21 pop culture moments from 2018 we’re celebrating
By Amy Woolsey
The Americans series finale
Ending a TV show is a feat of acrobatics. Provided you even get to choose when and how to end the show, you have to juggle several layers of responsibilities: resolve the overarching narrative, resolve short-term storylines, wrap up character arcs and relationships, create a sense of thematic continuity, and reward viewers for the years they’ve invested. You’re expected to surprise, but not baffle; satisfy, but not tie a neat bow. Most shows that succeed do so by clearing away the clutter and focusing on a single aspect.
The Americans is not most shows. For six seasons, FX’s Cold War espionage drama riveted and alienated audiences by refusing to take the easy road, committing to its convoluted plots, austere visuals, and murky ethics with a rigor that Elizabeth Jennings would have admired. So, naturally, when it came time to end, it set itself up for a challenge – and rose to the occasion.
In typical Americans fashion, “START” burns slowly. For a while, everything seems to be going smoothly for the Jennings family. Elizabeth and Philip agree to leave America and return to the motherland; they pick up their college-aged daughter and KGB recruit Paige from her apartment; their FBI agent neighbor Stan confronts them about their true identities, only to let them go for reasons that go unexplained yet somehow make sense; they say goodbye to their son Henry; they board a train; they pass a border inspection, thanks to some wonderfully tacky disguises.
Then, it happens: the moment that turned U2’s “With or Without You” into a gut-punch. As the train pulls out and Bono hits a crescendo, Elizabeth sees Paige standing on the platform outside, already receding into the distance. What makes “START” so remarkable isn’t its sense of closure or its emotional impact, but the fact that it manages to provide both while staying true to its clear-eyed, melancholy self. It brings the most pressing conflicts to a head, but leaves one thread dangling, tantalizingly. It lets its antiheroes live, but denies them redemption or mercy. It ends with Tchaikovsky.
The Jenningses may be doomed to obscurity, but that finale is one for the ages.