The Americans season 5: What is next in store for Philip, Elizabeth and Paige Jennings?

Season 4 of The Americans ended with the Jennings family's cover almost being blown as Elizabeth and Philip's asset, William, is captured by the FBI. The bio-weapon storyline came to an end with William using the deadly poison on himself, not before mumbling something about a spy family in America to Stan Beeman.

Besides, with William's capture, Elizabeth and Philip's handler Gabriel urged them to pack up their family and head back to Russia. Gabriel said, "You've had a good, long tour. The Center would welcome you back with honours the moment you said you were ready. But with William under arrest, you're in immediate danger. I know .... I know you've always been in danger. But I think it's time."

Elsewhere, Paige's makeout session with Matthew was interrupted by Philip, who forbade her from seeing the man anymore. The hour ended on a cliffhanger – with the Jennings family undecided about their move to Russia. Fans will have to wait until 2017 to get a proper answer.

Executive producers Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields spoke to TV Line about what is next in store for the Jennings family in season 5.

When asked if moving to somewhere in America will solve their problems, Weisberg said, "I don't think moving would solve potential security problems. If the FBI caught on to them, they could probably track them somewhere else in America, even if they tried to change their identity, and to change the identities of the kids would be pretty weird. That's something we've discussed and thought that would not be a great solution for them."

Philip's formerly imprisoned son, Mischa, made his first appearance in the finale episode. Fields explained their decision to introduce this new character this season and said, "For the entire run of our show, he's been a totally theoretical character. We could have done a storyline where Philip found out that Irina invented him, because that was always an ambiguity..."

"In Season 1, that was an interesting idea, but in Season 4, it's more emotional and more powerful if Mischa really existed, and if Philip listened to the radio broadcast from Afghanistan or about Afghanistan, it would be vested in the idea that he had a son that he never knew anything about and would likely never meet," the producer added.

Mischa's storyline will be explored next season as Joel Fields teased, "The idea that we would pick up that [Mischa] storyline and see where it went became very potent to us after watching Philip listen to those broadcasts. It just seemed like an interesting thing to start that ball rolling and see where it goes next season."

In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fields teased about what to expect in season 5 of the FX series. The producer said, "The questions we ask are the character questions. What's going to happen to these people? What's going to happen to their souls? How are they going to emerge from the trials that they're in as humans?"

The Americans will return with its 5th season in 2017.