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Crossbreed finds so many of our beloved Americans at their lowest points.
Granted, that qualifies for almost any episode ofThe Americansbut this takes it a step further.
Philip and Elizabeth are fresh off the knowledge that they killed an innocent man in an essentially pointless mission.
But then gives Elizabeth another mission of more importance anyway.
Paige cant help but begin to poke holes in her parentss worldview.
Paige asks about Communist Russia.
We have our problems but everybody is in it together, Elizabeth says.
You havent been there in a long time.
Thats what your dad says.
Paiges father is at his lowest point and everyone seems to know it.
Elizabeth tries to play it off as though theyre both equally bummed but that doesnt fool Gabriel or Claudia.
Who was his father?
Philip cant stop remembering all the random items his father would bring home.
Philips mother told him his father was a logger.
Was he a logger, he asks Gabriel?
He was a guard, Gabriel responds.
In a prison camp.
Why didnt you tell me?
I didnt think it was my place to tell you.
Did he ever kill anyone?
Gabriel doesnt answer the question and then offers.
We were all nobodies.
Why this all happened to him.
There is pain everywhere in Crossbreed.
Its in the Jennings garage as Philip tells Elizabeth I didnt know anything.
I didnt know anything about them at all.
Normally,The Americansis at its best when its characters are in pain.
Thats when it is its most honest and real and frightening.
The episode, itself, however, can never fully congeal around them.
Crossbreed is a series of barely connected moments of pure despondance.
This is all important.
This is all leading to something extreme (or perhaps in trueAmericansfashion: satisfyingly anticlimactic).
The disconnection between those moments just happen to make Crossbreed the weakest episode of the season yet.
Thats not a felony.
Certainly this is all exacerbated by the show airing one of its best ever episodes last week.
I sense a similar situation with Lotus 1-2-3 and Crossbreed.
Crossbreed has a cooler name and more moments of pure misery.
Also, theres satisfying anticlimax and theres…whatever the ending to this episode is.
Obviously, Paige meeting Gabriel is a huge moment but it seems out of place here.
Especially after all the pain and confusion and revelations about prison guard fathers.
If anything, the moment deserves more room to breathe.
Still, this remains an excellent episode of TV and and episode show.
Each passing episode of season 5 feels like its building to something radical and special.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5
