The Americans wraps up its third season with a jaunt to Western Germany and Ronald Reagans stern words…

The mark of a good actor is being able to communicate without speaking.

What Matthew Rhys andThe Americansare able to accomplish with nothing more than Philip Jennings pained face is phenomenal.

That blank look is there during his final(?)

meeting with Yousaf*.

Its there at the est meeting where he listens to people talking about their orgasms.

Its there when he sits, bored, in an FBI employees house waiting to murder another human being.

*Yousaf, I feel like shit all the time.

Philip is nearing the end of his war.

Unfortunately, the Cold War is just about to really start.

What began as a geo-political rivalry will now resemble a true war more than ever after Reagans speech.

And the Jennings play an important role in that war whether they want to or not.

What makes it feel like a finale is the true sense of exhaustion from its chief characters.

Thats not just good drama, thats an accurate representation of the human experience.

Sometimes when youve reached your limit, circumstances dictate you push on anyway.

This happens a lot more frequently to Philip and Elizabeth than other people, granted.

In wars, humanity is often the first thing discarded.

Witness Gabriel at his wits end with Philip.

Hes not wrong, Philip is behaving like a child but all human beings were once children after all.

Philip used to be a child and is now a child who grew up participating in state mandated murders.

Gabriel knows that he is losing Philip and may be losing Elizabeth soon too.

Whats shocking is that the K.G.B.

seems to have no contingency in place for when all the violence their agents experience begin to affect them.

Its a bureaucratic misstep.

Similarly, Stan put far too much trust in the bureaucracy he works for.

He pulls off this mission flawlessly.

He gets Oleg to prove that Zinaida is a spy and captures it on a tape recorder.

But he forgot that the FBI doesnt think like he does.

To them, Nina isnt an asset.

agent the Soviets have in their possession.

Nina, for her part seems finally resigned to the fact that nobody has her back.

I cant keep doing this.

Buying back my life, she tells Anton.

Its not just the institutions forgetting the basic humanity of, well humans.

Philip and Elizabeth were backed into a corner when they decided to tell Paige the truth about her life.

Philip thinks the solution is letting Paige meet her maternal grandmother for the first time.

Paige was born into this life of espionage but was never aware of it.

And none of this is normal to her, nor probably should it be.

The Americansseason three has been a terrific television-watching experience.

Rating:

4.5 out of 5