The Americans “The Oath” 

Words, words, words. It turns out they can mean a lot or very little. In “The Oath,” Nina wants to redeem herself for mother Russia, Elizabeth thinks she and Phillip could’ve had more of a chance if they’d made vows to each other, and Viola finally lets her conscience have voice.

Clark Westerfeld Gets Married

When Phillip knows he needs to get a bug into Gaad’s office, he butters her up first by proposing. He knows he can get her to do what he needs this way, but it’s hard not to feel awful for Martha. She thinks she’s in love, she is in love. But Phillip is just doing his job and he’s doing it really well. One small hiccup is that Martha doesn’t want to wait. But Clark needs “family,” so he asks Claudia to be his mother and Elizabeth to be his sister. Talk about awkward and strange. Despite that, Elizabeth is oddly moved by the ceremony. She wonders if things would’ve been different between them if they had to say those words to each other. Actually, Elizabeth has been wondering about Phillip a lot lately. She would never tell him, but we can see it in the way she looks at him and the way she seems to be considering things. In “Covert War,” she assumed Phillip wanted to move home when he was trying to tell her he got an apartment. I really want them to try being a couple for real, so I find myself really rooting for them. Unfortunately Martha will be collateral damage, but I can’t make myself care about her feelings (that much) when I want to see Elizabeth and Phillip happy together.

Viola Has a Talk With the FBI

She just can’t keep quiet any more. She sees the clock every time she’s in the Weinberger’s study and that week the preacher’s sermon seems aimed directly at her. The FBI is happy to leave the clock in play. Now that they know who is listening, the FBI will use it to their advantage. In addition, Viola works with a sketch artist. The drawings don’t really resemble the Jennings, but now the FBI knows they’re looking for a Caucasian couple in their 30s or 40s and that’s a whole lot more information then they had before.

Nina Knows Stan Killed Vlad

Nina is getting pretty damn good at this whole spy game. Or maybe she’s always been good at it. I thought Nina was just a “right time, right place” kind of girl to get such an important promotion, but she’s proving to be resourceful and loyal. After she takes that oath something changes for her. Even though Stan claims he’d never to anything to hurt her, Nina knows what he did. She asks him point blank and he lies. After that, Nina goes to Arkady and confesses. Even though she tells him she deserves to be shipped back to Russia and killed, Nina wants a chance to redeem herself.

Some questions about next week’s finale:

• Will the meet with Prince’s high-level recruit still go down or are things becoming much too risky?

• The Jennings are done with Claudia. Will she fight to keep her job as their handler?

• The Stan/Nina dynamic. How will Nina use Stan to redeem herself?

• Will Elizabeth let her guard down long enough to let Phillip see how she feels? Will it matter?

The season one finale of The Americans aired on Wednesday, May 1st and 10/9c on FX.