This is a pretty damn brutal episode for our main characters. Phillip has to heartbreakingly send Anton away from his family. Elizabeth Jennings has to listen to Martha praise Phillip's love-making ability. (At least I hope this is brutal for her otherwise she's weird) Stan gets blackmailed for his unrequited love for Nina. It's not easy to be a spy in Cold War America.
The fallout from last week's episode - Anton gets away with an anonymous female Mossad agent - leaves Phillip in an unsafe safe house if that makes sense. He's pretty close to the scene of the crime and the cops have already seen his face. Unfortunately for Anton, the Mossad hold their own in greater importance than the man they are protecting so a trade is set up.
During most of the episode, Phillip is forced to deal with Eti, the Mossad agent they managed to capture. First of all, something I found enlightening, is that Phillip misses Russia. I don't think they've explicitly made that known before, but it makes sense since Elizabeth got to spend an extended amount of time there and he did not. I'm not sure why I found this as interesting as I did, but Phillip always struck me more as the "American" who would be perfectly content staying in America. (Also, umm, a thing that I would never have thought of is that wiping another man's ass is a distinct possibility in that business, but it makes sense)
After he trades for Anton, he has what probably seems like an impossibly long drive of Anton spilling his guts, saying anything to escape. He wants to be with his family and stay the hell away from Russia, even if it means betraying the country he has come to love. Or he's just got a really great acting ability that sometimes might come with the threat of death. Either way, it hit close to home for Phillip I can imagine, because while he's pining over his hometown, he's taking away Anton's AND his family.
Meanwhile, Martha... oh Martha. She hadn't quite gotten played enough by Phillip apparently, because Elizabeth gets in on the fun. "Jennifer" helps convince Martha not to report that she's married to "Clark." So they dodge a bullet on this one, but I'm assuming the bottom will drop out any minute for "Clark."
Elizabeth continues her masterful ploy of Brad Mullin. He gives her the files of the suspected killer of their fellow KGB agents. She of course leads him to believe this will be the last time they see each other. So cool, manipulate a dude, get what you need, and make it to where he understands he just did something for someone he'll never see again. Just another day.
Stan Beeman tries to capture Anton and brings in Frank Gaad to help him. At least I think, I didn't really quite understand what was going on with Gaad claiming there were super secret files, but I guess Anton was really important? Anyway, Stan thinks he has a lead and is just following Oleg.
Oleg's intentions and character motivations are pretty unclear at this point. He clearly wants more respect and position among the KGB because he constantly challenges Arkady Ivanovich. He's probably interested in Nina. And if the end of this episode is any indication, he really wants to get money - or power. Either way, his blackmailing of Stan makes a certain amount of sense with what we know about Oleg, but we don't really know much about him. I hope that this storyline reveals more about his true intentions. He seems to just want to get out of the Cold War in the best position possible, whether that be a high level KGB officer or as a rich converted American.
I'm also really excited to see what this story does for Stan. Noah Emmerich is fantastic and he hasn't been given much to do except play the fool so I think this will take his character in an interesting direction. He's now getting played twice, one knowingly and one unknowingly.
This is another great episode of The Americans, which seems to be on a bit of a roll lately.
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