Harvest

ESPIONAGE!

I love the sneaky stuff on this show and this week we got to see the “Harvest” extraction mission go down. Philip has to bail on Henry to go help Elizabeth, so Stan gets guardianship. Philip taking off so soon (it’s like the day after Thanksgiving) makes Stan worry and with how Philip looks, he knows something is up. Philip tells the half-truth that he’s been so out of it lately is because the business is falling apart. Philip leaves and Stan ends up talking to Henry, fishing for info. He knows the vacation agency is in bad shape and then he goes into the past a little bit. Lamenting about how his mom has never been around, their parents put the business first to provide for the family. He’s never really stayed with family when they were younger and their parents took off…except for that one time when his mother’s relative got sick and Paige went with her. For all of these years, Stan has thought the hours his neighbors worked were odd for a vacation agency.

Off in Chicago, Elizabeth and Philip go for broke to get Harvest out. Distractions! Multiple vehicle changes! Everything goes to plan until the feds discover the switcheroo and they’re able to pull their surveillance net in tight, catching the escape van. Two federal agents, the getaway van driver, and Harvest are killed. Another disastrous mission. Harvest is able to deliver three messages for Philip, one for each of his parents (some of my favorite writing of the episode), and one about the mission he’s on (Elizabeth is also working on that mission).

The horror show doesn’t end with two fellow Soviets dying in front of them. In the final switch-off point in a parking garage to ditch the van, Elizabeth and Philip dismember the woman driver so she can’t be identified.

Stan is at work when Dennis tells him about the move on Harvest. It’s a devastating loss. The basic description of the perps who were seen by the patsies (the Jennings hired some day workers to block the road and such) and Stan can’t shake the coincidence of Philip and Elizabeth taking off in the middle of the night and a white man and woman causing this havoc. The scene I’ve been waiting for finally happens: Stan searches his neighbor’s house. He doesn’t find anything, which was a bit of luck as he got really close in the garage.

Philip is distraught. Not only pulled into the world he hates but the whole thing turned into a horrific ordeal. The night before, when Philip arrived at Elizabeth’s hotel room, she’s surprised he actually came. They catch up a bit and when they go to bed, it’s Elizabeth who reaches out. She places her hand on his. It’s the first physical contact they’ve had in awhile. I don’t see how Philip does anything after this except spiral farther down the void he’s been looking down.

Back home, Elizabeth goes to see Paige. On a walk, Elizabeth tells Paige about the failed mission and Paige is surprised. “You said these things usually work.” They do, but the can and do go wrong. During this discussion was the first time I think I’ve seen Elizabeth take the kid gloves off with Paige and see where she stands with the mission. She stresses the importance and the danger of the world Paige is in. You are either in or out, there is no middle ground. The big statement: if you are in, you are in for life. There is no quitting. As much of a swipe it is against Philip, it’s the truth.

Paige says she’s in and Elizabeth is happy to hear it. It’s also quite revealing with what Paige says when her mother says you have to be prepared to sacrificing everything. Relationships, both romantic and friendship. Give everything you have to he cause and that can mean your life. Paige says she has no real friends and the students she is around don’t know what the world is like despite talking like they do. Paige knows how the government has the system rigged to keep them down and in their place. Elizabeth’s teachings have worked. With that commitment, Elizabeth thinks it’s time to escalate Paige’s illegal career: it’s time to apply for an internship at the State Department.

The summit is a week away.