‘The Americans’ Series Finale: Top Ten Episodes

One of the most underrated shows in television history will conclude on Wednesday night when the sixth and final season of The Americans comes to an end. Over the next three days, we will rank the best episodes, characters, and moments through 74 episodes in preparation for the 75th episode, “Start”.

 

There are several great episodes that don’t make this list—and everyone will have their own opinion—but these are our top ten.

 

10. Dyatkovo (S5E11)

By the middle of Season 5, both Philip and Elizabeth are pretty worn out from their work, but it hadn’t really impacted them in the field until “Dyatkovo”, as Philip freezes and is unable to pull the trigger when tasked with killing Natalie. Of course, the cold-blooded Elizabeth does what needs to be done, but even she has basically had enough when she tells Philip to end the episode, “I want to get out of here. We should just go. I mean it. Let’s go home (to Russia).” And as always, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys were superb throughout as their characters balanced mission and morality.

 

9. The Great Patriotic War (S6E5)

In “The Great Patriotic War”, Elizabeth pulls Philip back into the game to convince Kimmie to meet him on vacation, but the full-time travel agent isn’t in any danger whatsoever. The opposite is true for Elizabeth, though, as she breaks into the safe house that Gennadi and Sofia are staying at in order to kill Gennadi—because him loving America makes the motherland look bad. Unfortunately, Sofia is collateral damage, leaving little Ilia to be without parents. The end of the episode with Stan arriving to flashing ambulances all over the place sets up an even bigger potential showdown between him and his neighbors when he finally pieces together who they really are.

 

8. Chloramphenicol (S4E4)

Like many great shows, The Americans is a slow burn with an explosive—literally, figuratively, or both—finish for each season, so the fourth episode of Season 4 was a shock. Throughout “Chloramphenicol”, Gabriel and Elizabeth (to a lesser extent) are both in danger of losing their lives to the Glanders disease William had transported, but they both turn out okay (Elizabeth turned out to just be having side effects from the antibiotic). However, Nina isn’t so lucky across the world, as the show depicted extremely accurately what life is really like in some countries when she was given a bullet to the head after sentencing in a cold, gloomy room to end the episode and her character.

 

7. The Colonel (S1E13)

It’s amazing looking back at Season 1 because of how close Stan and the FBI were to catching Philip and Elizabeth, and that comes to a head in the season finale. Viewers thought that Philip was walking into a trap meeting with the colonel, but but after receiving the abort signal, both sides quickly realizes neither side set the other up—and Elizabeth was the one walking into danger. Philip is able to save her, but it causes a shootout with Stan and the other agents; we later realize Elizabeth has been shot in the stomach, so at the end of the episode, Philip asks Stan—who they just were nearly captured by—to watch the kids because Elizabeth’s great aunt fell down. Nice cover.

 

6. Stingers (S3E10)

Philip and Elizabeth are able to keep their identity secret for most of the first three seasons of The Americans, but that changes when Paige demands answers because she knows their family isn’t normal. All it takes is one glance between the husband and wife to decide that they will tell their daughter the truth: they are from and work for the Soviet Union. That moment doesn’t even come at the end of the episode, either, as the family is forced to deal with the immediate fallout, including Stan coming over for dinner the next day.

 

5. Martial Eagle (S2E9)

“Martial Eagle” is perhaps the most underrated episode of the series, and it doesn’t take long for the bullets to start flying; in fact, they do in the opening scene when Philip and Elizabeth are at a rebel training camp but get spotted—causing Philip to kill three people at close range with a knife and gun. Later, back at home, the Jennings family has a fight when Paige reveals she gave $600 to the church, which leads to Philip having perhaps his biggest blowup of the entire series when he screams, “You respect Jesus, but not us?!” And even though it wasn’t necessarily an anti-religion thing (instead it was based more off built-up anger), Philip definitely disliked what he believed to be Pastor Tim tricking her into giving the money—so much so that he went to visit him at night with black gloves and ski cap on, but no harm was done.

 

4. Harvest (S6E7)

Ending a television series can be extremely difficult, but through nine episodes, The Americans is probably exceeding expectations in their final season. While “The Great Patriotic War” got Philip partially back in the game, Elizabeth’s predicament in “Harvest” makes him feel the need to help her out, which is probably an understatement after he had to use an axe to chop off the hands and head of Marilyn so the Americans wouldn’t be able to ID her. They were unable to save their comrade, though, so they went to Chicago for basically nothing, especially when you consider that their absence at Thanksgiving made Stan suspicious.

 

3. Echo (S2E13)

The only really big “twist” in The Americans came in the Season 2 finale, where Jared revealed—as he bled out—that he killed his parents to be together with Kate (the younger handler that was tasked with recruiting Jared as a second-generation illegal) because his parents didn’t love him and didn’t understand. The reveal came after the end of the feud with Larrick, which concluded with the Jennings teaming up to escape captivity to kill him. And that wasn’t it, as Stan somewhat surprisingly left an apology note for Nina rather than intel the Russians wanted for her safety. Plus, Philip meeting with and threatening Arkady in a bookstore about Paige being recruited was an awesome moment, but besides all the heavy stuff, “Echo” contains one of the funnier lines of the series when Philip says, “If [Paige] said one more thing about nonviolent resistance, I was gonna punch her in the face.”

 

2. March 8, 1983 (S3E13)

The Season 3 finale didn’t necessarily have a twist like Season 2 did, but Paige’s change of heart from visiting Russia with Elizabeth at the beginning of the episode to telling Pastor Tim who her parents really are at the end of the episode was certainly a big swing in momentum for the Jennings household. Between that, Stan has a bit of a falling out with Gaad, and Philip is forced to pin blame on an IT guy for the bug Martha planted (by faking his suicide). But the final shot of the episode is what makes it so great, with Paige revealing the truth (“They’re not Americans. … They’re Russians.”) as President Reagan states on TV in regards to the Soviets, “They are the focus of evil in the modern world” with Elizabeth giving a steely-eyed look to the screen.

 

1. Jennings, Elizabeth (S6E9)

Based on the series’ penultimate episode, The Americans has a tremendous opportunity to stick the landing like so few series are ever able to. “Jennings, Elizabeth” sees Stan’s suspicions become even more of a reality, and the FBI is closing in on them by bringing in Father Viktor, which leads to Father Andrei—the priest who married Philip and Elizabeth in Season 5. And Philip meets with Father Andrei as they are, unbeknownst to them both, being surveilled by the FBI. Fortunately, he realizes it quickly enough to leave and eventually escape pursuit. The Jennings family is clearly compromised, though, as Philip makes the call to Elizabeth at the end of the episode that forces her to pack everything up and get ready to make their exit from America, setting up what should be a memorable finale.