The episode opens with Phillip listening to the BBC report
on the Soviet losses in the war in Afghanistan. He turns it off and enters Paige’s bedroom to
find her reading a book about the Civil Rights movement. She tells him about her mom’s “field trip”
and she seems inspired to learn that they were “activists”. Paige was shocked to learn their “friend”
Gregory was shot and killed, Henry pops his head in to join the conversation.
“What made you stop believing in change?” Paige asks. Phillip tries to quash their interest saying,
“You get older and other things become important.” (Nodding at them.)
Elizabeth is in the bedroom doing paperwork, she tells
Phillip the Centre is requesting weekly updates on Paige. (Uh-oh.) Phillip
bangs around the bathroom in response, allegedly looking for aspirin. He asks Elizabeth why she didn’t tell him
about Paige’s “fieldtrip”. Elizabeth
shrugs and tells him she’s moving forward.
Phillip’s tension is evident in his voice, “In the future,
I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lie to
me. Is this how it’s going to work? Am I
just going to come home one day and Paige will tell me that she knows who we
are?”
Elizabeth sighs, “I honestly don’t know.”
Phillip showers. Elizabeth enters and explains that the
Centre is sending a ANC soldier, Ruben Ncobo who has been training in Moscow.
His role will be serve as bait for the South African agent. She explains that he’s one of the three most
wanted men in South Africa. Phillip asks, “And we trust them because their
communists?” Elizabeth offers, “We trust them because they do what they say
they are going to do, and a lot of them die.”
At the FBI, Aderholt asks Stan questions about Nina. Stan simply says she was a good person,
straightforward. (Is he trying to convince himself?) Aderholt persists and asks
about the rivalry between informants and “illegals”. Stan is stoic, saying, “What she knew, she
told me.” Aderholt explains he was
running an informant who thought he was running HIM. Stan replies, “That sounds complicated.”
Aderholt says Stan was lucky to be working with a “good woman.” (Nina) Stan
tries to joke, “She could have lied to me I guess, she could have shot J.R. for
all I know!” Aderholt’s doubts seem to hang in the air about both Stan and
Nina.
Hans and Elizabeth meet in a car. Hans is modest about his intelligence find. “I understand why you were skeptical, he’s a
sophomore at George Washington University.” Hans says he knew a lot of guys
like him in Johannesburg, rich and privileged like their parents. They discuss the plans to bait the agent
Venter assisting the student Todd using the ANC soldier Ncobo as bait. She explains that Hans’s job will be to watch
for police cars and then signal using his car horn. It seems like a small reward for all Hans’s
hard work, but he seems content.
At home, Phillip offers Paige pizza, but she’s already eaten
and Henry is at a friend’s house. (Teenagers who are beyond the temptation of
pizza, wow!) Phillip asks Stan over, and they talk about the death of Stan’s
friend. Stan wanted Sandra to attend the
service with him in Chicago, but realizes this is impossible given her new situation.
Stan complains about Aderholt asking him
“too many questions.” Phillip explains
how difficult it is to raise teenagers and he and Elizabeth are on opposite
sides all the time. Stan notes that he’s
in a better situation then Stan. (If he only knew.)
Elizabeth meets the Ruben and their conversation is about
family as well. The man asks if her kids
know that their mom is a “badass”. He
tells Elizabeth that he has four boys and is concerned that the oldest one is
obsessed with motorcycles. He fears that the boy will be killed for a
motorcycle observing, “It’s better to die fighting for freedom.” Elizabeth
agrees.
Stan confirms an appointment for Zianda. (What’s up with
her?) Stan joins Aderholt in Gaad’s office. As Gaad attempts to change the ink in his pen,
Aderholt notices a rattling noise. He
wordlessly takes apart the pen to reveal the bug! Martha notices the commotion, but the men draw
the blinds as Gaad tells the men, “I think that’s enough for now, why don’t you
two go back to your desks.”
Martha, appearing a whiter shade of pale, heads to the
restroom. She sits in a stall and cries,
removing other part of the listening device and destroying it. She has to wait as another woman uses the
toilet next to her. She runs the pieces
of destroyed device under the sink, then wraps them up in a paper towel and
exits the bathroom. (I was holding my breath, wondering if she seen!)
A man searches the FBI office with a radio frequency
detector. He nears Martha’s desk, then
holds the device over her purse, containing the broken device. After a breathless second static can be heard,
but he moves on. Martha secretly wipes
away an anxious tear.
Agent Gaad approaches her and introduces the man with him as
Walter Taffet from OPR. Gaad asks her to
come with them to his office. Once
inside, he requests visitor logs from the past three months. She is then dismissed. Gaad asks Taffet how likely it is that the bug
came from someone in his department. Taffet responds, unsmiling, “It could be
you!”
