[8.0/10] Paige knows. That is huge. There other things that happen in “Stingers” -- other important things -- but they’re all overshadowed by the fact that after so much debate, so much consternation, so much hemming and hawing, Paige now understands who and what her parents are. On the one hand, that’s an emotional breakthrough. Beyond the question of whether or not the Jennings’ kids should be brought into the program, the simple question of them knowing, was once something that drove Philip and Elizabeth’s nightmares. Philip even recounts that. To be in this life is to be constantly at threat. But the truth is, as the last season’s anxieties suggested, ignorance doesn't make that threat go away. So when confronted by their daughter, who demands to know the truth, who says she knows that she’s been lied to and that this is not normal, Philip and Elizabeth share a knowing look of their own. This moment has become unavoidable. However much they might like to delay it, to ease their daughter into things, to avoid it entirely, they can’t put this off any longer. It is, in so many ways, the culmination of arguments that have motivated much of the past couple of seasons, and it marks a new stage of the relationship between parent and child. Much of that is spurred by Pastor Tim. In the episode’s cold open, he comes to the Jennings’ travel agency, nominally to arrange a mission trip, but realistically to give Philip a lecture, or more charitably, a well-intentioned nudge to start treating Paige like more of an adult and less of a child. Paige name-checks him when she speaks about why she chose to confront her parents, and calls him after it’s done. The look on Philip’s face during all of this says, “I wish I had killed that guy,” and it’s odd in the first place that Pastor Tim would come to the Jennings after Philip’s veiled threat last season. But for better or worse, he’s a major part of the new level of honesty between the Jennings and their daughter. The rest of the episode feels a bit scattershot by comparison, like the show is planting seeds for other things to come rather than really exploring anything in depth in the rest of it. Nina reveals that she can speak English to her target, and the show hints that it’s a way for the two of them to become close enough for the Centre’s plan to work. And at the same time, we get confirmation that the Russian “defector” in Stan’s care is still a Russian agent. So there’s the possibility that his whole plan to expose her and then use her as a chit to trade for Nina could work. That said, this is *The Americans*, to expect the whole shebang to blow up in everyone’s faces rather than for the plan to go perfectly, but it at least complicates things. Tying both of those stories together is the fact that Oleg has now been tasked with getting photos of the bomber, in order to give the kidnapped scientist what he needs to progress. Again, there’s not much substance there, but there’s a loose connection between the plotting at the Rezidentura, Stan’s handling of the defector, and Nina’s adventures in Russian captivity that gives the multiple loose strands some unity. There’s other little details as well that seem more like checking off certain boxes for the plot than anything really fulsome. Philip goes to a party with Kimmy and gets a tape of CIA conversations involving her dad. That let’s him learn that there’s a meeting between the CIA and the ISI at a nearby hotel, where Elizabeth sinks her hooks. And we’re given to think that Stan suspects Martha as the mole after his conversation with Walter Tafet. On the home front, there’s also an interesting thread of connection between Stan and Henry. It’s a light piece of the episode, but maybe a potent one. The two bond over football games (whether video games or board games) and Tron, and you get the gentle sense that the pair are filling a place in one another’s lives. Stan is going through his divorce, having to divide up his family’s stuff and wonder if he has a place in his son’s life. Henry, for his part, seems blasé, but has to deal with the fact that his parents are busy and gone all the time. Both may be too repressed or myopic to realize it, but in a way they’re reaching on opposite ends for the same thing. That ties in nicely to Paige’s confrontation of Elizabeth and Philip, where she acknowledges that it’s not normal for them to be gone. She has the same feeling that Henry seems to, but rather than accepting it and normalizing it, she’s had outside influences and internal questioning that makes her challenge it. That challenge, that directness, forces the Jennings to bring their daughter into the inner circle, and to have to hope and trust that she’ll understand the magnitude and the peril of what they’ve revealed to her. Beyond the emotional element, that adds a new level of risk from a plot standpoint. There is a sense of tension when the Jennings have to trust their daughter and abide by her wishes to be left alone, despite her father’s admonition that talking about this to anyone could lead them to go to jail for good. The editing and cinematography belabors the point a little too heavily, but there’s a sense of legitimate concern when she picks up the phone, when she nearly explains things to Pastor Tim, and certainly when she stares down Stan. As the T.V. show on in the background suggests, Paige is in the driver’s seat now. Telling the truth to their daughter has changed the power dynamics in the relationship, given a teenage girl the potential to hold something over her parents, to force them and move them to let her have a say in what goes on. That is scary as a parent, particularly in the shadow of a lifetime of lies being spilled out onto a kitchen table. But it’s the moment where Philip and Elizabeth have to close their eyes and hope that their daughter is who they raised her to be, that she knows and understands how much they love her, and that that can be enough to get them all through this as a safe, and loving family.

I wasn't ready for that 😬..