Dead Hand 

In the season 6 premiere of The Americans: it's autumn, 1987, and as a major arms control summit looms, Elizabeth is pushed to her limits as never before. Philip, meanwhile, has settled ... See full summary »

Director:

Chris Long

Writers:

Joseph Weisberg (created by) (as Joe Weisberg), Joel Fields

Stars:

Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Brandon J. Dirden

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Keri Russell	...	Elizabeth Jennings
Matthew Rhys	...	Philip Jennings
Brandon J. Dirden	...	Dennis Aderholt
Costa Ronin	...	Oleg Burov
Keidrich Sellati	...	Henry Jennings
Holly Taylor	...	Paige Jennings
Margo Martindale	...	Claudia
Noah Emmerich	...	Stan Beeman
Reed Birney	...	Patrick McCleesh
Scott Cohen	...	Glenn Haskard
Lev Gorn	...	Arkady Zotov
Laurie Holden	...	Renee
Miriam Shor	...	Erica Haskard
Anthony Arkin	...	Stavos
Michael Khmurov	...	General Kovtun

Storyline

In the season 6 premiere of The Americans: it's autumn, 1987, and as a major arms control summit looms, Elizabeth is pushed to her limits as never before. Philip, meanwhile, has settled into running the newly expanded travel agency - until an unexpected visitor makes a disquieting request.

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Plot Keywords:

hockey game | moscow russia | season premiere | year 1987 | mexico city mexico | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

28 March 2018 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nemo Films, Amblin Television, Fox 21 Television Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

56 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Here's another source for the phrase "Dead Hand," which seems quite apropos: "I must hold in balance the sense of the futility of effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle; the conviction of the inevitability of failure and still the determination to 'succeed'-and, more than these, the contradiction between the dead hand of the past and the high intentions of the future."

• F Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-up

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Goofs

Paige is supposedly waiting in her car near the Naval Observatory but the building is #55. Washington, DC is built on a grid with the Capitol in the center. #55 would be in the same block as the Capitol. The address of the Naval Observatory is 3450 Massachusetts Avenue, 34 blocks away from the Capitol. Clearly these scenes were not shot in DC.

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Connections

References Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980)

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Soundtracks

We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)
Written and performed by Peter Gabriel

User Reviews

Garbage, pure garbage

I got so sick of being forced to listen to the idiotic "soundtrack" to this episode, which at times blared over the actors' dialogue, other times went on and on and on pointlessly while the actors just broodingly stared into space like they were ruminating on Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey.

I normally very much enjoy this otherwise superb series, even though I hate the whole Paige sideshow and her Polyanna religious fanatic schtick. But this introduction to Season 6 falls flat on its face, making a critical observer wonder whoever hired the idiot music director and who allowed him to create what is nothing more than a pointless and utterly imbecilic mix tape to serve as the audio for this episode. Crowded House and Fleetwood Mac were fantastic groups in the '80's, but their songs inserted here (at full volume, no less) have no relevance to the episode any more than would inserting a scene with pigs flying by. I fear for the rest of the season, if it's turned to crap so severely, that usually means that the series will soon be coming to an abrupt end, as the writers have exhausted their ideas. And usually, as with the end of Sons of Anarchy or Bloodline, by that time, the thing has gotten *so* bad that we're honestly and truly happy to see it go.