The Romanoffs Review: End of the Line (Season 1 Episode 7)
Although The Romanoffs Season 1 Episode 7, “End of the Line” — the penultimate episode — pokes at deeper questions of morality and doing the right thing, it stays high and dry in the 90-minute format and panders again to the fears and desperation of a white, upper-middle-class audience.
The talents of national treasure Kathryn Hahn are pretty much wasted in this episode. Although she started in drama, she eventually bridged into comedy, and while I’m not at all averse to seeing her back in drama, the role didn’t give her much to work with.
A quick date notes the location in Russia as well as the date: 2008. Anka also mentions her cousin Victoria, who’s getting treatment for her son’s hemophilia (see The Romanoffs Season 1 Episode 6!), which now begs the question–what timeline are we even in?
Russia banned adoptions by US parents in 2012, so are these all taking place in some sort of alternate 2008 reality?
Or is that connection thrown in after the fact just to make sure there is some sort of loose link, and “2008” was also thrown in just to make the episode factually accurate?
Maybe we’ll never know. Or maybe I’m missing something larger at play here?
It’s hard to tell how much of the story is true and how much of it is simply painting Russia as a dangerous wasteland for the sake of the drama. Every soldier around the corner, even the coloration–it all contributes to it.
From a preliminary online search, it seems that the depiction of how difficult the process typically is was on point, but I’m still skeptical of the danger aspect. It’s not unlike this show to be blowing storylines out of proportion (or at least using narratives involving different cultures as props), especially with the fear that the orphanage is duping them.
Similarly, Anka’s whole “I want to keep my Romanoff and Russian lineage going!” again feels like it’s pandering to this rich, white, idealized image of the Romanoff/Romanov family–which also seems like that’s supposed to be a point, but beyond that, there’s no commentary. It feels like a really weak link to the whole Romanoff/Romanov storyline altogether.
It just remains as a remnant of the show altogether, a casual reminder that anybody beyond that demographic is ultimately meant to even see themselves in these characters.
So when it comes to the last episode, I’m not expecting anything more than something of this nature–a long, winding story that doesn’t actually question the ideals that it really poses in the episode.
This episode takes way too long to get to the point, even if it does ask more thought-provoking questions by the end than other episodes.
One episode won’t save it, certainly amongst the rest of the series. How much was spent on this series again? Yikes.
What did you think of this episode of The Romanoffs? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Romanoffs airs Fridays on Amazon Video.
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Olivia Popp
Olivia Popp is a freelance writer, artist, and entertainment fanatic who started living and breathing television ever since her parents told her in elementary school that it would rot her brain. Now, she's a film student and TV apologist with a penchant for providing forceful and unsolicited series recommendations to anyone within earshot. Ask her about science fiction, comedy, nature photography, filmmaking, tasty cheese, or even more television.