Wow, this show is seriously on a roll right now, isn’t it?

We should probably be rooting for Stan Beeman, but there’s definitely a sense of cathartic schadenfreude to be evoked from seeing him manipulated and taken advantage of by Oleg Igerovich, considering this is the man who manipulated and took advantage of Nina Sergeevna. Making Soviet spies the more sympathetic of your show’s protagonists is audacious to say the least, and it’s this epitome of the murky moral compass of The Americans which makes the series so great.

And Stan has really been placed in an inextricable corner; under pressure from Oleg, he is forced to retrieve information for the Russian. Looking to confide in Agent Gaad, Stan visits his house, but is coldly cut off by his boss, who doesn’t want to hear anything potentially incriminating. That, coupled with his detached, absentminded attitude during the scene where his wife and son discusses current affairs (this time around it’s John Belushi’s overdose, placing the episode sometime around March 1982), express the isolation and hopelessness he feels, caused by the actions of Oleg Igerovich, an increasingly influential player, and one who will no doubt play a key role in the season’s main arc.

One of the main focuses of “Behind the Red Door” is an offshoot of one of last week’s episode’s more humorous subplots – Elizabeth’s curiosity at Martha’s relationship with ‘Clark’ -, but is one which goes off on a dark , twisted tangent. Jealousy is a fickle thing, and is unsustainable in a relationship like that of the Jennings. whose jobs ofttimes require infidelity. Elizabeth seeks to experiment with role-playing, persuading Philip to pretend to be Clark for the night. Philip’s aggressive sex obviously brings up painfully vivid memories of her rape (committed by her superior officer), causing her to break down sobbing. Frustrated beyond belief, Philip storms into the bathroom, rips off his wig (answering the age-old question as to how he keeps it so well attached to his head in the process) and stares at himself in the mirror. Living multiple lives can not be healthy for the human psyche, and the further the show delves into the damaged minds of this couple, the clearer the cracks in the façade become.

In the couple’s professional lives, things aren’t going much smoother. Posing as CIA agents, the two interrogate Andrew Larrick, the suspected killer of the Connors. In an episode full of introspective, brooding character study, the show flexes its storytelling muscles in this scene, proving that it still has the capacity for taut, tense, nuts and bolts espionage.What should be a relatively straightforward exercise is made exponentially more complicated when Philip and Elizabeth begin to suspect that Larrick might not actually be responsible for the murders. Surprisingly, Claudia admits that she may be the source of the leak, teasing us with another layer to her fascinating character – played magnificently, as always, as Margo Martindale – before snatching her away. I hope that isn’t the last we see of Claudia, but logistically I can’t see much reason for her to return – in this season, at least.

One of “Beyond the Red Door“‘s finest subplots concerns a character we’ve only met briefly before; Lucia, the Sandinista KGB operative, is tasked with seducing a local congressman’s personal assistant, allowing Elizabeth access to confidential files. Elizabeth fails to reveal to her until after, however, that in order to cover her tracks, she must kill Carl, with whom she fallen in love. The scene in question, wherein Lucia poisons the man’s heroin spoon (or whatever the kids are calling it these days), is one of quiet tragedy, as the woman cradles in her arms her lover. Beforehand, while explaining the situation to the South American, Elizabeth smiles almost nostalgically upon realising that Lucia has fallen for her target, reassuring her that she has done the same. It’s the same almost-motherly dynamic between the two characters as we saw back in “Cardinal“, and is a wonderful way of portraying a character in two very contrasting lights. As wise and caring and noble as Elizabeth appears on the surface, underneath lies a damaged, twisted person willing to inflict on other people (in this case, Lucia) the very things which affected her so.

And it’s to The Americans‘ credit that, as I said above, that the Jennings still remain deeply sympathetic people. This, this is fantastic TV.

Grade: A-

Some other thoughts:

For a show with generally unremarkable aesthetics, this was a surprisingly beautifully shot episode of The Americans. Numerous striking shots can be seen, my favourite of which has to be Stan absentmindedly eating dinner with his family behind the eponymous red door. Kudos to Charlotte Sieling.

I absolutely loved the set of Agent Gaad’s house as well. That he’s so obviously discomforted by Stan’s bemusement at the strange furnishings of his house says a lot about the character – along with those strange furnishings as well, of course.

Come on, writers, get your shit together with regards to the Paige subplot. At this stage it’s just wasting space, and I sincerely hope it starts becoming meaningful in the next few episodes.