In a time in which many series can be watched hour after
hour, there is something still magical about having to wait each week for the
next episode. Especially in a complex
and emotional series like The Americans, it allows the viewer to reflect and
process the series. Last week focused on
the options regarding Pastor Tim. This week things become infinitely more
complicated as their secret spreads. Just
when you think our protagonists might make it out clean and go to Disney World
further disaster looms.
Phillip wakes up next to Martha on their pull out sofa
bed. She looks at him closely prompting
Phillip to ask, “What?” She states she’s
still not used to it, seeing him without his “Clark” disguise and persona.
Elizabeth attends a Mary Kay associates sales meeting. She listens intently to a Korean woman
describing how the products are superior to “mall makeup counters” in matching
the skin tones for Asian women. She
proudly tells her Asian clients “They don’t need to be green aliens. We are all
Americans now.”
Elizabeth and Phillip meet with Pastor Tim at his church
office. Pastor Tim explains in all his
years of hearing people’s secrets he has never heard a confession such as
Paige’s. Elizabeth is clearly there to
assess the man and perform damage control. She explains their goals are not
that much different then the ideals promoted by the church. She points to their shared interest in
nuclear non-proliferation and social justice.
Pastor Tim is not so naïve, he points to the Soviet oppression of Jews
and Christians. Elizabeth concedes her
country isn’t perfect but neither is the United States. Pastor Tim counters he “Can’t be a party to
destruction.” Phillip notes if he tells,
they will go to prison and he will cause the “destruction” of their
family. Pastor Tim is clearly torn by
his predicament and tells the couple he needs to think about the matter for a
few days. Elizabeth asks whether he has
told anyone else, Phillip adds, “Like your wife?” Tim admits he has spoken to his wife about the
matter.
The couple goes to visit Gabriel to inform him about Pastor
Tim’s wife knowing. Phillip hands over
the biological specimen to Gabriel who grumbles, “Can’t seem to get rid of
this.” Phillip argues they should leave
and return to the Soviet Union before it’s too late. He speculates if they were to kill Pastor Tim
and his wife Paige would suspect them.
Gabriel presses Phillip to remain calm and let the Centre figure out the
next step. The old man urges Phillip to “Keep Tim quiet for a little longer.”
At the FBI office, Agent Gaad makes an announcement to the
office regarding security. Specifically,
it has been noted there have been discrepancies with the photocopy count. “This
puts the whole agency at risk.” Stan looks directly at Martha.
Elizabeth shops for produce when the Korean woman from the
Mary Kay meeting recognizes her as “Patty”. The woman reintroduces herself as Young Hee. Young is friendly and talks about her family
and extended family that live with her. “Patty” complains she isn’t good at selling
yet and Young offers to help her go out and market the cosmetics. Obviously Elizabeth is working to connect with
the woman but it’s unclear why. Is he
possibly a North Korean defector?
Phillip knocks at Paige’s bedroom door and asks if they can
talk for a moment. He explains they met
with Pastor Tim and he has spoken to his wife about their family. Paige
apologizes and is angry with Pastor Tim for violating her confidence. She tells her father that Alice is a huge
gossip. Phillip urges her to maintain
her relationship with the Pastor and not “make him angry”, to prevent him from
turning against them. Phillip knows the
Pastor cares about Paige and won’t want to hurt her. He hopes she can help keep their secret safe
a little longer.
A city bus drops off Martha in the evening. Stan Beeman watches her in his car at a
distance. Stan has become increasingly
suspicious of her behavior following Gene’s death. Him following her is a new and dangerous
development since she is meeting Phillip at “his apartment.”
Elizabeth and Young are successful going door-to-door to
sell Mary Kay. They take a break in the
park to talk. Young speaks about her
spoiled daughter and “Patty” looks sad for a moment but declines to tell her
new friend why. (Garner sympathy?) The two share some tea from a thermos. Young compliments “Patty” on her ease with
people and natural salesmanship, stating it took her months to make her first
sale. Young invites her to dinner with
her family and “Patty” readily accepts.
Claudia and Gabriel meet at night on a park bench for an
emergency meeting regarding the Jennings.
