Russians have always been the generic bad guys of pop culture.

Thats a long time for any one country to play the role as Americas boogeyman.

Of course, that was before we knew what this show was.

It turns out there are no bad guys onThe Americans.

Just people from two countries at war, trying to do whats best for themselves, family and country.

Its same old, excellent non-black and white self.

The Americanshas never been about heroes and villains.

Its always been about marriage.

Co-crreator Joel Fields said as much when the show began.

Sometimes, when youre struggling in your marriage or with your kid, it feels like life or death.

For Philip and Elizabeth, it often is.

He was absolutely right, of course.

This is a show about marriage.

But its also about marriage in an even deeper sense.

Marriage is not supposed to be something you could change.

Its in theory at least, un-ending loyalty.

Do you disagree with something your spouse is doing?

This is a show about marriage and by extension a show about a metaphorical marriage to ones country.

You dont agree with the actions of your country?

Figure it out, make it work.

For four seasons nowThe Americanshave thrived off that tension.

The tension of loyalty often being at odds with ones actual day-to-day life.

Philip and Elizabeth are on team Jennings and team Russia.

Aside from that, theyre not that much different from their American neighbors.

They live in an American house in an American neighborhood in an American city with American friends and peers.

For 99.9 percent of people that would make them American.

The only thing holding Elizabeth and Philip back is their undying loyalty to their country.

And that one thing supersedes everything else.

Season five adds another much-welcome wrinkle.

The Soviet Union is finally starting to show signs of losing this Cold War.

Russian citizens are hungry.

American citizens are not.

And thats the surest sign yet that an end, violent or peaceful is on the horizon.

The Americanshas entered into its end game.

FX negotiated an end for the show last year.

Things will wrap up after season six, making this season the penultimate.

The first three episodes of season five almost have the banally apocalyptic feel of W.B.

Falcons cannot hear falconers.

Centers cannot hold.

The Soviets boycott the 1984 Olympics.

Et cetera, et cetera.

And it neatly fits in the theme of things falling apart.

Oleg Bourov is back in Russia, working on solving the Soviet Unions corruption problem vis-a-vis food.

Want to hear a joke?

Olegs new superior asks him.

A woman walks into a food store and says, do you have any meat?

The guy says: We dont have fish.

The place that doesnt have meat is across the street.

Paige is still seeing Matthew Beeman against the wishes of her parents.

She also cant sleep.

Shes at the end of something too, whether it be her innocence, childhood or something else.

Stan still doesnt know how to cook.

Though he does have a new lady friend played by aWalking Deadalum.

All of this quiet almost unconscious desperation brings the show to a fascinating place.

This was never a show about good guys and bad guys.

But in its penultimate season,The Americanshas revealed itself to be a story about winners and losers.

We so rarely think of the show and the Cold War from that perspective.

Now that were arriving at the end, however, it couldnt be clearer.

History is written by the winners.

So heres a story from the perspective of the losers as they live among the winners.