(Spoilers for The Americans will be found below.)
The final episode of FX’s The Americans belongs among the greatest series finales ever, if only for the U2 scene alone. The final scene is an all-timer, too, with Philip and Elizabeth, played by the great Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, wondering if “we would’ve met” had they stayed in Russia instead of becoming sexy spies in America. We’ll never know, but we do what Rhys thinks happened to them after the show ended.
“They’re in this kind of kind of Moscow flat arguing. Or they’re walking down the street and they see Martha,” he told GQ. “I think basically they both became kind of alcoholics, and they just bickered about all the missions that went wrong, and why they went wrong, and whose fault it was because they don’t have anything better to do. And then Elizabeth keeps accusing Philip of being in love with Martha. And he’s like, ‘I don’t! I don’t love her, I never loved her.’ And Philip always wants to speak English. And Elizabeth’s like, ‘SPEAK RUSSIAN!’” That is the [champion of misery Matthew Rhys face] of answers.
On a less depressing note, Peter Falk, a.k.a. TV’s Columbo, once picked up Rhys (who appeared in the last-ever episode of Columbo) at the airport.
“I always pride myself on working hard at dialect and accents. And Peter Falk, said, ‘I want [your character] to be a Cockney from London.’ So I worked on my Cockney accent. And he picked me up at LAX — Peter Falk picked me up when I landed at LAX. Unbelievable. In his Range Rover. Walked into arrivals. It still blows me away.
I want a The End of the Tour-style show about this encounter. Three seasons, minimum.
(Via GQ)