The third hour of the season expands upon themes that have already been introduced; Paige’s relationship with Matthew, Stan’s conflict with the Bureau over Oleg and Phillip and Elizabeth’s latest mission involving a unique form of sabotage. As we wrestle with the current developments in our time regarding cyber attacks, it’s interesting to look back at how these different types of attacks were perpetrated in the pre-Internet era. Midges, as we learn later in the hour, are small fly-like insects capable of decimating wheat crops. Phillip and Elizabeth struggle to determine how the U.S. is planning to use these insects against the Soviets. Do they merely wish to embarrass them by illustrating how they can’t grow enough food under a central planning system or is a more sinister action to starve out their competition?
The episode begins with a bowling match designed to further the friendship between Tuan and his pseudo-family with the Morzov’s. (Roxy Music’s “More Than This” provides the background music.) The patriarch of the family continues to criticize his former homeland. He begins with a story about how they used to go bowling in Gorky Park when Pasha was little, “But just like everything else, the Russians couldn’t keep that right. The system destroys everyone who tries to make a change.” His wife angrily shoots back in Russian, “You’re the one who destroys everything!” She continues her verbal attack about how they were made to leave unexpectedly in the night and “dragged along like luggage.” Alexei defends these actions, noting he would have been shot if they had discovered he was defecting. His wife leaves the game to go find her son. Alexei describes to Elizabeth and Phillip how his father disappeared when he was fourteen and was transported to a gulag in Siberia. He and his mother traveled nine days by train to visit him only to be turned away after waiting there another two days. The came was full of starving men, infested with lice forced to do hard labor. (Read a "Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by famous Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn for the full experience. ) His father died after fifteen years later in the prison camp. Alexei never saw his father again. “That is the Soviet Union I know.” He adds cryptically with a smile.
Again, Elizabeth and Phillip debrief Tuan in the car on the way home. Phillip explains how the family was not told by their father that they were leaving the country with the assistance of the CIA. “How could someone do something like that?” It’s an ironic line from Elizabeth, especially in the context of how close they came last season to having to seize their children and flee back to the U.S.S.R. How would Henry and Paige accept being “dragged like luggage” to a place where they don’t understand the language or culture? Tuan takes a hard line on Alexei and his family, “One day the U.S. will destroy the U.S.S.R. just like they did Vietnam! I wonder what Pasha will have to say when that day comes!” Elizabeth is a bit startled by the youth’s assessment and adds they hope with their work (in the KGB) it will prevent that outcome.
After they drop off Tuan, Elizabeth and Phillip change out of their disguises at a warehouse type location. Phillip is thinking about the evening and wonders, “How would we have done it if we would have had to leave? Would we have told the kids before or after?” Elizabeth doesn’t see their situation as the same as the defectors. She claims Alexei left out of choice because he wanted to be a “big shot” in the United States. She claims Alexei didn’t care what his family thought about leaving. (But, if his father was a political prisoner who died in custody, he may have had to flee.) Phillip notes, “He’s is buying his family big dinners at Brannigan's while planning to starve his people back home.” They both agree he should be shot. Elizabeth praises their “surrogate son’s” interaction with Pasha, making the Russian teen feel better by throwing “gutter balls.” They agree Tuan has “great instincts.” This leads Phillip to bring up Paige and Matthew. “She can’t handle this, any of it!” Phillip proposes telling Paige about their current operation, noting that compared to a major food crisis, boyfriend trouble will seem like a miniscule problem. (Were Phillip and Elizabeth ever teenagers? Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it.)
Paige is watching my favorite sitcom of the era, MASH. (About an early Cold War conflict, Korea.) Paige wears a chaste sweater and her gold cross pendant and seems very mature for her age. Phillip begins without preamble, “We think the United States is going to attack the Soviet Union’s grain supply!” Elizabeth describes the greenhouse and the pests she discovered. Paige is obviously shocked, “So nuclear weapons aren’t bad enough!” Elizabeth describes the Soviet Union as the victim of this cruel bullying by a much richer country. Phillip explains how their work could stop this dastardly action. Paige begins to ask how they go about their missions. Phillip notes that they have to “pretend” and befriend those people who can give them more information. Paige probes further, “Aren’t you afraid that someone will call the police on you?” They note they “take precautions.” Paige can’t see how that is not simply lying and is obviously perturbed by this. “Is it hard to pretend to be other people?” Phillip responds, “Yeah, sometimes it’s really hard.” Do Elizabeth and Phillip even know who they are at the end of the day? Sometimes they seem like mindless drones for the Centre, unable to feel or think for themselves as individuals.
