I've just finished the show, and I could not stop imagining what would happen next. This is my take on how everyone's lives panned out after the explosive ending. I'm a therapist, so what fascinated me was the emotional toll of everyone's choices. Let me know your thoughts.
**SPOILERS BELOW****
How Everyone Ended Up
Phillip and Elizabeth arrive back in Russia and are celebrated as heroes; they are given the best apartment and resources. Phillip no longer wants to work in the KGB and chooses retirement; Elizabeth is given a top job in the KGB.
They both struggle to adjust; this is not the Russia they left, nor is it the Russia they believed they were fighting for. They can see the failure and corruption everywhere. This makes Elizabeth more determined to fight for it, and she throws herself into her work.
Phillip sinks into depression. He cannot reconcile his past, what he did, and the people who suffered because of what he had to do.
He meets his long-lost son and tries to form a relationship with him; they bond over their disillusionment with the USSR. He desperately misses Paige and Henry.
Henry is allowed to finish his education at his private school, and he lives with Stan during the holidays. He pretty much shuts down and refuses to talk to anyone about his parents. He is interrogated by the FBI, but they are satisfied he knew nothing. Upon graduation, he gets a blue-collar job, plays computer games and smokes weed.
Paige is arrested by the FBI and interrogated; she is facing a very long jail sentence for treason. She is given the option to become an informant instead of going to jail. The FBI reveals some of the crimes they think her parents committed, and this finally breaks her. She tells the FBI everything she knows and disowns her parents.
Her relationship with Henry is broken, and she can't face Stan. She moves to New York, works as a waitress and joins various hard-left groups before becoming totally disillusioned with anything to do with Marxism.
Stan satisfies himself that Renee isn't a spy. She gets a job at the FBI and passes a rigorous background check. Stan takes early retirement from the FBI and becomes a schoolteacher.
Stan eventually loses patience with Henry and kicks him out. This breaks Henry, who eventually opens up and gets his life in order. He reaches out to his sister, and they begin to have a relationship and talk about their childhoods.
Oleg is eventually released and returns to the USSR; he suspects Stan helped secure his release but can't be sure. He goes into business with Arkady, and they become very successful in the new Russia.
In Moscow, Phillip has started drinking and loudly complaining about the USSR. This embarrasses Elizabeth, and she tries to get him back on track. But he is a broken man. He misses his children, he loves America, and he realises everything he fought for was a lie. He can't forgive himself.
The USSR falls, and Elizabeth adapts to the new Russia. Her specialist skills and knowledge of the West make her highly sought after, and she begins to make a lot of money.
Martha, who adopted a little girl and became a doting mother, initially struggles when the USSR collapses. She is no longer given a stipend or housing and has to quickly find work to avoid destitution. She begins work for a Russian-based company that needs an interpreter and someone with knowledge of the West. She excels in her work and is able to provide for herself and her daughter. She finally makes some friends through her work. She is admired and respected. After the USSR falls, her parents make a couple of visits, and they reconcile.
Paige has married. Her husband is originally from Ohio and is as normal an American as you can get. He is a Christian, and he encourages her to write a book about her experience as a way of making peace with her past.
Paige and Henry finally decide to visit their parents in the new Russia. It's been almost 10 years since they saw them. Elizabeth manages to get Phillip to sober up, but his appearance shocks both of his kids. The visit is very mixed; there is anger and joy, forgiveness and blame. It is mostly awkard and uncomfortable and Paige and Henry can't wait to leave.
Elizabeth is keen to have them visit again, but neither of them commits. Back in America, they both decide they never want to see their parents again. Paige never tells Henry the full extent of their crimes.
After their visit, Phillip plunges into full-blown alcoholism, and he and Elizabeth become completely estranged. Elizabeth throws herself into her work. Phillip goes off on benders and disappears for days and weeks.
One day, Martha spots him collapsed in a park. Shocked to the core, she takes him back to her apartment and cares for him. Phillip is a pathetic mess, and he clings to her, sobering up for a while and begging her for forgiveness. He has bouts of drinking and bouts of being sober and lives entirely in the past.
Elizabeth, who is aware of what's happening, is grateful that someone is looking after him.
Despite Martha's care, Phillip dies of alcoholism in his late 50s.
Martha lives into her 80s. She resides with her daughter and four grandchildren, who all adore her. When she dies, they grieve her deeply.
Paige lives in New York with her husband. She struggles with all the attention the book brought her and is in the World Trade Centre when the planes hit. She is killed by someone else's crazy ideology. Henry mourns her and wishes they could have been closer, but he struggles with their relationship because it reminds him of his childhood, which he wants to escape.
Henry becomes a computer game programmer and eventually becomes very successful. He moves to California, marries and has three children. He has a strong bond with Renee, Stan and Matthew, who are his family.
Elizabeth lives alone in a very expensive apartment in Moscow. It is beautiful but very clinical; it has no personal photos or mementoes. She keeps working into her 70s.
When she comes home from work, she goes into her luxurious walk-in closet and presses a button to reveal a secret room. The secret room is covered from floor to ceiling in photos. There are hundreds in total.
The photos are of her adult kids, taken without them knowing. Over the years, Elizabeth has paid someone to spy on them and take photos of their daily lives. There are pictures of them at work, at the gym, of their weddings, of Henry's kids, and celebrations with Stan and Renee, all taken in stealth.
Paige's obituary is in the centre, with a copy of her best-selling book.
Elizabeth pulls out a chair and sits looking at them for hours. When she dies of lung cancer, there is no one to mourn her.
