Marriage and its complications is a central theme on FX’s drama “The Americans.”
Russian agents Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) have been at odds this season over recruiting their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) to the KGB. FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) is depressed over his separation with his wife, Sandra (Susan Misner).
And then there’s Philip’s alter ego, “Clark,” and his FBI secretary wife, Martha (Alison Wright), whose relationship will be strained when she confronts a shocking development in Wednesday’s episode.
“Her snow globe life is severely shaken tonight,” Wright tells The Post. “[It’s] the most exciting episode for me this season, if not all the seasons.”
While Wright can’t reveal the plot of the episode (which is directed by Emmerich), the unsuspecting Martha’s relationship with Clark — where she feeds him information from her boss (supposedly for internal affairs) while being secretly married — has been a ticking time bomb for the past 2½ seasons.
With that in mind, The Post chatted with the British actress about her character’s story arc, with a glimpse at what’s next for Martha.
Do you think Martha thinks what she is doing — spying on her boss for Clark — is wrong? Or is she blinded by love?
Overall, she thinks she’s working for the greater good. She thinks she’s helping her boss and helping his bosses by trying to find out if there [are] any potential leaks in the office. I think there’s a bit of a justification and satisfaction for what she’s doing. She’s asked many times for better attention to be paid and rules to be followed in terms of the safety of the classified materials in the office, and she’s been ignored or not taken seriously.
Martha has been pushing for her and Clark to foster a child, even though he doesn’t want kids. How has that affected their marriage?
It’s a natural next step for Martha, to become a mother. I think she’d be a wonderful mother, and I’m fairly sure that Philip would agree that she’d be a wonderful mother, too. Whether she can have the baby or foster or adopt, it’s not something she’s going to give up on. She’s going to keep trying until she gets it.
It does seem crazy that Martha and Clark don’t live together and see each so infrequently. And she can’t tell anyone about the marriage. Do you ever get frustrated that she doesn’t see through it?
I’m amazed at what level [of involvement] she needs from him. Even when Matthew and I are working together, me, Alison, is dying for him to just give a little bit more. She doesn’t think to need it, doesn’t think to be complaining that he’s not there. She seems quite satisfied, so far.
Do you think she will ever revolt against this arrangement?
I think it’s fair to say we might see that happening this season … She’s not sure what’s going on, but some of her instincts say that there’s a problem here … It’s going to be quite a bumpy ride over next few weeks with Martha’s story. It just gets worse for her.