Gabriel tells her Pastor Tim has already told his wife and notes there
are “no good choices.” Claudia assures
him she will talk to the Centre to devise a plan. Gabriel concedes trying to recruit Paige was
a mistake. He feels the best option is
to send them home. Claudia concedes
that is a choice, but not likely the Centre’s preferred one.
Phillip enters the bedroom to ask Elizabeth about her day. She reports her feet hurt from walking about
ten miles but she is “getting in there.” Phillip relates to her his conversation with
Paige. He tells her their daughter was
hurt and angered to learn Pastor Tim had betrayed her confidence. Elizabeth doesn’t want her daughter to be
angry with herself about the situation. She
asks him if he has had a chance to “patch things up” with Stan. She notes they
could really use a friendly face at the FBI. It is doubtful whether Stan would ever be
friendly if he learned the truth about his neighbors.
Nina is back at her original prison. She meets with Oleg’s father regarding the new
charges against her stemming from her penning the letter to Anton’s son. He
informs her an appeal would be difficult to argue at this point given her
history. He warns she may still be
subject to “the harshest punishment” in other words, put to death. He tells her both her husband and Anton have
sent petitions to spare her. Nina asks to see her husband’s letter. Looking at it, she cracks a miniscule smile.
Nina may not care whether or not she lives or dies but she does care about
redeeming herself to the ones she loves.
Gabriel pours tea for Phillip and Elizabeth. He speaks about Disney World’s new offering in
Orlando, the Epcot Center. He thinks
they should take the family on a vacation for a long weekend. When they return, Pastor Tim and his wife will
be dead following an “accident.” Again, Phillip protests this plan for being too
easy for his daughter to figure out. The
old man advises them to bond as a family and not have contact with home during
their vacation. “People believe what they need to believe.” Phillip notes it will be impossible to recruit
Paige after such an action. Elizabeth is more pragmatic, “We don’t have a
choice.”
Outside Gabriel’s apartment, Phillip and Elizabeth speak
privately in their car. Elizabeth is beginning to think it would be better for
them to just go on this vacation and let the Centre deal with the Pastor Tim
issue. Phillip is adamant Paige will
figure things out if the couple is killed. Elizabeth reasons it is the only way they can
keep their lives in the United States.
Paige visits with Pastor Tim at the church. Despite her promise to her father, she vents
her anger at him for telling Alice. She
proclaims, “Alice likes to talk.” Pastor Tim counters he cares about her. He hasn’t decided whether to disclose her
secret until he understands what exactly her parents do and whether people get hurt. Paige storms out of his office.
Henry looks over travel brochures in the kitchen. He’s excited to visit Disney World and the
Epcot Center. He urges his father the
trip could be educational. Phillip
promises to “see what they can do” about going there this weekend. Paige arrives hot from her meeting at the
church. She is not terribly interested
when her brother tells her about the vacation.
She asks to speak with her parents about it upstairs in private. Once alone with them she asks, “What do you
guys do exactly? Do people get hurt?” Her mother lies easily, telling her frantic
daughter “Of course not, you know us.” Elizabeth
tells her they can talk about everything on their trip to Florida.
Elizabeth attends a boisterous dinner at the Young’s home. The family laughs at Young’s husband and his
affection for wine. Elizabeth raises a
toast to him, “East meets west!” Is the husband her real target? Elizabeth bites a hot pepper and the family
teases her about it before breaking out in the “hot pepper dance.” After dinner, she speaks to her new friend
alone. Young complains about how spoiled
her daughters are, citing the “Cabbage Patch Dolls” as an example. Elizabeth tells her she is childless. They
seem to have formed a fast friendship, based entirely on deception as usual.
Phillip answers his front door to find Sandra. He hurriedly states, “Elizabeth isn’t here.” But clearly she has come to see Phillip. Phillip offers her some tea and they talk in
the kitchen. He tells her Elizabeth now
knows he’s still attending Est. Sandra asks how she took the news. “She didn’t
kill me!” Sandra wants to find out how
Elizabeth really felt about the program but Phillip doesn’t elaborate. He relates that Stan “almost hit me” when he
found out they had been meeting socially.
