The Americans Season 4 finale was an excellent capper for the season.
Last years was actually pretty great though still a marginal step down from the season itself.
Two of the biggest questions Persona Non Grata raises go unanswered.
The lack of resolution should be frustrating and it should be the mark of a bad finale.
Persona Non Grata is a fantastic, near-perfect finale.
Partly because of the sheer emotional devastation its capable of wreaking and partlybecauseof that lack of resolution.
Maybe William didnt give up our identities after all, though they can never truly now.
This season did open with a flashback to Philips young life in Russia.
In some ways, Mischa is a flashback to the elder Mischas childhood in Russia.
After a discussion with Paige, Elizabeth tells Philip: I told Paige a little bit about Smolensk.
Do you ever wonder what it looks like now?
It could be totally different.
To which Philip replies: Probably not that much.
It appears Philip is right.
Not much has changed in the homeland.
Enough about the future and how Persona Non Grata gets it right.
Dylan Baker has had quite the career as an anonymous-ish character actor.
His years of experience showed in his deft creation of William all season.
William was cranky but not monstrous; difficult but rational.
In Persona Non Grata, however, Dylan Baker just flat out acts his dick off.
William is dying for his country like all good little martyrs want to do.
I listened closely to everything William said because they were perfect.
The lines, the delivery, everything.
I wrote down Williams final conversations like they were scripture because in a way they were.
Most final words from well-spoken assholes are.
Then when Stan and Aderholt ask him what working undercover was like he says It was exciting at first.
Like all new things.
I was committed to something.
And I was invisible…to everyone.
It made me feel special like I was a star in my very own movie.
Then what made me special became a curse.
I was lonely…very lonely.
The absence of closeness makes you dry inside.
The absence of closeness makes you dry inside.
Philip also isnt lonely.
Philip has a family, a family that might actually be getting bigger soon unbeknownst to him.
Still, theres a part of him missing, as he reveals at an EST meeting.
You choose a job before you really know youll like it, Philip says.
One day you wake up and you dont want to go to the office.
Every morning I wake up with this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
The last thing William says before he dies is They wanted me married.
I wish I could have been with her for all these years.
Shes pretty and hes lucky.
That doesnt mean hes happy.
Neither are Arkady or Tatiana or Oleg or Stan or anyone else involved in this nuclear dance.
Youre a good son, both Tatiana and Arkady tell him independently of each other.
William never had anyone.
He could never make his relationships work.
The price he paid for that was his own misery.
*The Americansalways finds cool ways to let us know what date it is.
This time around is Super Bowl XVIII where the L.A.
Raiders smashed the Washington Re…Racist Team Names 38-9.
Rating:
5 out of 5
