There have been rumors lately that the ongoing fourth season of the American espionage period drama TV series “The Americans” on FX might be the last for the show following the birth of the first child of Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell last week.
Rhys and Russell are the lead stars of the show as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, respectively, who are Russian spies pretending to be Americans during the time of the cold war.
A source close to the couple revealed recently that Keri and Matt both look overjoyed and over the moon as they welcomed their first child together, snapping pictures of the baby, and having family and friends sending gifts, reports the Australia Network News.
The baby is the first child for the 41-year-old actor while it is the third for Keri Russell, who already has two kids with ex-husband Shane Deary – eight-year-old son River and four-year-old daughter Willa.
The pair was spotted early this week in New York City with their bundle of joy. Keri cradled her baby as her husband was on her side during their casual outing at the Big Apple.
Three-act story
“The Americans” has not yet been officially renewed by FX for Season 5, which gives Keri and Matt some time for themselves and being hands-on parents to their baby before they start filming again soon.
But executive producers Joel Fields and Joe Weisbery have already confirmed that Season 4 is not going to be the last for “The Americans,” allaying fan fears that the new baby of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys will force the two stars to leave the show.
Fields explained that they will be a following a three-act story structure for “The Americans” and Season 4 will be the end of the second act, which means that the TV series will have two more seasons before it wraps up.
When “The Americans” moves to its third act for Season 5 next year, viewers should expect changes. It is also expected that the issues currently being aired in the ongoing Season 4 of the TV series will have their resolutions before the Season 5 begins, including a possible conclusion to the current biological weapons saga, notes the International Business Times of Australia.
The showrunner also hinted a final solution for the Pastor Tim and Alice circumstance, along with a new assessment of Philip and Elizabeth’s status on the KGB.
The third act of “The Americans” may also include story lines that shall look deeper into Elizabeth’s emotions.
Eye-opener for Paige
“The Americans” Season 4 aired its 11th episode on May 25 and it featured Paige and her mother Elizabeth being approached by two men who were planning to harm them.
Elizabeth fought back and nearly killed one of their attackers. The incident became an eye-opener for Paige who was still having difficulty with the revelation of her parents’ espionage work.
After what she witnessed, Paige already knows that being a spy is a dangerous job as already explained to her by her parents.
Incidentally, Elizabeth learned from Gabriel that her request to access Don’s lab was denied so she talked to Don and told him that she is pregnant. That was when Don told her to end her pregnancy.
The episode also saw Philip, Gabriel, and an unknown woman who pretended to be Patty’s family visited Don in his laboratory. They told him that Patty just committed suicide due to the pregnancy situation, demanding that Don should pay.
While Don went to the bank to get the money to make his payment, the other two rummaged his office to get files and information. Whether they get what they needed remains to be known in the upcoming penultimate episode 12 to air on June 1 with the title “A Roy Rogers in Franconia.”
Before the start of the fourth season of “The Americans,” Joel Fields said that the show will do whatever is right for the storytelling so if it needs a fifth or sixth season to tell the rest of the story, the people of the show will discover and realized it as they moved through Season 4.