Phillip and Elizabeth don matching reddish wigs as they take
Lisa the Northrop factory worker out for a fancy dinner. (My apologies for
incorrectly identifying her as Michelle, her name is Lisa, Michelle is
Elizabeth’s alias in this scenario. All these aliases get confusing, sorry.) They
are very affectionate kissing and laughing about sushi and veal. Their aim is to show her how she too can
benefit from talking to “Jack” about her experience at Northrop.
Martha arrives home and removes the broken equipment from
her purse. She takes her small revolver
out of drawer. As she looks through her
hiding spots, she sees her copy of the Kama Sutra and begins to cry. It seems that she is having doubts about her
husband “Clark” and is understandably scared.
Phillip’s “spy sense” must be tingling too, he tells
Elizabeth that he’s going to spend the night at Martha’s. Before leaving he asks if the South African
agent Venter will take the “bait”. (Ncobo the ANC fighter) Elizabeth says she
admires the man’s bravery. Phillip
sighs, “They don’t have a lot of choices.” (Unlike their children.)
Stan is home alone when Matthew and Sandra arrive. Sandra asks him how he’s doing. Sandra explains that she can’t go to the
funeral because she isn’t his wife. Stan corrects her, “You’re still my wife,
technically speaking.” Sandra replies, “Yeah,
it’s time we did something about that.” Obviously, Sandra is ready to move on
with the divorce as Stan clings to memories.
Clark arrives at Martha’s and immediately senses something is
wrong, despite her denials. He mentions
that he has an early flight, but is happy to see her. Clark asks where her purse is, and she lies
and says she left it at work but it’s secure in her desk. (Was this his
routine, because my husband never asks where my purse is, odd!) Martha has the idea that she wants to see his
apartment, NOW.
Stan watches the news and we hear President Reagan speak. Matthew is hungry and Stan the hopeless
bachelor, warms up some Campbell’s Chunky Soup for him. Stan says that he will
be going to the funeral of his friend Dave, and discloses that they worked
undercover together. Matthew asks, “What
was that like?” Perhaps realizing that
he needs to open up to someone, Stan decides to talk. “I got pretty screwed up.
I had to be friends with terrible people.” Stan notes that one of those men is now in San
Quentin because he was a murderer. Matthew asks if he was scared then nods at
Stan’s silence.
Clark takes Martha to his “apartment”. It’s sparse but somewhat believable for a
businessman with little time for cleaning or decorating. Martha asks, “Do you think we are
ever going to live together, like a normal couple.” Clark replies, “Normal is over-rated. With us,
things just keep getting better.” (Huh?) Clark offers her a affection and a special
bottle of red wine. Martha refuses and
feigns illness and asks to be taken back to her place. Definitely a big rift
has formed between them and Clark better figure it out, fast.
Phillip comes home to a sleeping Elizabeth. He reaches for
her and she rouses. She says, “I should have told you about my talk with
Paige.” He opens up about his son with Irene for the first time. He tells her that he’s fighting in
Afghanistan. Elizabeth turns to him and
asks if he’s in combat. Phillip
responds, “He’s a paratrooper.” He’s a
fighter, like them.
At breakfast the next morning, the scene is alarming normal.
But as soon as Henry and Paige leave, Phillip tells Elizabeth that there is a
problem with Martha. Elizabeth presses him, but his best guess is that it has
to do with her desire for children. Phillip simply states, “I’m not up for
another kid.”
Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” provides the soundtrack for the
explosive final scenes. Martha boards
the elevator with Walter Taffet. Hans
waits in a car on the lookout for police. Ruben is having an animated conversation in a
diner with Todd. Phillip is wearing a
“rocker” wig straight out of Jersey and sits several booths behind them.
Elizabeth waits in a van.
Suddenly, another van rushes past Elizabeth’s. Phillip
observes a gray sedan stop and a tall man gets out. (Venter, there to assassinate
Ruben.) Phillip quickly signals Elizabeth, then leaves the diner. (Passing in
front of mural that reads, “God Bless America!”) Phillip hits Venter in passing.
Elizabeth asks the red-haired woman in the
waiting van, “Do you have the time?” As she begins to reply, Elizabeth shoots
her in the head. (Believe her to be Todd’s girlfriend due to the Afrikaans’s
accent.)
Phillip and Venter wrestle to the ground as Hans begins to tap his horn. Elizabeth hits Venter with her van as Phillip pushes him inside. Ruben walks out of the diner with Todd and forces him into the van as well. In a well-choreographed dance, they have kidnapped both targets! Hans looks on as the van rushes past, impressed and probably a little damp! Amazing ending that will keep me breathless until next week.
A few lyrics to ponder from “The Chain”. How does this song
relate to our fair characters?
“If you don’t love me now, you will never love me again, I
can still hear you say you would never break the chain”
“Chain, keep us together, running in the shadows"
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