Every week for the third season of FX's spy thriller The Americans, David Sims, Christopher Orr, and Olga Khazan will discuss the intrigue and domestic tiffs playing out behind closed doors in the Jennings household.

Sims: Well, after all that talk of intimate tooth-pulling last week, all it took was a Yaz record to push Philip and Elizabeth into truly icy territory this week with "Dimebag," which might have been the best episode of The Americans' sterling third season so far. The issue remains the same—Paige's future—but it was exacerbated in a surprising way as Philip began developing Kimberly, a teenaged asset who might grant access to the CIA's Afghan unit but who's also by far the youngest target Philip has ever gotten involved with.



It's a credit to Matthew Rhys that he made the uncomfortable work he has to do seem plausible. Forgetting the inarguable creepiness of his having to flirt with such a young girl, it's hard to believe that he'd be able to strike up such a connection. I practically watched every scene between Philip and Kimberly with my hands over my eyes, but there was a shocking naturalism to his insidious work. It's hard for an actor to make anything look easy, and Rhys does it consistently, especially when he's playing Philip as an actor of sorts. The final scene, scored to Yaz's "Only You" (a music cue I will never get tired of, even in a corny commercial) was played with admirable subtlety. It's been made clear how much Philip hates what he's doing, but Rhys plays this latest erosion of his soul very quietly. I kept expecting him to push Kimberly away and blow the whole escapade out of horror, but his affect was more nihilistic than anything else.



Philip and Elizabeth, more than anything else, are confronting how limited their options have become at this point. Elizabeth's reaction is aggressive and defensive, while Philip seems more and more resigned to his lack of control. Paige pulled off quite the subterfuge this week by inviting her pastor over for dinner and dropping the bomb that she wants to get baptized in his church, cheerfully daring her parents to shut her down. To Elizabeth, this is all the more reason to reveal the truth; to Philip, it's a sign that she's basically out of their hands unless they want to destroy Paige's life and trust in her parents.



In a way, they're having their own moment of clarity, as is Stan, who finally realizes what should have already been obvious to him—that he drove his wife away by falling in love with, and consummating an affair with, another woman. There's a power to that acknowledgement that he doesn't fully understand until attending an est meeting where he's forced to role-play a confrontation with his wife. The show seems a little lost for what to do with Stan right now—his untrusting but sweet relationship with the defector will surely play out in some interesting way, but I don't know how much more there needs to be on his relationship with Sandra, who has clearly moved on herself. (Still, Noah Emmerich did masterful work in that apology to her).