This week’s hour centers on failure and resolve. Elizabeth learned their mission was based on a false premise; the United States was trying to alter grain so it would be more resistance. Stan has been forced to repeatedly “fail” in trying to obtain new assets for the FBI. Oleg struggles to present a change in hardline tactics and fail to impress his bosses. Paige feels that she will be forced to live a solitary life due to the secrets she must keep. She feels like she has failed Matthew. Certainly, all of the characters will have to adapt to being on the losing side. This seems especially hard for Elizabeth and Paige to deal with anything less than perfection. The hour is filled with challenging and revealing dialogue as the main characters grapple with their past deeds.
The hour opens with meeting between Gabriel and Elizabeth. The old man ponders the “Miss America” aspirations of trying to feed the world with altered grain. They conclude that Morozov was brought into the project due to his expertise with the Soviet grain industry. The mission has changed to obtain the altered grain sample and get it to the Soviets. The relationships Phillip and Elizabeth have cultivated must continue. Elizabeth seems frustrated, “I know it’s part of the job but.” Gabriel notes, “It’s a long career, nothing is wrong with you, ever.” Elizabeth and Phillip have hardly been able to live any other life separate from their work in the KGB. He gives her another assignment that he describes as “easy” it involves a psychiatrist. Elizabeth asks her boss if how he’s feeling. “I’m just tired, but I’m old.”
The Jennings family eat dinner a rare dinner together. Henry’s progress in the advanced math class is noted. Phillip asks if Henry has any interest in running their travel agency someday. (An old world assumption, to go into the family business.) Henry doesn’t know what he wants to do but has “bigger plans” then running a modest travel agency.
Dinner breaks up and Elizabeth talks to Phillip in the kitchen. She turns on the faucet to mask their conversation. Elizabeth is concerned about how Phillip is coping with murdering the “innocent” lab manager. Phillip seems troubled but only says, “I’ve done the job, and I’ve always done it.” Elizabeth notes she has a new solo assignment involving a psychiatrist.
Mischa arrives back in the U.S.S.R. on a small plane at night. A man in a fur coat and hat meets him. In those days, he would have probably had to meet with the State to “debrief” on what he saw and did in the West.
Phillip has another flashback of his childhood. His father brought home some dirty boots, which were washed and salvaged by his mother. He relates this memory to Elizabeth as they lay in bed together. He notes how growing up they had to scrap by to have material possessions and now (in America) they have “everything.” Phillip struggles to reconcile these parts of his life.
Stan and Aderholt approach a woman on a bench at a children’s playground. Aderholt begins his pitch about working with the FBI and how they could provide opportunities for both her and her young son. Unlike the other men they have approached, the mother listens but replies, “It is not safe talking to you.” Stan hands her his card, notes it’s a private telephone number and encourages her to think about their offer. The woman accepts the card.
Ben and Elizabeth speak after “sexy time.” He notes there has been a shift in her demeanor. “I felt something different, a whole other side of you I don’t know at all.” It’s just like she warned Paige, after physical intimacy, there are feelings you can’t hide. Elizabeth feigns ignorance, stating she’s not a deep person at all but Ben is perceptive enough not to believe this. He asks her to stick out her tongue, and uses his knowledge of ancient Chinese medicine to diagnose her with “excessive heart heat.” He explains that the condition is due to emotional turmoil and blocks the chi. He rises from the bed and begins demonstrating tai chi. He urges her to join him. She mirrors his movements well and seems to relax. Being with Ben is proving to be a challenge for the usually pragmatic Elizabeth.
Claudia and Gabriel walk and discuss Mischa. The young man has returned home and been granted his old job back. Gabriel notes how Mischa looked so much like Phillip, especially when troubled. Gabriel is troubled by his lie of omission. Phillip still doesn’t know his son was in the United States looking for him. Claudia assures him he did the right thing.
Late at night, Gabriel walks near the Washington Monument and then on towards the Lincoln Memorial. He looks the large statue of the sixteenth President with quiet reverence.