Phillip readies himself for bed after a shower. As he wipes the steam off the mirror, he has a flashback to his early life in Russia. He remembers being a little kid in a crowded and dirty farm-like place. A man walks in and hands some trousers to his mother for mending. Young Phillip plays with a crude toy plane made out of wood. The contrast between his upbringing and life in America couldn't be starker.
Oleg heads out to perform his duties as part of the new anti-corruption division. He enters one of the better-stocked stores and asks to speak to the manager. A woman meets him and Oleg displays his credentials and tells her not to be nervous. She leads him to the back, to a store room filled with luxury items like chocolates and fruit. Oleg begins to question her about who fills her order but the woman is skittish. He notes, “You’re still nervous.” Oleg admires the tangerines she was able to procure. The woman refuses to name her sources. As Oleg stands to leave, she offers him the bag of tangerines. He admirably refuses the bribe. As he leaves the store, we recognize Martha wearing a scarf over her head. It makes sense that she would be shopping at the top Party stores but she looks thinner and alone.
Phillip meets with Tuan at the decoy house to go over the security detail, which is still following the Morzov family. The surveillance still doesn’t have a discernable pattern. Tuan continues to speak loathingly of Pasha, thinking the teen is spoiled with a family who loves him and plenty of food. Phillip notes that he was hungry back in his youth as well.
Stan and Aderholt confront a man at a diner. “Hello, Anatoli! We are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In case you can’t tell from our suits!” They request a few minutes of the man’s time, as he works for the infamous Soviet airline Aeroflot. The man flees the establishment quickly without a word.
Gabriel meets with Phillip and Elizabeth to discuss the grain case. Gabriel has received information that the insect specimen is a previously unidentified species related to a midge from Australia. It can attack grain and carry spores that would further damage crops. They have discovered the specimen was shipped to a lab in Oklahoma. They don’t know whether the United States plans to attack the grain they export or attack Soviet crops directly. Phillip reveals he informed Paige about this operation. Gabriel, thinking it will bring the family closer, approves of their move. Perhaps he still hopes to recruit Paige as a second-generation agent.
Paige and Matthew are out on a date at a casual restaurant. Matthew complains about his father’s new girlfriend. He expresses how strange it is to have your parent dating. Paige tells him she’s glad her parents didn’t date when they separated briefly. Matthew can tell she is troubled by something. He looks deeply into her eyes and asks what’s wrong. “What is it, can you tell me?” Under the table, Paige rubs her index finger and thumb together, the technique her parents showed her. She lies to him, telling him she’s stressed about an upcoming paper for school. Matthew offers to help her with it.
Paige finds her mom down in the laundry room. Elizabeth notes she likes to work down where it’s quiet. Paige probes about the investigation. Elizabeth tells her they have to travel to Oklahoma to check out some things. (I guess the teens never have supervision? Henry is hardly ever home!) Paige confides in her mother about her “awful conversation with Matthew.” Paige feels guilty about lying to him, and how easy it was. Her mother is obviously relieved. “Do you think it would have been fair to tell him the truth, put that burden on him?” Elizabeth has no problem putting the burden on her daughter. Paige notices the hypocrisy of her mom’s statement, “So that’s how it’s going to be? For the rest of my life, I have to be fake with my boyfriends?” Elizabeth cautions her, “Being in a relationship is complicated! You hold back, everybody does!” But Elizabeth has Phillip and they do share nearly everything! In fact, that has probably been the sole reason they’ve been able to operate all these years. It’s sad that Elizabeth sees her daughter almost as just another asset she needs to manage. Her and Phillip’s priority is always the mission, then the Centre lastly their own nuclear family.
Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. Mischa arrives at a flat looking for a contact of his mother’s. He discovers that the person has moved away. The man of the house reads the letter from Mischa’s mother and tells the young man to wait.
Elizabeth and Phillip have arrived in Oklahoma City in a truck wearing western clothing fit for a rodeo.
A large brutal looking man appears, demanding a large sum of money to take him across the border to Austria. (The contact his mother knew has been arrested.) Mischa tries to tell him the price is too high, but he has no one else to help him. He’s forced to trust this man with his life.