Sandra can’t believe his behavior but speculates, “His life is a mess.” Phillip confesses his life is too and that
recently they’ve had issues with Paige and a “lying incident.” (That’s one way
to phrase it!) Sandra feels a bit guilty
about Stan and admits she hasn’t tried to stay in contact with him and neither
has Matthew.
Dennis Aderholt picks up a memo off the FBI office robot. He reads it to Stan. It is an advisory memo to refrain from using
the phrase the “FBI feels.” Both men
seem to catch the humor and irony of the memo coming out of a robot. Stan recalls Dennis once had “feelings” or
suspicions about him. Stan thinks they
should keep an eye on Martha. Aderholt
disagrees noting Gene fit the typical profile of a KGB operative. Stan confesses he has started following Martha
and she hasn’t gone home at least two nights this week. Aderholt reasons she could be visiting family
but Stan says she has no family in the area. Stan continues, “Gene didn’t sit right, help
me turn Martha.” Aderholt offers to take her to dinner.
Nina dreams. She is
in a room with brilliant light and an abundance of flowers. Stan is waiting for her with a smile on his
face. He mouths the word, “Sorry.” She turns to see that Anton is there for her
too. She wakes up in her cold gray cell
with footsteps heard falling down the hallway.
At the travel agency office Phillip picks up his tickets and
itinerary from one of his staff. The man
applauds him for making the time to spend with his family, something many
people get too busy to do enough. Phillip
enters the office he shares with Elizabeth. She asks whether he still thinks it would be
better for them to leave the country. Phillip
replies he thinks it would be better. Elizabeth
doesn’t want to leave. Phillip wonders
if they could make a new home in the south, maybe in Odessa. Elizabeth can’t see their two American kids
adapting to a new country where they don’t even know the language. She argues about the importance of their
careers and mission in the United States. Phillip reports he’s been hearing an alarm in
his head for the past two days urging him, “Run, run!” He notes Paige will lose whatever they decide
to do.
The couple arrives at Gabriel’s flat to find the man on the
floor, deathly pale and bleeding. The
old man struggles to breath as Elizabeth and Phillip try to assess what has
happened. He yells, “Get out!” They
quickly determine he has been exposed to the glanders and panic that they may
already be exposed and contagious. They
try to decide whether to stay with Gabriel as he coughs and wheezes on the
floor.
Phillip and Elizabeth meet with William in a darkened park. They inform him about how they discovered
Gabriel on the floor and bleeding. William
takes off running from them. Phillip
manages to tackle him and choke him until he is subdued. William recovers and
calls Phillip an asshole. “You should
have wrapped him in plastic and burned him his body!” William admits he may have something to help.
The couple follows him to his apartment, which is sterile
containing furniture wrapped in plastic and other hermetically sealed objects. The scientist tells them he’s not crazy but
suffers from multiple allergies and has lost his sense of smell because of his
work. He produces a vial and injects
himself and then Phillip and Elizabeth. “I
always thought I’d get infected at work, not in a park by two people I thought
were on my side!” He explains the
antibiotic may not be effective against the glanders sample.
The trio returns to Gabriel’s apartment and the old man looks
gravely ill. William looks in the
refrigerator and finds a pneumatic tube looking container. He cites the faulty lids as the reason for the
exposure. He grumbles, claiming he
warned the Centre about the faulty containers. He places the container in the oven and turns
it on to kill the remaining specimen.
William injects the antibiotic into Gabriel’s neck. It may be too late
to save him.
Henry plays games on his Atari system. Paige looks up from her homework, jealous of
her little brother’s ignorance of the family’s problems.
William declares they will need to remain at Gabe’s flat for
the next thirty-six hours. Phillip says, “Guess we’re not going to Epcot.” How will they explain their absence to Paige? How will the Centre proceed with Pastor Tim,
especially if the Jennings can’t leave town? Phillip and Elizabeth are masters of manipulating
people and their environment but it is doubtful they can win over Pastor Tim
and his wife.
Next week’s preview highlights the quarantine and Martha
continues being scrutinized by Stan and Dennis. Paige will likely be tasked with watching her
brother while wondering what in the heck her parents are really up to. The truth seems to be escaping in the same
way the virus did, through the faulty lid. It is too late for an antidote?
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