Oleg and Raslan pay a visit to the grocery supplier's home. On the coffee table are boxes of expensive watches and cash. They demand the man tell them how the operation works. The man refuses to tell them where the money and items came from but says that they give some of the surplus goods away to orphanages and hospitals. Oleg asks, “Who pays you?” The man replies, “I can’t say, you don’t know who you’re dealing with!” It’s possible the corruption goes all the way to the very top of the Party establishment. Ultimately, it could be the anti-corruptions unit that will get into trouble for exposing important people.
Phillip meets with the new “spotters” including the woman who witnessed the body being removed from the lab in Kansas and an African-American man. They are currently tasked with following Evegena’s new job teaching Russian for the CIA. Phillip warns them to be very careful in photographing her movements.
A Mary Kay representative comes to the door. Paige welcomes the woman and seems interested in her pitch but Elizabeth is forceful in her disinterest. After nearly shutting the door in the woman’s face, Paige admonishes her mom. “You weren’t very nice to her.” Elizabeth replies, “Being nice would have just wasted her time because I wasn’t going to buy anything.” But is the real reason because Elizabeth is troubled by the memory her Mary Kay representative friend from last season Young Hee?
Oleg goes to the park at night. Has he decided to try and meet with the CIA?
Phillip and Elizabeth meet with Gabriel to go over their current assignments. Gabriel stops the conversation, “Hold on, I have to talk to you. I’m going home, it’s time.” The couple looks shocked. He continues, “You have each other. Phillip, the Centre is worried about you, and once they start worrying about you, they never stop. You’ve both seen too much, done too much.”
Oleg looks around the nearly deserted park. No one has arrived to meet him.
Elizabeth dons a curly wig and enters a lobby of a large office building. She ducks into a public restroom and smokes a cigarette in a stall. She heats a key using the flame, then walks down the hallway and inserts it into a door of a psychiatry practice. (She is likely making a mold of the key to break into the office later.)
Elizabeth meets with the doctor for a session. She pretends to be embarrassed and flustered. She states she was referred by a “friend” and describes (in part) her near mugging at the hands of two homeless men, one who was armed with a knife. In this version, she doesn’t kill a man, but others happen by and stop the attack. “I realize how lucky I am.” She notes she’s been taking self-defense classes (rather than giving them to Paige) but she still can’t shake the memory of the experience. “I want to feel like I did before.” The doctor describes her experience as post-traumatic stress; he encourages her to share her feelings.
Elizabeth meets with Phillip at the travel agency. Phillip is curious about her experience with the doctor but Elizabeth just notes the file cabinets in his office will be easy to break into. Elizabeth expresses dismay at the news that Gabriel is leaving. Phillip wonders if she is privy to more information about it. They both wonder if he’s ill, perhaps seriously. Phillip shares more memories of his past with his wife. He shares that there were many people in his village “lowlifes” who used to stare with hatred at him and his brother. Elizabeth encourages him to ask Gabriel about his past, noting “He would have read everything about you in your file.” It’s strange to think that the government knows more about Phillip’s past than him.
Henry shares “stuffed peppers” with Stan. Henry complains that his parents are still incredulous that he was able to move to an advanced math class. Stan teases him, “We always knew you were a brainiac, but you just never did any work before!” The conversation shifts to Henry’s romantic interests, he’s now harboring a crush on a girl his own age. Stan wonders whether Henry knows why Paige “hasn’t been coming around much lately.” But Henry isn’t privy to his sister’s many secrets.
Phillip goes to speak to Gabriel alone. He asks after the older man’s health but Gabriel maintains he’s fine. Phillip describes the memories he’s having about his past. He notes his mother told him very little about his father except that they met at the movies and were married a month later. Gabriel says Phillip’s father worked at a “logging camp.” Phillip relates his memory of his father bringing home a myriad of used items. Gabriel notes that his father was actually a guard at a work camp or gulag. Phillip asks if his father ever had to kill anyone while they were attempting to escape. Gabriel will only say that he didn’t personally know Phillip’s father but “There were kind guards and cruel ones.”