Phillip and Elizabeth check into a hideous motel room. Elizabeth turns on the radio that is playing Alabama’s “Your Old Flame.” Phillip remarks how the open prairie reminds him of where he grew up. “All this land, I wonder, why can’t we grow enough grain ourselves? Alexei, some of what he says…” Elizabeth doesn’t want to entertain Phillip’s doubts in their communist system. She cuts him off, “Everyone has problems!” She redirects him by playing up her blonde wig and cowboy hat. “Do you think they’re going to make me the queen of rodeo this year?” She places the hat on his head as the song croons, “Those memories still upset you…” (Alabama's Old Flame) They begin to kiss but it’s interesting to hear the song go on about another, better, past lover. Perhaps Elizabeth can’t shake her “old flame”, love of an idealized Soviet Union.
Aderholt and Stan follow another mark into a men’s bathroom. “Mr. Perotov, we want to talk to you about your work with Amicorp.” The man looks at them suspiciously before he too flees without a word to the agents.
Oleg walks home from work at night. A man walks beside him and says in English, “You missed the meeting. I’m sorry.” He hands Oleg a small packet before walking away. Oleg heads straight to his bedroom on returning home to his parent’s flat. He discovers a note, again with a map and a cassette tape. He places the tape in a small player. He listens in horror to the recording of his and Stan’s conversation that confirmed the defector was still “one of ours.” This collusion with the United States will result in his execution for treason if it is discovered. Is there anything Oleg can do to save himself from the CIA?
The night mission begins in Oklahoma City. A woman watches from her car as a “spotter” for Phillip and Elizabeth. She signals the area is clear through short bursts of static on a walkie-talkie.
The couple enters the warehouse labeled Smith-Poole Research Laboratories. The shine their flashlights on various terrariums filled with various insects. It is eerily quiet except for the chatter of the smaller life forms. Elizabeth looks at an area where moths flutter towards their lights. Phillip looks at documents. Elizabeth feels like she may see the midges they are looking for. A short burst of static on the walkie-talkie alerts them someone is coming.
A bearded man enters the lab, noting the moths are in an interesting, disturbing pattern. Phillip and Elizabeth come out of hiding. At first, the man thinks he’s being robbed. He offers them his wallet and his car keys. Phillip asks what kind of work they are doing there. The man plays dumb, “I’m just a lab tech.” Phillip looks at the man’s identification, which states his name is Randy and he is the lab’s deputy director. “I’m sorry, I’m not allowed to talk about the work we do here.” Phillip persists, asking whom the lab works for, “You really should tell us, Randy!” Phillip uses some physical persuasion, ramming Randy’s head against the glass enclosure containing the midges.
Randy confesses they designed the insects from an Australia species. The midges are designed to eat wheat crops. Elizabeth presses him about whom the lab is doing this work for. “It’s a company called Agricorp. I just talk to various people, I don’t ask questions!” Randy says he’s contracted to send eggs. He attempts to get them the information from his Rolodex. (Memories!) Elizabeth wants to know when the next shipment is going to be sent. Randy replies, “I don’t know. We just breed the bugs they tell us!” Elizabeth and Phillip close in around Randy. Elizabeth notes, “You should have asked questions!”
In one swift motion, Phillip breaks Randy’s neck, killing him instantly.
Roxy Music’s “More Than This” begins to play again, bookending the episode.
“I could feel at the time there was no way of knowing, fallen’ leaves in the night who can say where they’re blowing, as free as the wind, hopefully learning, why the sea on the tide, has no way of turning (chorus) More than this, you know there’s nothing, more than this, tell me one thing.”
The couple covers their tracks in the lab. The woman in the parking lot observes as they bring Randy’s body outside and stuff it into the unfortunate man’s trunk.
Phillip approaches the woman’s car. “You okay?” She says in a slight accent, “Yes.” Phillip returns to Elizabeth, still out of breath. “Should we tell Paige about this?” What would Paige think, would she tell if she knew her parents killed routinely in cold-blood? For Elizabeth is there anything “more than this?”
Next week finds Paige with a new set of problems. She has found a diary that her mom fears may put the family in further danger. Mischa continues on his journey West, crossing what appears to be a famous bridge in Berlin that divided East and West. Oleg lives in fear in Moscow. Stan and Aderholt continue their investigation of former Soviet nationals. Was the diary Stan’s? Is game coming to an end for Phillip and Elizabeth?
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