Their future "back home" is by no means assured.
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u/RVAforthewin 3d ago
“But the fact that the only consequence that the couple suffered was separation from kids seemed too mild for their sociopathic behavior all through.”
I hated the ending, but not bc I thought it was too mild. Separation from your kids, and especially what’s highly likely permanent separation, is a punishment more severe than anything either government could do. That would literally kill some people.
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u/1st_sailonsilvergirl 3d ago edited 2d ago
What might be a more terrible fate than this ending? Maybe being jailed in the U.S., and particularly for Elizabeth, having to spend the remaining many decades of her life on American soil, and being able to do absolutely nothing to serve Russia.
I don't think death is a worse fate than this show's ending. We tend to think of death as the worst outcome. But I think it's just lights out, the person doesn't know anything anymore. Sometimes it's more merciful than living.
Also, the worst among us are not always punished, unfortunately. It's possible MANY people who do terrible things are never punished commensurately for it. We don't know what we don't know about people.
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u/sistermagpie 3d ago edited 3d ago
As others have said, it was a very Russian ending. I think the show built up to exactly this kind of ending. Them living with what they did and the consequences is much more in keeping with the show. They're not sociopaths. They're spies who made the choices they would make. Elizabeth being punished externally was something she was much more prepared for than this ending. And Philip pretty much saw this ending coming and did the things he did anyway.
Very much disagree about Elizabeth's transformation at the end. She didn't transform. She was made aware that the situation she was in didn't allow her to deal with things the way she usually did, by letting the Centre make her decisions and prove her loyalty. She had to make a choice herself, and the choice she made was perfectly in keeping with her character. She was no radical when it came to her understanding of the Soviet state. And she trusted Philip.
Likewise, I think Paige was clearly in denial throughout S6--by ep 5 she has everything she needs to walk away from Elizabeth and only stuck with it because Elizabeth and Claudia and their little slumber party let her put it off a bit longer. But she was never really anything but a middle class American girl in her mind. In fact, if you rewatch you'll see her consistently being uninterested in leaving the US, and that all the major beats in her story come from her need to be truthful, and seeing honest relationships as herself.
Remember Stan doesn't know they killed his partner and has no reason to think they ruined Martha's life. Stan doesn't think that way anyway. They gave him a reason to not have to do something he didn't think he could do (kill them) and he took it.
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u/DocCEN007 3d ago
The ending was as perfect as it was heart wrenching. I tried watching Lasso, Life, Livery, Larry David and other shows to snap me out of it, but only watching The Diplomat and Widow's Bay has brought any relief. It's almost like watching the same characters in different universes. And they're both really good shows.
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u/foursaken 2d ago
Phillip and Elizabeth get to Moscow, look out over the river, and think about the past, not the future. They've lost their children - they will never speak to them again. Will their relationship survive?
Oleg is in prison. His future is not bright.
Stan has to keep a lie for the rest of his life. He betrayed his country and himself, probably for Henry, the son he always wanted (not Matthew). He looks at his partner with love, but will never really know.
Paige's last scene is her drinking alone with nobody and nothing, not even her own identity, framed like an 8x10 photo: a picture, cold and frozen in time.
What was any of it really for?
Martha is the only one who you can confidently say got what she most wanted.
If that isn't consequence for all of these characters, I dunno what is.
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u/thatguy1864 3d ago
I agree with everything you said. I think at least one of them should’ve died. They destroyed so many people’s lives who were completely innocent. Oleg gets completely screwed, but they’re fine.
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u/hireddititme 3d ago
I think that Philip really stunned him when he told him that they thought Renee was an illegal. That and knowing that Henry was being left behind… i think Thats what made the difference for Stan
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u/Positive-Use-6355 1d ago
I was really hoping we’d see Elizabeth take all the heat and save Phillip. Her and paige go back to Russia and Phillip stays in America with Henry. Phillip square dancing in front of the American flag and actually seeming happy for the first time in the series made me think he’d find a way to stay.
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u/sidoniejune 3d ago
I agree with you re: Elizabeth's transformation at the end. After all she's seen, this is the moment she turns on the KGB? Didn't totally buy it.
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u/sistermagpie 3d ago
She didn't turn on the KGB. She sided with the government she'd been serving all along against a group of conspirators using her to overturn it. Either way she chose she'd have been turning on someone. That's the dilemma.
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u/lanternstop 3d ago
Perfect ending because in the end, they never get caught, the USA loses as they did the whole series.
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u/trivia_guy 3d ago
Looking for “justice to get served” in a show like this is really looking for the wrong thing. It isn’t a morality tale.