The Americans: Paige dons a disguise in season 6 first look

A version of this story appears in the First Look issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday. For more exclusive interviews and First Look photos only in EW, buy it here or subscribe now.

Welcome to the family business, Paige (Holly Taylor)! In the Cold War drama’s sixth and final season — which begins with a three-year time jump to late 1987 — Philip (Matthew Rhys) has retired from espionage, and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) has recruited their daughter as a spy-in-training. “Paige is completely committed to being part of what is now her mother’s business,” executive producer Joel Fields says. “Paige and Elizabeth are joining forces.”

And Elizabeth, adds EP Joe Weisberg, loves having her daughter around on the job. “This is really Elizabeth’s dream,” he says. “This is what Elizabeth has wanted for a long time, and it’s finally happening.” Sure, she has reservations about their work every now and then, but, as Weisberg puts it, “She’s getting to bring her kid along and go out and work with her sometimes and do things with her. She sometimes makes mistakes and that’s a little worrisome, but other times Paige really does well and is successful and that feels great.”

That said, Paige won’t be doing exactly what Elizabeth does. Instead, she’s tagging along on surveillance missions, wearing only light disguises like the one in the exclusive first look photo above, because Elizabeth has a larger goal.

“I bet it’s easy as a viewer of the show to assume that what that dream means for Elizabeth is that Paige is going to be committing acts of violence and honey-trapping and doing all the things that Elizabeth has done in the most dramatic fashion on the show, but she doesn’t imagine any of that for her daughter at all,” Fields explains. “Paige, as an American citizen, has a solid identity, so there’s no point in training Paige to do honey traps or commit murder. Elizabeth’s long game is to have her join the CIA or the State Department or the upper echelons of the military. Who knows? Maybe one day she might be president.” Hmm, a president secretly installed by Russians?

The Americans returns in 2018.