Gabriel notes Phillip’s father “worked for us.” Phillip theorizes that is why the KGB later recruited him. The old man adds, “It was a different time, a lot of things happened. He was a nobody, we were all nobodies then.” This conversation reveals the deeply difficult time Soviets had in speaking about the post-war Stalinist era. There were many atrocities, but the history books have largely been scrubbed clean of what really happened. Like many Nazi’s after the war, the idea of “following orders” and being a small part of a big evil was a fiction many clung to in order to cope with what happened during that period.
Elizabeth watches Young Hee’s house from a parked car. A family arrives and enters the house but it isn’t her old friend. Elizabeth felt guilty about the abrupt end to their friendship after she staged an affair with Young Yee's husband. Elizabeth seems newly in touch with long repressed feelings.
Elizabeth returns home and finds Paige reading Marx's "Das Capital" in her bedroom. Elizabeth is shocked to learn she got the book from Pastor Tim. Paige notes that there are many ideas in it which she agrees with except with his ideas about religion. Elizabeth seems to fondly remember studying the book herself and relates some highlights of Marx’s theories. Paige is ambivalent about Marx’s denouncement of religion. She tries to explain to her atheist mother. “Getting baptized was the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life.” Elizabeth explains how “my country came out of those ideas.” Paige asks her mom what the Soviet Union is like. Elizabeth notes that it has its problems but everyone is “in it together.” Paige notes that it’s been a long time since she has been there. Elizabeth laughs, noting she sounds just like Phillip. Elizabeth cautions her to hide the book on her shelf with other “texts on the subject” which Elizabeth will procure for her.
Elizabeth comes into the garage to speak with Phillip after his meeting with Gabriel. Phillip looks stunned and he shares with her what he learned. Elizabeth isn't sure what to think, she's heard about the camps but neither of them really know what happened inside them. Phillip muses, “I don’t know why my mother never told me.”
Peter Gabriel’s “Lay Your Hands on Me” overlays the final scenes of the episode. The lyrics highlight the struggle between the mundane and the divine, of our longing to be connected to something deeper. (Lyrics will be in quotation surrounding the description of the scenes.)
“Sat in the corner in the Garden Grill with the plastic flowers near the window sill.
No more miracles, loaves, and fishes, been so busy with the washing of the dishes.”
Oleg views the supplier man who sits imprisoned for his part in the corruption case. Oleg returns home to collect the incriminating tape and note.
“Reaction levels much too high, I can do without the stimuli!”
As he leaves his parent’s apartment, he nods to his mother in the kitchen who gives him a knowing smile.
“I’m living way beyond my ways and means, living in the zone of the in-betweens. I can see flashes on the frozen ocean, static charge of cold emotion.”
Oleg looks at his father who is drinking his tea but doesn’t acknowledge him leaving.
“Watched on by the distant eyes, watched on by the silent hidden spies.”
Oleg stands on the snow-covered rooftop of his building. He strikes a match to burn the note containing the map.
“But still the warmth flows through me, and I sense you know me well. No luck no golden chances, no mitigating circumstances now. It’s only common sense, there are no accidents ‘round here!”
Oleg pulls the tape out of the cassette and sets it on fire.
“I am willing-lay your hands on me! I am ready- lay your hands on me! I believe- lay your hands on me, over me!”
Paige joins her parents in the car. They exit together and approach Gabriel’s apartment to say a final goodbye. The old man smiles warmly at Paige. Is she going to follow her parent's path or will he try to convince her to live her own life?
The hour was filled with conversations as each character navigates their search for truth. The fears from the past and for the future have invaded the present. Will Oleg jump off the roof? There seems to be a symbolic nature to his destruction of the evidence against him.
Next week’s preview shows the details of what Gabriel will tell Paige. “To you, they are just your parents but to us they are heroes!” Stan has more dangerous intimacy with Renee as she tries to get him to reveal details about his work. The FBI works on trying to obtain cooperation from the young Soviet mother. Although there is still much of the season to go, each character’s final trajectory is becoming clearer each hour.
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