Urban Transport Planning

Yeah, we still have two spies on the show.

The show picks up right after Elizabeth’s mission imploded. Instead of talking about what happened, Elizabeth unloads on Paige about leaving her post. She broke every protocol and endangered the entire mission. She even goes as far to say, if you weren’t my daughter, you’d be finished. If Paige didn’t know she had a shield of favoritism around her before, she knows now.

I was worried about how Paige would be affected by seeing her mother covered by the brains of a dead man and she’s handled it way better than I ever thought she would. A big factor is that she thinks the American killed himself. She doesn’t know that the bullet was intended for her mother.

The house divided shows again. Philip and Elizabeth have different approaches to guiding Paige through this. Philip takes the gentle road. Asks about her feelings, talks calmly and generally wants to ease Paige around. Elizabeth takes the hardline stance. She’s mad as hell and offers no comforts to Paige. No, you can’t stay here tonight, go back to your place we’ll talk about this later.

When Paige leaves, Philip moves in. He may be out of the game for a few years but he didn’t forget any of his coercion techniques. He manages to get mission information out of his wife. She opens up a lot in the comfort (maybe shield is the better word) of their home but she stops talking before she says too many details. It was hard to tell if she realized what Philip was doing or if just by instinct she knew to draw a line because he isn’t working anymore.

This episode shows more of what Philip is comfortable with now. He doesn’t miss espionage. When Henry calls from school, Philip is all about talking to his son about hockey. He only deflects the call because a volcano is spewing lava into the living room behind him. He gives a sales pep talk at work and we find out the Jenning’s are a bit cash strapped at the moment. He wheels and deals delaying a payment for Henry’s private school tuition. He likes being a traditional American dad.

Elizabeth is just neck deep in the meat grinder. She’s doing everything with the original mentality she had when first placed in the USA years ago. The Soviet way is right, America is wrong. She talks to Paige about the sacrifices they must be prepared for in their line of work. The mission with the American went wrong because she rushed the correct process to work an asset because of the strict deadline. She loves her homeland. She spends time with Paige and Claudia listening to their music, cooking their food, watching their TV shows. And then when she leaves Claudia’s apartment, America comes crashing back down like an anvil.

In another stark scene for contrast, Elizabeth brings home a bit of the food for Philip. He says it smells great but demurs that he just ate Chinese takeout for dinner. He’d love that home cuisine, but he’s just too full. Elizabeth quickly takes the dejection and moves to throw it away (their protocol so strict that that shouldn’t have a shred of Soviet anything in the house) and Philip quickly moves to take a bite. It does nothing to break the sadness of the close up off Elizabeth dumping the food into the sink and turning the disposal on.

Meanwhile, we get to see Renee possibly angle Stan to get a job at the FBI. He quickly shuts it down. Also shut down is Sofia and Gennadi. Sofia wants a divorce so the stable relationship they need is ruined and she’s running her mouth to the man she met. It’s too risky to keep them on the mission (which only Gennadi was seemingly doing) so the FBI pulls the plug. That means the two will be separated by witness protection to keep them safe. It means that Gennadi will be separated from his wife and child. His family is being physically pulled apart.

Stan also pays a visit to Oleg, who is none too pleased to see him. Stan explains how he told (and threatened) the FBI to leave him along. Oleg isn’t exactly moved by the explanation and apology so Stan moves on to the business on hand. Whatever you are here to do, don’t do it. Oleg doesn’t say anything.

The episode ends with Philip and Elizabeth on their own missions. Elizabeth works a mark for security details at a facility that holds the radiation detector she needs. Philip goes to meet Oleg. After getting the information she needs, Elizabeth strangles the mark to death.

Elizabeth is a ruthless soldier. Chills. Another rock solid episode.