Will ‘The Americans’ ever let Philip Jennings meet his son Mischa?

Will ‘The Americans’ ever let Philip Jennings meet his son? Or was last week’s episode also the last audiences will see of Mischa?

Is The Americans really breaking up a family? That’s what fans are wondering after last Tuesday’s episode “Crossbreed” showed Philip Jennings’ son Mischa getting off a plane back to Russia. Will his father ever even know he was in America?

Mischa (Alex Ozerov) spent the first half of Season 5 traveling across Europe with the sole hope of meeting his father. Audiences saw him having to sneak out of Russia, then get caught up with some very unsavory folks to be smuggled from Yugoslavia, eventually making his way across the ocean.

But when Mischa made contact with the KGB it sent up a red flag. Gabriel (Frank Langella) and Claudia (Margo Martindale) agreed that the young man could not be permitted to see Philip (Matthew Rhys), and so Gabriel met Mischa instead and informed him that he had to turn right around and go back to Russia.

Surely there’d be a last-minute change of heart, though, right? Or something would happen for Philip to find out anyway?

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It wasn’t to be, as “Crossbreed” showed one scene in which a dialogue-less Mischa dejectedly walked off a plane back in his home country and was taken back in by a government agent. Now that the KGB knows what he’s been up to, it’s not going to be easy—if it would be possible at all—for him to make a return trip to the United States.

So did The Americans tease us with a father-son reunion only to yank it away at midseason? Or will there be one more plot twist yet to come in the last few episodes?

It would seem ridiculous for The Americans to have set up Mischa’s story only to end it so abruptly. We have to remember that this plot point was actually introduced at the end of Season 4 as the big cliffhanger, so why do that and then spend six episodes of Season 5 on it if it’s just going to end with a whimper?

At the same time Mischa will no doubt be under the watchful eye of the KGB, and Philip is in the U.S. so how would the two even come together again?

The most obvious source of drama at this point is for Philip to find out that Gabriel had Mischa sent back to Russia. He will no doubt be enraged that his son was in the country and not only was he not told, but the young man was sent back without even consulting him. We know Philip has father issues and those will no doubt be compounded by not having the chance to be a father to his son. It’s still perfectly conceivable that will happen before The Americans wraps this season.

But what would he do with that information?

Philip could possibly try to go to Russia after Mischa. Yet he and his wife called in an awful lot of chips trying to get her back to the Soviet Union to see her dying mother. It was made very clear that was against the rules. Another demand to do that again definitely won’t go over well and one other thing we know is that Philip is on thin ice with The Centre.

If you’re a fan of The Americans, the hope is that Philip will be reunited with Mischa and be the parent that the young man desperately needs. But there’s a very difficult road in front of them for that to happen. We definitely want a family reunion yet it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the show denies us that and leaves everyone broken-hearted.

Next: Is there something wrong with Elizabeth Jennings?

Do you think The Americans will ever let Philip Jennings meet his son? Or do you think Season 5 will keep them apart? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

The Americans airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.