


It’s up to you to decide.Įarly in the episode, Stan informs Philip about his courtship of “the gym lady.” But when he told her that he’s an FBI agent, she looked at him strangely. The job inherently engenders paranoia and distrust, but what happens when that completely dominates your perspective? Is Renee a spy, or is Philip conditioned to assume ulterior motives from everyone he meets? Here at Vulture, we’ve compiled a list of key scenes that could serve as evidence for Renee being a spy, or just as easily be evidence of the mundane. Over six seasons, The Americans illustrates how years of working in espionage or counterintelligence takes a toll on one’s sanity. Maybe she’s just a nice woman who lives side by side with the man she loves.

Meanwhile, the lonely Stan Beeman is so thrilled that someone special has entered his life that he’s blind to the possibility that she’s working him. Philip worries that he’s responsible for the Centre infiltrating Stan’s personal life, but his suspicions about Renee are never confirmed: When Philip flat-out asks his handler Gabriel (Frank Langella) if Renee is a spy, Gabriel tells him that he’s losing it, but never definitely answers the question. “When the audience goes back and rewatches these episodes,” she says, “they will be able to find clues which will better inform them as to who she really was.”Īccording to Holden, Renee “serves a very specific function in the narrative,” which is to “serve up intrigue.” But that purpose also seems to be calling the instincts of Philip and Stan into question. Holden, however, says that she knows Renee’s true identity but will never tell. After all, the point is that no character, including Philip and Elizabeth, knows the truth. In Vulture’s oral history of the finale, co-showrunner Joel Fields, actor Noah Emmerich, and actress Laurie Holden all keep a tight lip on the answer to that question.
#What is a spy agent series
The series finale of The Americans closes the door on the story of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, undercover KGB officers who infiltrated the United States from 1965 to 1987, and though it tied up the necessary loose ends and left the fates of many characters unresolved, it purposely left one thread dangling: Is Renee a spy?
